Recommend a light for a 10 gallon?

[Sinibotia]

Hello all,
This is my first reef. It's a standard 10 gallon with about 400gph of flow from a Koralia 240 nano and an aquaclear 50. The sand bed is about 3 inches and the top of the rockwork reaches to about 4 inches from the surface. Coral-wise I'd like to stock mostly easy soft corals (towards the lower half of the tank but also a hardy LPS or two on the top rock. Can anybody recomend me a light that will give me an appropriate PAR distribution for that setup? I was thinking maybe the Current USA Orbit Marine, but I'm definitely open to less expensive options.

 

[Jay Tosi]

It really depends on how much you want to spend, you can go with a super cheap light that will grow corals slow or have limited options, or very expensive. I personally love the AI primes. I have have 2 successful tanks using them currently. They are a tad pricey but IMO its worth it with the amount of options you have with intensity and spectrum.

 

[Sinibotia]

It really depends on how much you want to spend, you can go with a super cheap light that will grow corals slow or have limited options, or very expensive. I personally love the AI primes. I have have 2 successful tanks using them currently. They are a tad pricey but IMO its worth it with the amount of options you have with intensity and spectrum.

Ideally I'd like something towards the middle- not crazy expensive but enough to get good growth for medium and low light corals.

 

[Jay Tosi]

Honestly you could probably get away with something in the one- two hundred range for some low light corals

 

[Porpoise Hork]

For that size of tank and what you are wanting to put in it, something like this would server you well as a starter light. Then later on you can always upgrade to a Prime HD if you want.
Look up the Lominie Pixie 30 Marine LED Aquarium Light on Amazon.

Pixie 30 Marine

 

[Sinibotia]

For that size of tank and what you are wanting to put in it, something like this would server you well as a starter light. Then later on you can always upgrade to a Prime HD if you want.
Look up the Lominie Pixie 30 Marine LED Aquarium Light on Amazon.

Pixie 30 Marine

I did a bunch of research and ended up ordering this light yesterday. It seems to have plenty of PAR for my purposes. Thank you so much!

 

[Porpoise Hork]

No problem, happy to help.

I have run it's little brother for about a year now over my fuge and it's fairly adjustable with the supplied remote. Takes a little getting used to how they have it set for adjusting it, but once you figure it out you can set the channels and call it done. The best thing is you can put it on a timer like these and it will keep it's settings after cutting off.

iPower 7 Day Heavy Duty Digital Programmable Electric Timer

 

[Sinibotia]

So I got the light and it's all set up! I'm running it at full strength except with the whites turned down about halfway. Does that sound like a good setting?

 

[baileejo40]

So I got the light and it's all set up! I'm running it at full strength except with the whites turned down about halfway. Does that sound like a good setting?

How did this light do for you? Interested in it for a 10 gallon as well.

 

[Sinibotia]

How did this light do for you? Interested in it for a 10 gallon as well.

It did well enough for softies for sure, had success for the lifespan of the tank (about 1.5 years) with leather coral, zoas, gsp, neon trees in particular. However my attempts with LPS and SPS were both short lived. Granted this may have been due to challenges with water chemistry more than lighting but based on how my monti did basically directly under the light I can't say I'd recommend it for that. See my build thread for an idea of how it went. That tank is now defunct due to unrelated stuff and my new setup has a kessil A80.

 

[Reef.]

Kessil A80 would be ideal.

unless you have a reason for 3 inches of sand I would rethink that, it will collect detritus and take up value room in a small tank, under an inch of sand will be plenty.

 

[Sinibotia]

Kessil A80 would be ideal.

unless you have a reason for 3 inches of sand I would rethink that, it will collect detritus and take up value room in a small tank, under an inch of sand will be plenty.

this is actually an old thread that got necro'd for some reason, the tank I was originally asking about was torn down a year ago. I did just set up a new tank that has a little bit less sand but the reason for so much on the previous was to keep a shrimp/goby pair happy!