Help with lighting for 75 gallon

[appacalypse]

Hello, thank you for taking the time to read this.

I'm a novice Marine aquarist in need of assistance with lighting options.

75 gallon aqueon tank

My budget is not more than $300
I'm not able to hang anything above my tank
I'd like to keep all kinds of coral (if this is not an option, than at least softies and some other low to medium light corals)

I found this one on eBay and wanted your guy's thoughts on it and whether it would be a good option.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PopBloom-M...-Reef-Coral-Saltwater-Tank-Lamp-/332615233214

I also found many people buying this one on Amazon
Current Orbit Marine
Please suggest some options for me.
Thank you.

 

[Cwentz758]

Hmm is your tank rimless? Looking at the pop bloom light it has the the arm mounts that clamp to the glass. I’m sure you could remove part of the lip that’s on your rim with some wire cutters like I had to do to mount my Red Sea ReefLEDs. Just be careful doing so. I personally don’t like the LEDs with a ton of different colors under their own lenses for some reason it always looked disco ball like in the tank. Depending on your tank dimensions check out the Red Sea ReefLEDs the 50w is only 220$ and 40$ for the arm mount. I got two for my 65g which measures 36x18x24....lighting is one thing I learned the hard way not to skimp on. I kept buying random fixtures on amazon like zoo med as aquatic life ones that just sat on the top and before I knew it I had spent 250-300$ on fixtures that look fine but aren’t good enough to really grow anything. Then you finally pull the trigger on something good and you look back at dang shoulda just spent a little extra now and be less in the hole later.

 

[appacalypse]

Thank you for the reply. I think I'll save up then for the RedSea ones. Do I have to cut out the trim? I really prefer not to do so.

 

[Cwentz758]

Thank you for the reply. I think I'll save up then for the RedSea ones. Do I have to cut out the trim? I really prefer not to do so.

I only trimmed off the thin lip so the arm slipped down over. I also had to grind the plastic block that came with the mount because my glass and rim were just a hair too thick. Your best bet may be if your LFS carries Red Sea products to by the mounting arm and see if it fits or if it’s close to flirting and see what you have to do. You may elect not to mess with it at all and set it up on the lip. It may make the arm slightly less sturdy but when you tighten the mount down it won’t come off. I’ll snap a pic of what I did when I get a moment

 

[BarSnackz]

Not sure if you're open to the idea of T5's but you can get a nice 48" two bulb fixture for a max of $150 at Petco or probably even cheaper somewhere online. Then slap two ATI bulbs in there like a coral+ and actinic and you'll have no troubles growing most of what you want. And then down the road you could add a Reef Brite strip to give it more pop.

 

[appacalypse]

Not sure if you're open to the idea of T5's but you can get a nice 48" two bulb fixture for a max of $150 at Petco or probably even cheaper somewhere online. Then slap two ATI bulbs in there like a coral+ and actinic and you'll have no troubles growing most of what you want. And then down the road you could add a Reef Brite strip to give it more pop.

Could you elaborate?
Would this work if I am unable to hang anything from the ceiling?

Do I just search 48in two bulb fixture?

 

[BarSnackz]

Could you elaborate?
Would this work if I am unable to hang anything from the ceiling?

Do I just search 48in two bulb fixture?

https://www.marinedepot.com/coralife-aqualight-dual-t5-lamp-high-output-fixture
This is what I was thinking. Used one of those for about a year and it worked flawlessly. Looks like they don't have 48" available on their site at this time but they can be found in most LFS's.
They come with legs built into the fixture so you just set it on the top of your tank and plug and play. They come with some bulbs when you purchase it and they are not bad bulbs but if you see the need for a different spectrum and want your corals to pop a bit more you can look into the ATI bulbs as mentioned before.
Hope this helped! Let me know if you have any more questions!

 

[Cwentz758]

 

[Cwentz758]

That’s how the rea sea sits on my rimmed tank. I did break off the small lip but it didn’t let me pull the fixture down more and I was too nervous to mess with the rim more since it’s full of water. Either way I have most of the fixture clamped on so it’s still pretty sturdy. The plus side to these is the WiFi and app adjustments you can make via your phone.