LED lighting for a 36in long 30 gallon tank

Kman237

Kman237

Active Member
Hello, I'm looking for some advice on what LED's to use for my saltwater tank.

I have a 30 gallon tank that's 35-36 inch long. I will mainly use this a frag tank to grow everything! (I will probably put two clown fish in here and that's it)
Any advise on what lights to use to cover most the tank would be greatly appreciated.

The tank is about 15inch deep. Maybe a little less with sand added.

The only thing I've come up with is two of these. What are your thoughts?

Kessil A150W 10000K Special Blend LED Aquarium Light - Sky Blue


Thanks in advance
-Kman
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
What kinds of frags do you plan to grow?

I would say that you wouldn't be going wrong with the Kessils. but they are only about 50w each. Contrast this to the Eco Tech Radion XR30w or AI Hydra 52. Both of these fixtures are about 150w each. Either of those would also give you a lot more control over the lighting spectrum. The down side is that they cost more.

This kind of gets us back to what you plan to grow. For SPS or clams, I'd want the Eco Tech Radion XR30w or AI Hydra 52 or similar fixture. If it was other things like mushrooms, zoas or soft corals, you could go with the Kessils.

You are quite correct in choosing to get two fixtures. LED's tend to send their light straight down, even more so then MHs. They don't usually span too much length of the tank, and this is why you see a lot of LED lighting tanks with dark corners or other areas.
 
StevesLEDs

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
Edited by Travis. Please keep commercial posts to your individual sponsor forum, sponsor specials and group buys forums.
 
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pablomay28

pablomay28

Well-Known Member
Kman237 said:
Hello, I'm looking for some advice on what LED's to use for my saltwater tank.

I have a 30 gallon tank that's 35-36 inch long. I will mainly use this a frag tank to grow everything! (I will probably put two clown fish in here and that's it)
Any advise on what lights to use to cover most the tank would be greatly appreciated.

The tank is about 15inch deep. Maybe a little less with sand added.

The only thing I've come up with is two of these. What are your thoughts?

Kessil A150W 10000K Special Blend LED Aquarium Light - Sky Blue


Thanks in advance
-Kman
Click to expand...

I would recommend the Kessil Tuna blue 360 WE with the controller. I just put 2 of them in my Reefer 450 and they are amazing. Love the shimmer and they are very easy to set up. Check out some vids on youtube.
 
Kman237

Kman237

Active Member
Thanks everyone for the response. Ill be doing some research on all the suggestions.

pablomay28 very nice on the Red Sea Reefer. I want one! I'll be moving in about 4-5 months when the time comes I will be looking to update the main tank for the Red Sea Reefer 350. I'll be keeping an eye on your build :cheers:

I will have sps frags. I have a claim in my main tank. I could see one ending up in this tank at some point. They are awesome to look at.

Probably one anemone for the clowns

Other corals
Acan
plate coral
polyps

Thanks,
-Kman
 
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Darlene123

Darlene123

RS Sponsor
Edited by Travis. Please keep commercial posts to your individual sponsor forum, sponsor specials and group buys forums.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Darlene123

Darlene123

RS Sponsor
Edited by Travis. Please keep commercial posts to your individual sponsor forum, sponsor specials and group buys forums.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Yuck.

I really have to come down on the two RS sponsors that replied on this thread recommending products that they just happen to sell. I don't doubt that these are good products, but these can hardly be considered unbiased sources.

If this stuff was being posted on the sponsor's area of the forum, I'd have no objection, However the op is entitled to unbiased opinions from others, and not a sales pitch from a vendor when posting in the general area.

There are a lot of good LED products out there, with a lot of options. Almost anything decent will do an excellent job in this application. It comes down more to what the op wants out of the lighting.
 
Travis

Travis

Administrator
Staff member
RS STAFF
DaveK, you are correct, but both of these sponsors are fairly new and probably unaware of the specific rules in this scenario. We'll remind them, and let' not hold it against them.

:)

Travis
 
Darlene123

Darlene123

RS Sponsor
DaveK said:
Yuck.

I really have to come down on the two RS sponsors that replied on this thread recommending products that they just happen to sell. I don't doubt that these are good products, but these can hardly be considered unbiased sources.

If this stuff was being posted on the sponsor's area of the forum, I'd have no objection, However the op is entitled to unbiased opinions from others, and not a sales pitch from a vendor when posting in the general area.

There are a lot of good LED products out there, with a lot of options. Almost anything decent will do an excellent job in this application. It comes down more to what the op wants out of the lighting.
Click to expand...

Sorry, this is the third day I joined this forum, so don't know the rules here, thank you for your remind.
 
1325903997

1325903997

Member
Kman237 said:
Hello, I'm looking for some advice on what LED's to use for my saltwater tank.

I have a 30 gallon tank that's 35-36 inch long. I will mainly use this a frag tank to grow everything! (I will probably put two clown fish in here and that's it)
Any advise on what lights to use to cover most the tank would be greatly appreciated.

The tank is about 15inch deep. Maybe a little less with sand added.

The only thing I've come up with is two of these. What are your thoughts?

Kessil A150W 10000K Special Blend LED Aquarium Light - Sky Blue


Thanks in advance
-Kman
Click to expand...


I run 2 of the Timer-165w led lights with better spectrum for my reef tank,white/blue/moon light channel,remote control and built in LCD screen with 3 channel timer,super easy to set time after watching the video,love the light,trust u won't go wrong.

HTB15wetHFXXXXbkXFXXq6xXFXXXq.jpg
 
Kman237

Kman237

Active Member
Thanks for your input everyone.
Just an update.
Here is the tank. I ended up with two HRYDA 26 led's. So far so good.

Ps - ignore the Clam shell. Had it in there for a bit messing around. Its empty and have now removed this lol.
 

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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Great looking lighting. I want to point out two things. The tank doesn't seem to have any dim ends. This is because two fixtures were used. All too often LEDs come up a little short in this area because too few fixtures are used or because the single long fixture isn't really long enough to give good light over the entire tank. When you see fixtures that say they will light a tank from 36" to 48" or something similar, you can bet it's going to leave dark ends.

The other thing you notice in the picture is that digital cameras are very sensitive to blue, violet, and near UV light, so the tank looks more purple than it would in person.
 
Kman237

Kman237

Active Member
DaveK said:
Great looking lighting. I want to point out two things. The tank doesn't seem to have any dim ends. This is because two fixtures were used. All too often LEDs come up a little short in this area because too few fixtures are used or because the single long fixture isn't really long enough to give good light over the entire tank. When you see fixtures that say they will light a tank from 36" to 48" or something similar, you can bet it's going to leave dark ends.

The other thing you notice in the picture is that digital cameras are very sensitive to blue, violet, and near UV light, so the tank looks more purple than it would in person.
Click to expand...

Yeah my camera really goes crazy with the LED lights. I hold my sunglasses up to the Camera and can manage a much better pic that way.
I'll post a new pic here soon. The lights are doing great!
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Kman237 said:
Yeah my camera really goes crazy with the LED lights. I hold my sunglasses up to the Camera and can manage a much better pic that way.
I'll post a new pic here soon. The lights are doing great!
Click to expand...

Since you have those AI Hydra 26's, you can simply dial back the the various blue and near uv colors, and if need be boost some of the others. Then put it back when your done taking picts.
 
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