Light combo for 125 gallon long

[Mjp83]

Hi everyone,

I am upgrading from my 72 bow front to a 125 gallon, 6 foot long, 18" wide and 21" deep tank.
My current tank uses t5's and a Mars Aqua 48" LED strip. Lights sit about 1" off glass lid on tank, and I have had great growth in my corals over the last year.

My rock scape will locate the corals on either side of the tank, where the center will be open. My first set up will be running the t5's with the LED s by simply offsetting them to span the 6'.

But I think I need more light, my t5 fixture only has 3 bulbs. Thinking 2 box type lights over the reef areas and the t5 centered?

Any input appreciated!

 

[mcarroll]

Well....this is somewhat a can of worms, but I'll open it anyway....

Consider switching to all LED.....the replacement bulbs and power usage of the T5's is just excessive. Make the switch gradually if you have to.

I don't like the chinese black boxes very much, or anything similar, but to start with even those would be preferred.

A single 72" Orbit Marine Pro ($560) would probably be my favorite replacement....one light.

Not to say where you're heading won't work....but in the long run, that 72" Orbit Pro is going to be a lot cheaper.

Just counting the cost of the three T5 bulb replacements, the upgrade would pay for itself in only 4 years. (Trust me, the years fly by after a while.)

If you consider the $200 that you'd spend on a couple of china boxes against that cost, your payback is only 2.5 years.

Sell your current lighting for another $100 and it's paid for in less than 2 years.

Plus the Orbit Pro is a better light with more features...that is a much better fit for a long, skinny tank.



2¢

 

[David Engh]

Like the input because I am currently going through the same problem. Watching

 

[Mjp83]

Ok,
How about two SBReef sbox 16" pro with timer?
Or
Two Oceanrevive T427 B's?

Are they considered eBay boxes?

I do want to upgrade to something with the ramp up feature, so maybe I splurge on one, and have the other simply be a regular timer version, which cuts on and off after the firsts one simulated sunrise/set?

BTW, this tank has no sps, only softies, zoas and lps's.

 

[ChrisAndJulie2012]

What did you end up going with Mjp83? This spring the wife and I are looking into upgrading our lights to LED from the T5/MH setup we have now. We dont use the MH part and we are tired of buying T5 bulbs.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I have a 125 gallon system. I have three Kessil A360WEs and two 60" T5HOs in my tank. Right now, I can only run the T5s about 10 minutes a day or my war and brain corals begin to bleach. I think you will be able to do whatever you want with a combo of T5s and LEDs.

 

[ChrisAndJulie2012]

I was thinking of the Orbit USA Loop 72" I don't think I will ever venture into the hard to keep corals so I think one fixture would be fine. We can always up grade to two of the same fixtures if we need more Watts for the tank. But I have read a few reviews and it seems a single fixture will be fine for a mixed reef with softies and 'rooms.

 

[Mjp83]

Hi Chris/Julie,

I ended up buying three 165 watt LEDs very similar to the SBReef lights, with wifi and auto sunrise/set feature.

Growth is pretty decent, lighting and appearance is amazing! For frogspawn, zoas, mushrooms, leathers, Duncan's, acans, trumpets, and even a rainbow anemone these work well.

I do get some shadowing which is typical of LEDs, but have to seriously look to find the darker/shaded area. No heat to speak off, so I don't really miss my t5's. No heat and visual appearance with features easily outweigh the light shadowing I see.
Here are some pics, the full tank shot is with my crappy iPad camera, and the others are with my iPhone.

 

[ChrisAndJulie2012]

Your tank looks amazing!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Good choice. I've had my mars aquas since October 2016 and don't regret getting them. My SPS and LPS have been growing like crazy since. Very happy, you will be too.