HELP! Lighting

USNDoc

New Member
Can anyone lead me in a good direction for better lighting for my 125 gal tank with 2 open brains a sailfin Hippo tang a tomini tang and coral beauty angel fish. I really want to start expandeding in to mor corals and currently my tank stands 72 x 18 x 24 I currently have the Orbit USA IC loop So kinda looking to either a replace that with another 72" or IF YOU THINK THAT HAVING TWO SEPERATVLIGHTS HANGING. And recommendations on which brands , lights etc


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
You have a lot of possible options. Before you spend any money on new lighting, it is critical to figure out what corals you want to keep in the tank. Polyps, zoas, mushrooms and soft corals have comparatively modest lighting requirements. LPS corals need more light. SPS corals and clams need massive amounts of light.

Once you have that figured out, then you can work on what type of lighting is going to be best for you. It is important to keep in mind that there are no "one size fits all" options here. What is good lighting for one person, someone else may consider garbage.

Lighting is also very subjective. It's about the most discussed subject in all of reef keeping. Make sure that you will be happy with whatever lighting you get.

Since you already have LED lighting, I'm going to assume that you want to continue with LED lighting.

The existing Current Orbit IC Loop fixture is something you might as well replace. The fixture is only 63 watts and it's got 80 LED's. This means they are using very low power LEDs. Since you have a fairly deep tank, you want fixtures built with LEDs that have some power behind them. Typically you want to see the individual LEDs be in the range of 3w to 5w.

As you no doubt have seen, there are a tremendous number of options for LED lighting. It's really tough to work through all of them. Here are a few points to consider.

LED lighting, even with the "latest and greatest" lens systems still likes to point straight down. This means you get a lot of light directly under it and lots less around it. It's very easy to get dim areas in the tank, especially along the sides of the tank or at the water surface that is not directly under the surface. This is not always bad. Sometimes it's possible to take advantage of this effect, but you also see a lot of tanks that really don't show off well.

Cost is going to be a major factor. You'll see big range of prices. Consider what you get for the price, not only in the light fixture itself but in the customer support and availability or replacement parts. Unlike most other lighting, most LED fixtures can not be repaired with off the shelf parts.

On my own 125 gal reef system I use 6 AI Hydra 52 fixtures that I run at about 80% max for about 10 hours a day. This works really well for me. However there are plenty of other options out there.

I know this is going to be a long search for what is best for you. Good luck with it.
 
Top