Lighting for sca 100 gallon sps

[J&O'sdad]

Would 2 ati hydro 26 hd be enough light or would I have to get the 52.

 

[jda]

Dimensions of the tank will really help.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Would 2 ati hydro 26 hd be enough light or would I have to get the 52.

Not for sps

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

And I would wait if you’re thinking about hydras bc they have new ones coming out sometime this month.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Hydra – AquaIllumination

www.aquaillumination.com

 

[J&O'sdad]

48×18 and 20" deep

 

[J&O'sdad]

Sorry 24" deep

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Looks like they’re already available

Hydra 64 HD LED Reef Light - Black Body

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[Acrofiend]

6 or 8 bulb T5’s and never look back.

 

[J&O'sdad]

I have an ati 8 bulb now and I am sick of replacing bulbs. I ordered 8 bulbs 2 came bad and after 2 weeks 2 burned out. Has anyone else had problems with ati bulbs lately.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

6 or 8 bulb T5’s and never look back.

I love my hydra 52 HD’s but unless you (OP) plan on buying at least 3-52 HD’s preferably 4 for 100g then I would recommend the 6 or 8 t5 as well

 

[C. Eymann]

6 or 8 bulb T5’s and never look back.

I'll admit, I miss my DIY icecap overdriven T5 setups, ATI fixtures are amazing too,
colors and growth achieved they can rival the best halide setups, but like mentioned by J&Os dad , bulb changing gets expensive and its inconvenient.
Plus it looks too static to me, I like shimmer.

Just my two pennies

 

[MERKEY]

3 of the 26s will work with a really nice spread...

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

3-26’s on a 100g won’t provide much par unless you add t5’s or you crank your whites above 50 for 4-6 hours of your schedule. Trust me, I have 2-26 HD’s over my 29 gallon bio cube and they barely crack 300 par with the whites at 25.

 

[MERKEY]

I said spread not PAR but just curious Where are you only getting 300 par in your tank with those lights? And how high are they away from water?

I only ask because I use the 26 on a 32 biocube and was under the impression that with the lights set 7/8" above water and with the AB+ settings and the whites bumped up to 30-40, par was 700 at water 500 3" below, 300 mid way and 150/200 on sand. This was not done by me and I need to find the posts that confirm this. Once again...my cube is only 18" deep so a 24" deep would explain a little...

I have not myself tested but am renting a par meter when we get back from the family vacation as I want to know for sure and it's been on my to do list for a while.

I will dig a bit and find the posts with the numbers to confirm.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I said spread not PAR but just curious Where are you only getting 300 par in your tank with those lights? And how high are they away from water?

I only ask because I use the 26 on a 32 biocube and was under the impression that with the lights set 7/8" above water and with the AB+ settings and the whites bumped up to 30-40, par was 700 at water 500 3" below, 300 mid way and 150/200 on sand. This was not done by me and I need to find the posts that confirm this. Once again...

I have not myself tested but am renting a par meter when we get back from the family vacation as I want to know for sure and it's been on my to do list for a while.

I will dig a bit and find the posts with the numbers to confirm.

I have them mounted 14” above the water. The ab+ with the 26hd doesn’t even crack 250 bc it only uses about 55% of their potential power. The whites are the “par”erhouse of the 26’s and primes, so if you want high par, you’ll need to crank the whites up. The 52’s are different both in spectrum and power. Now you can mount them much lower but that’ll produce hot spots and led burns. The par drops off significantly outside the area of the pucks. Maybe the new versions will be better.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I have an apogee 510 par meter btw

 

[MERKEY]

Ya those are pretty accurate lol

I have my 26 8" away and haven't noticed any burning only corals but dont have it 100 on anything either. I have noticed a large difference in just the little time but I will watch for those hot spots as I haven't seen any yet. I am coming from a prime so the upgrade acclimation wasn't too bad.

I have 3 32s coming thursday and will set one side by side with the 26s I just bought less than 2 weeks ago hahaha

I will run a dummy test to see if my eyes can see a color, spread or pop difference. In the mean time I leave friday and wont be back until the following friday but once I get back I'll get a PAR reader and see the differences.

 

[SeaDweller]

Hydra – AquaIllumination

www.aquaillumination.com

Wow, those 64s look good.