Lighting for a 48"24" lowboy frag tank?

[DPRoberts]

I'm planning on setting up one of the Zoomed 48" x 24" x 10" frag tanks. Mainly I want a "look down" tank. Growing frags is a secondary goal.

So for lighting, I really want a small footprint; I want to be able to look down at the tank, not at the top of a fixture. Kessils seemed ideal, due to their small size and the shimmer. My original plan was 2 x Aa60we lights.

I've heard that the AP700 is basically two a360s, so now that they're on clearance I thought I might go that route. An AP700 would be a bit cheaper than two a360s, plus I'd get the added control features. OTOH, as a bigger fixture it would block a bit more of the view.


I'm definitely considering other brands (especially since I haven't decided what I want to grow), but for an apples to apples comparison, is there a reason to choose one of these options over the other?

 

[Cabinetman]

I’m in your boat. I have one and can’t decide what to light it with.

 

[Amado]

I have a low boy frag tank and I use it with a combination
Of 2 x 360we and a t5 hybrid. The light is high enough for me to work in the tank.
Depending on why corals you are going to put in that low boy. Two 360we is enough light.

I also use a AP700 and 360x on my main display.
6ft 210 gallon tank 30” deep and I can tell you that one
AP700 will not be able to light a 4ft tank.
I would go with two 360we or the 360x
If you want that smaller profile.

the zoo med low boy is only 10” tall so it’s very shallow.
If you add a frag rack your corals will be sitting around
6” from the top of the tank so most lights will have no problem with high par.

 

[FMF0331]

using 2 AI 64 leds

 

[Pntbll687]

I have two low boys. One is lit with a 6 bulb T5 and I have it almost 15" off the water so no issues with clearance. The other is lit with two 150w metal halides and 2 T5 bulbs, I had to mount that almost 2ft off the water to get the par down to a reasonable level, it was almost 700 directly under the halides at 12" off the water.

If you want LED's and not have to worry about the fixture in the way, you'll have to consider the following
1) Price - I could easily say go with 2 radion xr30 G5's and mount them high, but $1600 for lights might be out of the budget
2) Light spill into the room - Raising any fixture up higher will allow the light to spill from the tank to the room. You need to think about how much light spill is acceptable to you and go from there
3) what type of coral you want to have. If you're looking for an sps top down tank, you'll need more light than one with lps and softy

If I were to pick LED's I'd go with two or three Kessil A360x's with the narrow lens kit. This would let you mount the lights higher and reduce the spill into the room.