Newbie lighting question

[lukegavin87]

I'm sorry to ask a question that comes up a lot but I have gone through the threads which have left me slightly confused. I have recently purchased a 100g tank 26 inch in height,36 length and am planning on it being a reef tank. I am wondering what people would recommend as a light system? nearly every thread, book or page recommends something different. Thanks for your help

 

[kfisc]

As long as you don't mind hearing some of the same recommendations, here's mine: metal halide. A pair of 250w 10k's suspended about 8-12" over the top would provide all the light you need for anything you want. If I were doing it all over again, I'd still get them over LED's or T5's or any of the other advances- and really the only defense I have for it is that I think they look better. A tank is something to look at, after all. Good luck and welcome to the site!

 

[TatorTaco]

Hi there!

Each method of lights (Halide, T5, LED) has it's own set of pros/cons.

Halides produce a bit of heat.
T5s are great, but you need to replace the bulbs every 9 months - year ($25 a bulb).
LEDs are expensive, but they generally run cool and you don't have replaced bulbs often. The downside, is that they're a newer technology than the previous two options.

Do you have an ideal budget in mind? That might help narrow it down a bit.

 

[djbon]

I personally using China made LED. I think its functioning quite well, as long as you tuned the blue/white & full spectrum correctly. My coral is growing quite well.

 

[lukegavin87]

I was hoping not to spend more than £350 which is around $700usd obviously that can be changed if something in that price range won't work for me. Iv spent more time researching lighting than anything else but haven't really found any definitive answers. I saw a cool 4 bulb t5 unit in my lfs but the only guy in at the time couldn't answer many questions

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I just changed out my Chinese Black Box LEDs for an Ocean Revive Arctic T247 and couldn't be happier. This light sells for $175 shipped here in the US and I know they're available in your area. Here is the link to the Ocean Revive forum here on RC and you can go on there and read about these lights as well as others they sell but most importantly you can ask your questions from the factory rep and one of them will usually answer rather quickly.

What size is your tank with dimensions? These lights are said to cover 24x24 area but I can tell you that mine is set to 13 inches over my tanks which dimensions are 36"x18"x17" and has no problem covering the 36" width. I have a mix of corals with leathers, LPS and a few of the easier SPS as well as three bubble tip anemones and this light is more than powerful than I really need. The positive side of that is you won't be running the lights at full 100% power which will extend the life of them.

These lights are much more powerful than the CBB and I royally messed up and burned many of my corals :hammer: But now that it's adjusted properly my corals couldn't be happier and growing like crazy.

Yes you will get many suggestions as everyone has their favorite. If you buy quality lighting to begin with it's a bit more expensive but in most cases well worth the dollars spent.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=717

 

[lukegavin87]

That could be the one thanks! my is 36 long too nice to know that it will cover

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Yes that is what I wanted just one light to cover my tank and it does it beautifully! You can see it in the last post I made in the link I posted above. There is a FTS and one shot from the left and right sides. The settings you see there are 60% blues and 20% whites. I'm slowly ramping them up to where I can adjust for whatever colors I wish to see. For instance there are 3 torches on the back right side of the tank. One is a gold Aussie torch, one is a pink tip and the other one a blue tip. I want to be able to adjust the lights so they show their true colors properly. As we know how much blue lighting messes up pictures of our tanks :lmao:

 

[lukegavin87]

I love your branching torch! looks healthy and happy