Good lighting?

[Ryan20A]

Hi I'm new to saltwater and I'm looking for some lighting for my new tank, it measures 900mm x 500mm x 600mm. I don't know much sought lighting so I'm looking for some recommendations! I'm planning on going a soft corral reef set up so will have to be powerful enough for this, I've got a budget of around £500

 

[mbublitz01]

there's many different routes that you can take as far as lighting for softies. from good to best, I would classify fluorescent lights, power compacts, then metal halides with a mix of fluorescent lights for actinics.

the newer tech we have now if led. I have an led light over my current 60 gallon cube that I purchased on amazon. It was well within your budget and it puts out enough light for my softies, even have a few plates and acres growing well with the light.

if you decide to go with led's take a look at reef breeders lights. they are on sale now. other lights as well.... in no particular order

rapid led.
coral life
current usa
kessil

 

[mbublitz01]

acros*

 

[Ryan20A]

I'm definitely be going for leds, cheers for the suggestions, I'l check them out!

 

[Uncle99]

I use VISPARSPECTRA 165w LED, really happy at 160 Canadian deilivered

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ryan, I don't think you can get Reef Breeder Phtons V2 in Scotland, but you can get EverGrow fixtures and they are the company that makes the Photon V2. I've had both and they are well made and probably the best value for an led fixture that has both sunrise/sunset and 6 channel color control.

You can get other led fixtures for less, like the Viparspectra, if you don't want to pay for the extra features. As far as the actual light from the fixtures, they are all very similar.

Just be aware that Current Orbit and Marineland make fixtures that use very weak leds (0.3 watts to 0.5 watts vs others at 3.0 watts and some, like EverGrow and Reef Breeders that even use some 5 watt Cree leds which are much better for tanks over 16" deep.