Lighting a 40B O. scyllarus Setup

[orkspace]

Hi all,

I'm continuing to plan my 40B O. scyllarus species tank.

I'm having a hard time figuring out lighting, and would appreciate specific recommendations.

I had planned on doing a normal output fluorescent hood, but I guess that's not really much of a thing anymore with the advent of LED aquarium lighting. Ditto CFL hoods.

This means that I'm now looking at 36" T5 and LED fixtures.

Due to heat issues (I'm in Sacramento, CA, where summer temps regularly exceed 100 degrees and the room the tank is in regularly exceeds 85 degrees during the day), I think that LEDs will be a better bet than T5 fluorescent fixtures. (I'm planning on using a chiller, but want to minimize tank heating due to lighting as much as I can anyway.)

So, I'm looking for an LED setup that is dimmable and has a good spectrum of light. The cheap stuff seems to be for freshwater setups (specifically referring to the 6500k Aqueon single-strip LED fixture here), and I would like to have some green star polyps and mushrooms in my mantis species tank.

So, I'm looking for specific recommendations on a 36" LED fixture that would be dimmable to an appropriate level for an O. scyllarus (which will also have a dark conduit burrow), the correct spectrum, yet bright enough to encourage healthy green star polyp and mushroom growth.

Thanks in advance -- the choices and brands are overwhelming, and the advice I've received here has been outstanding to date.

Cheers,

Dan

[Jlentz]

One of the cheaper orbit lights maybe?

[kp294]

are you planning on placing anything else in the tank?

[kp294]

i have a current fixture on my reef tank. They make about 4 different sizes (?) so one will definitely fit your tank. It provides amazing lighting, you are able to manually adjust the blue and white light intensity to your liking, so for your mantis you would probably want the white all the way off and the blues dimmed.
It's easy to use and relatively inexpensive for the quality. It is also programmable.

http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/orbit-marine-fixtures/orbit-marine/

[orkspace]

are you planning on placing anything else in the tank?

My livestock wishlist includes:
1x Odontodactylus scyllarus;
Some (3? 5?) yellow-tail damsels;
Green star polyps (if I can provide enough light); and
Mushrooms (if I can provide enough light).

The clean up crew will be minimal, snail based, and likely subject to frequent staff turnover.

This will be a 40 breeder tank with a 20 long sump. I'm still in fairly early planning stages.

[nmotz]

GSP and mushrooms won't need much light really...if I were you, I'd just get a dual bulb
T5 unit with one 10K and one actinic bulb. You'll be fine with that unless you decide you want higher light needing corals. Then you'll probably want a 4 bulb fixture. Dimmable T5 fixtures are way more expensive so I wouldn't bother with those unless you want to make a more significant investment.

[kp294]

If you are looking specifically for led's, I have current on my reef tank and I am able to adjust my whites and blues down so you can just barely see them. Its also programmable. They're not too bad of a price for what you are able to do with them. You shouldn't have an issue with those corals cause they're on the lower side of lighting demand.

[rjjr1963]

I have the Current USA Orbit Marine. I have one on my 20 long and the corals are doing great. I just put one on my 40b but no livestock yet. I think I paid about 160 for the 36" version.

[orkspace]

Thanks for the great recommendations. The planning continues!