T5 vs PC

[kastanzaman]

Could someone explain to me the difference between these two. i keep hearing that T5 are more powerful. Does this mean more PAR/watt from T5. I am looking at setting up a very small frag/coral QT tank somewhere between 10 and 25G. The lights i am considering are: 96w PC, 130W PC, or 96W T5.
Which would you recommend and why. do the 96W PC and 96W T5s give off the same intensity of light?

Do one of these get better colors out of corals? Or are there colors that these lights have trouble maintaining?

[thrlride]

T5's do have more output per watt but to really take advantage of them you need individual reflectors per bulb.

PC's are best for smaller tanks. They would be fine for your application but T5's would more likely be better.

[kastanzaman]

Here are the lights i would be considering, any thoughts on these or which would you recommend.
http://hellolights.com/201xcoaqpcho.html
http://hellolights.com/242xcoraqpch1.html
http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=20300&cat=0&page=1&featured

[dwdenny]

what are you wanting to keep. This will help you answer your question better. no one light will meet the needs of all coral as I am sure you know. for a 10g tank I would go PC for the 25g I would look at T5. Color will be determined by the bulbs you use of course and the type of coral. Deep water corals will like the more blue look while the shallow water corals are used to the more yellow look like the XM 10kk MH lighting. HTH

[spamin76]

PCs will be cheaper than t5s period. But if cost is not an issue I would get t5s. You can keep most corals under t5s but they are most suited to high light corals - i.e. things that normally do well under halides tend to do well under t5s.

[spamin76]

As an aside - I upgraded from PC to t5 and I would never go back.

I went from 130 watts of PC to 220 watts of t5 - 90 watts in this case makes a whole heck of a lot of difference - the intensity and color output is amazing - I have another tank lit by PC which my wife now refers to as the "dungeon" because it looks so dim compared to the t5s and the general color of the light from the PCs is not as appealing.

[jimsta]

The T5 fixture that you are looking at does not come with individual reflectors for each bulb. It will probably be a little more powerful than the PC's...... without the individual reflector. But for mushrooms softies, etc. I think you would be mush happier with the PC's but if your going for SPS then the T5's are a must. I have the same setup (96w quad PC) over my 10g tank and I have a clam, anemone, and acros in it. But for my 75 I have just got T5's. If you end up going with the larger tank then I would reccomend this-

http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104186.html

[lvreefer]

T5's are going to run hotter than PC's. T5's will support a wider range of corals.

[kastanzaman]

Guess i should have mentioned what i will be keeping. Most of what i would have would be SPS, zoas, and rics. I may keep some frogspawn off to one side, so it doesn't whack everything else in my tank. The only other thing i may foresee myself having would be some blastos, which i would think would be ok on the bottom of the tank.
Everything in the tank would either be coming from my tank w/ MH for grow out and selling/trading. or would be coming in for QT and then being placed into my main tank under MH.

Seems like there are a bunch of these acro flatworms going around. I really can't afford to replace the corals in my tank should they get wiped out be sometihng like that, so i decided it would be in my best interest to set up a frag/QT tank.

[dwdenny]

Then i would go with T5 in that case. I am looking at T5 lighting myself. But I may go with 150W HQI with phoenix bulb but not sure yet they run about the same price so that is not an issue.