lighting setup

[bake420]

i am setting up a 36" 50gal and need to know a good lighting setup.
i want soft and if $$$ possible,lps corals

a guy on ebay sells a 6x54 t5 setup for $275 delivered
or a 3x96 +6 blue led powercompact for $275delivered

any comments or suggestions
thanks

[FishinInTheDark]

Welcome to CF!

I have heard great things about T5 lighting, and would probably choose that if I were you. I have never used T5, though. Either would be sufficient for softies and some LPS.

I removed your duplicate post in the Beginners' forum, just to keep the responses linear.

[bigfoot]

you can diy it alot cheaper off of ebay get a workhorse 7 ballast and a set of pc endcaps and buy the bulbs and a reflector for about 80 dollars..and get a 175 watt halide retro for 100 will be awsome set up and you can keep everycoral and clam there is since its a 50 tall the halide will give you more punch to reach "good" light to the lower regions of the tank i do think you should talk to mike here and see what he thinks as compacts and t5's par (photosenthetic active radiation) levels will die off drastically in a 50 tall they are not that good for deep tanks the light looses its punch as it goes through the water and its not enough to sustain anything but some lps and mushrooms/softies this is just my opinion though.....Luke

[bake420]

Welcome to CF!

I removed your duplicate post in the Beginners' forum, just to keep the responses linear.

thx

the 50gal is only about 18" high, 20"max....not a 55gal
what is the watts/gal i would need to keep soft and lps?

thanks all

[bigfoot]

not really a wpg issue i would reccomend thinking long and hard about lighting i started with power compacts and have switched to metal halides i feel i wasted growth time and money on the power compacts most pc's need to be replaced at abput 6 months to keep proper spectrum and my metal halide is good for about 10 months my mh bulb is about 50 on ebay in my lfs a 36'' pc is 55 apiece for the good brand...... plus you get a better growth rate with the halides which means more frags to trade or sell :)

[Reefdaddy]

not really a wpg issue i would reccomend thinking long and hard about lighting i started with power compacts and have switched to metal halides i feel i wasted growth time and money on the power compacts most pc's need to be replaced at abput 6 months to keep proper spectrum and my metal halide is good for about 10 months my mh bulb is about 50 on ebay in my lfs a 36'' pc is 55 apiece for the good brand...... plus you get a better growth rate with the halides which means more frags to trade or sell :)

T5 your looking at will not fit on your tank, Make sure the length of the tube will fit on your tank. MH is ok if your looking for a certain look, I have a PC sytem on my tanks and never has a problem with growth , Thats a misnomer put out by MH enthusiasts. I have seen tanks that would make anyones on this board look sick by using VHO and NO T12 units. Its a matter of Pref, the good thing about T5 light ing is the PAR value is greater then MH 250 watt and last 2 times as long in PAR rating.