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What type of lights are over your tank?

What is your main source of light?

  • Total voters
    23
kschweer

kschweer

Administrator
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After reading through a great thread on metal halides today it got me thinking, what is everyone running as their MAIN lighting source?

If you are running T5 with led suplement, your main source is T5. If LED with T5 suplement, your main source is LED and so on for the purposes of this thread.

Please answer the poll and take it one step further in the comments. Are you happy with what you are using for your main source of lighting? If not what are/would you consider changing to??

Looking forward to seeing the results!!
 
kschweer

kschweer

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My tank is lit with T5's. It would take a lot to get me to switch to anything else. I love the color, growth and look I get from them. No shadowing like leds. I am however considering MH for a frag tank I'm planning out
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I am now all LED.....DT and sump. I originally was all T5's, overdriving the bulbs with IceCap ballasts. Still have a bunch of ballasts and maybe 30 bulbs. However, what hurt was the heat (not as bad and Metal Halide) and the yearly bulb changing costs of approximately $130.

Have I noticed a difference.....Yes. Some corals have "color changed", but that's OK with me. I haven't been fooled by corals such as WD Tenuis, which only looks absolutely fantastic once they have been photo-manipulated.

b53326cfdeb7be1538aad8abee650103.jpg


Otherwise, I don't care what ligjht you have, it's just another acro!!!!!

Reality:

images



So now I have three 120W fixtures over my tank. Two Apollos (now out of business) and a Mars Aqua (an inexpensive Chinese fixture) with the lenses removed. The Mars Aqua is the one in the middle. And FYI, I couldn't be happier! As with Kevin, I'll never go back.

 
NyteGTI

NyteGTI

We've got the Mars Aqua 300w over a 40B with days on ~20, & blues on ~45-50 and grow nearly everything. We've had random algae problems, that choked out a few pieces, but that was husbandry, not the lights.

Here's 3mo Sps growth:
b6b48633a05a748093fa4492be74c676.jpg
b6acde839a95fc607dffd3d83e18e258.jpg


And a semi older FTS from the one side. I don't have a shot of the opposite side.
cc3fcbb58aaf1591eaaa239895de30eb.jpg


Sorry for the crappy iphone pics. I haven't gotten a chance to try out the gels I bought

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
I started with LED and only been with LED. I have thought about putting some T5s but I am happy with my LEDs. I am running 1 Kessils A360WE (with controller) and 2 Kessils A150WE Deep Ocean Blues on my 54g corner.

I have a mixture of softies, one lps, and some sps. My softies are doing great, my sps is doing well (not sure but there times I feel I should have quicker growth but other wise I am happy) and my lps is doing ok I think.

My story about lighting:
I first picked up a Current USA Orbit LED light (some of the features looked nice and I wasn't really looking for corals at this time). The light was nice and when I got my first coral (some zoas) they were doing ok under this light. When I went to RAP (my first fish trade show) in 2015 (I am bummed I missed this year) I noticed all the frag tanks had some type of Kessil over them. This is where I picked up my first Kessil A150. I liked the mixture of bar light and the A150 but felt that the A150 only did about half my tank. I ordered another A150 to do the other side but I couldn't find a configuration I like with the two A150s and the Orbit light. After looking MARs, Radions, and other units I couldn't find one I like that would fit nicely between my two A150 until I found the A360. Figured already had two Kessils why not make it three. I do love my Kessils and don't think I would change to anything else.
 
trivan

trivan

I went from all LED - 2 Kessils 360AWE, to the Giesemann T5/LED Hybrid. I was never a real believer in this light is better then that light, but in my tank once the T5 were turned on, noticeable growth was observed. I still think LED are great and have a lot of benefits, but I do now believe what others have been saying as well about t5's
 
MatteZ

MatteZ

When I had my tiny 24g jbj cube I just used the stock hood that had the power compact lights. when I got a bigger tank I jumped right to LEDs. I went with Radions because I wanted lights I knew were good and I didn't want to think about all the different colors and all that headache that comes with it.

Couldn't be happier.
 
Trio91

Trio91

Administrator
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currently i am using a kessil a360we over my 34gal red sea bio cube....like james @njtiger24 aquariums i have always wanted to try other styles like MH's or T5's....the one thing that drew me to LED's was the energy savings, knowing that i was going to have a light on for a substantial period of time thought the day, i needed something more economical (electricity consumption wise)

i have only run kessils since day 1 (i still have 2x a150's from my old set up)

if this kessil decides to die on me (1 has already so it is possible) i will consider retrofitting my hood so i can explore other lighting options.
 
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