What do I buy?

So i need a chiller with MH lights but not with T5 lights. Chiller seems a bit over kill.

 

its not a guarantee u will need a chiller. t5s throw some heat to, my 8 bulb fixture raises my tank about a degree when on with a fan blowing over the surface of the water. Being a beginner im guessing u wont jump into sps (hard coral) til well after a year and u perfect keeping your water parameter consistantly perfect. t5s can support sps, dont let anyone tell u otherwise. Do the research and its can be done and is being done with great success (wish i had the links i read that supported this). Anyway i think a 4 bulb fixture would be fine for any softie and alot of sps placed towards the top of the tank seeing how u say your tank is only 15" tall? If i bought a t5 fixture it would be this one:

Tek Light T5 fixtures by Sunlight Supply - Salty Critter - Your Saltwater Specialists

thats the brand and place i buy from. Excellent service and prices.
good luck with your decision, let us know what u go with, any ?'s just lmk and ill do my best to answer em.

 

Thanks for the help i really appreciate the info. My tank is 26 inches tall, 48 inches long and 15 inches wide. I propally put them in the wrong order.

 

If its 26 inches tall i would shoot for at the minimum 6 bulb t5 with good individual reflectors....i have 8 bulbs on my 24" tall 90.

 

Okay, this whole "If you get Halides you need a chiller thing" is getting out of hand. Please explain why you would need a chiller? People claim T5s put out more light and are more intense, but halides are less intense but somehow make you need a chiller. I have dual 250 watt SE halides on my 55g and i dont need a chiller.

 

Perhaps people think light coming out of the fixture is heating tank water? If thats happening, then your fixture isnt ventilated properly. There should be enough air flow thru the fixture so the air coming out is like a degree higher. When a company uses small or cheap fans, that becomes a problem.

EDIT- And the lfs near my home (well its 45 minutes away) used 250 watt halides on its 20gal frag tanks No heat problem there.

 

It's really about ambient temperature. And the fact that your halide set up is 8 inches or more off the waters surface. If you take these into consideration you shouldn't need a chiller. I just run my a/c and keep the ambient temp around 76. Keeps my tanks just fine and I get to enjoy the a/c as well. Cheaper than a chiller too. ;D

 

Exactly! Its only from heat off the bulbs itself and if properly vented and fanned, its puts out no more than something else of same intensity!

 

not having a hood makes a big difference as well, regardless of fans etc...
i ended up with a combo of pc and mh and am very happy with it, 265 watts of pc running actinic and 300 of 14k mh i can grow anything i choose, the coloration of the water is nice and it just isn't a reef without that rippling light effect imo. i think the same thing would work well with a combo of t5 and mh... i'm excited about led and hope the prices come down before the electricity prices go through the roof.