Lighting for 48x24x24 Low Tech (medium/low light plants)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
You got a link to these SB reef lights? Not seeing anything for a 48" length tank.... I am also considering making my own light setup with LED floodlights. Looks like by far the best bang for your buck.

Jesus... Nevermind on those lights $400+ per light. Not gonna happen. I can do these DIY flood lights for under $100.
 
get 2 16" lights. hang them/mount them over the tank.

https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-fw-plant-lights/21-basic-fresh-water-plant-led-light.html

$135 per light, free shipping. so $270 total.

2 of ths finnex would cost about the same or more with less light output.

im building out 2 120 gallon tanks like this.

there is always DIY, but a 24" deep tank is always a challenge to light for anything more then anubias and crypts. the DIY flood lights dont really put out much of any light and i feel like i wasted money doing it that way. TBH, i like the flexibility of these lights, and i should have just bought them for all of my tanks to start instead of the finnex lights i have.

i mounted one with some angled aluminum for $10. will cost just as much for a 4' tank.
IMG_20170827_225458 (1).jpg


you cold also do just a single sb reef light and hang it higher, 2-3 feet above the tank (it comes with wire hanging mounts to put on hooks) and that would light a whole 120 itself.

or just go with a single 48" finnex vivid+ or similar. i think the planted+ / 24/7+ come in 48" as well. but they are $120-130 as well, so the same ballpark.

sorry if this is overload of information. I just hate to see someone else go down the road i did and spend more on lights over time, then just getting the right thing to start with.
 
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Im leery on these because of the price, do you have them already? Are 2 of the 16" lights spread apart slightly really going to be adequate enough with front to back coverage? They are 8" front to back, but I feel like I could get more coverage taking 2 48" led strip lights and spacing them from front to back. I appreciate your help, just not sure about these lights dimensions and how they will look/work. Also, are these going to be high light or good for medium light plants? I would prefer avoiding co2.

I see you had edited your post, so Ill add to this another concern. Another concern is looks, this tank is my main display tank in my living room. So I am concerned with looks as well.
 
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Did more research on these SB lights. I think I might order two of the 16" models. I just need to figure out how to mount them to one bracket. I don't want to rely on hanging from ceiling. Id rather build some type of mount.
 
Mounting is easy enough. Check out my photo above, I have that one on a 3' piece of angled aluminum. You can pickup 4' pieces at a local hardware store, drill some holes and use the screws that are already attached to the light. Sbreef lights manufacturer actually has a YouTube video on this as well.

To get full coverage you just need to have them about 6-8" above the water line. They have 90° lenses so it should be easy to calculate the height. I'll do the math later when I get home. I need to do it for my tanks as well anyway. If you are making a canopy you can build them into that as well.
 
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I don't know what you did or how you got that lol. But how do I need to space 2 16" models? Both in height (I assume 8-10" now) and apart from each other.
 
so what i did was just calculate a 90 degree triangle since the lenses are 90 degree lenses. that makes a nice triangle of light if you look at it in 2 dimensions. take that triangle a lift it until it covers the area of the width of the tank near the top.

for the distance apart, a 120 generally has a brace in the center, so you just center the lights between them. so 4" from each side and 8" between them.

aquarium light height.png
 
if for example you lower the light by 4", you can see how the light wont reach the top corners of the tank at all. also 8-10" of space is a good working headroom (literally) so you dont have to move the lights when you are working on the tank.

light lower.png

if we diagram with multiple beams, or the farthest front and back row of leds, we can see that 8" will cover the space, but that also means only that row will hit those upper area's and not make for as nice of a color blend.

multiple beams.png

so 10" is the best height, dosnt need to be perfect, but would work the best for these lights on a 2' deep x 2' high tank.

if you cant tell, i really love diagrams when working on a project.
 
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