T5 lighting vs. PC lighting

[stolaas]

I have a question. I am about to upgrade my NO 40watters 48in to something that I will stick with for the life of the tank. The tank is a standard 55gal 48inch wide. I was almost sold on PCs but have been reading a lot about T5s. As my understanding is, the T5 fixures without individual reflectors are the same as having PCs. I want 4 T5s or 4 PCs to go into my hood. Right now I don't have any corals but have live rock and fish. I want to start corals now but am waiting to get a better light. I see the Nova T5 fixure has only one reflector over all the bulbs as opposed to the Tek 5 or Retro fits. The price difference is $100. This to me is a lot of money since I make everything for my tank.

What would be a better bet:
Power Compact fixure or Retro with reflectors for $200
Nova T5 fixure (comes with bulbs and save $100) for $200
Retro fit with individual reflectors and lights from reefgeek for $300

Would the extra light from the reflectors really do that much better for only a 55gal tank? And would it justify the extra $100 for the multiple reflectors.

Please be honest in your replies because a lot of us don't have as much money as some big reefers and get by with what we have.

Thanks a lot guys/girls

Curtis

[Geoff]

have you thought about what kind of corals you want to keep? take a look at replacement bulb prices also. i think the T-5's are coming way down in price and are less expensive to replace. in the long run this could be important.

G~

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT never had T-5 but I love my PC

[motorslave]

I would recomend VHOs for that size tank if you plan on keeping coral that will work with PC, t-5 or VHO lighting.

Robert

[stolaas]

I dont know much about coral yet better getting my feet wet is what I do best. I hear you can't keep SPS very well, other then that both PC and T5 would be fine. Just wondering it the single reflectors are so important to spend the extra $100 for. Another thing is when I move in a few years to a bigger house, I want a bigger tank - say 120gal or so. In this case I guess the retro T5's with single reflectors would be best because it would be simple to add-on a couple more the larger tank.

What do you all think?
I guess I could do the same with retro PC's but you only get one reflector per 2 bulbs.

[shoddyk]

I just changed my Power Compacts on my tank over to T5's and I like it alot better. I went from 768 watts of Power Compact's down to 480 watts of T5's and the T5's are too much light for some of the corals in my tank. I have aranged the corals so some get shade and the others are really thriveing from the new light. Power Compacts give off way too much heat and the T5's barely give off much heat at all. My chiller went from running almost non stop to only running a few times a day with the T5's. I am also saving quite a bit of money on the electric bill now also. I bought my lights from Reefgeek.com and I'm very satisfied with them.