Lighting suggestion for 10' mixed reef

Humongous · Mar 10, 2019

I'm looking for suggestions as I've been thinking of changing my lighting. The tank is currently back on track for a year now after a crash in which I lost a fair amount of corals. All the corals, SPS, LPS, Softies are doing great even the gigantea is thriving. Some may ask why I would want to change if everything is thriving? The straight answer is power consumption. I'm running 3 x 400W Geisemann 17.5k Halides, 3 x 250W radiums (m80 ballast), 8x54W T5 for viewing and supplemental lighting and 6 x 110 VHO Actinic. I run the halides for only 5 hours per day each and the t5's are on for 12 hours.

To understand why I have all that, the tank is 10'L x 5'W x 30"H. The five feet of front to back is so enjoyable but lighting is a nightmare.

So back up a few months during the black Friday sales, I decided to buy the new Orphek Atlantik V2's. I bought as many as I could but I've realized that I flat out need more for coverage after testing one of the full size units. The Orphek is amazing but would cost me too much to fully light the tank so they are sitting unopened. At this point I'm going to sell them and try to come up with a better lighting solution.

I've spoke with Logan at Reefbreeders and the Photon lights look good and would cover the tank but I have no experience with them. I've also talked with Ecotech and they recommended 15 of the Gen4 pro XR30. Now don't get me wrong, the Radion is a great light but that price tag is completely out of my budget.

Final thoughts....

1. I love MH lighting! I don't like the power consumption.
2. I'm getting more accepting of LED technology now versus five years ago.
3. I'd really like to clean up the light rack and the WIRING( no pictures lol)

Love to hear peoples thoughts.
Thanks!!!!

dantimdad · Mar 10, 2019

I would get 10 of the k7 pro from noopsyche.

That would kick butt.

2 rows of 5 perpendicular to the long dimension

dantimdad · Mar 10, 2019

@Manose wouldn't you say that would work?

Or would he need 15?

Manose · Mar 10, 2019

dantimdad said:
@Manose wouldn't you say that would work?

Or would he need 15?

Yes I think 10 would work well with 12 being the max I would go.

Humongous · Mar 10, 2019

Okay, I'll look at those as well. Any idea how high they should or could be mounted? I'd like to get them up high to avoid any disco ball look.

Shanet · Mar 10, 2019

Im buying/setting up for a 10' x 3' x 31 tank and will be using 5 x G4 Xr30 Pro Ecotechs, I use them on a 5' tank at the moment and love them. Like you say they are pricey but I think they are worth it.

Humongous · Mar 10, 2019

Are you only planning on 5 total for your new tank?

Shanet said:
Im buying/setting up for a 10' x 3' x 31 tank and will be using 5 x G4 Xr30 Pro Ecotechs, I use them on a 5' tank at the moment and love them. Like you say they are pricey but I think they are worth it.

Shanet · Mar 10, 2019

Yes 5 only, they cover a 24" x 24" area for each one. I intend to have the front 1' as sand bed only with low light LPS on it. This is how I have my 5 ' tank set up, it is 31"deep as well and I run the lights at 40 % with good growth on my LPS. I dont do SPS Yet.

Humongous · Mar 10, 2019

Thanks for the input Shane.

Humongous · Mar 10, 2019

dantimdad said:
I would get 10 of the k7 pro from noopsyche.

That would kick butt.

2 rows of 5 perpendicular to the long dimension

Manose said:
Yes I think 10 would work well with 12 being the max I would go.

@Manose
You were saying 12 would be the max you would go. Do you think 15 would be too much? I have an 18" Gigantea that's been parked under a 400wMH for 2 years now. I'd rather err on the side of too much light and turn them down. Thoughts?

Manose · Mar 10, 2019

Humongous said:
@Manose
You were saying 12 would be the max you would go. Do you think 15 would be too much? I have an 18" Gigantea that's been parked under a 400wMH for 2 years now. I'd rather err on the side of too much light and turn them down. Thoughts?

