lookin for some input on lighting swap. hopefully this is the right place to post

I was thinking about taking the stock pc 2x24 lighting out of my nanowave9 and putting in a Nova Extreme SLR T-5 fixture which is 18 inches by 5 1/2 inches 40 watt 1-20 W 10,000°K /1-20 W 460 nm actinic

Would the lighting be better with this t-5 fixture or about the same or worse than the Stock PC ?

all i have is one zoa frag in there now and the tank is gonna be all zoas

T5's are wayyyy better than and PC lighting. go with the T5's you wont regret it.

yea that was the cheapest t5 fixture i could find and wasnt to sure how good it was...hopefully i can take it apart and fit it into my hood..heck if it fits into my hood i may buy 2 of them and stuff them both in my hood.....but then again i would be getting close to the amount of money i would need to build LED fixture which is what i would really enjoy doin....another plus about the t5 is that it has a longer life span than my PCs..which i think are goin bad cause all of a sudden i got algae outbreak and its been about 6 months on the pcs...

dont take apart a good t4 fixture! just get a t5 retrofit from Hellolights.com and put that into your hood. it would be much cheaper.

what's the point? the lighting that comes with the tank is more than adequate for softies and LPS. if you want SPS, a 70w or 150w MH would be a better choice than T5s.

price for bulbs over time...t5 bulbs last longer...saves money...not lookin to have any sps




i see no retrofit kit under 95 bucks from hellolights.com....and that doesnt include bulbs

the nova extreme fixture is complete...bulbs and all...so all i would have to do is take the guts and mount them in my hood ...its only 50 bucks

if you say so. saving twelve bucks a year (plus the cost of the fixture, so it would take you about five years to recoup the cost) isn't justifiable for me, but if it is for you, more power. you're not going to notice any difference between 2x24w PCs and 2x20w T5s in a tank this small though, and neither will your corals. like I said, the T5 benefits are negligible in this small an application.

well i need to get new bulbs for mine now and that means i am lookin at about 50 bucks shipped depending on what brand i get...this t5 fixture cost 55 shipped ...so i would break even in one year and it gives me somethin new to mess with....

i love to hear this.....t5 is better b/c of the individual reflectors, less wasted light and burn cooler.....

if you got t5ho and no reflectors, you might as well just run pc....

pc has been the work horse for a while....its not as powerful as a good t5 fixture or a halide, but it will get the job done....they were top of the line in the 90's

and LEDs will soon replace halides....but halides will still have their place....

if its cheaper to buy a whole new fixture and retro it into your hood, that justifies the purchase in my book.

you know, youre not gonna stick with zoa's and softies but for a few months lol... it will be on to lps and then the sps bug bites. you can get a good fixture from fishneedit.com and ive been hearing of some big improvments from aquatraders.com who carries oddysea.. personally im impressed with t5's. no real heat issue and im keeping a variety of monti's and acro's. i built my hood from current usa lights.. 6x18 t5ho check it out