72" Aquatinics Constellation - Good enough for SPS?

[FishyFishy!]

I'm debating wether the 72" Aquatinics Constellation fixture will be enough for my new 155 Bowfront Dedicated SPS tank. It has 14X39W T5's. I had this running on my 187 Gallon tank, and it was a fantastic fixture, but I only had mostly softies.

My main concern is cost. The Aquatinics fixture is cheaper...

It's between the Aquatinics and 2 X 36" Oddysea fixtures with 2X250W halide and 4X39W T5 fixtures - so total of 4X250W halides and 8X39W T5's

Whuddya Think??

[Myka]

How deep is your tank? I believe it is 30" deep? T5s are really only good for 24", and even then I would pick halides over T5s any day for SPS.

[FishyFishy!]

The biggest point at the bow is 24". The sides are 19"

[kien]

Halides if you never want to wonder if you've got enough light for something pretty that you find at the fish store :-D. Plus, halide shimmer FTW! That is unless you install some pesky LEDs to supplement an add shimmer, but who wants to do that??

The t5s should work too. Although there will be much more light reaching the bottom of the tank with the halides vs the t5s as the halides have a deeper penetration. This may or may not be an issue for you though depending on what you would want to keep lower down.

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by kien

Halides if you never want to wonder if you've got enough light for something pretty that you find at the fish store :-D. Plus, halide shimmer FTW! That is unless you install some pesky LEDs to supplement an add shimmer, but who wants to do that??

The t5s should work too. Although there will be much more light reaching the bottom of the tank with the halides vs the t5s as the halides have a deeper penetration. This may or may not be an issue for you though depending on what you would want to keep lower down.

Well said kind sir!

[cyberdude47]

I have a 72" constellation on my 500g 36" deep tank (its for sale BTW) and it worked great on my system, I had a mixed reef with a great collection of SPS, softies, and clams & chalices on the sandbed and had better growth rates than when I had 4-400w lighting it. I think it worked great

[Trigger Man]

I have always been a big fan of t5's, and I ran them on my last tank with a depth of 24 inches and a full sps tank with many of the so called difficult sps doing just fine. Of course the lower heat coming from t5's was also a bonus.