MH or T5's

[derek681]

I am currently running an arcadia luminaire with 4 t5's 54w each 2 blue 2 white and i am currently thinking of upgrading to mh 2 x 150w 13k each without actinics is this a good road to take or should i hold out and buy a mh with actinics?

 

[derek681]

come on guys somebody must be able to offer me some advice i have only had my tank for 10weeks so t5's and halides are new to me.

 

[sinder255248]

Hi, obviously two metal halides would provide you with more output as you currently only get 200w from your T5's, and half of that is in the blue spectrum. I would say you will be able to keep more with the halides, although if your not supplementing with actinic's you may want to go for the 20k's as this will give a nicer look IMHO. You don't say what size tank you have, but over my 75g I have two 150w 10k's and two 55w Actinic T5's, and everything grows well.

 

[dorkfish]

add the halide and run the T5's with actinics. As for the 20k blbs, don't use them, even though they may look good to you, they put out a lot of UV light wich is detrimental to every thing in your tank.

 

[VJ&POOPS]

Keep the T5 and retro MH if you can, based on the t5 wattage you can run a sun up/midday/and sundown cycle.