what kind of lighting do i need

[w_hartyjr]

i am wanting to keep sps and lps corals,maybe even a clam in the future.what would be the best bang for the buck in the lighting department.have read up on mh lighting and led lighting.are the led lights really as good and comparable to metal halides.please help

 

[crewdawg1981]

Man, I've seen several LED tanks at this point and I'm heading towards LEDs as soon as I can. I saw merky's tank today and it was looking extremely good under the apollo LED look a likes, and many have seen my posts loving on purplegorilla's tank with the eshinesystems LEDs.

Both systems were seeing very good growth and excellent color. If you're starting out and buying the lighting system from scratch, I dont think you go wrong with either LED system.

 

[hiimsean]

i went with led's for a few reasons; they dont give off much heat, you dont have to replace the bulbs every year, the operational costs are less.

some people think they're too expensive but they're getting cheaper. i have a par38 bulb over my 5.5g, which was relatively cheap. for my 25g cube i bought an AI Sol. i only need 1 unit for the tank but larger tanks need multiple fixtures so the initial start up cost is more.

 

[dcruce]

I've got a 90 gal w/ 2 ea 400w radiums over it, great growth, color, etc. But also got plenty of heat! I'm setting up a 200 gal SPS dominant in January that will all LED. I've picked 4 AI SOL's with a control unit but still need 2-4 more for the DT. If you can get over the initial expense it's all down hill; no more heat issues, lower power bill & no more bulb replacement every 9-10 months.

 

[liverock27]

BigJohn;714024 wrote: Thats why I reccomended the halides. I have a six foot tank that is over two feet deep.

The 2ft depth would be fine for LEDs, but if you were using AIs you would probably need 4 units to cover your tank's length.