I have the 24" Nova T5 from right here.
The bulbs cost about 60 bucks a year to replace (and it's very important to replace them every year).
You should probably check the bulb replacement cost of any light you choose. They're super expensive.
My light doesn't get real hot and it's in excellent shape after almost three years sitting on top of my tank.
I'd never have guessed it'd last half that long, as nothing for salt water ever does if it has metal involved. The only thing that's ever happened is that the fan started making noise. It was full of crud (salt, dust, etc.) and I had to wash it out. I dried it carefully and lubricated it very lightly and it's back to being silent and works great.
I'd happily suggest the Nova T5's to any of my friends. I could not be more pleased with it and it had came highly recommended to me.
I don't think you could possibly go wrong. :-)
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OK guys.
Made me go back and dig up some old photos.
Loading up to Photobucket right now.
I have some shots I am very proud of involving tanks I designed/built for customers.
Will post soon.
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First one.
Believe it or not, this is a 225 gallon tank that is six feet wide.
That is how huge this furniture is that the tank looks tiny within it.
This is a $40K wall unit/tank.
The tank is custom acrylic, made to customer specs, with a built in fiberglass, handmade artificial reef with very neat looking (as close as you can get) to live coral.
After three months of having, and me having told him not to do it as he wouldn't be happy long term, the customer paid me to do a whole new tank to mimic mine with bleached corals.

This customer later moved and we built the same system but with twin tanks with a large screen TV in the middle.
My son has those shots somewhere. Need to see if we can find them.

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Left side of tank filtration.

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Right side.

All the equipment leads outside of the house to a chiller and then comes back in.

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Another view.

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This photo brought tears.
I loved this Banana Eel.
They are so rare and so expensive.
I was afraid he would attack my Clarion when I got him, as he was so, so small, that I got rid of it and sold it.
How I regret it now.

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This was a cool system to build and one I am most proud of.
Took me three days to do this plumbing.
325 custom acrylic tank with chiller to the side, covered in the same wood as the furniture.
Lights are Power Compacts.
This is when it was first set up with only a handful of fish in it.
Can you spot where my banana eel ended up?

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Left side filtration.

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Beautiful Eel. Somehow, I have a soft spot for eels. That is a huge system.
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Right side filtration.

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Full view of filtration.

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1/3 HP Chiller.

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I panicked on that eel as I assumed it would dine on my small Clarion.
He ended up being quite docile in that customer's tank.
He ended up dying in a power failure at that home.
Have tried to get another one since then but they are way overpriced when available.
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My LFS has a 1500 gallon DT with 4 eels in it. all of them are between 3 and 5 feet lond and as thick as my arm. They are sooo awesome! A green Moray, Jeweled Moray, Tesselata Moray, and a Zebra Moray. Also in the tank is a huge queen angel, a panther grouper, and a minatus grouper. I love looking at that tank.
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Will take some pics of mine. Have not been keeping it up as I should but recently started making an effort to restore it to its OMFG status it used to have.

I am more of a clownfish anemone guy.

Have a pair of spawning Nigripes clowns in the 70 reef with two rose bubble nems and a 3 foot pink atlantic carpet nem.

Just started a second tank for a pair of chrysogaster clowns my buddy was able to secure me through questionable methods :-) Currently at his shop for the past month to make sure they are safe.
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Clowns are so cool.
I have a mated pair in my tank.
One is normal orange/white and the other is the black one pictured in this thread.
Amazing that I don't have a reef and they regularly lay eggs on the bleached coral.
None will ever make it as they are delicacies for the other fish but cool that in spite of not having anenomes, they still spawn.
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I want to do a reef with different types of coral, I am worried about getting lights that can penetrate all 24" of water with the full spectrum
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24" is not deep for today's bulbs.
You can go with VHO's and if still a concern, go with metal halides in addition but expect to generate a whole lot of heat.
In the store my son worked, all corals were maintained in metal halides.
My son had a combination of VHO and metal halides in his 75 reef, which is 24 deep and worked fine.
You will need a chiller to go along with that.
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Im assuming the point of a chiller is to cool the water, but do the lamps generate THAT much heat that they actually heat the water that much?? So Im assuming that in a saltwater tank a heater isnt necessary??
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