Lighting opinion

[thebryan]

I am starting up a new aquarium that is cycling currently. The tank info is:
72"x24"x24" 180G with 2 center braces and 2 reef ready overflows. I have 2 holes drilled in the back for the two return pumps. My plan is to do some SPS up top but not a SPS dominant..maybe 20-25% SPS if i had to give it a number? The tank is in a basement that is 16'x32' well ventilated. I'm in Nebraska so there is only 2 months that it is crazy hot and the basement usually gets up to maybe 65 at those times. (That might be important later)

---Also i currently have 3 AI Hydra HD 26's, in case that would influence your decision/choice---I would be willing to sell those if needed, they are brand new in box, never used---

My options are:

1. Metal halide setup (Probably 3x 250 watt pendants) - I know they get hot but that won't be an issue, plus I would rather pay electricity in this case over running a couple heaters even more. At least this would cut down on heater kicking on as much.

2. LED's only

3. LED/T5

4. T5's only - If I go this route i would likely get 2 36" fixtures with 6 bulbs each.


I know those 4 choices would each be successful but what would your choice be?

 

[pisanoal]

On my 72"x30"x30", I run 6xT5 (5 foot) and a diy led strip down the middle. Im sps dominant. With your tank, I'd run let retrofit t5s with the hydras down the middle since you have them. 4x t5, 6 if you have space.

No reason to go 2x3 ft units. 5 ft will cover fine unless you want acros on the very edges. The extra fixture will add cost in bulb changes.

Just my preference, I think its easy success and cost effective. All should work fine as you said.

 

[mcgyvr]

With the information provided so far I see no reason you need anything but the Hydras you already have.. And then run heaters

While you are right that its best to have heat input in the form of usable light that does nothing when the lights are off and you would still need heaters.. Plus heaters are more efficient at keeping the tank at a temp vs lighting..

 

[tom obrecht]

Pm sent

 

[ReefWreak]

If your basement will be as cold as you're saying, I wouldn't hesitate to do 3x250w. It's still the gold standard for those who don't care about temps or electricity costs.

If you need efficiency, T5s with LED are a good choice as well, though the Hydra26 are probably a bit under powered, even if flanked with 4x54w T5s.

You should plan on getting rid of the 26s. It most likely just won't work out well for the 180, probably too much shadowing in a 6' length, though you'd actually probably have enough light for 2' depth if you're not keeping acros at the bottom of the tank.

 

[oreo57]

Hydras are 95W at FULL. Depending on what spectrum you plan to run makes a big difference..
18" sq 400-600PAr @ 12"..
@24" sq 12" deep you are hitting only 100PAr at the edges..FULL on

On 1/2 (say colors/white low to off) they aren't close to a 250W MH though you can still push plenty of PAR in the upper ranges of the tank.

Some of this comes down to what you actually want out of it?

There is also shading ect.. See nothing is really straight-forward till one defines what one "likes".. like color, control,raw power, ect
3X250W is the most powerful though 3 Hydras (run full or close, reds don't "add" much overall as to power) and 216W of T5's is close.

specs aren't everything.. for any lighting..

all 3 choices will "work".....

Braces are annoying. and I'm not accounting for them.. except to say you will get more shading in the upper part w/ the lensed LED's than w/ t5's or MH's..

see..little things..

Sometimes I don't understand why people don't first decide what they want it to look like b4 getting all bent out of shape on "vehicles"..
Even though LED's are adjustable there are still catches..

Can't guarantee the Hydras will "work" well for you .. not my place..

Some other info:
https://www.(reeftworeef).com/threads/3-ai-hydra-hd-vs-3-60”-reefbrite-xho-180-gal.339880/
Need to "fix" the URL..
Regardless of "PAR" each has a look..
https://youtu.be/Cf2LUGclpvs

 

[Green Chromis]

Hydras are 95W at FULL. Depending on what spectrum you plan to run makes a big difference..
18" sq 400-600PAr @ 12"..
@24" sq 12" deep you are hitting only 100PAr at the edges..FULL on

On 1/2 (say colors/white low to off) they aren't close to a 250W MH though you can still push plenty of PAR in the upper ranges of the tank.

