Need a little help on lighting a 125 gallon

[Hokie125]

I'm trying to decide which route I want to go on my 125 gallon mixed tank. Planning on being heavy on SPS towards the top of the tank. I have been running 2 Current Marine Orbit IC Pros right now with all softies and LPS, while the corals look great after 6 months they are just not growing.
I am stuck between 3 lighting options so any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

1: 2 36" Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid Fixtures and still use the Orbits and later add 3 Kessil A360WE
2: 3 Kessil A360WE and upgrade later to the Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid
3: 2 36" SBReeflights Ultras

Kind of torn on the SBReeflights but have read great reviews and they do grow corals very well, just curious as to how much shadowing and disco effect they have. I haven't seen a lot of reviews on the Ultra's since they are so new but I am assuming they are using the same drivers and LED's that they use in the SBOX.

The current usa's I have now are terrible for the disco effect and would like to stay clear of that if I can help it. Gives me a headache!!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Aquatic Life T5 with 3 Kessil A360WE's gets my vote I would do your second choice though, get the kessils and then add the t5 The kessils are known for their color blending and shimmer and will not give you the disco ball effect

 

[Hokie125]

Thanks for the quick reply, I have been leaning towards the Kessil's since the beginning of my time in this hobby. Does anybody have any experience with mounting 2 aquatic life T5/LED fixtures side by side? I know the power cords will interfere some with the connection in the middle. Just wondering if there is a way to make it look decent?

 

[Hk45]

Kessils then t5s. Ran this combo on my 300dd

 

[Crabs McJones]

Thanks for the quick reply, I have been leaning towards the Kessil's since the beginning of my time in this hobby. Does anybody have any experience with mounting 2 aquatic life T5/LED fixtures side by side? I know the power cords will interfere some with the connection in the middle. Just wondering if there is a way to make it look decent?

Honestly, the first thing I would do is to remove two of the cords. Check out either my build thread or this thread here. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/re-wiring-aquatic-life-hybrid.354772/ Basically instead of having two cords for the one t5 fixture (4 cords total just for the t5's), they bridge it over to the other fixture and get rid of a cord. Its an easy mod that I was able to complete in one afternoon. It'll help clean it up by not having cords coming from every which way lol.

 

[Hokie125]

I wonder why they didn't do that to begin with! I will definitely be doing that modification

 

[Crabs McJones]

I wonder why they didn't do that to begin with! I will definitely be doing that modification

I believe they said they didn't do it that way because of something to do with different tank designs, but it's something they're considering on later releases.

 

[Finhead]

I wonder why they didn't do that to begin with! I will definitely be doing that modification

They would have ran 2 cords so you can run the outer or inner lights at different times, all together and the 4 bulbs come on all at once. 2 separate you can ramp them 2 at a time, it's how I built my fixture and stager them 30min apart.

 

[Hokie125]

Sounds like I will be buying some Kessil's in the near future! Do you guys think that the 2 Orbit Marines in between the Aquatic Life Fixture would be a sufficient start? I don't want to spend 100 bucks on goosenecks to mount them only to get rid of them a couple months later! I have about 1500 to spend so I cant get both at the moment. My wife already thinks I'm crazy, so if I go over I may be paying child support instead!! LOL