Lighting and Live Rock Questions

frickenfragger · Jan 22, 2019

I’m looking to get back into reefing after 7 or 8 years away and have a couple of questions. I am looki to do a 120, maybe 180 if I can find a place to fit it, mixed reef as I’m like a kid in a candy store and like them all!

Live Rock - it appears fiji lr is gone, and the only choices are Florida aquaculture or dry rock. Is this accurate? I had both LR tanks and tried a couple dry rock as well.

Lights - LED’s were just coming out when o got out of the hobby. Now it seems like that’s the top choice, but still see a handful of people running all T5’s. The majority of my tanks all ran ATI t5’s with the couple bigger ones MH/t5 combo. Other than LED providing shimmer, controllability, and lack of bulb changes, are there any other benefits I’m missing? Are they substantially less electrical draw? Should I just bite the bullet and buy a T5/LED combo?

Photo period- it seems this is much shorter than back when I was in the hobby. I believe I ran actinics an hour on each side and 10hrs with all bulbs. What is a good baseline photo period?

Thanks in advance!

jda · Jan 22, 2019

You can also get used live rock that was once from the pacific. This can take some time to find, but this is what i like to use until Indo comes back on line. There are people on the local Colorado board selling live rock fairly regularly.

LEDs are up to you. Some of this depends on what you want to keep and how big of a tank. There is still a lot of MH usage on acropora tanks and also larger tanks and there is a trend going back this way. For a smaller tank, then LED can be good since they are good at lighting small areas. There are still things that LED cannot do for some corals, but not all. You will not save any ongoing electrical costs if you choose wisely. Factor in startup costs and longevity - 4-5 years for a LED is pretty typical (they last longer, but only a small percentage keep them longer and most "upgrade" very regularly), 2-3 years for most Chinese stuff (any type) and 10 years for a good T5 or MH system. Then just count in bulb change costs - 12 months for most halide and 24 months for T5s.

10 hours is about right. Ramping, dusk/dawn and all of that is for you, not the corals... they still do just fine with on/off after 8-11 hours.

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 22, 2019

You can contact Walt smith in fin Fiji , they were still importing a couple years ago but it was high end $$$

Led benefit ? Less wattage and less heat in the house and tank.

My photo period is close to 13hrs, soo. It’s cause the viewing intensity at the ramp up am and pm is next to nothing. In par terms , my sand is less then one par for the first hour and ramps up to 150 at the peak of 5 hrs.

T5 benefit is coverage. A light source the full size of the tank.
A small pendant like kessil and radion will have hot spots and low spots. There are a ton of remidies lie hybrids , but also fixtures like Orphek leds and SBreeflight ultras and reef breeders photons. Large lights that cover the tank.

Or with pendants do this.

reacclimating 2 the hobby · Jan 22, 2019

Welcome back... I got rock from KP Aquatics and can't say enough about how great it was. A lot of good reviews on here for them if you're going LR. I went 50/50 live/dry.

All of the lights that are out these days seem to work for different hobbyist. I guess it's what best suits your eye. I loved my ATI fixture and wasn't so fond of my LED/T5 hybrid. Now I'm running MH/T5 and will probably never go back.

10 hours is what I run as well.... 2 hour t5, 6 hour mh+t5, 2 hour t5... good luck! Start a thread and post lots of pictures.

frickenfragger · Jan 22, 2019

Thanks for the response. Good to know on lighting. I used to grow great acros with just t5. Love the colors you can get in the tank.

jda · Jan 22, 2019

BTW - some people will tell you all about the heat that you save on using LEDs, but here in Colorado the heat is a blessing. I would not use any kind of light just for the heat, but you can pretty much choose whatever you want and your heaters will just run less if there is any heat that comes from them. I do not know where in Colorado that you, but in Boulder, 70% of my tank costs are sunk into heating, even the summer where the nights get cool and the low humidity has lots of evaporative cooling.

reacclimating 2 the hobby · Jan 22, 2019

jda said:
BTW - some people will tell you all about the heat that you save on using LEDs, but here in Colorado the heat is a blessing. I would not use any kind of light just for the heat, but you can pretty much choose whatever you want and your heaters will just run less if there is any heat that comes from them. I do not know where in Colorado that you, but in Boulder, 70% of my tank costs are sunk into heating, even the summer where the nights get cool and the low humidity has lots of evaporative cooling.

it's -35 here this week... love my metal halides lol

frickenfragger · Jan 22, 2019

saltyfilmfolks said:
You can contact Walt smith in fin Fiji , they were still importing a couple years ago but it was high end $$$

Led benefit ? Less wattage and less heat in the house and tank.

My photo period is close to 13hrs, soo. It’s cause the viewing intensity at the ramp up am and pm is next to nothing. In par terms , my sand is less then one par for the first hour and ramps up to 150 at the peak of 5 hrs.

T5 benefit is coverage. A light source the full size of the tank.
A small pendant like kessil and radion will have hot spots and low spots. There are a ton of remidies lie hybrids , but also fixtures like Orphek leds and SBreeflight ultras and reef breeders photons. Large lights that cover the tank.

Or with pendants do this.

Nice tank!

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 22, 2019

frickenfragger said:
Nice tank!

Thanks , but not mine lol.
I do a lot of light questions. Most folks would put two 3 larger pucks rather than multiple smaller ones on that. Probably saved a few buck too

HB AL · Jan 22, 2019

saltyfilmfolks said:
You can contact Walt smith in fin Fiji , they were still importing a couple years ago but it was high end $$$

Led benefit ? Less wattage and less heat in the house and tank.

My photo period is close to 13hrs, soo. It’s cause the viewing intensity at the ramp up am and pm is next to nothing. In par terms , my sand is less then one par for the first hour and ramps up to 150 at the peak of 5 hrs.

T5 benefit is coverage. A light source the full size of the tank.
A small pendant like kessil and radion will have hot spots and low spots. There are a ton of remidies lie hybrids , but also fixtures like Orphek leds and SBreeflight ultras and reef breeders photons. Large lights that cover the tank.

Or with pendants do this.