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Reef Aquarium Lighting

Filed Under lighting, reef aquariums |

There are a few options when it comes to lighting a reef aquarium but they basically boil down to one of four choices: Fluorescent (T5, VHO), Compact Fluorescent, Metal Hydride, and LED.

The T5s have a nice solid light output, they're relatively inexpensive, and are suitable for corals requiring moderate to high light levels. A set of lights for our 36" tank would have cost about $200 from several online retailers.

VHO and Power Compact tubes are suitable for low to moderate light requiring corals such as leathers, mushrooms, and SPS. A retrofit 36" PC unit for installation into the canopy purchased with Tank 1.0 was $99 from several online retailers.

Metal Hydride lighting is suitable for corals requiring intense lighting. This light is the strongest and most intense of the bunch with a higher cost and power requirement. They also produce the most heat of all the lighting types. The MH lighting which we looked at was in excess of $400. This was deemed to costly for the 1.0 reef aquarium.

LED lighting is the newest lighting type on the scene. The LEDs are very focused in the color spectrum which they emit so they can target the lighting specifically within the wavelength required. They have the lowest power consumption of all the lighting types, have the longest lasting bulbs, and produce practically no heat. They downside to them is that they are new so that people don't have experience raising coral under then, and they are exceptionally expensive.  While we would loved to have had them, the $1200 price tag put them clearly outside of our reach.

For tank 1.0, it was decided to go with Current USA SunPaq Power Compact retrofit kits and installed 2 of them into the canopy. We have to change the bulbs every 8-12 months as PC bulbs are said to color shift. (If anyone can find actual documentation supporting this we'd love to see it.) We knew we would be sticking with the simpler soft corals to start and would upgrade the light kit for tank 2.0.

Thanks for reading and following us on our journey to build our reef aquarium.

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