Anybody got sps under t-8 or 5's?

[william holland]

I got my new 75 set up and am now rethinking my lighting. My 46 had 2@150 hqi's and even a 400 se at one point......Trying to avoid heating the house with the new system! I'm keeping some monti cap, purple digi and a crocia clam under 4 over driven 6500k t-8's 2" off the water at the moment. Will I be able to keep more sps (i.e. green slimer, hydnaphora, any acro's, ect) if:

1. Add 4 more t-8's (under way to be 6@ 6500k and 2 actinic)
2. 8 T-5's (same config as above)
3. Just stick with halides? (will have to upgrade from 175 to 250's)

options 1 and 2 will be overdriven with Ice cap 660's. Anybody keeping sps under these?
my current tank is a 75 gallon with a 6" DSB, I'd like to keep sps in the upper half of the tank.

 

[Reefdaddy1]

I have used T8 for a Fuge , Never SPS, But I figure if you can cram enough T8's under there you probably could. I sooner go with T5 or T6 overdriven with the reflectors they have available.

 

[IAP Brian]

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24912

There are some pics in the above thread of my duel 150 gal rubbermaid holding system. At the time of the pics I had a lot of misc. SPS under only 6700 K and 10K T-5's. Didn't have any acros or Caps. I got a bunch of rescue colonies of Acro, cap and mili and they went in the tank under the same lighting. They bounced back nicely but stayed brown with some slight green. I was going to add some more T-5 lights with actinics to the set-up but I had a 250w HQI sitting around so I stuck it over them with an XM20K. The colors have been getting better and better over the last month. I will soon move them to my main reef tanks under T-5 lighting (actinics and Aqua Blue bulbs) and 2 250w HQI XM10K.

If you are going to use T-5's I would use a large blend of bulbs and make sure to buy the good ones. (I am using inexpensive PCI 10K and 6700K in the tubs). Use the Giesemann bulbs and blend them with True Actinics, Aqua Blue and Midday. I think you will be surprised how well they work.