T5's for a 90 gal cube?

[Paintguru]

In my never-ending effort to spend (waste) money by tweaking my system, I am wondering if my tank would do better (and run cheaper) with T5's. Right now I have a 30"x30"x24" cube with 1-250W HQI Radium over it. To me, it seems like my Z&Ps are acting like they are getting blasted by too much light (relatively small polyp size, etc.). T5's are obviously more energy efficient then the MH (and produce less heat), but upon doing a small bit of research, it looks like I would have to go with 24" lamps (UGH!) leaving me 6" of space on the sides. My initial thoughts were to put maybe 3 lamps parallel to the tank front and have 2 (1 per side) perpendicular to the front to fill in those 3" dark areas. Am I totally stupid for thinking of doing this when I already have a MH running? I know little to nothing about T5's, other then that people appear to like them very much once they have them.

 

[psychedelicwonders]

I will promise you that there will be absolutely no dark areas.

dont forget, it may be 6" total, but when you center the light, youre only left with 3" on each side.

I actually think it looks good when the light is just a tad bit smaller than the tank.

Gives it a robotic, tiered look.

 

[Nate82]

you will save money in the long run with energy costs and your corals will like you better it also gives you more options to vary the light with different bulbs plus you can sell the halide and it should offset most of the cost for a new fixture

 

[Paintguru]

you will save money in the long run with energy costs and your corals will like you better it also gives you more options to vary the light with different bulbs plus you can sell the halide and it should offset most of the cost for a new fixture

Yeah I figured I could sell it all and pay for most of the T5 setup. Why do you feel my corals will like me more for it? Just curious.

Ok, well how many bulbs would one go with for a tank like mine? I figured a 5 bulb setup would probably be ideal (I believe that puts me at around 120W of power usage)? Basically cuts my lighting costs by 50%.

 

[Paintguru]

I will promise you that there will be absolutely no dark areas.

dont forget, it may be 6" total, but when you center the light, youre only left with 3" on each side.

I actually think it looks good when the light is just a tad bit smaller than the tank.

Gives it a robotic, tiered look.

Plus I wouldn't have lighting spilling out of the tank like I do now.