Light question?

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edwardclaxton

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Oct 3, 2011
Messages
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K im upgrading i just bought they said was a 140 but looks like a 125 6ft long 18 wide and i think 24 tall... Anyways i will be putting this one together slowly so i can buy all good equipment. And right now im trying to.understand lighting and dont know much about it par,pur,lum,lux theres alot and i have been researching on ghe topic. Some say watts per gallon is old school and its hard to base that on every light. So what is best leds, mh, vho, etc. and if you all dont care to help me understand the light terms i guess you could call it. That would help me a lot. And thanks
 
I have had and currently have several different types of lighting over my tanks. Over my 125g I have a 12 bulb t5 fixture which is doing a pretty good job of growing my corals. Only downside to t5's is the bulb replacement cost in my opinion. Another option are the led panels you can get on ebay or amazon. I have one of those over my 60g cube and it's very very bright. No bulb replacing either and they last about 10 years or so. :)

metal halides are still great lights to use but you can have heat issues and still have to replace the bulbs every year or more frequently depending on use.

T5's and LED's will run you about the same amount pretty much, give or take $600 or so. If you have a canopy the led's would be awesome cause you could hang them in there. The T5's are great for a non canopy tank like the one I have.

Hope that helps a bit!
 
If u go led I haven't seen them stand on the tank except for the dyi type and maybe a vertex light. All the rest of the high end lights hang and u need to buy multiple fixtures and sync them together. Vertex sells full length fixtures but for a few thousand for the size u need
 
Carey: what leds and t5s would u suggest a vho or ho with the t5s, would the led that Grizz posted work well.

Grizz: do you have those leds you posted and if so how many is needed to go across 6ft.

What would be a good height for a canopy for my the leds ill prolly make one.
Thanks everybody for posting
 
I also have the led fixture that was just linked above. You would need 3 of them to cover the 6 foot tank. I use one for a 24 X24 tank and it's just right. lol

If you have a way to hang them i would say the led's are the best bang for your buck.
 
So how high off the tank should they be and how far apart from each other? Also will they grow most coral soft, lps, sps etc..
 
Yes i have those led's im using 2 over my 90 gal. i hung mine 8 in. above the water i'd go with 3 over a 6 ft tank you can get away with 2 but you'll lose a lot of par in the middle I have Duncan's GSP kenya acan's zoa's mushrooms and 2 nems (sebae and GBTA) under mine and all are doing very well so far (8 months now) These things are bright you so may want to go with the dimmable model as i melted my blasto :(

Im building a canopy for my 180 im goin to make it 12 in. high and use D clips to hang the led's from it will put them about 7-8 in. above the water
 
Gizz is there a dimmable model in the same led fixture, and could you define PAR just for knowledge sake... And thanks again everyone
 
Photosynthetically active radiation, often abbreviated PAR, designates the spectral range (wave band) of solar radiation from 400 to 700 nanometers that photosynthetic organisms are able to use in the process of photosynthesis :cool:
In layman terms it's the amount of light in a given area the more PAR the better Yes taotronics makes a dimmable model i cant find the link to them sorry

Carey is the Queen of links perhaps she can help :lol:
 
Yes those are the ones i'm goin to use for my next build They under drive the leds so in theory they will last even longer.

PUR stands for Photosynthetically Useable Radiation. PUR differs from PAR because the basic definition of PAR is any light in a specific frequency range. PUR is the usable portion of PAR
these are same for a few dollars less
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-g...ng-Aquarium-led-dimmer-timer-wholesalers.html
 
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