HQI/T5 Hood Slection

[Pikeman]

I currently have a Hamilton 4' hood (2-250W SE 10K MH's + 2-96W Act) over a 30" deep 140 gal reef tank. I'm looking to improve my lighting to the Maristar (2-250W HQI 10K + 2-54W T5's) hood available at Premium Aquatics. My motivation is to increase the light intensity to help my sps corals.

With my current lights, I get a good crisp white light look and good flourescence. I've considered 14K bulbs, but have had Hamilton 14K's in the past and the look was to "blue" for my preference.

With the new system, I was wondering if the 2-T5's will provide enough blue light to keep the crisp white look and not get washed out by the more powerful HQI MH's? FWIW, I want the slim hood and I am not considering two pendants. I am, however, open to other solutions to get the increased intensity and crisp white look.

[moonpod]

Giesemann 14.5k bulbs. Don't stress the T5s. Get a MH bulb that has the look you want. Be wary of dropshipping the SLS stuff. There seems to be some issues of late, though in general it's not a problem. I personally can p/u (reefgeek is very close to me) so it's not a big deal, but there are several complaints re: dropshipped SLS ballasts and hoods that were damaged and some poor communication re: replacements.

[Pikeman]

Moonpod, If I exclusively transition to the Gieseman 14.5K bulbs and go without the supplemental T5"s, am I losing overall light intensity from my current ~700Watts of light to 500W? Or are the DE bulbs that much more powerful as to make up for and exceed the lack of the T5's?

[moonpod]

The DEs "smoke" the T5s. I'd just use some T5s for dawn dusk. I mean if you want to "slightly" push the color you can add the T5s, but really, they don't add much vs the DEs.

[nyfireman3097]

i agree w/ moon you hardly notice the t5's
Nick