two 175 watt MH for 100 gal ?

I've been scanning the forum for a few months as my new tank matures a bit.
A lot of good info to be found

Anyway I'm looking to upgrade lighting,
tank is 60"L x 24"H it's been up about 6 month with just four 48" NO, two 50/50, 10K, Antic.
Due to budget I 'm looking at a dual 175 watt retro (about $ 200 used)
or four bulb 80 watt T5 HO ($ 300 ebay)
I would like to be able to add some mushrooms and ricodrea.
Are either of these options enough light or should I hold out.
I thought with the T5's I could add on later if I wanted some
more demanding corals

Thanks

 

You can easily do that. I ran my 75g softy tank with 2 175w Hamilton Technology MH's for a long time supplemented with two 50/50 VHO's and two actinics.

 

I bet you would be OK with either of those fixtures for shrooms and ricordea.

But if you were going to have some more demanding corals later you might want to think about stronger lighting for a 100.

I am not an expert and now that I am building my third system I am also trying to answer the lighting question all over again. Every time I look for lights I have to start the whole research proses over again.

Hopefully someone smarter than I will chime in.

But its true that you can never go wrong with saving money a little longer and really get what you want. So you do not end up with a grave yard of things that don't do what you need like me

 

I agree with fishflyer that equipment graveyard can get big and costly pretty quick It might be worth saving and getting the next step up. I have 2x 250w HQI over the 75gal and I would like a little more light But you could keep Ricordia and Zos under the 175 if you wanted to

 

I just purchased a 2-250w Retro kit new for 249.99 + 45.99 shipping. If you want I'll give you the the link to the site.