Light Coverage for 30x12x12 Tank

[Kobin]

Hi all! Was planning to get a new frag tank up and running and was going to go with a custom 30x12x12 inch tank from advanced acrylics. I'm currently running 2 kessil 360WEs over my 45g tank (overkill but helps with keeping my light intensive nems) and plan on getting kessils over my new frag tank and connect it to my current lighting schedule. Question is, would 1 kessil 360WE suffice or should I run 2x kessil 180s? I plan on growing primarily mushrooms and softies in this tank. Since it is an AIO system, the actual usable area for coral in this tank is 29x8.75 in. Any recommendations or advice appreciated. Thanks!

 

[DaJMasta]

The form factor is really better to a light in a strip mimicking a T5. Unless you don't want photosynthetic stuff in a portion, the single Kessil won't do it, but two (or two of something else) would likely do pretty well. I'm not really up on the strip format lights that are available, but something in the form factor of a ReefBrite XHO would be ideal for this sort of long, narrow tank. You don't need a huge amount of power for only 12" of depth, either, so you probably have some options.

 

[Kobin]

Ooooh I didn't think of using a strip! It is much cheaper and will cover better as well. I'll look into the reefbrite and orpheks light strips. Anyone have any experience with either of these? Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[minus9]

I would get Quanta Pro bars, so much better than Orphek and xho’s. A couple 24” bars would be nice. Maybe one meso blue and one OG pop? @Lousybreed any suggestions?

 

[Nano_Tuners]

30 is a length most manufacturers don't plan for (I have a custom 32). you'll prob have to go with bars, or 2 pennant fixtures turned down. I use 2 Kessil 160s @75% which is more than adequate for my LPS reef

 

[Kobin]

I'll look more into the different options for bars, but was leaning more towards orphek bars. @vetteguy53081 I saw that you used orpheks on your builds! Any recommendations? Since I'm growing softies and mushrooms in this frag tank I was thinking about doing 1 24 inch blue + (or reefday +) and 1 24 inch blue sky.

 

[wsoldier]

@Kobin What'd you end up with?

 

[Kobin]

I ended up getting an IM Nuvo 14g with 1 kessil 160 for coverage. The vendors I were talking to were pretty unresponsive and I got a good deal on my 14g so I compromised for that instead. I'm happy with it. Great growth so far. Already got coraline algae and the tanks been running for 2 months. Helps that I seeded it with mature rock with my other tank

FTS

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