T5 Lighting

[ccallahan]

I recently began putting together a 180(72x24x24)gallon reef aquarium. It currently contains 200 pounds of live sand and about 86 pounds of live rock(Tonga & Fiji) and 2 hermit crabs. I purchased 3-48" T5 216 watt, 120volts, 60hz fixtures. Each fixture has 2-12000k white daylight bulbs and 2-true actinic blue bulbs. Each fixture also has 4 moonlight leds and 4 exhaust holes for heat. Each fixture also has 3 switches, one to control each colored bulb (trying to give as much detail as possible). Temperature ranges from 71.5 degrees at night to 76.5 degrees during the day. I currently have a 400 watt heater helping to maintain the temperature at night because I set my A/C to 66 degrees to sleep. My question is; with this current set up, is this enough light for fish/reef and corals or should i be looking at some other kind of lighting? Any suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hobby Experience: 3 years, freshwater

[JRechcygl]

What kind of fixture is it, there is huge variance in T5 fixtures, reflectors, bulbs and so on. I would warm the tank up, thats awfully cool.

[ccallahan]

They are a generic fixture made by Hydropontics out of California. The bulbs are from Odyssey.

[DesertBandits]

1) a tropical reef tank (that is what this site is about) needs to be between 78-82 degrees.

2) More specific than JRechcygl's question; does each bulb have have an individual M shaped reflector, if not they aren't very good. also everything odyessey makes is garbage.

3) If you fixed the temp, I suspect you could keep beginner corals with your set up, or even more difficult ones, if your fixtures are up to par.

[ccallahan]

Each fixture has reflectors for the blue and white bulbs. Most forums i read say temp should be between 72-78 degrees. Examples of what i would like to keep would be mushrooms, polyps, shrimp, crabs, snails, tangs, clowns, leathers, etc.

[ccallahan]

Any other suggestions??