thoughts on led lights for deep reef tank?

S

smb2415

Member
I have a 7' long 36" wide and 32" deep tank. It is a mixed reef, or at least planned to be. Currently Im lighting it with 3 GHL Mitras at about 8" off the water. I can go as high as about 12" off the water.

Im running the lights at around 85% during highest period. Im just not convinced there is enough light for proper coral growth. I know that I'll need to keep SPS at the top.

Lately I have been reconsidering my selection in lighting choice. I can buy more Mitras (prob 3 more would be needed). However at that point of running 6 300watt lights Im getting close to comparable traditional lighting. Ive been thinking of kessel and ecoxotic pendants. Im thinking I might have better spread per watt than with my current setup.

Thoughts?
 
I am unfamiliar with the GHL lights, however, when I switched from a 24" tall 90 to a 30" tall 265, I simply swapped out the lenses on my Photon32 light for a narrower beam .... And bought a second fixture. No issues growing SPS lower down in the tank (though not right on the bottom). Until a few months ago I was supplementing with MH, but those have now been replaced with Kessil spots.
 
Correction: my tank is 42" tall
So the tank is 7' long x 36" wide x 42" tall

I don't see any other tanks on herewith similar height other than the huge tanks... so this is now leading me to believe I'll need lighting similar to ones they are using.
 
Dave M > have you seen ecoxotic used successfully for a reef tank? My concern is that they would work for softies but not so sure for SPS. Also I'm not clear as to how many I would need to "do it right" for my setup. Any clue on this?

As for Orphek, I haven't been impressed by the reviews Ive read. Logically Im placing Ecoxotic as the leader (I may be mistaken on this) and possible the "best" for the intended purpose. Not to go into a whole Chevy vs. Ford but my mind says its more like a Honda vs. Acura. Does that make sense?
 
cleverbs said:
400w Halides would be your best lighting. you could do LED's but you will need TONS of fixtures.
Click to expand...

If I don't go with DaveM route of Ecoxotic or Orphek this would be the "traditional" route I would need to resort to.

If I go this route I thinkin I would need 3 with good reflectors to get optimal spread.... and so 3x400 = 1200watts.

My GHLs are 275w and I would need 6 (a guesstimate)so 6x275=1650w
**Im not focusing on bulb replacement at this point.
 
shocker444 said:
Im thinking the same thing as well my tank is 40 deep and was gunna use led's but I'm not sure now
Click to expand...

FWIW I had put a good amount of time into research before buying the GHLs and they claimed to be able to meet the need with only 3 lights... not so much....but not horrible either...but just not "right".

Back then and now I believe there are truly only 3 options (excluding the mitras, for reasons stated above) for deep tanks. Ecoxotic, Orphek, and MH. Kessels might be possible however Im not positive. For us limited few with overly tall tanks, the options are limited and with so few of us it is hard to find us in the crowd to share experiences.
 
Id agree that probably you need 1000w MH, I said 400w based on the 32" tall tank. I would probably do 1000w if its 42" tall. you have a big tank you are going to need some big lights. I agree with the above statment that LED's will cost you so much money to light the tank its not worth the "Savings" you could do 3x 1000w MH's and even with price of energy and bulb replacment you will get 5+ years till you MAYBE match the price of LED"s and even then Im betting you would be way below that cost of LED
 
Orphek gets my vote. I just upgraded to the Atlantik V2.1b's and love them. They make a a narrow deep lens that should fit your needs.
 
cleverbs said:
Id agree that probably you need 1000w MH, I said 400w based on the 32" tall tank. I would probably do 1000w if its 42" tall. you have a big tank you are going to need some big lights. I agree with the above statment that LED's will cost you so much money to light the tank its not worth the "Savings" you could do 3x 1000w MH's and even with price of energy and bulb replacment you will get 5+ years till you MAYBE match the price of LED"s and even then Im betting you would be way below that cost of LED
Click to expand...

Yup

3 of these guys with 1000 watt radiums and some vhos or t-5s
https://www.sunlightsupply.com/shop...tors/dominator-xxxl-8-in-air-cooled-reflector
 
Have you borrowed a par or lux meter to test? Might be worth doing before you swap out the lighting.
 
smb2415 said:
Dave M > have you seen ecoxotic used successfully for a reef tank?
Click to expand...
Check out pmrogers' build here on RC. He hasn't updated in a while but I think his tank qualifies as deep enough to compare with yours. I'm finding manufacturers' claims to be totally out of whack so I think you're right to be skeptical and look for real world examples. I know Mr. Wilson has been working with the Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto using Orpheks but I haven't been able to go there to see for myself yet.

Dave.M
 
Last edited:
I'm interested in other tall-tanks opinion too. I have 96x42x36 high tank, and have 4x GHL MItras 6200, didn't do research enough before bought them, only statement on their web.
I think the biggest problem for us with GHL is to find right combination of colors, which they don't provide. If I run their original program (yellow, ugly colors) on 100% - I burn corals, If I start playing with colors, corals not doing good - not enough light!
There is a lot people around that will tell you go with Orphek or Kessil etc, but not many people have them on tall tanks.
I'm thinking to go back to HQI ,but still looking for more answers
 
The tallest tank I had 2 x Orphek PR156s over was 36" tall and worked fine for LPS down to 6" from the bottom.

Dave.M
 
smb2415 said:
FWIW I had put a good amount of time into research before buying the GHLs and they claimed to be able to meet the need with only 3 lights... not so much....but not horrible either...but just not "right".

Back then and now I believe there are truly only 3 options (excluding the mitras, for reasons stated above) for deep tanks. Ecoxotic, Orphek, and MH. Kessels might be possible however Im not positive. For us limited few with overly tall tanks, the options are limited and with so few of us it is hard to find us in the crowd to share experiences.
Click to expand...


Looking forward to what you come up with my issue with MH is i only have 2 feet of head room little tight for big MH
 
dave.m said:
The tallest tank I had 2 x Orphek PR156s over was 36" tall and worked fine for LPS down to 6" from the bottom.

Dave.M
Click to expand...

And therein is my concern... as you pointed out manufacturers claims and often time the data is falsely misleading. I also don't want to have almost nothing on the bottom so its important the get something that will permit growth at least LPS on the bottom.

I know ecoxotic can get the levels of light but are they in the correct spectrums, etc to support "good" SPS, LPS corals at varying depths?
 
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