reef lighting

[ngarcia11892]

hey every one im new to the site so hi all, you guys are probobly gunna be sick of my questions by the end of it haha. But any way i have a 54 corner tank and wanted to start adding corals and was wondering what kind of lights would i need. thanks!

 

[soccerbag]

Welcome to R2R!!! That's a question that will get lots of answers. And please feel free to ask any questions you have. Before I answer, what type of corals are you looking to keep? Softies, LPS, SPS, mixed reef? Some corals have different lighting needs.

 

[ngarcia11892]

well i want someting that will give me the most variety. i know some cant be with other due to various reasons but i want to be able to pretty much see something i like and be able to get it lighting wise

 

[soccerbag]

Well, there are a few options. You can go with halides, T5's, or LED's (or a combo of both). What kind of budget do you have? LED's are gaining in popularity and are much more energy efficient than that other 2. You could grow anything under all of these options. Are you looking to build something into a canopy or are you looking to hang a fixture over the tank? I would recommend a T5 fixture, a halide / T5 combo, or a LED fixture. All depends on what you want to spend.....

 

[ngarcia11892]

well cheaper is always better but i know thats not always an option. what kind of lumens,watts or kelvin would be good.

 

[soccerbag]

It just depends on what type of fixture you want. LED fixtures are pretty expensive (but you get the cost savings on the back end) and they don't heat up the water. Halides are tried and true and have been around a long time.. Depending on what type of corals you wanted to keep. You could likely get a 250w 14K or 20K fixture. You could supplement that with T5's and alot of fixtures will combine both. T5's give you lot of flexibility as you can run TONS of different bulb combos (and they don't heat up the water). I would suggest having a look at some of the build threads on here and see what type of lighting best suits your eye. You need to start somewhere and the first step is deciding which direction you want to go (of the 3 mentioned above). Once you determine that, we can likely give you some suggestions on what may suit your reef.

Sorry to be really general, but asking what type of lighting is a really broad question as you can go so many ways...lol. I'm sure some others will chime in as well. Hope that helps.

 

[ngarcia11892]

yea thanks alot!

 

[dhutcheson]

ReefFiltration has a nice looking LED fixture and will do the job. I have one on order myself to replace my Cree 3w DIY setup. I also like the T5 and MH fixture option which will also get the job done. If you want to truly cover all your bases and have the cash to do it you could use pieces of all three. Which will allow you to have the strenghts of all three and cover the weaknesses of just one lighting system.