Lighting question

[TracyT0105]

Hello all. I'm currently upgrading my 50 gallon fish tank to a 75 gallon. I want to try corals and anemones again. I had a Kessil 160 on my previous tank and had zero success. I do use an RODI filter so I'm fairly certain that insufficient lighting was the issue. I would prefer a light that I don't have to hang. The tank is 48" long. Any suggestions on a light that isn't necessarily crazy expensive? My clown fish needs an anemone, it's sad to see him loving on his gross fake one.

 

[JoshH]

Personally I'm a little surprised you didn't have success with the kessil as countless reefers have great success with them, could there have been other factors such as the settings you had it on or water parameters? Using RODI is a fantastic start towards great water quality but there are numerous other factors that can either help or hinder your pursuits of coral and nem keeping. I'm loving my 2 AI Primes over my tank so AI would be my suggestion personally. But before jumping to buying new lights, maybe we can hammer out if it was 100% a lighting issue first and save that money for more corals!

 

[TracyT0105]

I really can't think of anything else... the 50 gallon was my first attempt though so maybe I just didn't keep the light on enough or feed the corals correctly.

 

[JoshH]

I really can't think of anything else... the 50 gallon was my first attempt though so maybe I just didn't keep the light on enough or feed the corals correctly.

There is always first time unlucky, if you don't mind me asking, while you weren't having good luck with keeping corals. What corals were they? What were your tank parameters at the time and what was your lighting schedule??

 

[TracyT0105]

It was a while ago but I'm pretty sure they were soft corals.. I know I had a torch coral. As far as lighting I would have on full blast for around 12 hours then switch to the moonlight setting and then turn it off maybe around 9ish... which I'm guessing you're going to say the light should be on 24/7?

 

[JoshH]

have on full blast for around 12

I would say that would probably be your issue... did you do any kind of light acclimation to get your corals used to such a high intensity? My softies are loving my settings right now and they are only around 25%

 

[TracyT0105]

I honestly don't remember. I'm guessing I probably didn't.

 

[JoshH]

I honestly don't remember. I'm guessing I probably didn't.

That might have had a lot to do with your issues, also I did a quick read through your last build thread and noticed you used API test kits. If your really serious about keeping corals and nems happy long term you really need to step up on the test kits. Red sea, Hanna checkers, salifert and elos are all great kits to look into. These will give you the best information on your parameters and can help guide you in giving your corals the best environment to thrive.

 

[Rikki Reef]

Interested, following topic deciding whether to redesign my DiY leds or just pick up 2 Chinese dimable leds to work with my apex.
If your dosing and water par. have been good than your lighting was probably to strong,Long and to fast, They also need to accumulate.

 

[jda]

Get a decent/good 4 bulb T5 High Output setup. Put good bulbs in it. Turn it for 10-11 hours with a light timer and fill your tank with softies and anemones. This is a plug/play solution with no issues.

You can burn coral with too much bad spectrum from LEDs... you have to dial them in. While one of this is hard, it is not plug and play. Kessil 160 is not a lot of light for even one-half of a 75g tank.

T5s are for people who just want stuff to work. LEDs are more for poeple who want to jack around with stuff. ...this is a gross oversimplification, but close.