Lighting 36 bow front

[RipVanWinkle]

Hello, I’m building a reef in a 36 bow front and I’m a bit lost on what I need for lighting.. It’s my first time with saltwater and as far as corals go I know I do want zooanthids, at fairly low levels in the tank like 16-17”. Other than that probably mostly soft corals, easier stuff. The tank has that annoying center brace, kind of want to remove it but that’s probably not smart. Anyways, I’m overwhelmed with with all the lighting options, and could use some input. Do I even have a chance in the 200$ area?

 

[Spare time]

Do you prefer hanging the lights or using mounting arms?

 

[Jekyl]

Welcome to R2R! Lighting is definitely a big investment when it comes to reefing. My advice would be to worry about everything else for now. Get the tank running and cycled. Get text kits, rodi, mixing and get your hands wet so to speak. After you put fish in the tank I'd still recommend waiting a month or so before trying any coral. That's a lot of time from now to save up and really decide your direction. I started with cheap lights and now they collect dust because I upgraded them quickly.

 

[RipVanWinkle]

Do you prefer hanging the lights or using mounting arms?

I would probably prefer to hang them, don’t really like the look of the gooseneck type things. I really like flat LEDs like I use on planted tanks but that doesn’t seem to be the way to go for a reef.

Welcome to R2R! Lighting is definitely a big investment when it comes to reefing. My advice would be to worry about everything else for now. Get the tank running and cycled. Get text kits, rodi, mixing and get your hands wet so to speak. After you put fish in the tank I'd still recommend waiting a month or so before trying any coral. That's a lot of time from now to save up and really decide your direction. I started with cheap lights and now they collect dust because I upgraded them quickly.

I have an RO system, the tank is running for a couple weeks now with live rock and sand and I just added two clownfish today. Cute little fellas. Planning to take my time on corals, but I need my lights figured out first of course.

 

[Jekyl]

Gotcha. $200 while dealing with a center brace is a pain.

 

[Mav88]

There are option maybe 2 of these?

 

[Jekyl]

There are option maybe 2 of these?

That's about the best option for the budget. I had 2 of them before. Run at 60 blue 20 white

 

[Spare time]

Two Nicrew hyperreef 100 watt hung should work. You could probably do two of the 50w ones too, especially if you are not doing sps.

 

[Spare time]

The 43w mitras looks nice but I haven't used it. They have a Deep actinic and more daylight looking fixture too (daytlight has a lot more yellow)

Mitras Lightbar 2 Actinic – GHL USA

www.aquariumcomputer.com

 

[RipVanWinkle]

I went with this, it’s hung like 8-10 inches off my water and is working great for a couple weeks now. Had to reinforce the ceiling with a small strip of wood because it is very heavy and no studs in sight