Light decisions, help!

[mandyplo]

I tried seeking help over at aquariumpros.ca and received nothing, so I'm going to try here as I was referred to this site yesterday by a local fellow reef-er!

My partner and myself have had our marine 55gallon tank up and running now with 50lbs of live rock for 7 months. We are now looking to upgrade our standard lights that came with the tank.

What we are interested in is growing corals, we're not sure yet exactly what type of corals, we're just looking for a good set of lights that will be suitable for great coral growth.


We have a few ideas in mind, and would like suggestions/opinions/recommendations on them.

We've been told this fixture is a good one for general coral growth, with the combination of 2 ATI Blue plus bulbs, 1 ATI Coral plus and 1 ATI Purple plus.
http://www.goreef.com/Sunlight-Supply-Tek-Light-T5-48-4x54W-Fixture-Black-Bulbs.html

But we are torn, because we love the look of LED lights and have heard good things (But are also worried they may not provide enough spread/growth)
We are considering buying 2 of this light
http://www.goreef.com/Kessil-A150W-15000K-Special-Blend-LED-Aquarium-Light-Ocean-Blue.html

If anyone has any other LED recommendations they would like to make, our price range for lights is around $600, please help us out in anyway we would love to hear your personal experience with LED's and opinions/recommendations on a different brand/fixture.

THANK YOU!

[Aquattro]

You'll either need to decide what corals, or assume the most light intensive to not restrict yourself down the road.
Big thing, initial budget. What can you spend up front on lights. LED are nice, 2 units of several models will work, but expensive.
Pros, less heat, no bulb changes, these can get expensive year after year. Sometimes though it's easier to spend it year after year than upfront.

Once you know that, you can narrow it down.

Sorry, just saw the $600 figure. Can you up that at all? In lieu of spending more down the road?

[mandyplo]

Well the two kessil heads we're looking at are $284 each, so we could purchase two of those for a 48" tank (4feet). Would this be enough?

If not, would this one fixture be enough for our tank if we upped our budget to $700 range?
http://www.modularled.ca/aquatic-life-led-48-inch-72-led/

Please, opinions! Link me a fixture that you think is suitable and we will consider it!!

We are strongly leaning towards LEDS for that deadly shimmer effect... So yes, we would up our budget because it does mean saving $ on the power bill every month. And on bulbs every... 6 months.

Edit: We do not currently have any coral preferences, would any of these LED's that I have linked provide suitable growth for both LPS and SPS?

[Aquattro]

I'm not familiar with the Kessils, so not sure if they're enough. The fixture you listed might be ok, but I'm not sure how you control it.
My preference is the AI Sol lights, you could use 2 of those which would cost about 900 with the controller to manage the profiles.
Reefbrite has some fixtures too, but a 4' will run over 1200 bucks.
The AI or Reefbrite would probably support anything you wanted to grow. Kessils, not sure, but I think a few people here run them, maybe they can chime in.
The fixture you linked would probably be fine too, just email Martin @ Modular and ask about controlling it.

[subman]

I would always assume you will get sps sometime (even if you don't ever get some it's good to know you can)

I would recommend LEDs. I started out with T5's and they were good so I sold them and bought halides for the shimmer effect. Halides are very hot and expensive to run and replace sooo Ive switched everything to LEDs.

I like to look of the Kessil's and I think 2 should do. (If you need more you could add one later)

[NorthernCoral]

Go with leds, and more specifically kessils. With your budget they are the best bang for your buck. If you are looking for more controllabilty than you will either have to step up your budget or go diy. But as for the kessils I had 2 on a 65g 36x18x24 and they were deadly. Sufficient lighting to grow anything at almost any coral depth in my tank. Your tank is not likely as deep as mine so you could raise your lights to provide you with the 24" spread that you require. For my depth of tank my spread was maxed out at about 18". So, if you are planning on packing the tank with sps from top to bottom corner to corner, I might suggest a 3rd pendant ,some supplemental strips or go with 2 a350s which would cost almost the same as 3 a150s. If that is not the case and you can sacrifice a few inches of low par lighting on the sides of your tank you will be fine with just the 2 lights.

[mike31154]

One of the advantages of the Kessils is that it's not difficult to add another one or two down the road if you decide you need additional light for more demanding livestock. There are also plenty of DIY LED options out there these days, although as time passes the cost difference is shrinking.

[Snaz]

DIY LED for the price and you can build exactly what you want.
http://www.aquastyleonline.com/

[wickedfrags]

An Vertex Illumina 200 or 260 (LED) will provide enough light to grow whatever species of coral you like, and you should never need to upgrade it unless you change lengths of tanks. You can control it in essentially any manner you like. Be mindful water quality is also important for coral growth, but you gotta have adequate lighting at the same time. cheers.

[Aquattro]

An Vertex Illumina 200 or 260 will provide enough light to grow whatever species of coral you like, and you should never need to upgrade it unless you change lengths of tanks. You can control it in essentially any manner you like. Be mindful water quality is also important for coral growth, but you gotta have adequate lighting at the same time. cheers.

Starting at $2600, these are probably outside of the budget :)

[mandyplo]

Alright, we have decided!!

A big THANK-YOU to NorthernCoral for suggesting the Kessil a350's as I did not even know a higher quality kessil existed other than the a150.

The significant other and myself went with two A350's! He bought one and I bought one. They will be in very soon and I will post pics of the tank once we set the lights up as well as the skimmer and powerheads once they come in. SO EXCITED!!!

Been running this tank for so long with only snails and hermit crabs and liverock, finally going to really get it ready for some corals! (And hopefully fish down the road !)

Thank you everyone for your help and advice, we were finally able to come to a decision and could not have done it without this forum thread!

[subman]

Great give us a review once there up and running,

[burgerchow]

Alright, we have decided!!

A big THANK-YOU to NorthernCoral for suggesting the Kessil a350's as I did not even know a higher quality kessil existed other than the a150.

The significant other and myself went with two A350's! He bought one and I bought one. They will be in very soon and I will post pics of the tank once we set the lights up as well as the skimmer and powerheads once they come in. SO EXCITED!!!

Been running this tank for so long with only snails and hermit crabs and liverock, finally going to really get it ready for some corals! (And hopefully fish down the road !)

Thank you everyone for your help and advice, we were finally able to come to a decision and could not have done it without this forum thread!


good for you. I've got 2 on order myself, but waiting for the A350W, which have wider optics so more spread in the tank.
Where did you buy them? Didn't know anybody in Canada had stock yet. I was told mid June by J&L

[mandyplo]

good for you. I've got 2 on order myself, but waiting for the A350W, which have wider optics so more spread in the tank.
Where did you buy them? Didn't know anybody in Canada had stock yet. I was told mid June by J&L


Actually to save about $100 we bought them on eBay brand new with free shipping. I saw them on modularled for $449 and on eBay they were $380 Canadian brand new in the box. I was skeptical (being eBay and all) but in the buyers reviews there were about 100 other people who also bought kessils from him (a150w's and a350w's aswell as gooseneck mounts etc) and all the reviews were 5 star with the odd bad shipping 4 star review.