Please help me silently light this tank

[Dave-T]

I am trying to decide on lights for my 72x28x28 tank. I'll initially have softies and LPS, but my ambition is to have plenty of SPS once I gain experience and the tank matures. I was hoping to use Orphek iCons, but, after trying one out I think they will be way too loud for my location (next to the kitchen table). So I'm looking for lighting with passive cooling. I'm thinking ATI Stratons with supplemental Orphek light bars? Thoughts? Looks good to me, but I don't know anything - everything I know I've learned by googling and watching videos the last few weeks.

So what I have in mind is 3 Stratons with 60" Orpheks along the front and back, and 24" Orpheks between the stratons. The Orpheks are intended to give me more spread and PAR than the Stratons alone, and to provide shimmer. I want shimmer. I was considering Kessil A360xs, but they have fans...

So something like this. What do you think? Are the 24" bars overkill?

 

[X-37B]

You could run 8 Orphek light bars and be happy.
Each bar is like 2 T5's. I run 2 of them to supplement my halides and they throw alot of light.

 

[Dave-T]

You could run 8 Orphek light bars and be happy.
Each bar is like 2 T5's. I run 2 of them to supplement my halides and they throw alot of light.

Ok, thanks. Do you think that's better than what I'm proposing? I'm not sure if it's the right way to look at it, but you'd have much less LED density than what I proposed. The 60 inch Orphek OR3-150 light bars have 42 LEDs each. So that's 336 total LEDs if I use 8. If you do the math with my proposed configuration (which I did), you get 921 LEDs. If you cranked that all the way up, it would be too much intensity/PAR. But the higher density would mean better spread, wouldn't it? Less shadowing, etc? But again, I'm not sure if I'm looking at this correctly...

 

[X-37B]

Honestly I do not know much about the strattons. I do know they give more of a T5 look from what I have read.
I Looked at your diagram again.
You could run 4 Orphek Atlantics and not need anything else, imo.
I run halides on my 120 and supplement with 2 Orphek bars.
I would have no problem replacing the halides with 2 Atlantics and keep the 2 bars.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I agree on Orpheks OR3 or reef Brite bars. Its the fans that make noise. Most bars are Fanless.

 

[Dave-T]

Honestly I do not know much about the strattons. I do know they give more of a T5 look from what I have read.
I Looked at your diagram again.
You could run 4 Orphek Atlantics and not need anything else, imo.
I run halides on my 120 and supplement with 2 Orphek bars.
I would have no problem replacing the halides with 2 Atlantics and keep the 2 bars.

I already tried the Orpheks, they have fans and I want silent. Other than that, they seem awesome.

 

[Sean Clark]

I think the anomalies here are the stratons. Just not enough of them out in the wild for anyone to provide quality feedback.

Will the fan noise from the lighting make or brake it? I like a quiet tank but I wouldn't trailblaze to get it.

 

[Dave-T]

From everything I can find, the Stratons are very nice. But I haven't personally seen them, so what do I know? And yes, no fan noise is required. So has spoken she who must be obeyed.

 

[Spare time]

You could do the stratons and then add a few kessil a160we for the shimmer

 

[Sean Clark]

Have you seen this?



Most hands on Straton review that I have seen.

+1 for the Kessils and shimmer.

 

[Spare time]

PS The stratons will have more than enough par

 

[Dave-T]

You could do the stratons and then add a few kessil a160we for the shimmer

Thanks, but the A160we has a fan.

 

[Dave-T]

Have you seen this?



Most hands on Straton review that I have seen.

+1 for the Kessils and shimmer.

Yes, thanks. I did see that.

 

[Spare time]

Thanks, but the A160we has a fan.

It does? I have never heard the fan haha. If you can hear the fan in that light of any other noise a tank makes or ambient noise in your house, I would be astonished. Your next bet would be some kessil a80's which won't do anything noticeable for par in that tank by it doesn't have fans.

 

[rtparty]

The Stratons alone are enough. Coral Care Gen 2 lights are also fanless but super heavy. They have a little shimmer to them.

I don't recall ever hearing my Kessil A360X fixture. My tank is almost dead silent. The random water noise is all I hear more than a couple feet from the tank.

Reef Brite bars are amazing and BRS has a really good video showing how they can easily light a tank. 5 of them likely covers that tank. Get the 60" as they have crazy good spread.

 

[Dave-T]

It does? I have never heard the fan haha. If you can hear the fan in that light of any other noise a tank makes or ambient noise in your house, I would be astonished. Your next bet would be some kessil a80's which won't do anything noticeable for par in that tank by it doesn't have fans.

I saw this…

 

[Spare time]

I saw this…

Every product is going to have some where there is a part that is not working or is defective. I wouldn't let that stop you from getting the light. I don't know of a single reef product where someone hasn't an an issue.

 

[Dave-T]

The Stratons alone are enough. Coral Care Gen 2 lights are also fanless but super heavy. They have a little shimmer to them.

I don't recall ever hearing my Kessil A360X fixture. My tank is almost dead silent. The random water noise is all I hear more than a couple feet from the tank.

Reef Brite bars are amazing and BRS has a really good video showing how they can easily light a tank. 5 of them likely covers that tank. Get the 60" as they have crazy good spread.

My tank will be a couple feet from out kitchen table, hence the desire for silence. Lights with fans could work if you didn’t actually hear the fan, but I don’t think I want to risk it given there are fanless options out there. I put in the Orphek bars for shimmer. I’ve heard they produce pretty good shimmer. And they couldn’t hurt in giving more spread either. But I agree that I don’t need them for PAR.

 

[Spare time]

I think the orpheks are not going to provide shimmer but instead give you the fuzzy disco effect. Shimmer is strongest from single point light sources.

 

[Dave-T]

Every product is going to have some where there is a part that is not working or is defective. I wouldn't let that stop you from getting the light. I don't know of a single reef product where someone hasn't an an issue.

That was just to show someone talking about the fact that they have fans.