Lighting Advice

[BigMack46]

I have a 75g ******* tank that I restarted after a long time in storage... Lots has changed since I last had this tank set up... I need some lighting advice - I use a hood, so suspended lighting isn't possible - what's a good high end light that works well under a hood?

 

[MinnFish]

Welcome back. What are your plans, reef or fish only? This will have a huge impact on what lights.

 

[shesacharmer]

If you want coral then you have to decide which type of coral in order to choose the correct lighting. If you want SPS then you will need the very brightest, controllable lights, which are for the most part the most expensive lighting. LPS require moderate/bright lighting and the soft corals require somewhat less than that. You thought you were asking an easy question, right? Once you decide this then finding the proper light to work with your hood will be an entirely different challenge!

If you stick with your hood, I assume you don't mean canopy, then you will probably steer away from metal halide due to the amount of heat they produce. That leads you toward T5 or LED or a combination of the two. Chances are with a hood you will only find room for one fixture and LED fixtures can come in the smallest of profiles and also produce the least heat. Just make sure you don't get the ones which use 1 watt LEDs because they are generally only adequate for soft corals and some LPS. A better bet would be to find one with 3 watt LEDs which is dimable.

 

[E46Twist]

A good LED unit would run cool and give you a lot of controllability. Or go for the tried and true THho setup. Again we need a few more details to give the best answer.