Hydra 52 or Hydra 26 over a 180 reef?

[DJasak]

Hey guys, just looking for some input here, I'm trying to decide on lights for my new 180 gallon. This will be a mixed reef, but primarily SPS dominant. So which one would u guys recommend? I'm leaning toward the hydra 26 because of the cost factor, but am curious if the 52, which is twice the power and size is gonna do a better job to give me what I want. I notice a lot of people with these lights say they barely have them at 50% which makes me think I can get away with the smaller hydra 26, but is the loss of 63 watts something I should be concerned with or will I hardly notice? I want lights with enough power where I could put any kind of coral in my tank and not have to worry about whether or not it's getting enough light. Thanks for the input!

 

[fearyaks]

There's a long thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2307040&page=145 that discusses Hydras. One of the posters (Sonic) is pretty good at replies. Ask him/her?

I'm not sure what your finances are but I'd consider the Hydra 26 HDs. I like the ideas of being able to control the intensity of individual colors.

 

[DocHogan]

Hey guys, just looking for some input here, I'm trying to decide on lights for my new 180 gallon. This will be a mixed reef, but primarily SPS dominant. So which one would u guys recommend? I'm leaning toward the hydra 26 because of the cost factor, but am curious if the 52, which is twice the power and size is gonna do a better job to give me what I want. I notice a lot of people with these lights say they barely have them at 50% which makes me think I can get away with the smaller hydra 26, but is the loss of 63 watts something I should be concerned with or will I hardly notice? I want lights with enough power where I could put any kind of coral in my tank and not have to worry about whether or not it's getting enough light. Thanks for the input!

In my experience you could do the maybe 6 26's..... The main issue your going to have with wither 52 or 26 is shading. I have the 26's on my 75 with SPS and am getting ready to supplement them with t5's. Led's are great lights and they are very bright but.... find a tank that has them and then place even a dual strip t-5 on the tank with the led's and you will see what I mean. More and more fixtures are going with led and t5 supplements.