Lighting type not brand?

[spye]

First off I would like to say how great and Helpful garrett in Salem is. I met him last night and saw his "garage" and wow. I feel very fortunate to have someone with that kind of knowledge and that helpful that lives 20 minutes away. Now to my question.

 

I have a 60 gallon tank that I just started and im really struggling with what type of lighting to get. I want all types of corals,clams etc and I plan to be in this hobby for sometime. I dont have an unlimited amount of money but im the type of person that I will wait till i can afford to pay for something nice or I just wont do it at all.

 

So what do I get? T5 are nice but looking at them next to a tank with MH makes them look dull etc. So do I get LED? are they as good as MH without having to win the lottery to afford them? MH are so nice but theyre expensive. They use alot of energy and have to be replaced annually where LED are very very effeciaent and to my knowledge they dont have to be replaced ever. But im still not certain if there trully a player in the fish tank industry yet.

 

Anyways just wanted to bounce that off of you all and see what your feelings are about lighting and if you were essentially starting from scratch with a 60 gallon what type of lighting would you go with.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Cory

 

P.S. My tank is in my theater which is in my daylight basement so it stays fairly cool down there year round. has anyone had MH on a 60g without having to use a chiller?

[Lowman]

In my opinion, LED lights are neat, but I am still not sold on them. If you get the proper MH ballasts, reflectors, and bulbs, along with actinic supplementation, it is not that expensive to buy and use. Electronic ballasts have come a long way to help save money. I would use a 250 watt MH light over your 60 gallon. Of course, it really depends on what you plan on keeping. I have seen T5 setups that are very nice and the colors really POP, but you will have to do your homework on bulbs and combinations of bulb colors before you buy. Beauty really is in the eye of the beerholder.....

[cellowithgills]

You'd have to win the lottery to get LED. They're really expensive from what I've seen, and eventually you would have to replace them.

[impur]

Well here is my take on lighting:

 

T5 - pro: cheap to run, very little heat, bulbs last 18m-24m, able to get just about any color you want using different combos of bulbs, give great growth

con: no shimmer

 

MH - pro: growth, shimmer

con: heat, bulb price, bulb life expectancy

 

LED - pro: last forever, no heat, lots of options for getting the color you want, dimmable

con: insanely expensive upfront, most tanks i see with LED have brown corals

 

I currently have a T5 fixture on my 75gal, and a 250w MH on my 60gal. I love the shimmer of MH so i'm switching over to that. I have no heat problems on my 60gal.

 

HTH!

[Emerald525]

I went back and forth on this decision when we put up our new sps. I agree there is not the "shimmer" you get with MH but I am quite pleased with the ATI powermodule I went with. There is less heat output, less electricity used, great Par with the setup. Also with t5's there is better technology and bulb combinations. I was sold when I saw madmikes' setup. He has ati pms over his 12 foot tank and added leds to get that shimmer.

 

I have heard great things about the leds but I think they are just still so new which is why the price is so high. I think eventually that will be what most people use for their tanks in the future.

 

The mhs just put out to much heat and when you are crazy like me and have several tanks in your basement it just greatly contributed to the heat problem.

 

There is no right answer. My advice is to just look at people's tanks and go with what you like best.

[moovinfast]

I have ran all the lighting options you are debating about. I started with PCs and switched to T5s and then MHs and then built my own CREE LED fixture. The LEDs are crisp and clear and you can adjust it to your own color, but now I run only MHs. Its what gave me the best overall color and growth. And I only use cheap 250w MHs. I just dont think LEDS will be as good as MH until they make a decent UV led to add to them. I know I could get better results using a better bulb but its hard to beat what Im running for the price. I used to run 2x250w MHs over my 72" bowfront and never had any heat issues. I also now run 1 250w MH over my 20" cube and 4x250w mh over my 240 and dont have any heat issues.

[spye]

Thank you all so much for your opinions. I guess MH it is. Now to find one thats not to expensive. Thanks again.

[Michael7979]

In my opinion' date=' LED lights are neat, but I am still not sold on them. If you get the proper MH ballasts, reflectors, and bulbs, along with actinic supplementation, it is not that expensive to buy and use. Electronic ballasts have come a long way to help save money. I would use a 250 watt MH light over your 60 gallon. Of course, it really depends on what you plan on keeping. I have seen T5 setups that are very nice and the colors really POP, but you will have to do your homework on bulbs and combinations of bulb colors before you buy. Beauty really is in the eye of the beerholder.....[/quote']

 

I agree.........

yumm BEER!

[OwenReefin]

Ya MH for sure. I had two t5 actinic supplements, but switched to power compact to test them out versus, I like the pc better.

[Rick]

I run a combination of 1 x 250w MH, 1 x 175w MH, and 2 x 54w T5's. I plan to add 2 more T5's one of these days. I only run the MH about 4 hours and the T5's for about 12 hours. Bith of the MH are also electronic ballasts to help keep the running cost a little lower. (In reality the pumps are generally what add the most to the running cost)