LED lighting recommendations for 29"
 

Hey guys,

I'm a new member here, and building my new reef tank as we speak. It is a 100 gallon (47 X 17 X 29) with a 40 gallon sump. I'm going to be running a Bean Animal system to the sump and have a reef octopus 150 INT for the skimmer. My next big thing is the lighting. I'm planning on doing mostly fish, inverts and soft corals, but might want to add some LPS later on. I'm thinking about trying LED's, but my main concern is the depth. My tank is 29" deep. I'm not sure what my options are for that depth, or if I'm better off with a MH or t5. Any suggestions would be great. I saw somebody had suggested a Radion Pro, but that would run my $1600 for the 48", and that's too much. Thanks

A tank with fish, inverts and some soft or lps coral doesn't need the top of the line, most expensive led fixture. That's like saying you need a car to drive to the grocery store once a week and getting a Ferrari. It will do the job, but did you really need a $700,000 car? I have friends with very nice tanks full of lps and sps corals who use inexpensive Chinese black box leds like MarsAqua, GalaxyHydro, Viparspectra and OceanRevive (probably the best of the inexpensive leds and not a black box design). This is getting to the grocery store in a new compact car that cost $20,000. It's pretty basic, but it works just fine.

Given your tank will be 29" deep, they should all work just fine. The difference between a 24" deep tank and a 29" deep tank isn't a big deal as far as getting good light to the bottom. If there is any word of warning, I'd skip the MarsAqua as it runs at about 25% lower power than the other led fixtures. They all use 3 watt leds but most dive them at 2.2 watts and MA drives theirs at 1.8 watts.

So even using OceanRevive fixtures (you'll need 2) at full retail you only spend $400 and could grow anything.

If you want all the bells and whistles, sunrise/sunset and multiple channel color control, look at Reef Breeders Photon V2. They make a 32" and 48" version and either would give you good coverage. I'd recommend the 32" at $500. The 48" is really for longer tanks, but for just $85 extra, if you're worried about full coverage, it could be worth the extra... but I wouldn't do it. I cover my 60" tank with a 50" Photon V2 and I grow mostly sps. BTW, this is getting to the grocery store in a $75,000 Corvette. It's not a Ferrari, but it's close and yet it's a lot less expensive.

You can see the tank in my build thread. There is a link in my signature below.

But that's just my 2 cents worth.