Lighting?? What corals?

[m_wonnacott]

I am new to the forums but have been spending a ton of time over at reef cental where I have started a switch thred for my 55 gal.

I currently run the tank with stock lighting for the cichlids in the tank and so am planing an upgrade to the lighting.

This is what I am thinking of going with since for the price it is the best I have found so far.
http://www.aquatraders.com/48-216w-ho-t5-light-fixture-basic.aspx

The question is what type of corals is this going to allow me to keep i plan on a mostly zoa, ric set-up but would really like to add a center piece coral like a hammer, frogspawn, or brain. Would these lights be enough or shale I just stick to the ric, zoa and one or two other softies?

[JDigital]

That should be plenty of lighting for anything except SPS probably. That being, the softies/LPS you choose will prefer different heights in tank, some will like being higher up with stronger lighting, some will prefer to be deeper down where the light is less intense.

[mseepman]

I agree that it will be plenty of lighting for your tank.

[xtreme]

Be careful with the quality of the lamps and ballasts. I'm not familiar with how good their HO T5's are but I bought a 72" 250w MH fixture off of them and have since spent an additional $600 upgrading the lamps and ballasts. I'm keeping SPS though so it might not be a concern for you if you are only planning on keeping LPS and softies.

[m_wonnacott]

Ya the couple corals that I listed are the only other ones I am looking at just for something to add to the softies.

[phillybean]

This is a good unit because you can add more T5's to it down the road. Also, it's cheap enough that if you decide to change to MH down the road, it's not going to hurt as bad :lol:

The best advice I can give is plan to have everything. When I was planning my tank I was planning a set up like yours, softies/some LPS and was told to plan on getting SPS, because the more I get into the hobby, the more I will want them. Now that my tank is set up, I plan on 60%+ of my corals being SPS.

A friend had the same idea and although I told him several times to just get the MH, he never did. He bought several corals that his lights could handle and is now planning an upgrade.

[m_wonnacott]

Well I know for a fact I will not be going with the MH or sps as our apt could never run them as well as I would never spend that kind of money just for lights not with a 20 month old and another one on the way. Even down the road I know I would never spend that kind of money. Besides the fact that the corals listed are my favorites.