choosing a light

ken casteel · Mar 22, 2021

hello
I'm looking for a recommendation on a light for my sps tank. I would like to hang my light about 10" above the tank to allow easy access to the internal filter and skimmer. the light i have now lights up the floor more then the water, so I'm looking for a light that emits a narrower beam, all the lights I've been seeing have a 120 deg beam. my tank is 55gal long, so 48"l x 15"w x 20"h. any advise would be appreciated.

mike550 · Mar 22, 2021

ken casteel said:
hello
I'm looking for a recommendation on a light for my sps tank. I would like to hang my light about 10" above the tank to allow easy access to the internal filter and skimmer. the light i have now lights up the floor more then the water, so I'm looking for a light that emits a narrower beam, all the lights I've been seeing have a 120 deg beam. my tank is 55gal long, so 48"l x 15"w x 20"h. any advise would be appreciated.

Check out the BRS videos on lights because they always have suggested heights for the most uniform light intensity across the tank. But I think they're usually looking at 24" wide. So if your tank is 15" wide, you'll see more spillover than you'd like.

What lights are you using now?

ken casteel · Mar 22, 2021

Right now I have a coralife marine 48" light bar, its ment to sit ontop of the tank so when I raise it up it turns into a flood light

mike550 · Mar 22, 2021

ken casteel said:
Right now I have a coralife marine 48" light bar, its ment to sit ontop of the tank so when I raise it up it turns into a flood light

I‘m guessing that most fixtures will have 120 degree LEDs now. Maybe you can find a way to easily raise your lights when you need to service the tank and then drop them back down. Plenty of amazing ideas on this site.

dedragon · Mar 22, 2021

what is the budget like? Kessils have the narrow beam reflector that could work and probably help direct the light straight down, might have to dim them a bit though