LED strip for 5.5 gallon

[Dendence]

I am going to set up little reef. Tank is 16" L 10" H 8" W. Mushrooms, Lps, zoas.
I would like one 12 inch 50/50 strip. Was thinking about either Trulumen pro, Stunner strip or Panorama Pro .
Is one of these strips enough ? If so which one is best ?
thanks

[ange062]

I use a Panorama Pro 12k/453nm mix on my 3g. It's a ton of light for a 3g so I had to raise it pretty high over the tank, but it works great and looks great. Stunner wouldn't be enough light IMO, they are meant to be used as accents.

[Dendence]

thanks for the advice. Going to get Panorama Pro 12k/453nm

[jmsalt1]

I use a Panorama Pro 12k/453nm mix on my 3g. It's a ton of light for a 3g so I had to raise it pretty high over the tank, but it works great and looks great. Stunner wouldn't be enough light IMO, they are meant to be used as accents.

Looks like that tank is only about 8-9" tall. Wondering how high you had to go above the tank. Were you burning things up or was it a spotlighting effect that caused you to move it up. How is the light spillage?

[ange062]

I'd say ~6" above the water and used with an acrylic lid. Coverage wasn't the problem at all, it was just bleaching everything in the tank out.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff12/ange062/Picotope/20120119_150242.jpg

[Agu]

I've had the orginal panorama on a 5.5 for about a year. It's raised about 3" above the tank and the LPS are doing great. Had to raise it because all the corals have grown to the top half of the tank.

As an aside I found an old incandescent fixture for a five gallon tank, gutted it out (except for the reflector) and installed the panorama in the gutted housing. It's an easy and clean look if you'r not going to build a hood.

[jmsalt1]

Ange & Agu,

That's really helpful information. I will be about 5" above the water, open top on a tank that is 12" L x 11" W x 13" H. I think this will be a good alternative to going with 2 more of the Ecoxotic strips on the standard light bar they sell. That would bring me to a total of 5 strips if I went that route and they seem pretty weak. I would be mounting the panorama pro under a cabinet, so there would be no light bar anymore, clean open top.