Getting back into hobby need help with equipment.

[Mikemac116]

So I was in this hobby about 10 years ago when metal halides were the in thing! I wanna get back in I have an all glass 150gal tank with custom stand. Gonna prob do a decent size sump. So my question in what's the lighting ratio for LEDS? How many watts do I need? Also what's a good skimmer ? That I won't need to re mortgage my house?

Thanks for the help in advance!!




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[mcgyvr]

Well there really is no solid/proven rule on wattage I use this as a very generic start..

http://www.rapidled.com/led-university-1/
NOTE: you multiply the calculated number by 3 for watts as that formula was based on using 3W LEDs..

What types of corals are you intending if at all anyways?

 

[jda]

What do you want to keep and how well do you want to do it. You can get to about 70% of a MH or T5 tank with LEDs, but that might be just OK for you if you want to keep only the easier stuff or might not even be able to tell the difference anyway if you don't want to dig in that deep.

If you want to keep a typical mixed reef, then a larger fixture like a Reefbreeders might be OK to cut down on shadowing, but folks complain about these for not mixing the light very well. You could go with a point-source LED like Radion and use 3 of them for a lower light tank - these mix well, but have all kinds of shadow issues. If you want to have a higher end SPS tank, then you might need something like 2 or 3 Radion xr30s every two feet.

As you can see, there is no easy answer to this, but you can get more help if you have a few more details.

 

[cap23244]

I to was considering new lighting for my 125. I have a older current usa 3x150h with 4x96w pc lights. after moths of research on lighting im just going to convert my light. take out the 96w pc and put 4x80w t5's. with new ballasts.
I have seen people that went with led and are going back to t5. so and mh lights work well so im just rebuilding my fixture.

 

[ldc3000]

I' m using Reef Octopus skimmers on both my systems and get good results.