Lighting:
Lighting has always been something that I have pondered over for a very long time, and made MANY changes over the years. This time I want to do it "right" the first time. That being said, I had many considerations in making that choice as to what is "right" for me.
First:
T5 - While they produce some fantastic colors and growth, I just dont like the stale/motionless look the tank has with them, so they will not be my lighting of choice for this tank. Ive used them in the past with great success, but changed over to Halide for a look that i preferred.
Halide - I really really liked my old setup of 1x400w XM20k per 24" of tank. I also used 2xVHO Super Actinic as the off peak, as well as additional coral pop while the halides were on. Ive tried both HQI Phoenix, and the XM20k 400w, and while the phoenix were nice, the XM20k was my all time favorite. Unfortunately, that came with a cost in both power and heat. It also sucked up a ton of additional room in my canopy. In the end, given I now live here in Atlanta, adding heat and moisture to my house is probably an unwise thing to do, and for that reason, I am going to try LED this go around.
LED: In my current research I have come across a number of different options. Some are super expensive, some are super cheap, and some appear to have issues with shading, and or "disco colors". Because I like to have my cake and eat it to....I want to find a solution that does not have either shading, or disco colors, but will provide enough power to allow me to have any coral I want, anywhere in the tank, have controlability, add minimal heat to the tank, and not require bulb changes.
For the time being, I am looking VERY strongly at building a custom LED light using CREE Lumia 5.2 LED clusters. These each have 25 leds, with 5 different channels/spectrums, all controllable via Apex. While the kessils are a nice light, what did it for me was viewing a guy's tank that had simply stunning SPS. He had the Cheap Chinese LEDs, Kessils, AND one of these Lumia 5.2s. He much preferred the lumia 5.2 over the kessil, which is shocking to me given the price tag. Either way, I think I can build a 6-8 Lumia LED fixture over the 180 that can meet all of my needs, so unless I come across something different, that is the current plan
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The video that convinced me:
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. Oh well, perhaps it will make a nice frag tank 
