Which T5 should I get

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by i have crabs

ive tested a few different setups, the 4 foot tanks i tested were under 2 250w's for comparison, the tek i have tested equall to a 400w even, the 400w was a tar ballast and not so nice reflector though, personally i hate how every t5 thread goes this way every time, im just stating facts that ive tested with my own par meter for my own knowledge, if anyone wants to listen great if not fine too my corals are doing great in a 27" deep tank with the light way higher than it needs to be so in my opinion tek lights work great, i havnt yet tested any higher end 48" t5 lights that would make a fair comparison so im still a bit skeptical on how much better the light output is on them, personally i think its mostly name and features like cooling and dimming that make the over double the price

I'm not sure why this was directed at me as I was defending your comparison of 8x54W to a 250W while deducing that the tested 250W set up was actually 2 x 250W while Myka erroneously assumed the comparison was to a single 250W.

With respect to the "double the price" comment I agree. I don't believe that the prices charged for the higher end fixtures are necessarily justified as being purely a consequence of quality or features. In most cases fixtures fetch those prices based on brand IMO. But it's also true that there are few "half the price" fixtures that incorporate active cooling, splash guards, quality individual parabolic reflectors, and good ballasts/components.