Frag tank lighting

Carson789

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Hello reefers, I plan on building a frag tank in the near future and I have most of the products picked out I am just stuck on lighting. I plan on using a zoo med 50 gallon low boy which is 48x24x10. I prefer led lights, I was looking at doing 2 of the ai hydra 32's to light the tank. Does anybody have any other suggestions. I'd like to keeps the lights to around 600 to 700 at the most with all the other equipment I'm buying I want the frag tank build to be around 2000.
 

WIReefer

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Pick up and used 48” sunpower then you know you can grow any coral you want no problem. Here’s my setup. These are also 50 gallon low boys
0345C5BB-F53F-46CF-8236-13753512C680.jpeg
 

Jeff Jarry reef

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Hello reefers, I plan on building a frag tank in the near future and I have most of the products picked out I am just stuck on lighting. I plan on using a zoo med 50 gallon low boy which is 48x24x10. I prefer led lights, I was looking at doing 2 of the ai hydra 32's to light the tank. Does anybody have any other suggestions. I'd like to keeps the lights to around 600 to 700 at the most with all the other equipment I'm buying I want the frag tank build to be around 2000.
Noopsyche are really great for frag tanks too.
 
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Carson789

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Pick up and used 48” sunpower then you know you can grow any coral you want no problem. Here’s my setup. These are also 50 gallon low boys
0345C5BB-F53F-46CF-8236-13753512C680.jpeg
I might look into that, I'm just not the biggest fan of t5 fixtures. I just like led lights for the ease of use and ai especially has great controls. I have a ai prime hd on my nano reef with good results. I've heard people have issues with ai lights in deeper tanks and although the low boy is only 10" I was just wondering if anybody knew of any better led fixtures within my price range
 

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I might look into that, I'm just not the biggest fan of t5 fixtures. I just like led lights for the ease of use and ai especially has great controls. I have a ai prime hd on my nano reef with good results. I've heard people have issues with ai lights in deeper tanks and although the low boy is only 10" I was just wondering if anybody knew of any better led fixtures within my price range
I don’t think you can get anymore simple setup for lights if you use t5. Just plug them in no programming at all
 
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Carson789

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I don’t think you can get anymore simple setup for lights if you use t5. Just plug them in no programming at all
It's more the fixture itself I'm not a fan of. Usually tf fixtures are pretty bulky in comparison with led lights. And I guess I shouldn't say led's are more simple but more controllable. Also with t5's you have to deal with replacing the bulbs and they aren't cheap
 
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Carson789

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Noopsyche are really great for frag tanks too.
I've never heard of that brand before, I looked at the k7 pro ii I'd probably get 2 or 3 of them if I went that route. Do you have any experience with them and weather or noth they grow coral well? I'm mostly planing on growing out softies and lps but if I could grow some sps and acros in the bright spots that would be nice.
 
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Carson789

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Maybe try the reefi uno leds
I looked it up those seem nice, I've seen a few people compare it to the xr30 and for 350 if they are actually that powerful thats a steal. 2 of those would be super nice. I'll have to look into it a bit more
 

Jeff Jarry reef

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I've never heard of that brand before, I looked at the k7 pro ii I'd probably get 2 or 3 of them if I went that route. Do you have any experience with them and weather or noth they grow coral well? I'm mostly planing on growing out softies and lps but if I could grow some sps and acros in the bright spots that would be nice.
K7 pro yes they are nice leds and I have them on my frag tank. And they are doing a great job.and it's all acropora
 

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For LPS and softies, 3x Prime 16HD will cover you. For mounting height and spacing, BRS did their tests with 3x 16HDs on a 4x2x2 120g tank. So everything would be portable to your frag tank, just turn the intensity down to meet your PAR needs.
 
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Carson789

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I also started looking at the photon 32 v2+ I figured the 32 inch version would be big enough for the zoo med 50 gallon low boy. What do yall think. And does anybody have any experience growing coral with this light
 

Elson26

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K7 pro yes they are nice leds and I have them on my frag tank. And they are doing a great job.and it's all acropora
would u mind sharing what setting are u running for the K7 Pro over your acropora frag tank?
 

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I also started looking at the photon 32 v2+ I figured the 32 inch version would be big enough for the zoo med 50 gallon low boy. What do yall think. And does anybody have any experience growing coral with this light

what lights did you go with?

also, where in Houston did you find or order the lowboy?

thanks
 

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Enjoying the Orphek OR3s LED bars (Blue Plus and Sky). They are supposed to be comparable to T5s. We run a combination of them on our 120 gallon display tank along the outside of 4 AI Hydra 26s. The 80 gallon frag tank we just setup (48x24x16) is starting off with a pair of them as well, 2nd one arrives on Thursday. We will be adding more along some cross-braces like the display tank eventually. Still setting height above the water line in the frag tank photo (need to borrow the PAR meter again)

PXL_20210202_235632299.jpg

IMG_20200905_200452.jpg


PXL_20210520_024703648.jpg
 
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Carson789

Carson789

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what lights did you go with?

also, where in Houston did you find or order the lowboy?

thanks
I haven't set the frag tank up yet I'm just planning stuff for now. And any store that carries zoo med tanks can order the tank for you. A petco near my house said they could order it for me
 

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