Lighting advice

[Pivitol]

Hello all, I am at a crossroad and need some much needed guidance/advice/push in the right direction. Over the last several months I've been piecing together parts and equipment for my 200gal tank(more on that in a moment). The last major item I need are the lights, normally this decision would not be so tough but with the vast number of options out there and different types of lights, and the unique tank I have my head is spinning. I have researched just about every option, combo, brand I can find. I am like most on here I assume an average Joe, meaning I have a mortgage, car payment bills,ect.... so money is an object, but at the same time I want a successful reef. The tank is a 200gal custom acrylic tank I acquired for a steal, but it is not a standard dimension tank, it is 44"l x 30"d x 36"h. Right now my front runners for affordable lights are SBreef,ReefBreeders, and maybe a MH/T5 combo. Let me know what you guys would use or any other brands I may have overlooked. Thanks in advance.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

SBreef,

price.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

One 32" SB over my 48x24x16 @ 20% white 35% blue. Doing a 2.5% increase on blue per week. Was doing white and blue, just didn't like the spectrum at the ratio I had. Excuse the brown sand. It's a tank transfer that's just about a month old (original tank was a little over a year and a half) and lights roughly 2 weeks after being installed.

 

[Pivitol]

price.

Which size 2 16's run front to back or a 32" lengthwise?

 

[Pivitol]

One 32" SB over my 48x24x16 @ 20% white 35% blue. Doing a 2.5% increase on blue per week. Was doing white and blue, just didn't like the spectrum at the ratio I had. Excuse the brown sand. It's a tank transfer that's just about a month old (original tank was a little over a year and a half) and lights roughly 2 weeks after being installed.

How are you liking them so far? I have been looking really hard at the 32" but wasn't sure if it had the spread I'm looking for.

 

[jsker]

MH/T5 are great, but can also be pricey up front and in the long run with switching bulbs every 6 to 8 months and cooling the system.

LED technology has come a long way, and LED tend to last longer.

My story, was I went inexpensive LED in the beginning then had to buy better light so that my corals would not die but grow better and color up. I went with a mid to higher range but not top end LED. There are plenty of brand out there but going with a cheaper brand will cost more later on.

One other suggestion would be looking at 5t/LED combo's. I have read very good results with these light.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Which size 2 16's run front to back or a 32" lengthwise?

If I read correctly it 44x 30. Thats wide.
So the get the 2 16s it'll work you have to hang them high and you'll lose some power at the bottom of the tank.
Same with the two 32s really. As the tank is 30 deep the light need to be 16 to 20 high so that's close to four feet from the bottom.

It sounds goofy but 3 16s would be best. It still needs to be pretty high up.
Wifi would make it super easy. But that's budget
The lowest price option is the mars Aqua style but for just a couple bucks more the sb has a no frills option and better spectrum.

 

[mcarroll]

One 32" SB over my 48x24x16 @ 20% white 35% blue. Doing a 2.5% increase on blue per week. Was doing white and blue, just didn't like the spectrum at the ratio I had. Excuse the brown sand. It's a tank transfer that's just about a month old (original tank was a little over a year and a half) and lights roughly 2 weeks after being installed.

@rbtmcardle check this out for example.

 

[Pivitol]

If I read correctly it 44x 30. Thats wide.
So the get the 2 16s it'll work you have to hang them high and you'll lose some power at the bottom of the tank.
Same with the two 32s really. As the tank is 30 deep the light need to be 16 to 20 high so that's close to four feet from the bottom.

It sounds goofy but 3 16s would be best. It still needs to be pretty high up.
Wifi would make it super easy. But that's budget
The lowest price option is the mars Aqua style but for just a couple bucks more the sb has a no frills option and better spectrum.

The tank is actually 36" tall 30" front to back, so maybe 2 30" Marsaqua or 30" Sbreef ramping?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The tank is actually 36" tall 30" front to back, so maybe 2 30" Marsaqua or 30" Sbreef ramping?

Yea someting like that.
my 16in is on a 20x20 cube. @ 12 in it doesn't cover the whole 20x20 square. so you'll have to hang them higher.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Really liking the transition so far. Went from a 90 with dual kessil 160 and 4 ati t5, to the current 80 with just the pair of 160s. It wasn't cutting it. Sps started browning out on me. All back or on the way back and showing vibrance at the moment.

