Overhead lighting in fish room?

[iGotJokess]

Currently building out my basement with a dedicated fish room. One thing that I never thought of was the type of light I wanted to light the room. Anyone run through this and have any do’s/don’ts they’ve experienced?

Is too might light bad because the tank lights will be on most of the time?

I’m going to have a 6’ display and a 4’ frag tank in the room, my initial thought was to have a can light or two (at the entry of the room and the back just above the sump) but my contractor suggested a led strip down the middle to give better overall lighting.

I would like to be able to see in the room for maintenance, fragging, storing supplies etc but would too much light have a negative effect on the tanks?

Just to be clear, I’m asking about ambient overhead lighting not any lighting related to my reef tank.

 

[gkprevite]

Currently building out my basement with a dedicated fish room. One thing that I never thought of was the type of light I wanted to light the room. Anyone run through this and have any do’s/don’ts they’ve experienced?

Is too might light bad because the tank lights will be on most of the time?

I’m going to have a 6’ display and a 4’ frag tank in the room, my initial thought was to have a can light or two (at the entry of the room and the back just above the sump) but my contractor suggested a led strip down the middle to give better overall lighting.

I would like to be able to see in the room for maintenance, fragging, storing supplies etc but would too much light have a negative effect on the tanks?

Just to be clear, I’m asking about ambient overhead lighting not any lighting related to my reef tank.

Definitely do some overhead lighting. Just make sure they’re away from where your planning your tanks and dimmable. You’ll be happy to have some regular lighting in the room, especially when your doing maintenance or fragging your corals.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I used strip LEDs that allow me to change the color of the LED in my fish room. I also put under cabinet lighting. A light under a shelf above my sump and lighting under my display. It turns out I SELDOM have the over head lights on. I normally have enough light from the under cabinet and sump plus display and frag tank that I don’t need to turn the overheads on. Then, after hours when the tank is dark, I don’t use them anyway as to not disturb the tank. So while you should have them, they actually likely won’t be your primary source of light.