Lighting my 48” 75g

[Njdevils1220]

Im in dilemma with my lighting situation on my Deep Blue 48” 75G system. I currently have two AI Prime HD’s and a single AI Hydra 26 HD for lighting *One prime on each end of the tank and the hydra in the middle. I’m concerned that this still is not enough lighting for my goals. I intend for this to be a mixed reef with mostly SPS in the mid to upper regions of the tank. Any suggestions or advice would greatly be appreciated. Note: *I have adjusted the Hydra to sit at the same level as the primes in the picture*

 

[jda]

It would probably be fine for frags if you keep them under the lights. As they grow, they shadow and people add T5s, move to T5s/MH for this reason. SPS as frags are really easy....colonies are not. As your corals grow, then T5s of different lights could be in your future.

Have you taken PAR readings with these? This could tell you where the corals will be fine for now. You can get lower light SPS to keep on the side and between the lights where the output falls off significantly.

FWIW - I am no fan of LEDs for any acropora tanks... goals for me are colonies and the best possible color and growth and you get neither of these from ANY LED on the market. Some do well with only panels beyond frags (I am talking baseball+ sized acros all over the place, not one or two Birdsnest or Pocis and a bunch of boogers that have not even covered the frag plug yet), but they are outnumbered by other kinds of lighting. Please take this for what it is worth and perhaps rely on other posts for more insight. Bump TTT

 

[shred5]

Agree with jda.
I run t-5 on my Reefer 250 now. I had just led previously but the shading got to me. My other build is t-5 with kessil a360's. Reason I am going this route is I love halides and Kessil gives me the feel but the shadowing is so bad I Like to run t-5 with them.

With out measuring I would guess you are ok. Having 3 fixtures should be ok and shading may not be as bad but the ends might be a little low.

 

[mtraylor]

Well it depends on what you want to do with corals and placement. I would just go with what you have for now and see how it works for you. If you have a PAR meter, you can instantly see where your at...if not your corals will show you. Don't believe all the hype on the LED stories. ALL Led fixtures do not have the issues that everyone likes to complain about. If you do your home work and buy the proper fixture and amount of fixtures needed to diversify the light the way you need it. You will not have an issue. Keep in mind, each manufacturer of LED lights is usually a little different in power, spread, and diversity of LED's. The best thing you did is buy a fixture that makes it easy to add/remove fixtures as needed. Personally I would have the same fixture all the way across, but maybe you did that for how you will be placing low and high light corals.

Any way it goes... I like your setup. Its easy for you to make adjustments. Good luck and keep us posted. Allot of people will need to know how many of these of fixtures are needed for certain types of corals.

Happy Reefing.

 

[RickG]

I have a Deep Blue 75 G as well, i have a 6 bulb ATI sunpower fixture over it with one reefbrite XHO. Lights have been great for me in keeping a mixed reef

 

[Njdevils1220]

Well it depends on what you want to do with corals and placement. I would just go with what you have for now and see how it works for you. If you have a PAR meter, you can instantly see where your at...if not your corals will show you. Don't believe all the hype on the LED stories. ALL Led fixtures do not have the issues that everyone likes to complain about. If you do your home work and buy the proper fixture and amount of fixtures needed to diversify the light the way you need it. You will not have an issue. Keep in mind, each manufacturer of LED lights is usually a little different in power, spread, and diversity of LED's. The best thing you did is buy a fixture that makes it easy to add/remove fixtures as needed. Personally I would have the same fixture all the way across, but maybe you did that for how you will be placing low and high light corals.

Any way it goes... I like your setup. Its easy for you to make adjustments. Good luck and keep us posted. Allot of people will need to know how many of these of fixtures are needed for certain types of corals.

Happy Reefing.

My goals are to be SPS dominant long term. I have quite a few frags of high end SPS that cant be seen in that photo. The reason I have the Primes and the Hydra was because I got the Hydra at a price I could not pass up from a friend otherwise I originally planned to get 4 Prime HD's. The reason I even went with LED to begin with was the fancy phone apps, longevity, no bulb replacement needed, and easy automation with scheduling. I have just recently learned that LED's do not always deliver or bring out the colors of a lot of corals and thats part of what has me considering the switch.

I was looking at either a 48" 6 bulb ATI sunpower T5 fixture or the Aquatic Life 48" T5 hybrid which would give me 4 T5 bulbs and allow me to use two of the AI primes. For the cost of the much higher power LED units I can not justify the price of compared to just going T5 especially when I would need two or more of each LED.

 

[Njdevils1220]

I have a Deep Blue 75 G as well, i have a 6 bulb ATI sunpower fixture over it with one reefbrite XHO. Lights have been great for me in keeping a mixed reef

I was looking at the ATI 6 bulb dimmable unit. It has good reviews, would allow me to automate the on and off of the lights and provide undoubtedly enough power. I am just so hung up on the sleek look and no bulb replacements LED's offer. Then again, its the corals that I really want catching my eye lol.

 

[mtraylor]

My goals are to be SPS dominant long term. I have quite a few frags of high end SPS that cant be seen in that photo. The reason I have the Primes and the Hydra was because I got the Hydra at a price I could not pass up from a friend otherwise I originally planned to get 4 Prime HD's. The reason I even went with LED to begin with was the fancy phone apps, longevity, no bulb replacement needed, and easy automation with scheduling. I have just recently learned that LED's do not always deliver or bring out the colors of a lot of corals and thats part of what has me considering the switch.

I was looking at either a 48" 6 bulb ATI sunpower T5 fixture or the Aquatic Life 48" T5 hybrid which would give me 4 T5 bulbs and allow me to use two of the AI primes. For the cost of the much higher power LED units I can not justify the price of compared to just going T5 especially when I would need two or more of each LED.

Oh ok. Well if you have decided that LED's will not work for you, then I would get the T5's as soon as you can. That is going to be the only thing that satisfies your thoughts on the lighting. If you do the mix between the 2 then you will have one extra led unit you can use for your refuge or something else.

 

[RickG]

I was looking at the ATI 6 bulb dimmable unit. It has good reviews, would allow me to automate the on and off of the lights and provide undoubtedly enough power. I am just so hung up on the sleek look and no bulb replacements LED's offer. Then again, its the corals that I really want catching my eye lol.

Well I can vouch for the ATI fixture, I have seen tremendous growth on all my corals since switching to T5 and still get the nice actinic pop from the reefbrite. As far asethetics, I consider the Ati to be one of sleekest T5 fixtures you can get. Really comes down to what you prefer Nvm the cloudy water, just fed!

 

[Njdevils1220]

Well I can vouch for the ATI fixture, I have seen tremendous growth on all my corals since switching to T5 and still get the nice actinic pop from the reefbrite. As far asethetics, I consider the Ati to be one of sleekest T5 fixtures you can get. Really comes down to what you prefer Nvm the cloudy water, just fed!

Your tank looks awesome! It’s been a while since I’ve seen a T5 only reef so I’m slightly concerned about the look of my tank if I go T5 only. I really like the ATI unit but the Aquatic Life hybrid offers the spread of T5 and the pop of LED at a much more affordable cost. I would love to do ATI/ReefBrite combo but that’s just out of the budget right now. This is a hard choice to make. The only thing stopping me from jumping straight to the Aquatic life Hybrid is the following...
1. Power cord clutter.
2. No automation, I would have to run outlet timers or get a controller.
3. Is using two AI Primes really going to add that much benefit vs the ATI T5 only setup?