 

[Test led]

I would get the two 30 inch fixtures and run them front to back, spaced a part to get your coverage. I know it doesn't make sense because the tank is that long but you can run them closer to 10 to 12 inches off the water and have par at depth this way. If you run them from side to side on your tank it list max coverage to 38 inches for the MarAqua. Being your tank is deep lifting your lights higher is not going to give you much of any growing power at that depth on the edges if you run side to side. SB reeflights is going to give you better spectrum in the 30 inch light especially on a deeper tank like yours. SB lights will also penetrate the water better because they use lower nm rated blue lights. Just my opinion. I actually own a MarsAqua 30 inch.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would get the two 30 inch fixtures and run them front to back, spaced a part to get your coverage. I know it doesn't make sense because the tank is that long but you can run them closer to 10 to 12 inches off the water and have par at depth this way. If you run them from side to side on your tank it list max coverage to 38 inches for the MarAqua. Being your tank is deep lifting your lights higher is not going to give you much of any growing power at that depth on the edges if you run side to side. SB reeflights is going to give you better spectrum in the 30 inch light especially on a deeper tank like yours. SB lights will also penetrate the water better because they use lower nm rated blue lights. Just my opinion. I actually own a MarsAqua 30 inch.

Yea he could go low and lensless. But my sb is a spot light in my little cube with half the lenses out.

Are you metering an sb?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The tank is actually 36" tall 30" front to back, so maybe 2 30" Marsaqua or 30" Sbreef ramping?

It's an odd but cool size tank to try and light!

 

[mcarroll]

Really liking the transition so far. Went from a 90 with dual kessil 160 and 4 ati t5, to the current 80 with just the pair of 160s. It wasn't cutting it. Sps started browning out on me. All back or on the way back and showing vibrance at the moment.

I may have misunderstood something, so pls correct me if I'm wrong....but if you cut the light on your corals potentially by more than 50%, I'd expect some negative changes (possibly including mortality) for at least several weeks. Past that, if they make it (which they might if other conditions are favorable!), they will become acclimated to the lower light level and I would guess things might return more or less to normal. I've certainly had no browning problems in my low-light hard coral tank. In fact I never have any problems with that tank....even when the rest of the system (under more normal reef lighting levels) was under attack by a HAB.

Ordinarily I would not drop light levels much more than a couple thousand lux at a time and I wouldn't make lighting changes like that more often that every few weeks. They can become carbon-starved if they don't adapt quickly enough to the lower light levesl or if carbon-rich food sources aren't continuously (or at least regularly) available.

 

[Test led]

Not metering an SB at the moment. About six months ago I was trying to help a buddy try to figure out why nothing would grow around the edges of his 200DD. He thought it was flow or his sand was off-gassing. After par testing his SB lights just were not reaching the edges with enough strength to even register. We turned his lights so they ran front to back and it worked great suddenly he had 75-90 par on the sand bed in the corner of his tank. Given, his tank is only 27 inches deep but it worked and he has corals in the bottom of his tank now.

 

[Pivitol]

Thank you to everyone who responded. I looked at (and am leaning toward) the 2 30" fixtures running front to back. The 30" Marsaqua fixture though claims 300 watt but in the fine print says it's a 188 watt on 110v. On the other side the SB 30" claims 327w not sure what actual is, and the 32" says 363w. Anyone have a kill-a-watt to verify actual usage? And what is the length of the power cord on the SB's?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

SB power cord, in all honest, I found to be a bit short for my application at 6' (I believe 6', didn't actually measure) but fortunately I had a random cord laying around that was 8' and perfect. (Used to have a home production studio so I've got wires for days! Lol)

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

I have an amp probe I can snag out my tool box at work and run on my SB 32" tomorrow and give you a true wattage reading at 100% both channnels if like.

 

[Pivitol]

I have an amp probe I can snag out my tool box at work and run on my SB 32" tomorrow and give you a true wattage reading at 100% both channnels if like.

That would be awesome! Thank you.