Lighting a Deep Tank for SPS

[ReefDoberman]

I was curious to hear from those of you who keep SPS and have tanks that are 30" or deeper (deep meaning top to bottom/sand). I have great success with Chinese LED's in my 12" deep frag tank. I have success with Kessil's in my 24" deep tank but can't seem to replicate the same success with LED at 30" for SPS.

If you have a deep tank and run LED can you post what you are using, for how long, and the type of experience you are having?

I am wondering if I should just go MH (either 250 DE or 400 SE) and forget LED all together for this depth ....

 

[Pastey]

I think most people have success with the multi-chip LED "cannons". How deep are you looking to keep your SPS? As long as you're not trying to keep SPS on your sandbed, I would think a high quality LED fixture would reach at least 12-15" (mid-depth).

 

[ReefDoberman]

I'm talking about having the ability to keep SPS at or near the bottom of a 30" tank. Is anyone out there doing it with anything besides MH?

 

[Pastey]

Ecoxotic 100w multi-chip LED fixtures have the ability.

 

[Taahirs]

I'm doing it with a ATI sunpower T5 unit

 

[sahin]

Whilst I do not have a deep tank, my buddies do. And they have mostly T5 or a combo of T5/LED.

 

[Wonton Soup]

My tank is 30" high and with a full row of Maxspect R420R I can easily get enough light to the bottom of the tank to sustain SPS growth.
The problem is that if you have lights so strong they get light down beyond a 30" depth then all of a sudden it's too bright to put anything up high. Then most everything has to go to the bottom or at least start there for months before moving it up higher.

 

[ReefDoberman]

I was talking to a couple of local guys about this and maxspect ones one that came up. The other was orphek?

 

[b7fig]

Orphek can reach 30" I had one when they first came out a few years ago. Wow, they were bright. Burnt the crap out of everything even close to the top. (They didnt have dimmers on them when they came out initially)

 

[pstank1]

I probably won't be trying to grow any sps in the sand, but I will try a few an inch or two above the sand. My tank is 27 inches tall and I"ll be using Kessil a360w's to light it. I should have some results in a few more weeks.

 

[ReefDoberman]

I run two kessil a360we on my 24x24x30 tank and I can tell you with certainty that it is tough to grow sps more than half to 2/3rds of the way down

 

[pstank1]

Are you using their controller? What's the highest your intensity gets and how high above the tank are your lights? I'm planning on using 4 for my 48 x 24 x 27 tank, but may add 2 more eventually.

 

[Icefire]

Kessil are not that powerful, 90w at full power, most other led are 120w with the new radion at 170w

I have 2 hydra52 (240w) on a 24" cube, 30" need tighterbeam to get good par down there.

 

[Tweaked]

Looking for deep penetration?

http://www.coralvue.com/maxspect-commercial-led-floodlight

 

[msr224]

Orphek Atlantik PAR testing at 24" and 30" was recently completed by Sanjay. I can't link the actual article here due to RC rules about linking to other forums.

PAR test at 30" height over a 36x36 area.

You can read most of the article here.

https://orphek.com/par-test-atlantik-wifi-reef-led-series-by-dr-sanjay/

 

[alten78]

Looking for deep penetration?

http://www.coralvue.com/maxspect-commercial-led-floodlight

My spam filter is full of emails with this subject...sorry, couldn't help myself :lol: