Tax Rebate TIME!

Well I bought a house 6 months ago so I have the big tax rebate coming so my wife agreed to let me get my lights. My tank is 60" long, 30'' high, by 18'' wide. I started it about 4months ago and it was orginally FOWLR, but now that I can get some lights I want to do beginner corals and eventually get more and more advanced. Anyways I already made the stand but I've waited for the Canopy so I can design the Height etc for the lights. I was thinking dual 175MH IceCap ballast's with 12000K bulbs and 2, 60" t-5's for actinics. I don't want to have to buy a chiller, I have a 55gal Sump, refugium. and in the canopy I plan on making the back open maybe for airflow, maybe fans at each end and in the top center. But will these light be enough for beginner coral? how high off the water does a MH have to be? My other option I was thinking was 6 or 8, 60" T-5's. it sucks because mine is an Oceanic tank with a Giant glass divider in the middle

 

They started that a couple months after I got my house. Needless to say...I was ticked.

If you are going MH go big or dont bother. 250s, keep em up off the water and a fan blowing across and you shouldnt have heat issues. Especially with that large sump. Lights are one of those big tickets that you only want to have to buy once!

 

Anyone else?

 

In some ways I agree that you should go big or not at all. If you retro two 175's in you will have problems keeping some things you may want later. If you do 250's now your beginner corals may not be too happy higher up in the tank, and you may never want high light corals.

Since you are planning on doing retros anyway, I would go T5. Get four or six T5's now which will be great for your beginner corals and not cause heat. If you want higher light demanding corals later just add a couple more bulbs and you will be good to go.