Lighting question

[Shiggknight]

I’ve been in the hobby for 15ish years on and off and I’ve had a tank everywhere I moved. I just got a 90gallon tank setup and it came with two kessil 360 tuna blues. Would that be enough for some SPS or should I stick with softies and LPS. Thanks guys

 

[jda]

Those are not strong lights... around the range of 70w MH, if you ever had any experience with those. Nearly everybody who uses Kessil with SPS on tanks with room end up with T5s pulling a lot of the weight (if not the majority). You might find some who have just started with SPS, but they will have different lights or T5s soon.

For reference, 4x 360s and 4x T5s is more solid for SPS lighting.

Nanos is really only where you see Kessils alone lighting SPS.

 

[Shiggknight]

So what corals would you recommend with those lights until I can upgrade my lighting?

 

[jda]

You are on it. Softies and LPS will be fine... maybe a lower light SPS directly under the "cone" of light.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So what corals would you recommend with those lights until I can upgrade my lighting?

Hammers/frospawn, mushrooms, zoa, leathers, Duncan and candy cane coral

 

[VR28man]

Agreed with JDA. I think it's the spread - I got a lot of shading on M. digitata, and acros when I used a 360 and 160 on my 30x12x18" tank. (I think that's too big to count as a Nano). They were fine for Favites (war coral), M caps, softies, and IIRC pocillopora.

Things took off when I dumped them for even two T5s (two ati bulbs on an $80 coralvue on-the-rim fixture).

I am also going to try this as a supplement to the T5s (though part of me just wants to get another fixture!)

ReefBar Pro

ReefBar Pro

www.21ledusa.com

 

[Shiggknight]

Montis will be ok though as long as they are directly under the cone? I like the sunsets, Superman but those are encrusting. Will those be ok?

 

[Reefer40b]

Monti should be fine. although sometimes they require higher lighting for better colors but should stay alive for you..

 

[Shiggknight]

I’ll probably supplement with t5s. This should be fine or do you guys think I need more?

 

[jda]

You still might need a 360 every foot. These are not powerful lights.

If you run 4x T5s for a good amount of time (like 10 hours a day), then it might be OK.

 

[VR28man]

48x18x24?

If I wanted to do it on the cheap, I just get a cheap 6X 48 inch T5 ho fixture off of Amazon, and fill them up at whatever spectrum bulbs you want. I’d keep 2 (actinic?) t5s on for like 16 hours a day and the whole shebang on for 8-10. Should be like $3-400.

if you want to go more expensive you can go with dimmable ATI fixtures, LED/T5 combos, MH, etc. It all depends on what you want to keep.

finally, if I only wanted to keep LPS and softies, I might just use a decent number of cheap eBay LEDs…