lighting for planted marine tank?

so i have water in the tank…and my old PC light on there (2 whites 2 blues)…anyway, i wanted to gut this light out and put in a new ballast and t-5’s…

on my DT downstairs i have a clip on light and a 6500k bulb from home depot which cost about $7 total…

from a cost perspective i can put two or three of these style lights on for $21 and get good growth…or i could spend much more and get better growth and the lighting would look better to the eye.

what do you guys think…i keep thinking maybe t-5 because i do want to keep a coral or two in there in the future…stonies that is, i could probley get by with just the clip on’s if i wanted to only have softies in there…

any thoughts?

i get amazing calurpa growth out of just one of those clip on lights with the 6500k bulb, i’d imagine two of those would be fine, good spectrum as well

Bellamy would be a good person to ask. Try getting kaptken to comment as well. To be honest I don’t know enough about the topic.

i have had various types of caulerpa growing well in a 40 breeder tank for a long time. and some softies too, if i keep the caulerpa trimmed back. I have a home made 3 bar x 39w T5 strip light over the tank. seems bright enough. the tank doubles as a fuge and haven for a couple big tangs, and some mushrooms and GSP.