Some of this comes down to what you actually want out of it?

There is also shading ect.. See nothing is really straight-forward till one defines what one "likes".. like color, control,raw power, ect
3X250W is the most powerful though 3 Hydras (run full or close, reds don't "add" much overall as to power) and 216W of T5's is close.

specs aren't everything.. for any lighting..

all 3 choices will "work".....

Braces are annoying. and I'm not accounting for them.. except to say you will get more shading in the upper part w/ the lensed LED's than w/ t5's or MH's..

see..little things..

Sometimes I don't understand why people don't first decide what they want it to look like b4 getting all bent out of shape on "vehicles"..
Even though LED's are adjustable there are still catches..

Can't guarantee the Hydras will "work" well for you .. not my place..

Some other info:
https://www.(reeftworeef).com/threads/3-ai-hydra-hd-vs-3-60”-reefbrite-xho-180-gal.339880/
Need to "fix" the URL..
Regardless of "PAR" each has a look..
https://youtu.be/Cf2LUGclpvs

:fish1: Their are 1 or 2 LED light fixtures on the market, that are just as good if not better then M/H lamps, and the Hydra's are not one of them. Hydra lights are good lights, but for a 6' tank you will need a lot of fixtures to properly light your tank, for SPS corals. You need to compare the wattage of the lights being used, with the 3 Hydra's running at 100%, you are only producing 285 watts of lighting, and with 3 250 M/H lights you are producing 750 watts of light output, thus 3 times the amount of light. If you want to stay with the Hydras, you will need 5 more Hydra lights, for a total of 8 lights running at 100%, to compare to the 3 M/H lamps. If you want to stay with only LED light fixtures, I would use 4 of the Mitra LX 7206 lights, or 4 of the new Radion G4 30 Pro lights. :fish1:

 

[oreo57]

:fish1: Their are 1 or 2 LED light fixtures on the market, that are just as good if not better then M/H lamps, and the Hydra's are not one of them. Hydra lights are good lights, but for a 6' tank you will need a lot of fixtures to properly light your tank, for SPS corals. You need to compare the wattage of the lights being used, with the 3 Hydra's running at 100%, you are only producing 285 watts of lighting, and with 3 250 M/H lights you are producing 750 watts of light output, thus 3 times the amount of light. If you want to stay with the Hydras, you will need 5 more Hydra lights, for a total of 8 lights running at 100%, to compare to the 3 M/H lamps. If you want to stay with only LED light fixtures, I would use 4 of the Mitra LX 7206 lights, or 4 of the new Radion G4 30 Pro lights. :fish1:

Wasn't going to really respond anymore..but since you did..
THIS was the assumption:

My plan is to do some SPS up top but not a SPS dominant.

Due to the fact one is starting w/ a 120 degree light source not 360 there is a matter of geometric efficiency..regardles of reflector (well worse the better for the LED)

Old days it was thought 1:2Watts LED:mh/t5

Point is you are right 750W at 100 Lumens/watt (just for comparison) is a lot of light compared to 2 Hydras..but not as much as it seems "on paper"

My OPINION if one wants to match MH's w/ Hydras would be around 1:1.5w
About 500 or so minimum. And yes at 100%
As "lumen efficiency" in LED's goes higher (current best is around 140) ratio will change.

O/p's point didn't seem to be to "match" 250's just what could (won't say would) work w/ their goals..

Didn't see SPS dominant as one or deep placement of them.

You are right there are better LED matches to 250w mh's and mh's is the cheapest method of that volume of photons.

 

[thebryan]

Pm sent

Give me a few more posts and I'll respond to your pm, I don't have 10 posts yet. lol

 

[thebryan]

I got my Hydras sold for damn close to what i paid for them so I couldn't pass up getting rid of them.

