LED lighting a 125?

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Experiment397

Experiment397

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2010
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Probably the Poly section
Could I use the marineland LED reef capable system for my 125? It will be mostly a soft coral and mushroom setup with a few polyps here and there. The setup im asking about is the Reef Capable 48-60" LED setup. It has 46x 1w 10000K LEDs and then 8x 1w 460 nm Lunar LEDs. I'm not going to have corals through the whole tank, mainly just on one big live rock pile in the middle so I think I'd be okay with this one even though it only covers a little over 2/3 of the tank. What do you think? I could put two smaller fixtures on either side of it to cover where it misses If I really had to. It's just the cheapest complete fixture I can find that seems big enough for a 72" tank. Thnx


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Experiment397 said:
Could I use the marineland LED reef capable system for my 125? It will be mostly a soft coral and mushroom setup with a few polyps here and there. The setup im asking about is the Reef Capable 48-60" LED setup. It has 46x 1w 10000K LEDs and then 8x 1w 460 nm Lunar LEDs. I'm not going to have corals through the whole tank, mainly just on one big live rock pile in the middle so I think I'd be okay with this one even though it only covers a little over 2/3 of the tank. What do you think? I could put two smaller fixtures on either side of it to cover where it misses If I really had to. It's just the cheapest complete fixture I can find that seems big enough for a 72" tank. Thnx


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If you are not keeping any type of corals you technically don't need any form of lighting, so don't worry about not covering the whole tank. As for the lights, I don't know the ones you've mentioned, but, 1watt LEDs won't do anything for you.

Can I ask why you have chosen LEDs to light the tank?
 
One 48" led fixture for a 125 is going to be kinda dim. If you have live rock that piles half way up the tank and put the softies directly under the light you should be okay though.
 
The led fixture takes up 58w compared to 312w of the t5 HO and is $130 cheaper. I'll look at having the led and then maybe one or two 36" t5 alongside it to help with the dimness. Anybody have any reasons it wouldn't work?


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Experiment397 said:
The led fixture takes up 58w compared to 312w of the t5 HO and is $130 cheaper. I'll look at having the led and then maybe one or two 36" t5 alongside it to help with the dimness. Anybody have any reasons it wouldn't work?


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You only get what you pay for with marine keeping. Please don't cut corners and try to 'do it on the cheap' because it is going to punish the corals or other living things. It won't work out with the lights because they're not powerful enough. You need 2w or 3w LEDs on the fixture, preferably Cree ones.

When you start looking at proper LED lights for corals you'll notice the watts they use against what T5's use....It's not that much of a difference! If you buy a good LED unit, you'd need to keep it for years to start saving money compared to buying and running T5's

If you're convinced on LEDs, why not DIY your own unit? Loads of guides online if your quite good with your hands.

Hope that helps
 
rusland005 said:
If you are not keeping any type of corals you technically don't need any form of lighting, so don't worry about not covering the whole tank. As for the lights, I don't know the ones you've mentioned, but, 1watt LEDs won't do anything for you.

Can I ask why you have chosen LEDs to light the tank?
Click to expand...

Yup - watts are watts no matter what the deliver system - you'll need more watts (200-300 w/ parabalic alumized refelector) to penetrate water depth.
 
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