Need Help With Lighting For Tall tank

[BlackiceClowns]

I am just entering the hobby and I have a new 50 by 50 tank with a hieght of 70cm. I need some sort of strong light to mainly grow sps and softies. I'm struggling to find one under 350 bucks that can penetrate that deep. Any recommendations.

 

[nothing_fancy]

Debatable topic. Some might say any LED will grow coral and this is probably not entirely false, but trying to keep SPS healthy under a cheap light is probably not the move unless you want to experiment because there might not be good data on what sort of spectrum said light is really putting out. SPS isn't cheap as you know so if you get a few $50 frags and all of them die due to poor light acclimation, well you could have gotten the right light with proven track record for growing SPS with the money you lost on the frags. If you want a single high powered fixture that will punch down to the sand bed really well I could only recommend the Kessil A360X with a narrow reflector as I know the data on it and Ive measured the par for my particular use. But there are certainly other brands of lights that will do it too and maybe cheaper. This is just a bit of caution because a lot of folks lose corals due to poor light acclimation among other things but light acclimation is much simpler to nail down than parameter issues when adding new corals to your system in my opinion.

 

[BlackiceClowns]

Deatable topic. Some might say any LED will grow coral and this is probably not entirely false, but trying to keep SPS healthy under a cheap light is probably not the move unless you want to experiment because there might not be good data on what sort of spectrum said light is really putting out. SPS isn't cheap as you know so if you get a few $50 frags and all of them die due to poor light acclimation, well you could have gotten the right light with proven track record for growing SPS with the money you lost on the frags. If you want a single high powered fixture that will punch down to the sand bed really well I could only recommend the Kessil A360X with a narrow reflector as I know the data on it and Ive measured the par for my particular use. But there are certainly other brands of lights that will do it too and maybe cheaper. This is just a bit of caution because a lot of folks lose corals due to poor light acclimation among other things but light acclimation is much simpler to nail down than parameter issues when adding new corals to your system in my opinion.

 

[BlackiceClowns]

Yeah I completely agree. I was wondering what you think about the illumagic blaze mini. Have you had an experience with the light

 

[nothing_fancy]

Yeah I completely agree. I was wondering what you think about the illumagic blaze mini. Have you had an experience with the light

I don't have any experience with that light, hopefully someone who does chimes in. I took a quick look at the specs, so (2) 25 watt clusters, it should in theory be powerful, I just don't know anything about that light. However I could share that I am running (2) 90 Watt single cluster lights about 10 inches apart from each other. My tank depth is 50cm roughly, I get around 130 par at the sand bed running those lights in the mid 50% at peak. Im not a big fan for running LED light fixtures at 100% or even over 60% I think it puts a lot of stress on the fixture especially the heat sink. Over working heat sink on any electronic device that is in service a lot, in our case lights are the majority of the day, is going to cause a failure sooner and need to be replaced requiring another purchase. In my opinion its better to upsize your light and run it at power level thats comfortable for the piece of gear if longevity of equipment is important.

 

[BlackiceClowns]

Yeah understood. Thanks alot for the input. Might look into some stronger lights

 

[Torres1999]

I'm a new reefer and will be using a 110gal that is 4ft tall x 4ft long x 2.5ft wide. I will be growing starter corals amd beginning with the starting utilitarian fish and other beginners. What light would be best to ensure I have the right lighting for this type of tank set up?