Lighting my 65 gallon

[Speedfreak241]

Trying to find a way to light my 65 gallon project build. The dimensions are 36" long by 24" tall. I am open to all forms of lighting as long as it can be done within my budget. I currently sold my 120 for $180 and now I'm trying to sell my 90g for $400. So with $580 I'm going to try and build my 65 gallon tank. I already have the drilled tank and the sump and am planing on using $300 of the budget to build the stand and plump the tank with pumps and a skimmer. So my lighting budget is just shy of $300. I am looking to keep a mixed reef but mainly just lps and softies. I like acans, lobos, brains, hammers, and frogspawns mainly but looking to start with some simple sps.
I was originally looking at a t5 metal halide combo but my local pages sold all of them already.
Also looking at a ati 36" 4 or 6 bulb unit but those are $3-500 for just the fixture without bulbs even used down here.
Led seems like a great idea if I could front the money because metal halide bulbs are $60 each and t5 are $20-30 each. There always seems to be radions for sale on my local pages but I don't know the difference between the gens and pro vs regular, and there a bit of money usually selling for $4-500 each used.

Lastly the metal halide a guy locally is selling that I've been looking at. It's a Hamilton 250w retro kit that he wants $85 for and needs bulbs. How much more would this take to complete so it can be used.

 

[sde1500]

Check out Reefbreeder photons. I use their first gen ones and so far I like them.

 

[Speedfreak241]

Would a 24" model be big enough because all the used 32" models are sold out, but they have a 24" for $150.

 

[307charles]

Them fixtures look like there complete. I have a 65gal. rimless, and have been running the Chinese full spectrum led and have many lps and sps that love them! For three years now. I payed 130 I think. Now some of them are as cheap as $99.

Sent from my LGL16C using Tapatalk

 

[Speedfreak241]

Well yesterday I found a 32" photon on Craigslist and bought it for $257. I hope the guy is honest and actually ships it to me. I researched the light and found a lot of good reviews on it and the par numbers were to me impressive since I've only had a biocube and a coralife quad t5 fixture. Sorry for the picture quality but this is a screenshot off of there websight.

I finally will be able to grow some sps and possibly get a clam. I'm just hoping now that my acans won't get to much light and my zoas will quit stretching. While I was originally wanting metal halide and t5 once I added up the cost of the fixture plus one or two years of bulbs led is my way to go.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have a pair of 32" EverGrow IT2080 fixtures and they make the RB Photon which is virtually the same (minor led variations). My worked flawlessly for 4 years and still work great but they don't fit my new tank.

You should be very happy with your new light.

BTW, my tank was mostly sps and they grew very well.