Lighting?? What's best?

Discussion in 'Equipment' started by portereef, May 7, 2019.

  1. portereef

    portereef RRMAS Supporter

    Hey everyone just to spark some conversation what does everyone use for lighting their reef and why? I use a hybrid setup of t5 and LEDs as a supplement for color. Is there differences in different lighting setups? benefits or disadvantages? Is there such thing as too much light?
    My current setup for my 180 is a 48 inch 8 bulb t5 with 2 48" blue LEDs and 1 22" led on one end to put extra light on the right side of the tank. Let's see what you have setup and how well it's working for you!
     

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  2. Adam Mulling

    Adam Mulling Wrasse Staff Member

    My 60 gallon has 2 twentysix LED it was neat being able to adjust the color but didn’t see much growth and maybe to much adjustment especially without a meter and on the 120 it has t5 and LED but has no adjustments and no built in timer
     
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  3. portereef

    portereef RRMAS Supporter

    The 120 grows acros very well after the apex controls the lighting schedule. I have mine setup to "ramp" the lights since the are on different outlets.
     

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  4. scotty

    scotty Plankton

    I have the old maxspect razor and t5 on the 75 I don’t really care for the maxspect seems like it doesn’t grow coral very well. I bought the reefbreeders leds for the 220 thought id see what they will do read some good reviews on them hell who knows lol
     
  5. portereef

    portereef RRMAS Supporter

    I will agree on that my maxspect with t5s seems to just do the minimum on coral growth.....that said anyone want a 24" maxspect with2 t5s haha
     
  6. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    I think you can grow corals with all types of lights...metal halides, T5, LED's. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages.

    Metal halides are the standard IMO. The shimmer they produce is not reproducible with other types of lights. They always have and will grow coral. Their disadvantages are they produce a lot of heat, bulbs must be replaced and they are not as compact as LED's.

    LED's can and will grow coral very well, but not all of them. The expensive ones we know will grow coral (Radions, AI's) but so will some of the inexpensive ones like Chinese black boxes. Their advantages are almost endless programming/control options, small size that's easy to mount and no significant heat.

    T5's are proven coral growers. They don't put out much heat and there are controllable models. Their disadvantages are having to change bulbs frequently, large size.

    If I were starting over and money was no object, I would probably go with a hybrid T5/LED like the Giesemann.

    I'm sure there are lots of other advantages and disadvantages that I don't know or remember.
     
  7. Brad M

    Brad M Plankton

    I went with T5/LED hybrid. I was going to put it all together myself, but ended up catching the Giesemann Aurora half off on BRS. So far it’s working well for me, but my tank is only 6 months old.
     
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  8. RSC

    RSC Plankton

    I'm setting up a 10 gal quarantine tank for incoming frags. Any input on inexpensive lighting for this small tank?
     
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  9. portereef

    portereef RRMAS Supporter

    You can try just the basic lights you get in those all in one tank set ups. I use one that has 3 blue LEDs and then the rest are just white. It isn't ideal but it will work to keep them going otherwise you could try a kessil a80 or a AI Prime HD. I would search around the web for anyone with a used light to see if you can save some $$ and still get a good light.
     

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