Too hot for metal halide

by **Dusty** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 6:48 am

Hey guys, I have ordered a new tank so I can finally get into my dream of reefing. Its 24" deep and comes with a 4 tube T5 HO fitting.

Will these T5's be able to support a reef setup in a tank this deep? The more I check out the beautiful tanks here I see metal halides are running the show. I dont want to buy metal halides because of the heat

I live in a pretty hot area and over summer am running the central air basically every day. The hood im getting isnt designed to vent the heat of a metal halide and im not ready to invest in a chiller.

So.....will it cut it?? Thanks for your time :)

by **jdak702** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:51 pm

IMO no, the t5 will not cut it. what is the wattage of t5s? maybe you can run one halide with your t5s this way you don't need 2 halides. how many gallons is your tank?

by **Dusty** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:14 pm

The tank I have ordered is 96 gallons. At 48" long I will need two then I take it? Will the T5's cover cycling?

Maybe I can set the tank up and cycle with the live rock and in like two months when everything settles down I can buy the halides and chiller? Thanks jdak

by **Dusty** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:15 pm

Oh sorry 54 W a tube x 4

by **jdak702** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:25 pm

That might support some soft corals like i have but it isn't a lot. You can really cycle your tank with any light. My fish only tank only has 72watts for 150gallons. I'm just not sure about the depth. The whole watts per gallon charts don't really account for depth. good luck

by **Dusty** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:45 am

150 gallons is huge man! Thats mad. I just checked the pics. I love the coral banded shrimp and your clowns. Nice setups.

Im making so many newbie mistakes. I should have specified soft coral to begin with. Sorry about that. I think I will set up, do the cycle and get my filtration going. Then when I add some soft coral if things dont go well I might either add another 4 tube fixture or hit up the halides.

Thanks very much man. Again you have a beautiful tank. Cheers

Too hot for metal halide

6 posts