LED lighting for my 300 gallon help

natefende · Aug 30, 2012

Hi all,

New to the forum, and I have to say this might become my new favorite!

Anyways, I have a 6' x 3' x 27" deep 300 gallon tank on the way and I need to select lighting. This will be a FOWLR tank for at least the first 5 years or so, then I will get back into coral. I want to keep sharks and eels and cool stuff like that for awhile. I had a reef for about 6 years prior to this tank and I always wanted to get certain fish but could not.

So here are my requirements: LED, lights must dim up and down automaticly to simulate sunrise and sunset, dark areas can occur in caves or rock at the edges of the tank, I would like them to be able to grow coraline algee. Lights will be in a canopy.
That's it! I'm hoping that these lights are inexpensive. In 5 years or so when I change to a reef I'm sure LED technology will be much better, so I am assume these lights will be removed completely.

Thanks,
Nate

kmaintl · Aug 30, 2012

I hate to say that you can't count on anything surviving 5 years as technology does change so much. 5 years ago, MH and T5 were the most popular for lighting. Even now, LEDs are being improved all the time. Sounds like you have to have programmable lights, so you may need to go with a current fixture in the market today... which can be totally outdated in 5 years. As for FOWLR tank, you don't really need very intense lighting, especially when you're flexible with shadowing on the sides.

kmaintl · Aug 30, 2012

Oh, lighting... I like AquaIllumination and Ecotech Radion for fixtures, but they could easily costs $3,500-$4,000.

natefende · Aug 30, 2012

Yea I'm trying to keep the costs to a min. That's wayyyy too much, Haha.

I just want to know if there are less expensive led light bars out there that would do what I'm looking to do.
Thanks