New to the hobby; lighting question

[mattman91]

Hello everyone, I am new to saltwater but have had many years experience with freshwater aquariums. I recently got a new job at my lfs, and a coworker gave me a tank so that I could start learning. I have read many books about the subject of saltwater aquariums already, but in my experience, hands on is the only way to really understand something like this. Anyway, my question is involving lighting. I have a 70 gallon tall aquarium to work with, so its 3 feet wide and 29 inches deep. As I said, this project is as much for learning as it is for personal enjoyment, so I don't want to be limited in the future as to what I can keep because of lighting. Also the tank has a canopy, so I can't have a light source that gets too hot, so I was thinking LED. I was browsing around online, and I liked the Ecoxotic panorama 36 LED Retrofit 2 because it would easily mount inside my canopy. Would that light source be enough considering my tank depth for soft corals and lps soon and sps in the future? I was also thinking about supplementing with some of the royal blue stunner strips. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[snakeblitz33]

The simple answer is no. If you want to keep a wide array of corals a quality led unit is absolutely needed and in general they cost around $500 to $600 to light a two foot by two foot section.
If you want to get a cost effective unit, buy an 8bulb Tek brand t5 fixture. Replace the bulbs with Ati brand. If you are good at DIY, a t5 retrofit kit would be worth looking into, but you would still need to buy brand name bulbs. I would say six bulbs would be alright, but that's a tall tank.

 

[mattman91]

Thanks for the quick reply! I do have about 600 to work with from my tax return, so a quality LED isn't an issue of price according to what you quoted. In your opinion, cost aside, is T5 better than LED? I thought it was the other way around. And if each module only lights a 2x2 section? Would it be better to have 2 on a 3ft wide tank? Or would one with supplementation suffice. I don't mean to brush off your T5 suggestion, its just that I am not very DIY. It was hard enough figuring out the PVC plumbing for the darn tank, let alone woodworking, haha.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I understand. Right now in my opinion, LEDs are still in their infancy as far as reef lighting goes. I want a few more years of testing before I might move on to them. Right now, t5s are the tried and true method of reef lightin that I trust. If your not good at DIY then a Tek fixture would be the best option. I believe it is easily mounted in a canopy. A nice t5 fixture and Ati brand bulbs would suit you well. The money you save would be better spent on filtration. (skimmer, sump, fuge, and a phosban reactor. )

 

[mattman91]

Thanks very much for the advice. I think I am going to follow your suggestion!

 

[lubeck]

i think it depends on what you like... if you like the shimmer effect than you should go with with two LEDs. if you like the broad lighting than go with the t5s. both will will grow what you want given the right amount of par..

 

[mattman91]

I do like the shimmer effect better than the broad lighting effect. But I know that all LED systems are not created equal, and the info I got online about the ecoxotic I was looking at didn't specify anything besides the temperature kelvin of the light. That's why I was looking to see if anyone had had any experience with that particular model and could tell me. Or if you could recommend a good one I could look into, that would be great as well.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Shimmer is not really a benefit of a lighting system. I would even argue that the irregular light patterns on corals do not let them grow as quickly as the full coverage and full spectrums of t5s. But, this is just what I have been reading on other forums. I prefer t5s because they have been tested and proven to work.

 

[lubeck]

i just started my SPS 30 gallon reef tank with 2 -150w Kessil 15k fixtures. they rock and worth every penny. 260 each.... im thinking about getting 1 more but that would be over kill..

 

[lubeck]

understood... didn't imply that it did... just stating a fact that whatever they get they have to live with it so they might as well get what they like.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Your absolutely right lubeck. It's all up to the hobbyist to make the bEst choices for their tank. if the op wants LEDs, theres a lot of research to be done!

 

[gemmy]

I did tons of research on LED lighting and I will be getting the system tomorrow. I think LED's have proven themselves over the last few years.