recommended lighting for 22g DIY AIO tank

[sapling]

Hey everyone, I've been looking into this off and on for a while since I built this tank, but I can't seem to come to a head on which lighting would be best for me. I did skim through the led lighting section for similar tanks and looked at product details but they did not really tell me anything I needed to make a definitive decision.(they actually made me have more questions than solve)

 

I have a 24" x 14" x 15" ~22g tank I built when I upgraded from a 10g a few months ago. without the back sump, the tank is 24" x 14" x 12" I think these dimensions are very similar to a IM nuvo 20g if im not wrong.

 

My current lighting is two 20" finnex stingrays set to 9 hrs per day, I dont know if this lighting is really considered sufficient since at least in the FW side, it is considered a low-medium light with a par of around 30 I believe(par at the bottom of tank 14").

 

Well I thought I could find a light by looking at what people are using on their nuvo 20g tanks, and there seems to be a few options

 

From what I've seen the options are;

 

kessil a160 tuna blue

2 kessil a80 tuna blue

AI Prime

24-36" current orbit marine

 

My corals I currently keep are an acan, blasto, xenia, GSP, ricordia, and few zoanthids. afaik this is considered a mixed reef, I plan to shoot for a possible birds nest seriatoporia coral in the highest part of my tank, and/or possibly some sort of frogspawn/hammer. I would like to keep my options open so if possible I can use low-high lighting.

another bit to add to this, but I notice at least with SW lighting, theres not really much attention given to red LED specifically 660nm part of the spectrum, is there any reason for this? In FW there is usually red added to the LED array for the second usable section of light by plants(440nm being the first and 660nm being the second) I dont quite understand the imbalance, do corals not use this?


anyways, Any recommendations, experiences, or advice will be extremely helpful as Im still wrapping my head on this after quite a long time at looking at it. here is a pic of my tank for reference, and again thanks for anyone who can help or reply.

[Thrassian Atoll]

I would suggest a nanobox.  @DaveFason could also help you understand the reason for no reds and the lighting spectrum.

[sapling]

@TILTON I appreciate the recommendation. it seems I could only do the tide plus m... as much as I'd like the duo for the coverage of the whole tank. the AI prime seems very similar to the tide overall which is at the same pricepoint. the AI prime's page shows a chart that implies a higher PAR in more coverage than the tide plus however. this is taking into account the tides par graph as well.

extrapolating both lights PAR data, the prime HD would be roughly ~160 PAR in the ~8" diameter of the centre at 18", vs the nanobox's par data on the website of ~100 PAR in the ~8" diameter of the centre at 18". without more information from nanobox I can't say how well the other outer 16" are vs Prime since theres only 12" of data available and not 24". but the trend does look to favor Prime.

of course I dont know the accuracy of either's tests, and the exact testing methods, and Im not exactly a light expert calculating par, but I am interested if I might be wrong somewhere since Im going to be banking on this rough calculation.

but overall they both seem to be good competitive choices, if I was to use a single one, would anyone know if this would still be suitable for the tank(seriatopia at the top middle rock)? the main area is 24 x 12" x 12" for reference and should i use a hanging kit/gooseneck ?

thanks again to everyone who replies.


 

[ChristiansNano]

Hi... 

 

I have the ai prime HD, and have to say...

 

you can not go wrong with this baby.

 

Have had it for a year+, and its awsome.

 

[sapling]

@ChristiansNanooh wow thats a really nice tank, the clam looks amazing ! I really liked hairy mushroom corals since i felt it was a aesthetically similar option for euphyllia without the sweeper tentacles, but i cant remember exactly why i havent pulled the trigger on one. do you think you could give the dimensions of the tank and depth?

[ChristiansNano]

Thanks

 

yeah, sure. My tank is 40cmX50cm and 40cm tall, 50cm with the rim.

 

 

[Clown79]

I have a prime (not hd) on my tank.

 

It's 24x13x13. No shadowing. Very strong light. I have sps and lps.

Many use it on larger tanks with success

I'll be using it on a lagoon soon.

[DVCTL]

current Orbit Marine worked fine for narrow tank. 

You can go wrong with AI.