Lighting options for 60 inch 95g shallow reef/lagoon

TJ Merrells · Aug 30, 2020

In the process of designing my dream tank.

It's going to be a 60x24 and 15 inches deep. Approx 95 gallons.

Keeping cost in mind I'm trying to decide which direction I'd like to go with lighting.
I plan on having it a mixed reef setup, but mostly lps. Acans, hammers, frogspawn, torches with the occasional anemone and Sps frag.

Debating between led and hybrid setups.
Not interested in black box LEDs.
I want to be able to have a programmable lighting to have the ramp up/down and moonlight effects.

I have a hard time justifying spending more on lighting than the tank cost itself. Such as xr30 pro for example if I need 2 or 3.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thx

Spare time · Aug 30, 2020

I would just do LED.

You could do

2-3 radions (either xr30 or 15)

3 kessil h380 (no moonlight but you could just have the percent go down to 1% at night if it isn't too bright.

3 AI prime 16hd's or 2-3 hydra 32hd's

3 Reef LED 50's or 90's

Or any other brand (ex: maxspect, etc.)

TJ Merrells · Aug 30, 2020

Spare time said:
I would just do LED.

You could do

2-3 radions (either xr30 or 15)

3 kessil h380 (no moonlight but you could just have the percent go down to 1% at night if it isn't too bright.

3 AI prime 16hd's or 2-3 hydra 32hd's

3 Reef LED 50's or 90's

Or any other brand (ex: maxspect, etc.)

Crazy that pretty much any case I'll be spending more on lights than I did on the tank itself

shwareefer · Aug 30, 2020

TJ Merrells said:
Crazy that pretty much any case I'll be spending more on lights than I did on the tank itself

I think that's most people's experience - the surrounding equipment far exceeds the price of the glass box. Perhaps if you set a dollar value you would like to stay under, people could give better advice. You can definitely buy used or do DIY to save some cash as well.