Lighting for a 75

[Smokeshow]

hello everyone. New reefer here so please be patient. I set up my 75 about 2 months ago. For lights I currently have a marineland reef led light and 2 no name led light bars that have independently controlled white and blue leds. Im wanting to build a canopy for it and get some better lights. I can't justify the cost for some of the nice leds so started looking at t5s. Then came across the retrofit kits. So I'm pretty set on getting that since their a bit more economical. So my questions are, should I go with 2 and use the marineland light with them? Or 4 t5s and one of the no name leds to use for moonlight. Will have 2 120mm fans blowing cool air into the canopy and the back will be mostly open to help control the temps.
I'm kinda leaning towards the 4 t5s with 2- ati coral plus on one ballast, 1- true actinic and 1- true blue on the other ballast. And have them about 6" above the water. I currently have a few zoas, have some hollywood stunner chalice on the way. Any thoughts or recommendations?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Just be aware that the Marineland leds are very low power. The PAR they create does NOT penetrate very deep in your 24" deep tank. That fixture is meant for small shallow tanks like 10g & 20g that are only 12" tall. Or for fish only tanks.

t5 fixtures are perfectly OK except you need to replace bulbs every 12 to 18 months to keep healthy coral.

Have you looked at Mars Aqua led fixtures. I think one of their 32" fixtures would work great.

 

[Gernader]

I use 2 of Mars Aqua 165W for my 75g and all of my corals are absolutely happy. They are much cheaper than other LEDs out there and does not require to replace bulbs every year like T5 does.

 

[dwest]

If I had your tank, I would buy a T5 LED hybrid like the aquaticlife version. I would start with just the T5’s. Then, down the road, add a couple LED’s if you want higher light corals. I use 2 blue plus and 2 coral plus for my T5’s.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Another vote for t5 led hybrid. You can start with t5 only and add additional leds when you decide to start keeping sps.

 

[fishface NJ]

T5 and you'll have no problem keeping SPS if you ever decide to later on

 

[Smokeshow]

Thanks for the reply everyone. I do remember looking at the mars led lights when I was first gathering everything. The marineland light came with the tank. And I only paid 25 for the others. One of the bars only has working blue lights. Heres my tank with all of the lights on.

Its definitely blue heavy. I might start with 2 of the 165w Mars led lights and see how that goes. Would about 8 or 10" above the water line be good? Could use 1x8 or 1x10s for the canopy and mount the lights to the top(outside) of the box

 

[dwest]

Thanks for the reply everyone. I do remember looking at the mars led lights when I was first gathering everything. The marineland light came with the tank. And I only paid 25 for the others. One of the bars only has working blue lights. Heres my tank with all of the lights on.

Its definitely blue heavy. I might start with 2 of the 165w Mars led lights and see how that goes. Would about 8 or 10" above the water line be good? Could use 1x8 or 1x10s for the canopy and mount the lights to the top(outside) of the box

I don’t have them, but I’ve seen excellent result with the Mars. I think your plan sounds reasonable. As you can tell, you have lots of good options.

 

[Smokeshow]

Has anyone used a fixture like this one? Seems interesting.

 

[Smokeshow]

Has anyone heard of the Viparspectra 165w led lights? They look similar to the mars aqua lights but has a built-in timer for the lights. Has 2 channels, 1 for blue the other for the white. I could set each channel on/off times and brightness. Had par #s in their listing and claimed 200+ at 24" water with the light 8" above the water