Lighting for 36 x 30 x 24

swishtony · Feb 8, 2019

I’m going to want to light a tank with the above dimensions hoping eventually to stock full SPS.

My issue is I cannot easily hang any lights and if I could it would have to be off brackets which I do not want to do. So I therefore need something that sits on the tank. The bulk of market leading LEDs won’t really work, I know I can mount Radions of Hydras front to back but they both only really offer about 24” coverage. I want something that will do more like 28. I also know I could use 2 tracks to split to smaller models giving me better coverage and less shadowing. However, I don’t want to mount 2 tracks as think that will look too cluttered.

So I think I might be left with either LED panels or a hybrid as I know some of these can be mounted on legs either end. Trouble is it seems any 3ft hybrids (that I’ve researched) also don’t offer full coverage front to back 30 inches.

Anybody got any bright (pun intended) ideas? Thanks.

ndrwater · Feb 8, 2019

Welcome to R2R!!

Unless you are mounting LED's very high above the tank, most of the common single fixtures are going to have a hard time covering your tank with adequate par.
You may have to bite the bullet and get 2.. or.. a Hybrid like the Aquatic Life and add T5

Daniel Waters · Feb 10, 2019

I think the aquatic life hybrid with the 24" extended end plates and 2 kessil A360s would be a good start. Mount the fixture as needed to give you the spread you're looking for (I'm guessing 6 to 12 inches). The kessils have very wide angle lenses and will give you wide coverage, but I'm not certain on how much par you can expect. The T5s will fill in the tank fine and it will look lit even for the 30" width. You might need a 3rd puck for SPS dominant, though, depending on your mounting and aquascape plans. If you go with 3 pucks, you might wind up needing to lower the overall fixture a bit depending on light spill from the 2 outer kessil lights.

I realize you said you can't mount the lights very easily. Many people have created hanging apparatuses that connect to their stands to allow lights to be hung. I would be very cautious about putting any light directly on top of a tank lid or close to the top of a tank. For starters, you would need a glass top. Otherwise, the salt water splash and salt creep are likely to be a major issue.