lighting option

[jordan2496]

so here's my situation, I have a 55 gallon tank currently with soft coral. I currently have the marineland reef led, the one with the timer. it's a tad brighter than the "reef capable" version. so far so good, all of my coral has grown and seems to be doing very well in the past 4 months. the downside is, the light is a 36 inch fixture and the tank is obviously a 48 is tank. so these are my options:
1: buy a 2 bulb deep blue brand 48 inch t5 with led accents and use that with my 36 inch LED in front of it
2: use only the 48 inch T5 (I like the color the led's give the tank though)
3: buy a pair of cheap Chinese "black box" LEDS for the time being. the eBay ones for around $140 each
These are my only options so please do not say "buy a good $800 LED." I appreciate all the input, attached is a picture of my current set up, you can see how dimnit is in the sides

 

[pegasus]

The Marineland is okay for softies, but if you want more advanced corals, you'll want a better fixture. Not sure if yours has the 10K or 14K LED's, but either way, you're very limited in the spectrum the light provides for other types of corals. What is your goal? Do you wish to stock light-demanding corals, or just achieve full tank coverage? I have a 48" 6-bulb T5 HO on my 72" tank, and it's working out great. I have bright lighting in the center of the tank, with less bright areas on the ends. I keep my light-hungry corals in the brighter areas, and my lower light corals on the bottom in the center 3/4 and high at the ends of the tank. The beauty of T5 is that you can change the color spectrum by swapping bulbs, which obviously isn't an option with the Marineland. Yes, the $800 LED's usually offer spectral intensity, but you already pointed out that's not an option. If it were up to me, I'd go with a 4 or 6 bulb T5 HO, and retire the Marineland Reef LED. Oh wait... I already did that. LOL! Yeah, I have one sitting on a shelf in my closet. I bought the T5 HO to replace it, and I couldn't be happier. Well, I could be, but then I'd be upset about spending over $1K on LED's!!! I have softies, LPS, and SPS corals now... even several Acroporas. Now if I can figure out what to do with that old Marineland LED, I'll be set. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have another shop light in my basement...

Just my 2c...

 

[jordan2496]

The Marineland is okay for softies, but if you want more advanced corals, you'll want a better fixture. Not sure if yours has the 10K or 14K LED's, but either way, you're very limited in the spectrum the light provides for other types of corals. What is your goal? Do you wish to stock light-demanding corals, or just achieve full tank coverage? I have a 48" 6-bulb T5 HO on my 72" tank, and it's working out great. I have bright lighting in the center of the tank, with less bright areas on the ends. I keep my light-hungry corals in the brighter areas, and my lower light corals on the bottom in the center 3/4 and high at the ends of the tank. The beauty of T5 is that you can change the color spectrum by swapping bulbs, which obviously isn't an option with the Marineland. Yes, the $800 LED's usually offer spectral intensity, but you already pointed out that's not an option. If it were up to me, I'd go with a 4 or 6 bulb T5 HO, and retire the Marineland Reef LED. Oh wait... I already did that. LOL! Yeah, I have one sitting on a shelf in my closet. I bought the T5 HO to replace it, and I couldn't be happier. Well, I could be, but then I'd be upset about spending over $1K on LED's!!! I have softies, LPS, and SPS corals now... even several Acroporas. Now if I can figure out what to do with that old Marineland LED, I'll be set. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have another shop light in my basement...

Just my 2c...

thanks for always answering my questions haha. I'll probably go with the t5, it's not necessarilly the corals needs, I just need a 48 inch light. the soft corals all seem to be doing fine for the time being, if I could sell my LED that would be great

 

[pegasus]

I hope you have better luck than I did. I paid $200 for my fixture, kept it less than a year, and tried to sell it for $100 on ebay and Craigslist. No one seemed interested in it, so it's in storage. I'd suggest over-buying on the T5 and get at least a 4 bulb fixture, just in case you want to try other corals. If you get one with timers, you can run half the lights for the time being, and when you need more lighting, just set the timer for the other bulbs.Trust me on this one... saltwater is an addiction, and sooner or later you'll want more... lol!!!

 

[lmforbis]

I have 2 of the cheap chinese LEDs. They work fine. I used both over my 55 and softies and LPS did well. I bought nicer lights for my display tank and now use the chinese ones on my QT. They have never caused me any trouble and provide many times better light than my marineland fixture. I got mine for less than $100 each.