Lighting For 180 LPS & SPS Reef

[Banouie]

Best light units for growing mixed lps and sps? Keep in mind the aquarium is 6x2x2.

Radions are an option but how many would I need and are they worth that money, is there a cheaper alternative that really does match it.

I currently have 2 TMC iLumenair 600’s but I’m not sure they’re really adequate enough for what I’m hoping to achieve

Thanks
Stu

 

[bubbaque]

Depends on what you like.

MH give a great shimmer, color and grow coral great but causes a ton of heat.

T5 no shimmer but has amazing spread and lots of color options. Grows and colors coral great.

Led nice shimmer but not as good as MH. You need a lot of them on a 180 (probably 6 radions) to get the same coverage as the others. Some argue how well they grow coral buts it’s pretty well documented they grow coral just fine and may color them the best. Don’t go into thinking you will save electricity with leds as it will take 5 years to pay for the initial extra cost and you will probably want new lights by then.

 

[jda]

All of the options have limitations, but each are manageable if you are invested. Heat with MH is easy to overcome with usually just a fan. LEDs have some shadowing issues and some hot spots, but people get around these when they like the dusk/dawn, blacklight and messing around with the color on their phones.

On a sliding scale of "pure performance" to "wanna mess with it" do you think that you are? Nobody will know this but you.

For example, my scale is all on "pure performance" so I use MH and have no dusk/dawn or anything other than just kicking-*** with an on/off switch. I keep open top tanks (pendants) and the heat is no issue except for about 4 weeks a year when a fan can handle it quite well. Everybody will be different on this.

Another thing to keep in mind is that most LED setups end up getting T5s as the hobbyist get a bit more breath and depth of experience. I would at-least have this in the back of your mind if you choose a LED route.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

3-4 radions, do pay attention to the lenses and the needed mounting Heith.
Other options are the 16in black boxes.
Most will cover an 18-18 area from 12 in and deliver about 600 par at that distance.
4 300w B.B. models would be amazingly ideal.

SBreeflight ultima and reef breeders
Photons are both good options as well.
3 kessil ap700 would work, two would as well but the coverage / would be slightly less perfect. (One ap will light a 48x24 almost perfectly even at 12in).
You could also use multiple 360 or even 160s. (One member here has 6 on a 48w tank.).

 

[Greg Roberts]

I've been asking myself the same thing as the setup I'm creating is identical. I'm heavily leaning towards a T5-LED hybrid system. BRS has some really good videos about this on youtube. I'd suggest the following two videos. (1) and (2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB0TKyKxlSo