Reef Lighting

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Phenex

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 22, 2010
5
0
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Midwest
I am getting ready to set-up some reef tanks after a 2.5 year hiatus due to a house fire. I have seen that there are many new options for lighting now available.

What are peoples thoughts on the best way to light a reef? Metal halide, HQI, LED, VHO?

What do you recommend and why? Since I am starting from scratch I can go any direction I want.

Thanks,

John
 
Hi John, and hello from Wisconsin, and sorry to hear about the house, that is terrible. :(

If you have the money, I might try and go LED. Has a lot of the nice properties of MH, but not the heat, or the electricity bill.

I am also tempted to say that it would be less likely to cause a fire, but no promises there.

Otherwise I run Mh on all of my tanks, and I think that is a safe bet because that technology (unlike LED) is now to the point where they really arent changing anything on us.
 
I'd agree with fleshy and say that LED would be best, but i know around here they can be pretty expensive, so VHO's or halide's would both be good options.
 
I run 100% LED "reef" fixtures on my 150 tall...Love the lights! You would need more of them then i run But you will save $$$ on bulb replacement and electric. Probably the biggest bonus for reef keeping is lack of heat and adaptabilty. With the more advanced systems you can add extra blue or even black light fixtures to spot light particular species on your reef. Check my LED lighting thread!
 
Im partial to MH with t5 suppliment. Full T5 setup is just as good but you dont get the shimmer. LED is comming along but too expensive for my 6ft tank. LED will be the future of reefkeeping. VHO T12 and PC have pretty much gone extinct.
 
I'm running a Coralife High Output T-5 with lunar lights. I love it... but I'm still new at this so my opinion doesn't count for much
 
Metal halide has been a tried and true experience in this hobby. Something i can say when it comes to lights is it doesnt cost to skimp. Although there are many options out there, there a pros and cons to each. LED's came around, then failed. ask yourself why they failed? i have not read much about there properties since that failure, and i do believe they will be a hot item some day. its hard to compare a LED TV with that of an LED light fixture designed to produce spectrums of the sun, so that would be a worthless argument. call me stubborn but i hate to step away from something that works only to spend 5 grand on a 4 foot lighting fixture...just me though.

t-5s are newer, but good for many options. my tank is pure t5 and i do not spend much in electric, or bulb replacements. I like the fact that i can control the color of the lights and play with the combinations. T5s are great but only if ran correctly. Controling heat, and using all 360 degrees of the bulb is key.

VHO's are slowly fading out and not as available as other options.

PC's are still highly available but for the cost, they lack the power that SPS and most LPS require. Your better off staying away.
 
I would agree with most everything said...except I would favor MH over any other fluorescent bulb, and LED is being used successfully on many tanks, and at reasonable prices as well!

Check out www.reefkoi.com - these guys arent even the cheapest you can go!
 
i switched from halides to my teks and i love it. the individual reflectors give off a great shimmer and penetrate deeply.

i heard stories about LEDs bleaching sps over time..anyone know if this is true?
 
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