T5 recommendation

[soonerfan12]

Hey guys I'm looking for input on some new lighting for my 60ish gallon rimless..

I currently am running a d120 evergrow LED. It has done ok but I'm just not happy with the coloring and just how the light looks for my personal preference. Of course I like the look of the ATI power module with t-5 and all blue actinic led's. Basically what I'm asking for is if anyone uses or has used a lower cost alternative to the ATI for the fixture at least and what Led supplement you would recommend. I would use the ATI bulbs regardless.. And I understand that actual ATI fixtures are better and you get what you pay for..

Pic is current setup.

 

[soonerfan12]

Also this is not a sps dominant tank. I would like to have some though and I understand that they most likely would need to be near the top.

Tank is run bare bottom with a full siphon return and 2 rw8's, flow is quite good. Livestock consists of 2 clowns and a algae blenny as the only fish. Typical cleanup crew. Only been setup about 4 months.

 

[soonerfan12]

Bump

 

[gus6464]

What are dimensions of the tank?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[soonerfan12]

30x20x20

 

[CJP63]

What kind of corals do you want to keep?

 

[soonerfan12]

Lps mostly. Some easier sps. Nem for the perculas

 

[Bpb]

You don't have to pay and arm and a leg for an ATI fixture. They're available used all over the place. Just keep your eyes out on local, state, and national forums and sale ads. I see 24" 6 bulb ATI sunpower fixtures regularly selling for $200-250. It's not uncommon at all. The non-dimmable sunpowers are fantastic and you don't too often hear about ballast and fan failures on them (as opposed to the more expensive dimmable versions, which seem to have frequent ballast and fan issues). You'll pay more for a brand new reefbrite retrofit blue strip than you would for the whole used ATI fixture I'd be willing to bet. Just keep that in mind. They don't make the aquaticlife or TEK fixtures like they used to anymore. The TEK are all discontinued, and the aquaticlife lighting line has been really gutted and they're focusing all of their tooling and budget on making LEDs, so your only option there are their 2 bulb, hammered reflector marquis fixtures with no fans and no parabolic reflectors. A big step downward in quality, as their older units are actually pretty decent for the price. The giesemann matrix fixtures will cost you more than an ATI will. Just avoid using one of those horticultural things as they don't really have the cooling you'd want to have maximum bulb life and spectrum stability. I say you should keep using what you're using since you don't have a ton of coral in the tank, and keep your eyes out for a used ATI sunpower

 

[soonerfan12]

Thx! I'm actually thinking about keeping what I have and adding 2 small actinic rampable bars. This way I can run the current light at a higher percentage for a shorter window and ramp up the extra actinic bars with my reef keeper.