For now i had to go the route of a 60" 8 bulb T5 fixture. It'll be plenty good for now. and probably in 9ish months I'll be going the M/H setup. I'm kind of obsessed with the shimmer and growing output from the M/H setup and I'm not a huge fan of the LED's (which is my fault...sometimes all the options are just something else for me to F up)

And i think i can sell it to the wife....my arguement is going to be 8x 80watt bulbs is 640 watts and 3 250 watt halides are 750. At that point less than 100 more watts in my opinion wont make much of a difference on the power bill. and at least the 800 watt heater wont turn on as much. I just don't see a downside to a halide setup since temperature control won't be a problem at all...better growth, light coverage/spread and at least my electricity will be paying to grow corals and not just heating the water (as much)

 

[thebryan]

On my 72"x30"x30", I run 6xT5 (5 foot) and a diy led strip down the middle. Im sps dominant. With your tank, I'd run let retrofit t5s with the hydras down the middle since you have them. 4x t5, 6 if you have space.

No reason to go 2x3 ft units. 5 ft will cover fine unless you want acros on the very edges. The extra fixture will add cost in bulb changes.

Just my preference, I think its easy success and cost effective. All should work fine as you said.

Do you by chance have a couple pictures? I would love to see that a 5' fixture of T5/LED's can do.

 

[pisanoal]

Sure. What kind of pictures are you wanting? I am horrible with documenting my tank/coral growth, and I suck at taking tank pics but I can find aome decent ones that woukd be representative.

Are you wanting to see coverage? Or coral pics? I have a par meter too and can give you a good idea of performance on that level too.

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[thebryan]

Sure. What kind of pictures are you wanting? I am horrible with documenting my tank/coral growth, and I suck at taking tank pics but I can find aome decent ones that woukd be representative.

Are you wanting to see coverage? Or coral pics? I have a par meter too and can give you a good idea of performance on that level too.

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk

Maybe a picture of what your light setup looks like as well as an overall shot farther away for coverage. I'll be getting a par meter so since that'll be abit of a pain don't worry about that. But thank you a ton!

 

[pisanoal]

Maybe a picture of what your light setup looks like as well as an overall shot farther away for coverage. I'll be getting a par meter so since that'll be abit of a pain don't worry about that. But thank you a ton!

First pic is looking through a vent hole into the canopy. My lights are very low due to having a mural behind the tank i didnt want to encroach on too much.

Order is T5, T5, LED, T5, LED(diy), T5, LED, T5, T5

The led strips i bought are junk and already failing. Back most one doesnt work, so I just bought materials to build new ones.

Last pic is when the tank first went in about 5 months ago. I literally just changed the rock work this weekend as you can see in the other pics(white right structure). Light falloff on the edges is not visible. Pictures make it look more visible then actuality, I never notice it.

PAR with the LET retro fixture is really evenly spread from high to low in the tank. At the top of the right structure in hitting 350 at the point closest to the middle. Most of that section is at least 300. PAR falls off fpr the last 2 inches or so of the top part to 250. The lower pieces of that structure to the left (the pukani ledge) are around 300 even though they are quite a bit lower.

The slimer colony on the left island is at 250 and is about 16" from the surface. Most of that structure is 200-250. PAR at the edges doesnt get under 200 until the last 6 inches. Lowest I've measured is 150 anywhere in the tank apart from under an over hang. Most of the sand in the middle is around 200.

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[thebryan]

That looks really nice. I like the new rock structure you went with.

Thank you!

 

[murphreef]

I would stick with MH if I were in your situation.... Ease of use and if heat / electrical bills aren't a concern than that's a huge bonus.

I used to have a 180 just like yours with 3-250W MH's I got the best growth and color out of this set up.... downside I needed a chiller and my electric bill would get north of $600 month during the summer.....

If I ever set up a large tank again I would go with LED or a LED/T5 combo because of heat and cost

 

[pisanoal]

That looks really nice. I like the new rock structure you went with.



Thank you!

No problem. Thanks for the compliments. Good luck with your set up.

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