Lighting choice on 48"x24"x20"

[Rocks reef]

Ok... looking for opinions

I am waiting on the arrival of my Glasscages 48"x24"x20" rimless and trying to decide which route to go with lighting.

36" Reefbrite MH (14K or 20K) with quanta meso blues replacing the XHO or...

48" 4 bulb T5 with two Kessil a360x in the middle for supplementation.... mainly adding "blue" spectrum and shimmer.

 

[Daz_1978]

Ok... looking for opinions

I am waiting on the arrival of my Glasscages 48"x24"x20" rimless and trying to decide which route to go with lighting.

36" Reefbrite MH (14K or 20K) with quanta meso blues replacing the XHO or...

48" 4 bulb T5 with two Kessil a360x in the middle for supplementation.... mainly adding "blue" spectrum and shimmer.

The 'shimmer' of metal halide lamps is hard to beat. Those Kessils do get closer to the old metal halide shimmer than most of the LED's with more spread out chips.

If you want maximum shimmer... then MH is the way to go. Just know that they will overpower most of the blue looking light, so your tank will be more white than blue.
If you want adjustability, decent shimmer, and more blue... then the 2 x A360X's and the T5 are the way to go.

*The T5's probably aren't needed with the Kessils.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

The 'shimmer' of metal halide lamps is hard to beat. Those Kessils do get closer to the old metal halide shimmer than most of the LED's with more spread out chips.

If you want maximum shimmer... then MH is the way to go. Just know that they will overpower most of the blue looking light, so your tank will be more white than blue.
If you want adjustability, decent shimmer, and more blue... then the 2 x A360X's and the T5 are the way to go.

*The T5's probably aren't needed with the Kessils.

Good advice though from experience, I have 2 A360's over my 3 foot tank and the par is positively not impressive with my readings from those 2 alone. My meter (unless flawed) is giving me about 200 at the top rocks about 5 inches from surface. Thats not enough light to grow acropora. I added a quanta bar and it gave me another 80 par.

Wondering though if those aquatic life t5's can turn on only 2 bulbs (front and back) with one plug so that you use less power and you still have that extra par and fill light? I remember my ATI t5 had 2 plugs- each turned on 3 bulbs.

Im planning my 4 foot tank and thinking of doing t5 with A360's to save some money. Also thinking of going with 3 quanta bars.

 

[Rocks reef]

Good advice though from experience, I have 2 A360's over my 3 foot tank and the par is positively not impressive with my readings from those 2 alone. My meter (unless flawed) is giving me about 200 at the top rocks about 5 inches from surface. Thats not enough light to grow acropora. I added a quanta bar and it gave me another 80 par.

Wondering though if those aquatic life t5's can turn on only 2 bulbs (front and back) with one plug so that you use less power and you still have that extra par and fill light? I remember my ATI t5 had 2 plugs- each turned on 3 bulbs.

Im planning my 4 foot tank and thinking of doing t5 with A360's to save some money. Also thinking of going with 3 quanta bars.

Yes, the aquatic life has two plugs for the T5s. You can run two bulbs or four.

 

[Daz_1978]

Good advice though from experience, I have 2 A360's over my 3 foot tank and the par is positively not impressive with my readings from those 2 alone. My meter (unless flawed) is giving me about 200 at the top rocks about 5 inches from surface.

Perfect for a softie & LPS tank!
I'm not a fan of sticks. There are some really nice colors, but I like the wavy flowy corals. ;)

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Perfect for a softie & LPS tank!
I'm not a fan of sticks. There are some really nice colors, but I like the wavy flowy corals. ;)

I went from only wanting softies and lps to wanting digitatas and monti caps to now thinking about acropora. So, full mixed reef. I can survive without acropora but I need a birds nest and digitata at the top.

 

[Daz_1978]

I can survive without acropora but I need a birds nest and digitata at the top.

I started to get a couple birds nest a few weeks ago, just to add a little more variety.
TBH... I just don't want Acros, because they make having a lot of wavy flowy corals more difficult. They want 8,000,000 PAR and you have to keep almost every other coral 3 football fields lower and under an umbrella.

The birds nest would give me a couple sticks at a much lower PAR level.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

I started to get a couple birds nest a few weeks ago, just to add a little more variety.
TBH... I just don't want Acros, because they make having a lot of wavy flowy corals more difficult. They want 8,000,000 PAR and you have to keep almost every other coral 3 football fields lower and under an umbrella.

The birds nest would give me a couple sticks at a much lower PAR level.

good point- need a ton of flow. Creates a potential issues for keeping Euphyllia.

 

[cr2153]

Ok... looking for opinions

I am waiting on the arrival of my Glasscages 48"x24"x20" rimless and trying to decide which route to go with lighting.

36" Reefbrite MH (14K or 20K) with quanta meso blues replacing the XHO or...

48" 4 bulb T5 with two Kessil a360x in the middle for supplementation.... mainly adding "blue" spectrum and shimmer.

The T5/ two Kessil A360x combo is exactly what I use on my 24x24x48 and it’s always worked perfectly.