upgrade lighting

Hi my tank is 3 foot wide by 30 inch deep with4 X T-8 lighting 2 x white 1 bright white 1x reef blue.
I am thinking off upgrading my lighting after christmas as everyone keeps saying its C**p so any ideas what would be best for my tank?
I would kinda wanna stay away from the MH due to the big monthly bills and i was thinkin T-5 but how many & what colours?
Any ideas would be great!
Thanks K;D

 

Alot has to do with what you plan on keeping as far as corals and the light intensities (PAR/PUR)they require.
As for the kelvin of the bulbs, I prefer 14000-20000k bulbs. But I have metal halides as well. For you maybe a 50/50 or a 10000k and an actinic scheme may suit you.

 

30 inch deep? Need something intense

 

Yep i Know it silly deep! But i have built the rock up high at the back and im not planning on adding any light lovein things below half way down the tank unless there are any that dont like light!
K

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/coral-health/dead-55702-2.html

This is the reason why your leather is dying

 

I'd throw a MH on it...with a tank that size it should not make that much of a difference in your bill. I think the real problem with cost comes when you are running multiple high wattage MH fixtures. I run a coralife aqualight pro (includes a (1) 150 W 14000K fixture) over one of my tanks and honestly have seen minimal impact to my Power bills. That being said, I am in Atlanta, GA. and not in the UK. So I really have no idea how the power bills work over there...so not sure if what I am experiencing will be the same there.

 

So to clarify the tank is 30" tall(depth) not 30" from front to back also referred to as depth..... IF IT IS 30" tall, I would recommend a solitary 250watt MH with supplemental T5s maybe two 3'ers or if you what to conserve energy a sole 250 MH but maybe 20,000k. This way you will not be able to mimic dawn/dusk but thats a decision you have to make.
You COULD go with T5s but I would consider overdriving them with Icecap ballasts. I never really recommend the overdrive but on a tall tank it will most likely be advantageous. Also if you go with t5 you could just leave the bottom 8-10" for the low light critters or fill it in with star polyps or something.
As far as wattage for MH or T5 go, on your particular tank it might end up comparable, well little less if T5 is used.

Good luck

 

Can i just throw this out there - like Kiarah i too am from the Uk. And compared to the US we do not have anywhere near the same amount of products that are readily available.
Things like Ice Cap Ballasts are simply not around here.

 

BUT most likely you guys have better access to ATB, Sfiligoi, ATI, Gieseman, Euroreef(which is hurting I believe) and others. Also the EU has 6' t5s and the US does not!!

You should be able to order it online, esp from American shops
Either that or you guys can move here!!

 

Alot of those companies are German and readily available out there - i suppose if you want the product you have to pay the shipping/import fees (which is stupidly expensive)

The big companies over here are TMC and Aquamedic when it comes to equipment like that. Other then that we're pretty much screwed!

i think i would just rather come to America! somewhere hot and coastal