It is never really to much light

cause we can adjust the intensity. I was thinking about $ spent but that is really not to much of a factor with the Noopsyche K7. The best thing about the K7 is they produce a shimmer like MH and Kessil so no worry about disco ball effect.

killr66tb · Mar 10, 2019

The xr15 pros are the way to go because you can space them out better than the 30s

Shanet · Mar 11, 2019

True, I use one on each end Xr30's in the middle.

Humongous · Mar 11, 2019

@Manose
How high above the water line is suggested to get the best color blending?

Manose said:
It is never really to much light cause we can adjust the intensity. I was thinking about $ spent but that is really not to much of a factor with the Noopsyche K7. The best thing about the K7 is they produce a shimmer like MH and Kessil so no worry about disco ball effect.

dantimdad · Mar 11, 2019

12-14"

Manose · Mar 11, 2019

Humongous said:
@Manose
How high above the water line is suggested to get the best color blending?

@dantimdad is correct 12-14in would do nicely

A. grandis · Mar 11, 2019

Humongous said:
...
To understand why I have all that, the tank is 10'L x 5'W x 30"H. The five feet of front to back is so enjoyable but lighting is a nightmare.
...

Please keep this in your mind:
IF you need all that to have your system running as is, and I repeat IF, you would most likely need to invest a ton of money into LED systems and will most likely not achieve the exact SAME results you have now.
Meaning... the results (growth and coloration) that and you have will be DIFFERENT with the LEDs.
Is it worthy to go back to LEDs and spend that TON of money? Will it pay off in the long run?

Normally you would have to invest lots of money with new LED fixtures to replace that much light for a big of a tank to keep the system alive!
What would I do?
I would rethink of all of what I've had over the system and see what I could do to make it work with halides and spend less electricity. Maybe you won't need 3 X400W and 3 X 250W plus all the VHOs!!!! Perhaps that was your mistake!
Pictures would help some!
Those are my thoughts.
Ps: your gigantea will hate you if you remove the halides. ;Wideyed

Skynyrd Fish · Mar 11, 2019

If it were me I would add some more t5 and phase out the 110 vho. Power use and new bulbs are cheap compared to new LED lights. However with the right t5 and halide set up you could phase out halides as you got LED’s acquired. Post a pic. I want to see this beast.

jda · Mar 11, 2019

I have a similar tank in the garage, but only 4' deep. To make a long story short, the MH is as good as it gets.

If you manage to save energy with LEDs, then you could have done with less Halides or T5s... there is no efficiency in lighting types, just different choices.

The Halides are enough to light the corals when they are on. Save some wattage and turn the T5s and VHOs off when they are on. I still have a pair of VHOs, but I have really good reflectors for them... if you don't have good reflectors you can get more mileage out of other T5s. I do realize that VHO Super Actinic are hard to beat, so if that is why you have them, then you gotta keep them since there is no viable substitute.

I am going to light my tank with 4x 400w 14k Hamiltons (probably, or maybe the Ushio or Giesemann) on the 20" reflectors and that is it - no T5s, no LEDs. 9 hours on/off. This is about $1.50 a day where I live, but there is no getting around the fact that large tanks are expensive. 20 Radions run at 100w is more wattage not to mention the $18,000 purchase and the additional heating costs. 14-16 Orpheks are expensive too. I am also not going to light the front too much, which is mostly sandy area... just keep the lights over the rock work.

I think that you could see some good savings if you just waited to turn the T5 and VHO on when the MH went off. 8-10 hours of light is enough.

If Idaho is anything like Colorado, you need to factor in your heaters having to work harder too. When you add all of this up, there is not going ot be much savings.

This might be cynical, but none of these companies will give you the right count if you ask them (EcoTech got close, but probably still 5-10 short). You saw this already a bit with the Orphek where they don't cover as much as they say when you compare them with what you have - the coverage areas are a joke when you compare them to a MH or T5 unit. Dr. Joshi is another good example where he is using 10x xr30s to replace 3x 400w Halides.