What can be kept under these T5's?

Well I want my parents to get MH, but I may have to settle for T5s. So I'm thinking that if I get 4 of these babies:

36" Two Lamp T5 Retro Kit By CoralVue - AquaCave

that I can have a 4*39 watt running on either side of the tank. The tank is a 135 gallon 24" deep and 72" long, hence the 36" setups. I'm thinking of running them side by side so that there are 2 36" fixtures on each side of the tank. (Each fixture holds 2 bulbs, so 4 bulbs on each side)

With one fixture on each side holding 2 actinic bulbs and the other two fixtures holding 10,000K bulbs, what kinds of corals do you guys think I could keep? I'll admit that SPS is growing on me some (not literally of course) and I would probably like a few, but they would go at the very top.

So what all do you guys think would be fine? I'd especially like to hear from the people who have T5s, but any input is greatly appreciated. ;D

(Hopefully they'll just get the MHs, but they're a little tight with their wallets if you know what I mean)

 

Sorry to tell u this at depth at 24" it is very difficult to have t5 I had plan to keep 8 t5 over drive by ic 660 but after much debate felt that mh is needed my tank is 48x24x24

 

Sorry but I beg to differ! My tank is 24" deep and I run 4 T5 lights, I am getting really good results with my SPS and LPS corals. My SPS frags are situated midway down the tank and since I got them (5 months ago) they have grown so well and so quickly I have managed to frag them 4 times!

The only thing really I wouldn't try in my tank are clams.

 

you could keep all the softies - not sure about lps and sps. I think you mean your going to have 4 bulbs?? if so i think you might need more to do lps and sps...but softies are cool!!

 

I think he means he will have four bulbs on each side of his tank, so eight in total. I would of thought that if you are going to have so many bulbs then it may be more cost effective to go for some MH's.

As I said in my previous post I only have four t5 bulbs and am having great success with them. Here is a link from a guy in Germany who is running T5's, not great pictures or information but you can just about see that type of corals he has in his tank - Translated version of http://www.korallenriff.de/Mohr/hauptaquarium.html

Edit: Just found a better page with some nice pictures: Translated version of http://www.marineaquarium.nl/BerndMohr.php

 

well if he's going to have 8 i think he can get anything. Someone feel free to correct me tho.
I think T5's are more effecient energy wise then mh and offer a more evenly spread lighting - I also believe that they dont heat your water up anywhere near the amount a mh would.
As i've said before, my lfs swears by them, he reckons that the future is in VHO's - but i guess thats his opinoin - i totally trust the guy tho, he's got so much experience in the industry

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm finding a new found appreciation for T5s (and SPS corals) after those pics from phoenix. Thanks. The deal with cost effectiveness is that getting 4 of theses fixtures (making a 4x39watt for every 36" of tank space) is that it is less expensive than MH. Anything over that, then it's less expensive to order MH. So I guess we'll see. My parents are supposed to decide this week when I go visit.

I'll show them different types of corals and see what they like, and then let them know what lights they have to have. (Hopefully they'll want SPS)

Everyone pray to the reef gods for me!

 

well I always liketo buy the best so my t5 initialnset up would run m around 800 for 8 bulbs now w mh I spent 500

 

Ahhh, the never ending debate about T5's VS MH! I am only going to say this because I have had this conversation before, many times.

You can keep anything you want, from SPS, soft corals, LPS, fish and even CLAMS under T5's in any depth tank. Its been done over & over & over.

The deeper the tank the more creative you have to be with you placement of your corals. You wouldn't want to put a nice Acro colony on the sand in a tank thats over, lets say 18" thats the Softies domain., but really who would put one there anyways.

Search all the boards and you will find TONS of tanks taht run just T5s on everyone and most are quite successful!