Which T-5 fixture to buy

I am looking to get a new light fixture so I can start adding some corals to my aquarium. I have a 38 gallon tank. Here is a link to the 2 fixtures I am looking at. Which one should I go with and what kind of corals would be best for that light and a beginer at corals. My tank currently has 2 clownfish 1 royal grama, and a diamond goby. It also has a cleaner shrimp, horse shoe crab and a couple of snails. I have 2 35 gallon Marineland HOB filters and a 13 watt UV sterilizer. Thanks for any advice.

Odyssea T5 Aquarium Lighting

Odyssea T5 Aquarium Lighting

P.S. I know these are cheap lights, but I dont want to spend alot at first until I learn and am able to get more advance corals.

 

well, of the two option i would go with the top one. it has a timer, and is only like 10 bucks more.

I would opt for better bulbs shortly after getting the unit. those stock ones wont be as good as what you can find elsewhere. Never had t-5 though, so i dont have any reccomendation on bulbs. just heard ATI was one of the best brands.

 

I would think the first of the two will work for you, I would strongly suggest reading every book you can about corals, are you gonna start soft or start with some lps or mix it up a bit...just read the modern reef aquarium series from J. Sprung & C. Delbeek
You can not go wrong if you read these books...

 

I would go with the first one. What corals are you looking to get?

 

I am currently looking at getting pusling xenia or Neon Eyed Zoanthid polyps. Although I have heard that Zoanthids are poisonous. Would the first light work for these?

 

Yes it most certainly will. Zoas are only dangerous when damaged unless you are severely sensitive to the toxin.

 

I was thinking about buying that same T5 for my tank but after reading about having to change out the bulbs that come with it and allot of ppl talking about the ballast going out in less than a years time I think I have decided to go with a LED setup.
Just my 2 cents

 

First fixture has 3 bulbs and 2nd one has 4? Imo I would get the 4 bulb. The timer is a issue that is easily fixable by standard timers.

 

I have ownedan 2 bulb odyssea fixture and it worked well for a stsrter light. I did replace the bulbs about 3 months after I got ti and did notice a huge diffrence in the coral color and growth. I would go with opitin 2 vs the first just because you can get a timer from walmart to do the same thing. also rember it is more about coral placment that how much light you have.

 

Duke494

You are correct about the Zoanthids being poisonious & 2in10 is correct in if you damage them. I know this is not what this thread was about but i think it is important for begginers to be aware of what they are putting into their tanks and understand the what they are.

I had a 30 gallon tank that i had a problem with hair algea and a Zoanthid that had taken over alot of the live rock. When i up graded to a 65gallon i decided to try and clean the Zoanthids off with a razor blade. I spent the better part of an after doing so.

After cleaning all the rock off i placed it in my new tank and added my water and so forth. My wife and 4 year old grandson were also helping with the set up and start up of the tank that day also.

When i first started my pumps on my new tank the water level wasn't quiet high enough and we notice that the water was vaporizing when it was returning to the main tank and we both said that was strange.

With in 15 minutes my grandson started complaining about his chest hurting bad. We realized that he was having an alergic reaction of some kind and gave him some medicain to help. My wife and i both experienced the same thing but not as sever at that time. However later that night we both became extemly ill. I though i was going to die a probably almost did. We should have went to the emergency room but didn't becasue we thought we had all got a really bad case of the flu. We had no idea what had happened until we had time to research and think back on it. (Should have done this first not second!).

My grandson and wife recovered over the next couble of weeks. However i was not so lucky because i was the dumb a__ that had my hands in the water all day while damaging the Zoas. It has taken me almost a year to fully recover from the repiratory problems it caused me.

Zoanthids are part of the Palythoa family!! Some species are used to extract the juice which was used for poision darts among other things. I am not an expert on this subject by any means but i can tell you that it almost killed the three of us!! Literally!!

I am not trying to scare anyone or say don't put them in your tank just reseach what you are putting in your tank and handling so you know how to prevent the samething from happening to you.

My grandons lives with us and he is totally into helping watching and learing about the minature ocean in our house. I never knew this could be something so fun and facinating for the two of us to share! I'm just glad that the three of us survived to enjoy the tank.