lighting questions

[travissmith2909]

Hey guy I am just about to buy my light fixture for my 90 gallon. I want to eventually keep sps corals so I am trying to plan for that in the back of my mind. I really don't want to have to run a chiller either.

With all this said I am really liking the new ecotech radion led setup. I was going to buy two of these for thr tank because it will keep my temp down and electric bill too. On the flip side these would run me at 1500 or so. Plus the leds don't need replaced for about five years.

Second would be a T5 fixture that I would maybe look into diy because it would be inside my tanks canopy. If not I would look to spend around 500 to 600 on a fixture. I am not sure how much heat these give off. Would I need a Chiller? Or could a fan suffice?

Lastly but not least would be two 250 watt metal halide bulbs and two reflectors. I just have a feeling that these would be giving off more heat then that simple fan I stated earlier could handle.

Anyways that's a quick summary of what I have been thinking so let me know what you think is the smart choice and that's for your time.

 

[rc407092]

if you can front the cost of the radion or any led setup, it would definitely make the most sense, in my opinion. the MHs would, i'm afraid, put of quite a bit of heat more than a simple fan could handle; might need a chiller. the t5's, depending on the fixture, i would think would be alright without a chiller, but like you said you'd have to shell out $ every 9-12 months or whatever to replace them.

if you're a handy guy, you could do a diy led setup and save a good bit of money vice buying a produced fixture. the diy route really isn't bad at all; especially if you don't like/want to solder, you could get BJB solderless connectors.

 

[travissmith2909]

Thanks for the advice i will probably look into some DIY setups too see the cost difference.

 

[travissmith2909]

For those people that have led lights already what do you think about people saying after a year their corals just up and started to not respond well to the leds. I'm not sure if there is any proof but I have read a few people complaining about it.

 

[rc407092]

i have a diy led fixture, but haven't had it for a year. i can tell you that i'm more than satisfied and my corals have been doing better under it as opposed to a mh/t5 hybrid light which was on the tank previously.