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View Poll Results: For about 500 bucks, what lighting tech would you choose for a 100 gallon reef tank? | |||
LED | 5 | 29.41% | |
T5 | 6 | 35.29% | |
Halide | 5 | 29.41% | |
Other | 1 | 5.88% | |
Voters: 17. You may not vote on this poll |
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07/21/2017, 10:25 AM | #1 |
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Join Date: Jul 2017
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Lighting upgrade recommendation request
Hi all,
I'm happy to be a new member to this board. I've owned a 120 gallon aquarium for about a year and have learned many good, but often hard lessons. My question. I currently have two USA orbit led 48 inch reef lights. I'm experimenting with my first corals. I've placed a few starter corals. Kenyan tree, a couple mushroom, a zoanthid or two high in the tank. I have only a few fish, and only one, a coral beauty angel that has any reputation for being a potential coral problem. Fish are all healthy. I'm thinking my lights just aren't cutting it. None of the corals are dying, but not thriving or growing either. All water levels are good (zero ammonia, zero nitrite, low nitrate). If you experts out there budgeted say 500 dollars to upgrade my lighting, possibly a little more, what lighting product might you recommend? The options are overwhelming. David |
07/21/2017, 11:19 AM | #2 | |
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Location: Bay county, Fl
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Quote:
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I have 1 1/2 years experience in this hobby. Take my advice with that in mind. Current Tank Info: 26g bowfront QT tank, -- 150g tall = http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2671045 |
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07/21/2017, 12:08 PM | #3 |
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Location: North Carolina
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You planning on sticking with "easy" (low-light) softies like you have?
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07/21/2017, 05:54 PM | #4 |
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Join Date: Jul 2017
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Thanks for the feedback, and a clarification
I appreciate the helpful responses. To one question, I'd love to move on to LPS and SPS corals, but I've dropped more money on the hobby in the last year (I do really enjoy it) than I expected to, and I have the idea that to support harder corals, I'm going to need to drop in the $1500 range to get adequate lighting.
I do have the general idea that for a given lighting level, T5's come in at the lowest cost, with Halide possibly next, and to get LED's that are actually powerful enough for SPS/LPS, you need a very expensive LED system. There's plenty of LED lights that "claim" to be reef oriented, like the one I have, but I've noticed from reviews that to really hit the levels you need in terms of total light output, proper wavelengths, and so on, requires almost $2K to really do it right in anything other than T5/flourescent technology. Does this ring true with this expert community? |
07/21/2017, 06:02 PM | #5 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2017
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The Photon V2 ..
Quote:
Would I need two of these? My 120 gallon tank is 5 feed wide, maybe 2 feet front to back, and without measuring, I'd say at least 2.5 feet deep. I wonder if the light output of one would do the job. But I'm very impressed with the product, and had not noticed it before. |
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07/21/2017, 06:06 PM | #6 | |
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Join Date: Apr 2002
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Quote:
IMO if you want to go LED on your tank with the intent on SPS go for the SB reef lights basic and get 3 for your budget. They put out a ton of PAR and have the right spectrum. |
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07/21/2017, 07:11 PM | #7 |
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 223
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$500 is a tough budget to cover 48" for SPS.
MH is very old school now, too much power and far too much heat. Chinese LED or T5. |
07/22/2017, 12:14 AM | #8 |
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Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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If you were to go with high-end LEDs on a tank that size, the most cost effective way would be to go with a DIY kit and build them yourself. You're probably looking at about $1000+ for the equipment to do so if you went all LED. If I were in your shoes, I would do a combo of LED and T-5s (fewer LED to keep the cost down and the T5s to resolve the issue of shadowing). I bet you could put together a very high quality set up for about $600-800. (I recommend Steve's LEDs for components and one of their Hurricane X controllers).
As someone mentioned above, the Chinese black boxes are another option as well and would definitely be the cheapest route ($400-500). Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk |
07/22/2017, 04:23 AM | #9 |
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Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 68
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Zetlight Qmaven might... Call BRS and see what they say. I have a Qmaven on a 40" speed and it is performing wonderfully.
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07/22/2017, 04:41 AM | #10 |
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Bay county, Fl
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This is interesting. I did a poll not long ago asking which kind of lighting ppl use, and LED was the most popular, so it will be neat to see how this one turns out.
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I have 1 1/2 years experience in this hobby. Take my advice with that in mind. Current Tank Info: 26g bowfront QT tank, -- 150g tall = http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2671045 |
07/22/2017, 08:17 AM | #11 | |
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Quote:
You may as well use what you already have.
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Advice is like a firehose. Be careful how you drink. |
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07/22/2017, 08:46 AM | #12 |
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Join Date: Jul 2017
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Thank you for the awesome responses
Hey everyone that's replied to help me out. You folks are awesome. First off, there were several product lines listed above I hadn't even encountered before. As a 'newb' .. I've done most of my shopping on either Amazon or Marine Depot ...both good sites, but some of these options just aren't carried by either.
Second, I'm not hard and fast on the 500 budget. I can move up if I have to. I was reading reviews on the USA orbit lights I have, and while no one claims they're suitable to the most light demanding corals, they aren't rated bad. I think I might see if I can find room, and I believe I can, to add a light or two. Especially the smaller box led lights. Some juggling on top of my aquarium might give me enough space. I also could remove one orbit and replace it with a more powerful but not too wide T5, as someone suggested. I've bookmarked some of the products mentioned. Thanks for the very helpful replies. |
07/22/2017, 11:09 AM | #13 | |
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07/23/2017, 09:37 AM | #14 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Milton, FL
Posts: 346
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Check out SB reef lights. I might head in that direction soon.
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07/23/2017, 09:53 AM | #15 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 8
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Quote:
I wonder what you all felt of the AquaMaxx LED lights. I thought their longest model in their "prism" category had some appeal because it could easily fit alongside my other lights, add some additional color (right now I just have white and blue), and also be placed over my other lights so that there could be a little overlap, but not so much as to decrease effectiveness. http://aquamaxxaquariums.com/lighting/prism/ I've already had great assistance on this thread, and consider my question well answered. Now I'm just enjoying the conversation. I have noticed my soft corals beginning to spread, just a little. Yesterday evening, under the blue lights that the timer has on in the later evening, I saw a number of what had to be very small polyps forming on another branch of live rock. That's the first time in my time with the hobby (I've been a fresh water tank aquarist for years, but only had a salter water tank for a year now) that I've seen this occur. A small success! Thanks all. David |
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07/23/2017, 09:59 PM | #16 | |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Stamford, CT
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Quote:
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Simon Got back into the hobby ..... planned to keep it simple ..... yeah, right ..... clearly I need a new plan! Pet peeve: anemones host clowns; clowns do not host anemones! Current Tank Info: 450 Reef; 120 refugium; 60 Frag Tank, 30 Introduction tank; multiple QTs |
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Tags |
120 gallon tank, coral lighting, reef lighting |
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