Re: reef lighting help!
I just happen to be going through some threads and saw that nobody had answered your post. If you put stuff like this in the reef thread you will get more hits. Anyway I think if down the road this is going to be a grow out tank. I would stick with the t5's retro 4x 54watt 10k's will do a great job on a 48" tank. If you put one MH on a 48inch tank you will have uneven lighting on one side or the other. You want to cover the tank evenly. And with 10k t5 bulbs you will get a lot of growth. And save your MH for your diplay tank. As for what I run 2x400watt with 20k bulbs on a 75gal., but if I had to do it again I would 2x150 or maybe 250 my reef tank is mostly stonies so I need alot of light. On a 55 you can get away with a 36" light because the tank is only 13" wide but for a wider tank you might want to match the length of the tank for more overall lighting.
|