Help pick my lighting

[reefrottie]

If money weren't an object, what lighting would you choose to run over a 240 SPS dominant tank? Why? How many of your pick would you use on a 72" long?

 

[Ocelaris]

Depends if you had a hood. If you had a hood, a combination of kessil and t5. If no hood maybe a 60" ati or geismann led/t5 combo.

 

[reefrottie]

I have a hood but it's open top.

 

[Ocelaris]

Then some combination of led and t5 with a focus on the t5s is what I'd focus on. But what level of Diy are you interested in? A bunch of t5 retrofit kits make you nauseous? If not spend the money on better leds and build random length t5s to get good even spread to cover the 72" length.

Have you watched the brs 52 weeks of reefing lighting episodes? They do a good job covering a lot of options, pros and cons.

 

[reefrottie]

No but I'll check it out.

 

[mcarroll]

If money weren't an object, what lighting would you choose to run over a 240 SPS dominant tank? Why? How many of your pick would you use on a 72" long?

What would I choose? Well, that question is too open-ended.

• It would depend on what lights I had seen and which ones I liked and didn't like.
• Do I like the "look" of halide lighting more than T5? Or vis versa?
• Do I really just care about growing coral, or do I place a lot of value on extras like remote controls, sunrise/sunset/lighting/storm effects, extra LED colors to play with, etc, etc, etc
• Do I realize that stony corals don't necessarily require a lot of light?
• I would try not to let a high or low price be a limitation.
• It would be a little frustrating since there's no simple, correct answer to this question. ;)

I would at least consider a DIY as the up-front costs and operating costs can be astronomically small. Around $200 for a 72"x24" tank. I grow plenty of SPS under such a rig. :)

I would also suggest considering LED strips like the Orbit Marine Pro and GHL Lightbar2 just because everyone automatically points to the spotlight solutions as if strips like these don't even exist. These would be the logical solution for someone who wanted LED light that was similar to T5 light.

Outside of that, it really, really, really depends what you like. Looking around at other peoples' real reefs is the best option you have. Looking around online is good, but you're always on the wrong side of a camera that way so it's not ideal. If it's all you have available, then you just have to look at a lot of photos to get an idea of the real colors.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Well, that question is too open-ended.

Oh yea it is. Gimme 4 14k 250w MH pendants, 3 sun ports and and 4 Kessil 360s, hmmm, maybe AI's instead :rolleyes:.......

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I'm a radion fan, so it would be radion G4's for me. I like the controlability, new reflector lens setup, colors of corals kept under them. I MIGHT add some T5's in with them. I love LED/T5 combo lit tanks. On a 72"tank, I'd probably do 3 fixtures.