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Coral Vue Hydros

Lighting suggestions for 60 inch shallow reef


Irresponsible_reefer

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Irresponsible_reefer

In the process of designing my dream tank. 

 

It's going to be a 60x24 and 15 inches deep. Approx 95 gallons. 

 

Keeping cost in mind I'm trying to decide which direction I'd like to go with lighting. 

I plan on having it a mixed reef setup, but mostly lps. Acans, hammers, frogspawn, torches with the occasional anemone and Sps frag. 

 

Debating between led and hybrid setups. 

Not interested in black box LEDs. 

I want to be able to have a programmable lighting to have the ramp up/down and moonlight effects. 

 

I have a hard time justifying spending more on lighting than the tank cost itself.  Such as xr30 pro for example if I need 2 or 3.

 

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thx 

 

 

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On 8/30/2020 at 10:49 AM, Irresponsible_reefer said:

Keeping cost in mind I'm trying to decide which direction I'd like to go with lighting. 

I plan on having it a mixed reef setup, but mostly lps. Acans, hammers, frogspawn, torches with the occasional anemone and Sps frag. 

I don't think the lighting choice depends much on the corals you're keeping.  They are agnostic and adaptable.  It's generally the reefkeeper that's so opinionated about what light is "best".  😉

 

If you have some T5HO gear hanging around, "hybrid lighting" could make sense in terms of keeping cash expenditures on new gear lower.  There are significant costs that go along with this kind of "relative savings" though.

 

If you're starting from scratch, then there's no reason not to have a simpler LED-only setup.  In the long run this is also cheaper, even with high end equipment selections.

 

Have you seen enough reef tanks in person to at least know what kind of lighting look you prefer?

 

 

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On 8/30/2020 at 10:49 AM, Irresponsible_reefer said:

Not interested in black box LEDs. 

I want to be able to have a programmable lighting to have the ramp up/down and moonlight effects. 

What's the beef against black boxes?  They could be a good way to start.

 

Almost all lights have sunrise/sunset dimming capability.  

 

Moonlight effects are generally too bright though – often just the minimimum dimming setting for the blue channel (which is powerful!).

 

So it is important look specifically into the light you're interested in to see what it's moonlight feature is like if this is important to you as a primary feature.

 

 

(Sorry for making that two posts....forgot about that second part.)

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