75g Need suggestion on lighting upgrade currently ap700

Hk45 · Jun 4, 2020

Setting up a 48"l 18"w 75g for sps. Currently have a kessil ap700 about 16" off water and seems to cover. I like the ap700 and was thinking the below for options.
1.add a second AP700 and bring the 2 fixture closer to the water.
2.only one ap700 and add t5's

Then the question on t5's would be if only using the one ap700
1. 48" or 36" long retro fixture
2. how many bulbs 2 or 4 bulbs with the one ap700

jda · Jun 4, 2020

Some people seem to like Kessils OK with SPS but only really with 4x, or so, T5s doing the heavy lifting. You rarely see any established, mature SPS tanks with kessils alone - only really young tanks. These are not high powered lights and they shadow as much as any.

You will probably end up with the equivalent of a single 360 for every foot even with the T5s, but you won't need all of that until things grow. So plan on 4x T5s and a pair of ap700s later, but for now, just use 4x T5s with what you have.