Reef lighting

[conejo]

I am very new to this hobby. I have acquired a 75 gallon glass aquarium with a built in overflow. I want to start up a reef aquarium. I would like some input on the cheapest lighting for a reef system in a 75 gallon tank. Thank you in advance.

 

[manbeast]

There are a couple of threads on here dedicated to lighting you just need to do a little looking, but as for performance for a value price many people go with the taotronic dimmable LED's as they are strong enough to grow any corals and if you look around on eBay you can find them or similar models for @ $100 or a little more, I chose to spend a little more money and purchased the ones with built in digital timers that I found on amazon for $229, have had them on the tank about a month and some of my corals still haven't adjusted to them yet and I'm only running them at around 30% power with a consumption of @ 80 watts as opposed to my 6 bulb t5 ho unit that was consuming 254 watts, I've been nothing but pleased with these units but there are others out there to suit different tastes best thing to do is take your time and so your research, nothing good comes from rushing in

 

[Bectan01]

Good advice, check out the articles here on how to set up a salt water aquarium. Are you going to use a sump? It's a bit different from fresh so there is a whole bunch of other things you need for set up...

 

[Ljfdfireboy]

Hears one thought.
If you are looking for LED lighting. When I was researching LED lighting for my 120 build I came across a lot of info. I had heard mixed reviews on the china ones off eBay. I ended up buying mine from reefbreeders seemed to be a good value to me and found many good reviews on them. They also have a two year warranty and serviced in the US. Here are a couple links to check out.

http://www.reefbreeders.com/uploads/TankTable.xlsx

Looks like you would need two fixtures for your tank.

http://www.reefbreeders.com/led_fixtures.html

They were very helpful in suggesting which optics and model to get. Logan is their support guy and I believe he might own it too.
Hope this helps I am happy with mine and corals look great. I have 2x photon24's and run them about %50 brightness and SPS, and all corals are growing great.

 

[conejo]

Awesome, I appreciate all your help and will definitely see about ordering those lights.