Pico tank lighting

[ahuaia]

Hay guys so I've been toying with the idea of starting a pick tank to keep some frags in and maybe a shrimp or two. It would Duble as a display for my desk but it's mainly for frags so they can heal before I sell or trade them anyways I already have a bunch of old equipment to set it up so it would cost me almost nothing to get it going however I don't own an extra light for a tank that size 8-8-8 I think something like 2.5 gallons. I'm looking for a light that ranges in the $50 and under price but could still grow most soft and lps coral. I should mention that my display tank has the lights for any type of coral I want so I don't want to be to limited buy the lighting of my frag tank. However I'm not really planning on spa coral so a good lps light should do fine I'm also open to $75 if I am getting a much better light but it would need to support almost anything for that price. Thanks in advance guys I'm sorry my budget is so low but I really appreciate your help.

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[ReefWreak]

Is this is for quarantine for incoming pieces, or a frag tank for outgoing pieces?

That will make the difference in the recommendation. If for a quarantine, it's a good practice, you'll be dipping and moving around the frags, so you expect some trouble, fine. If it is for outgoing pieces, I would not bother with the tank. The tank will be challenging to keep the parameters stable because of tank size, and your pieces will all turn brown.

On an incoming piece, if it turns brown, so be it, that's almost expected, and they'll grow and re-color up over time. If for sales and/or outgoing, it's tougher to sell brown pieces to other people, so you'd be better off selling out of your display and getting a small frag rack that sticks to the glass in an out-of-center place.

If you do decide on the tank, you could get a simple AI Prime (though it looks like they now sell for $225 instead of the $125 they used to be?!), Kessil A80, or even the RapidLED PAR38 daylight/reef bulb looks really nice for the price. They'll all work just fine for a tank that size, and are cool running and relatively inexpensive.

 

[ahuaia]

its more for outgoing frags since i want to cut them small and give them time to grow a little. I was thinking about a kessil A80 but wanted to see what else there is out there and I'll be putting the frags on rubble instead of plugs so will probably just let it cycle in the tank so it will basically be live rock buy the time I'm using it and shouldn't be that brown at least that's the hope. But it will Duble as a small desk tank so it will be a display tank in a way it is not just a frag tank.

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[luu78]

Provided stability concerns have been , I have 2 Eheim clamp on LEDs for you to choose. They should work well with an 8"x8"" footprint. One is a corner mount and the other is top edge mount


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[ahuaia]

Corner mount would probably work best

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[ahuaia]

Those look pretty good thanks for the input

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[spec33]

A par38 bulb would be perfect. I second that


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