Whats a good lighting system for coral and fish?

[oyf709]

Yes that is your watts of light output, but remember your lighting should have some umf to penetrate the water. As you go down in your tank the light refracts, dissipates and thus lowers your total amount of lumens your tank inhabitants need. I find the 250 watt neighborhood is good for a 50 gal with a depth of 18"-24". Btw t5 lights will give you a more even spread of light, less shadows gives you more space to place those lovely corals.

I am not a T5 hater, but there are few things i have to disagree.
watts per gallon does not apply to LED, threrefore can't really compare LED and T5 in watts. Also for salt water doesn't use "Lumens" to messure if the light is good for your corals. It is mainly PAR/PUR. If you choose to go with T5, I can bet money in it that the lumen would be higher. However in most cases, LED will put out more PAR with lower watts.

As far as for the spread of light wise. I have to say it is a personal choice. some people love to have their full tank light up, but some people is dying for shimmer. Both ways are fine and both are good choices.

the main reason for people go with LED is that LED has a lot more control over the fixture, and also it can provides a very vibrant effect on the coral due to its laser like nature.

T5 and MH has a lot better spread due to the light are using reflectors not lenses, threfore it will have a huge spread but much less shimmer to MH and close to none for T5.

and of course, I have to say that energy saving is another thing for LED, for a my 60g tank, i am using 72W LED and keeping SPS/LPS and RBTA, to prove that my RBTA loves the light. Here is a picture of it. =P

 

[Sniperhank]

Lots of good knowledge here for you. It is either a 6 bulb min for t5ho or led route for you it seems. I would not be concerned about the fans on the taotronics as a reason you can't hang them under your canopy though. You could hang them easily in your canopy. If you don't thing a wire hang will work for you, then maybe consider a rail system. Some LEDs have rail kits as optional now commonly, but you can do the same with the stuff used to mount garage door openers.

 

[Jimmye4fish]

Nice idea Sniperhank! I'm thinking of going with the LEDs. Prob 2 of the 24's and a controller. It does have a clear brace in the middle but if the lights set up a few inches off the water it would clear that with no problem. Couldn't I just get a 48"?

 

[Sniperhank]

I don't see why not, but I don't know much about the units as I run radions over my tank. How long is your tank?

 

[oyf709]

his tank is 48"

 

[Sniperhank]

Well it'd have a ton of overlap, but if you want to try it then go for it. I'd rather have the 2 units so I could get into my tank easier personally.

 

[Jimmye4fish]

Yeah getting into it would be easier that way. Good point! I'm learning slowly but surely. Here is a pic of the LED lights on there now. There really isn't any info I see besides 12V, L1 and L2.

 

[oyf709]

Don't think they are 3 w each but not sure . How about the driver? It sometime tells I the watts on driver and just count hOw many there is.

 

[Jimmye4fish]

Dumb question. I was sitting here thinking and decided to look at Home Depot. They have all kinds of T5 lights. They have a HO T5 6 bulb light set up for $139. Would that work the same? Maybe buy two or 4 of the blue bulbs? I just can't see spending $300-$400 for a light. Does this make sense?

 

[oyf709]

I think that really not making the final result any different, you will save on the initial cost, but 1 or maybe max 2 years down the road, the cost would almost the same. I am not sure how many watts per bulb your T5HO is , most likely you will have to buy new bulb from LFS as most homedepot t5 bulb are either warm white or NW where in reef keeping is very important to have CW as the majority of your spectrum. having red and green in the spectrum is ok but blue is very needed. You will need to replace those bulb to actinic and CW. lets say $16 per bulb and that alone is close to $100 so the fixture with the bulb are going to be about $240? and as I said before ever 12 months or so will require changing light bulb. That is close to another $100. So when you say you can't see spending the $300 but you kind of spending more than that in just about a year. Again, this doesn't include any electric bill that you might be paying cuz I understand a lot of time, ppl ignored that simply we need to pay it anyways, only when you running like 2 x 250 w MH will see some huge cost differences.

I am not saying T5 is a bad choice =) just try to lay out the facts.

 

[Jimmye4fish]

Your not making this any easier! LOL. Good points though.