New Light Choices!

[Wrangy]

Okie Dokie, so as it's now looking more and more likely that I'll be buying a pretty new tank I'm bringing over all my equipment so at least I don't need to spend anymore than I already should lol but lights are something that will need revisiting as a single 60cm blaze unit is not going to cover it for a 750x750x500mm tank lol
I'm looking at a couple of options at the moment and none of them are all that cheap haha bloody leds!

First Option:
Get a second 60cm Blaze unit and run two over the tank (love them, they're super solid led units!) - ~200watts & $930

Second Option:
Get all new leds (thinking Orphek Atlantiks x2) - ~200-250watts & $900 (after blaze resale)

Third & Final Option:
This is the one that I'm leaning towards at the moment is getting a LED and T5 hybrid I think it's about time I add some t5's haha
I'm looking at getting a Giesemann Aurora 600mm unit, around 181watts and about $400ish if I can get a decent price for the blaze unit

Looking to hear what people think about my thoughts on it? No I can't go MH due to cost and I don't want a straight T5 unit either lol

 

[PSU4ME]

I'm for the hybrid.......Geisemann has some very interesting units out and I was considering them myself.

 

[DaveK]

I can't really see any reason to go with a hybird LED / T5 unit, unless you want a really blue looking tank. A good LED system can match any color your going to get out of the T5s. It's limitation might be that if you put the white way up, it may not look as blue as you might like. Also with LEDs you can usually program how bright you want them, unlike T5's that are either on or off.

It is also possible to add LED lighting that is mostly blue so you can still get the blue you want.

In your specific case, I think any of the options will do just fine. At this point, I'd go for the least expensive, provided your going to save some serious money. In a year or two there will be something else out that will be even better.

 

[PSU4ME]

I think the addition of t5 helps to fully color the entire coral. For instance, under just LEDs, the top side of my acros get great color but the side/underneath doesn't because the led light goes straight down where as t5 with the angled reflector spreads out the direction.

I use a geissmann tropic 6500k blub along side a blue plus and the color they put out in combo is really great.

Is a hybrid approach needed, no, but going to it sure makes me "feel better" about a full spectrum/coverage stand point.

 

[DaveK]

I think the addition of t5 helps to fully color the entire coral. For instance, under just LEDs, the top side of my acros get great color but the side/underneath doesn't because the led light goes straight down where as t5 with the angled reflector spreads out the direction.

I use a geissmann tropic 6500k blub along side a blue plus and the color they put out in combo is really great.

Is a hybrid approach needed, no, but going to it sure makes me "feel better" about a full spectrum/coverage stand point.

I see this as more of an issue of not having a good spread of LED lighting and/or not having enough LED lighting fixtures. LED lighting is expensive, so many people tend to use a minimum numbers of fixtures, and often it's just not enough to give the tank good coverage. I see this all the time in many of our tank of the month photos. Great tank, but the lighting could be better. Often you see dark ends or corners of the tank. Other times you see dim areas of the tank where they don't get good coverage.

This is not unique to LED lighting. It also occurs with MH lighting, such as when someone tries to illuminate a 36" long tank with a single MH buld. The total light might be fine, but there are very bright spots and very dim spots. This occurs because MHs, and for that matter LEDs are "point sources" of light.

Just to give you an idea, on my 125 gal reef, I use 6 AI Hydras (original style) to give me very even lighting. Four just wouldn't cut it, and I had results similar to what you describe. Adding the two additional fixtures and mounting them with the short side to the front, rather than the long side made all the difference. Yes, this is a more expensive solution, but I feel it's a much better solution compared to adding T5s.

 

[Wrangy]

I think the addition of t5 helps to fully color the entire coral. For instance, under just LEDs, the top side of my acros get great color but the side/underneath doesn't because the led light goes straight down where as t5 with the angled reflector spreads out the direction.

I use a geissmann tropic 6500k blub along side a blue plus and the color they put out in combo is really great.

Is a hybrid approach needed, no, but going to it sure makes me "feel better" about a full spectrum/coverage stand point.

I am definitely intrigued and interested to see how my corals and clam will react to a different light source coming into the tank and how things will change up! It's also me trying to get away with only using one unit haha

I see this as more of an issue of not having a good spread of LED lighting and/or not having enough LED lighting fixtures. LED lighting is expensive, so many people tend to use a minimum numbers of fixtures, and often it's just not enough to give the tank good coverage. I see this all the time in many of our tank of the month photos. Great tank, but the lighting could be better. Often you see dark ends or corners of the tank. Other times you see dim areas of the tank where they don't get good coverage.

This is not unique to LED lighting. It also occurs with MH lighting, such as when someone tries to illuminate a 36" long tank with a single MH buld. The total light might be fine, but there are very bright spots and very dim spots. This occurs because MHs, and for that matter LEDs are "point sources" of light.

Just to give you an idea, on my 125 gal reef, I use 6 AI Hydras (original style) to give me very even lighting. Four just wouldn't cut it, and I had results similar to what you describe. Adding the two additional fixtures and mounting them with the short side to the front, rather than the long side made all the difference. Yes, this is a more expensive solution, but I feel it's a much better solution compared to adding T5s.

Dave I completely agree with you about getting the best colour and growth out of LED's and their ability to maintain delicate and light intense reef setups and I for one am a huge LED fan! My current led's have done wonders over my tank and everything is super happy and healthy with some amazing colours going around, I would love to have a proper large led setup over this new build but unfortunately due to my fund restrictions I won't be able to do so! If I was able to have the kind of funding I'd like (don't we all!) I'd probably run three of the 60cm units over the tank to get a complete coverage and spread over the tank for everyone! Unfortunately I don't have $2K+ to spend Hence why this upgrade is to get the things that I want from this build without much added cost or work! Which is why all of my current equipment will be moving over.

The main reason I'm looking at the hybrid is that I want to be able to use one unit but still get enough spread to cover the tank and keep everything happy but also not move away from leds as they're more than most people give them credit for. I would also like to do my own testing of T5's to see how they actually hold up against straight LED's but if I could find the right led's to cover the tank I won't think twice about it.