Why isn't my hammer bright green like in the lfs?

[sphelps]

Here's a pic of my first reef tank, at the time all that was available to me was power compacts and NO fluorescent. I think it had two of those 50/50 34" bulbs and two NO fluorescent 22000K bulbs on a 3 foot 50 gallon. Seemed to work just fine, LPS and soft corals did great, color looks pretty good to.



That said I'd still consider purchasing a new fixture. I've seen plenty of used T5 fixtures sell here with new bulbs for less that what you probably paid for that one 34" CFL bulb. So it's probably cheaper than trying to add more of what you have. A 4 bulb fixture would be ideal.

If you can't justify any of the LED options then don't purchase them and ignore anyone that tells you different. The PAR38 bulbs are an OK option but you'll need a few of them and when you compare price/watt to other options like the D120 they are not overly cost effective. They also usually can't be dimmed and don't offer control of the blue & white spectrum.