Watts per gallon for lighting??

[chuckdallas]

I was reading some thread yesterday or the day before and they suggested 3-4 watts of lighting per gallon of display tank volume.

With a 120 gallon DT, does that mean I need 360-480 watts?

I have 2 OCReef 60 watt LED Pendants and I supplement with a ReefBrite 48 inch strip, which is 37 watts. That only equals 157 watts. I have a peninsula tank, so I have items on the sand bed on both of the long sides of the tank, since one side faces the den and the other faces the living room. I wasn't using my 2-bulb HO T5 fixture, but I needed to get some more light on the other side away from the ReefBrite strip, so I've started using that too. I was going to sell it, but now I think I need to keep it.

What does everyone recommend for LED and T5 wattage??

 

[James77]

Watts per gallon has to be the worst way of suggesting light for a tank, especially now with LEDs and their efficiency.

 

[nanojg]

I use 1.5 watts/gallon on my 90 gallon

 

[tcwayne]

My current 120, 2-250 watt halides and 2-39 watt T5's

578 watts. excellent health in corals color and growth. Adding led's will significantly reduce wattage without sacrificing par.

 

[snorvich]

Watts per gallon has to be the worst way of suggesting light for a tank, especially now with LEDs and their efficiency.

Amen to that. :deadhorse1:

 

[T Diddy]

yeah the watts/gallon thing is irrelavant anymore

:deadhorse:

 

[flounderfish]

is there a XX per gallon ratio? Lumens? or Par

 

[sminker]

umm... you could be like me and hit 8.4 watts/gallon on my 180. 3x400 and 4x80. :beachbum:

But on a serious note. watts/gallon has no relevance this day and age.

 

[sminker]

Heres the deal.

You can have 400 watts of T5 with plain jane reflectors and it will work just as good as 250 watts with high quality reflectors. LEDs are a completely different story. Someone chime in on those, im still old school T5/MH.

Its all in the setup and materials used.

 

[James77]

is there a XX per gallon ratio? Lumens? or Par

There are too many variables in tank sizes, creatures kept, and equipment and quality to make such a broad suggestion. Plus led, halides, t5 etc are all greatly different in how much light/ par they make with a given wattage. Best bet is to start with tank height and what you want to keeP, then base lighting over the pros and coma of each type of lighting and how it suites you.

 

[snorvich]

What is relevant is PAR received by corals and that is a function of coral depth and light intensity. For that a PAR meter will help. Somewhat. The additional issue here is that Blue LED for example are not properly read by a PAR meter. Remember in the ocean spectrum is lost as you go deeper: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet

 

[jlaudiofreak]

I am running 2 250 radiums on my 120

 

[iamwrasseman]

thats a lot of dead horses up there but a par meter will tell you all you need to know as there are many variables due to tank depth and color of the actual lighting as steve has said

 

[chuckdallas]

Thanks for all of the suggestions and comments.