Coral lights

Redandluvenit · Jan 28, 2022

I have a 60 gallon tank and I need to know what lighting is good for corals

AnotherReefHobbyist · Jan 28, 2022

There are tons of great lights for corals, however we need to know more about your setup before we can provide solid advice.

What are the dimensions? ( will tell us how large a spread you need, and how deep you need the light to penetrate )

What coral do you plan to keep? ( will tell us how intense lighting needs to be )

and finally, what is your budget? ( for obvious reasons, there are several thousand dollar lights out there and you may not want to spend that )

some general suggestions:

Radion makes kind of the top end, however they are very highly priced.

Kessil also makes some stellar lights, however they dont come with built in controllers, and are still fairly expensive.

Aqua Illumination also makes a wide arry of great lights, many people go with them for all sizes of tanks.

Redandluvenit · Jan 28, 2022

It's 24 in deep and 48 in wide

Redandluvenit · Jan 28, 2022

Nothing to expensive lol

piranhaman00 · Jan 28, 2022

Does that make it only 12” wide? 48x12x24? LxWxH?

Redandluvenit · Jan 28, 2022

MaxTremors · Jan 28, 2022

Redandluvenit said:
Yeah

The best budget options that would allow you to grow pretty much anything would be either 2 Noopsyche V3 K7s (wait for one of their frequent sales), or three AI Prime 16 HDs (or 2 of their Hydra 32s, but 3 of the primes will be less expensive). If you are a beginner, the app/controller of the AI Primes is much, much more user friendly than the Noopsyche (the controller is pretty unintuitive, but not too bad once you get used to it). Both are high quality light at comparatively budget friendly prices. Unless you plan on only keeping soft corals and low light LPS, I would avoid any LED strip lights, they’re just not going to have enough power to penetrate to the bottom of your tank. With the Noopsyches, if you get them on sale, you could light your tank for around $400. The AI Primes would be around $700 new (used they got for around $150, so $450 for 3). You could probably find less expensive T5 or metal halide fixtures, but once you factor in bulb replacements every 9 months, LEDs are much less expensive in the long run (fixtures usually last at least 5 years). I would suggest doing a deep dive and do a lot of research before buying anything, you don’t need to rush into buying anything. It’s also better to save up and buy quality lighting than to buy some of the cheaper options (Noopsyches are definitely a budget option, but they are much better than something like a Viparspectra black box).

Jekyl · Jan 28, 2022

T5 and be done with it

AnotherReefHobbyist · Jan 28, 2022

Thanks for the info! I used to have a tank with those exact dimensions, and I will say even in freshwater it was hard to light that deep.

Both members above have provided very valid options, I would sway more on the side on leds as they are smaller, sleeker, take less power, and are much more readily available. ( I have not had experience with t5 or any other lights for that matter though )

In your case I would probably go with AI prime 16hds ( or preferably 32's if you are okay with the price ) as they are one of the most widely used options, and have a great user interface, but if those are too much for you price wise then the noopshye would be a great option too.

Redandluvenit · Jan 28, 2022

I have a fluval sky but I think it's not coral

AnotherReefHobbyist · Jan 28, 2022

Redandluvenit said:
I have a fluval sky but I think it's not coral

Fluval sky is a great FOWLR light, however I really doubt it would grow much of anything, they use very low power led's in Fluval lights, so they dont penetrate very deep into the water.

MaxTremors · Jan 28, 2022

Redandluvenit said:
I have a fluval sky but I think it's not coral

Yeah, that light isn’t really adequate for corals, especially in a tank as deep as yours. Based on the specs listed on Amazon, it’s more for fish-only FW tanks.