help with lighting

[chris77]

Couldn't find the board that used to be on the home page about disease\problem diagnosis.. But anyways I was wondering if I could get a little advise on my lighting system for my tank. It doesn't still seem to be good enough to provide for the things in my tank.
I have a 95 gallon saltwater aquarium setup with 5 lights up there right now. I have 2, t5's, 2  t8 powerglows, and 1 authentic blue.. After purchasing all these lights the pet store said this would definatly be good enough.. But still see its not. All levels are perfect in the tank.. But some of my things still continue not to look so great.
Any advise asap would be greatly appreciated!

 

[spyd]

Yah, that lighting is not enough to grow much. It would be fine for a softy tank but that's about it. Your best bet is 6 - T5HO lamps over a tank that size or a combo of T5's and LEDs like 4 T5HO and a bunch of Blue LEDs.

What type of corals are you growing? And are those lights on a canopy or separate fixtures?

 

[TORX]

Moved topic

 

[Salty Cracker]

Yeah we need a bit more info...how long are the lights?

Again the broken record...but listen to the guys on here before you listen to ANY pet store.  we just want you to have great results with your tank, and grow and frag some awesome sps that we've never seen before

There's a ton of used MH and T5 fixtures coming on the market now that LED has started to take a bite out of that market.  You might want to look at a higher output T5 setup, at least then you could eliminate lighting as a possible reason for troubles (there are so so so many other possible culprits!).  As well, how old are the bulbs?  6 months is about the best you're going to get out of most of them before the spectrum starts to fall off. 

 

[chris77]

I have 2 canopy lights and 1 fixture light that all sit right on top of my tank (which is 2ft tall) . I also only have soft corals in my tank and anenomies.
So pretty much my best bet is to buy a metal halide light next? Could it be my lights now thacan't reach down to far in my tank to provide the corals with enough light.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far tho

 

[Salty Cracker]

I mean, what are the problems you are having?  Softies can live in veritable toilet bowls to be honest, and with rather poor lighting.  Anemones aren't my specialty, I've always stayed away from them because they move around, but I'll bet there are some experts here. 

Both MH and T5 fixtures turn up more and more often for killer deals.  I might suggest you wait for a 6 bulb fixture, as MH costs more to run and tend to put out a lot of heat (a concern in summer).