Lighting your reef... Best bang for your buck.

[mr_X]

You will definitely need 3 over a 6' tank. Logan from reef breeders will send out a couple blue diodes with the fixtures if you wanted to change out the reds. Otherwise, I bought all of mine on ebay, besides the single reef breeders unit, and all you need to do is make sure they have a lot of positive feedback.
If your tank is 20" deep, you definitely do not need optics. You'll end up burning up more stuff than not IMO.

 

[Dimdim]

What about a 24" tank. Would the footprint of 72 inches long 24 inches high and 13 inches deep be too difficult to work into a reef? I think it is.. Thas why im trying to sell and get a 100 gal or 75 gal. The 100 gallon im looking at is sinilar to mine just a bit shorter i believe 20 inches high by 18 inches deep and 72 " long.

 

[mr_X]

The 20" tall dimension is great, but 13" front to back is going to be a pain to aquascape, and you are going to have a limited sand bed.
A 75 or 125 are good tanks. I'm not a fan of extra tall tanks.

 

[Reefer4eva]

You will definitely need 3 over a 6' tank. Logan from reef breeders will send out a couple blue diodes with the fixtures if you wanted to change out the reds. Otherwise, I bought all of mine on ebay, besides the single reef breeders unit, and all you need to do is make sure they have a lot of positive feedback.
If your tank is 20" deep, you definitely do not need optics. You'll end up burning up more stuff than not IMO.

My reason is to have the lights concentrated on my tank rather than my whole entire living room

 

[Dimdim]

Yeah me either, i figured that tank would be a pain, if i were to aquascape it and make that a saltwater tank i would build my own live rock for the scape to make it alot easier. And i never thought about the sand bed mr x. Good point! If i did do a sandbed i might make it 5 inches maybe 6 in order to make my tank a bit shallower if thats a compensation? Only problem is tank is not drilled. And i simply wont trust an external overflow. Seems easiest to start fresh with a better tank preferably drilled. Ive got two tanks on hold right now. One a 100 gallon the other is a 90 drilled for a closed loop

 

[Magma]

I think 2 would have to much dark at each end of the tank, this way I can get a more even spread across the 6 feet with each fixture taking up 2 feet.

 

[Dimdim]

I think 2 would have to much dark at each end of the tank, this way I can get a more even spread across the 6 feet with each fixture taking up 2 feet.

+ 1 on that! Building a canipy they can hang from will focus more light in your tank too

 

[JonathanG]

I run my blues at 1% all night and the fish all bed down once the lights dim down to 1% (the lights drop gradually over 4 hours). Do you think there is benefit to having a period of total lights off?

 

[mr_X]

Just lower the lights to a reasonable level over the tank and you won't have light all over your living room. Lower them (only 2 fixtures) too low and you'll have some real dark areas.

As for the sand bed, I meant overall space for sand dwelling corals. Not much room for anything really. Depth is another thing. A dsb in a 20" deep tank is a challenge.

 

[Dimdim]

Its actually a 24 inch tall tank, and i agree, my focus on such a small footprint would be like an unberwater mountain in the center rising from the bottom to the top, leaving only a few pieces of lr and whatnot on the outside 12 inches of length each way, then the corals could go on the ends of the tank for sand dwelling corals, sps and high light would be focused on the center

 

[Rich42082]

I ordered the same lights TSKip purchased. I built the canopy and I plan on hanging them about 10 inches from the water line.

Should I run the lights at 50% or lower?

I currently have the nova extreme pro 8X54 watt.

 

[mr_X]

50 sounds reasonable.

 

[TSkip84]

I ordered the same lights TSKip purchased. I built the canopy and I plan on hanging them about 10 inches from the water line.

Should I run the lights at 50% or lower?

I currently have the nova extreme pro 8X54 watt.

I'm hoping mine come in tomorrow so I can get them installed on sat!!!! Then it's off to my LFS to pick up a couple frags!!!!

 

[audifusion]

finally got my lights in !!!

6 of them at least, the other 2 apparently were on a different flight.

These things are soo bright.

Can't wait to put em up

 

[Robbiesamp]

What lights are they

 

[College fishman]

Jesus! What tank are those going on?!? 6?!? Holy cow lol

 

[Jmkb02]

Looks good bro! Hope the install goes well!

 

[Magma]

Just a heads up for all the Canadian Reefers out there, I found a place within Canada who ships out the EverGrow d120 units for a great price (D120 Dimmable 120 Watt Full Spectrum LED Light ) I just placed my order and should be getting them within the next week or so as he is bringing in more from China early next week.

 

[Dimdim]

Thanks !ill be purchasing from him ! Penfing your reviews

 

[aadair22]

Got one if my taotronics in and hooked up yesterday.. Wow! Very happy with them! Picked up a couple frags and a clam from coralcon yesterday and colors under the blues pop so much it's insane.. Can't wait to get the other half of my tank lit with these