15 Gallon (24x12x12) Led Hood Question.

Hello everyone,

As you can see I am new here, but not new to fish keeping. I am however new to salt water. >_<. I have been doing my research but still am unable to find an answer to my question.


About a month ago I set up a 10 gallon FOWLR tank. I kind of had an auto cycle due to the live sand and rock that I introduced, never the less today I bought a 15 gallon, just because I wanted to stay on the small scale, but wanted to increase my options a little bit.

With the tank I also bought a led hood made by deep blue. It has 4: 3 watt leds in it, and it said output was 12.5 watts with all 4 being 6700k. Now from what I have read led's are more efficient and something of this size can equal the equivalent of right around 50 watt's of normal lighting?

If this is the case, and no I have not set up the 15 gallon yet, will this be enough to grow soft coral's/ mushrooms or should I return everything and get a 20 gallon tank (Cheaper) and buy some other sort of lighting. I am on a budget and I got the tank with light tonight for 92 bucks. I have heaters and everything else already running in the other tank, just want to make sure before I try and set this 15 up, that what I have for lighting will be sufficient.


I an open to opinions and critisicms.

This is a side project for me to see if saltwater is something I would like to take on a bigger scale.

My baby right now is my 75 gallon South American Cichlid tank, there pretty entertaining.

 

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

 

No ideas?

 

Well that is not the best spectrum lighting for corals. I think most try to be around 14,000K. 6,700K is actually good at growing algae :-/ But maybe get some actinic strip lighting and you then you would be in good shape. For your information, I have 20 3W leds over my 28 nano. But mine is setup for SPS corals. Half of that amount would be fine for softies.

 

+1. THE most important thing anyone can tell you right now, is your lighting spectrum is not what you want for a reef.

I love my 15 gallon tank and there are a TON of great lights for that sized tank. I would be more than happy to help you with any questions

 

Okay, for that sized tank then, what would be my best option for soft corals. I would like to have a full hood and not just a light strip if possible.:-X

 

Well I won't start suggesting lights because there are SO many out there.

Reefs usually grow and thrive best around 14,000-22,000k. There are builds, especially LEDS, available in just about every spectrum and intensity you can imagine !!

Maybe some one else knows about good LED hoods?? I really just know about clamp ons and strips

 

Assuming your tank is 24" long, something like this would be just fine for softies, and even lower/mid light LPS corals:

24" 31" Aquarium LED Light Lunar Double Bright Reef Capable Beamswork | eBay

I have one of their "single bright" over my 46 bowfront, which uses .1W LEDS. It is meant to be a FOWLR but I do have Kenya Tree and Xenia in the tank, and both do just fine under that light. So even something like this may work until you can up your budget and get some real lighting

24" 30" Aquarium LED V2 Lighting Lunar Fish Tank Hood Light CE 65 Brighter CE | eBay

 

Diy is cheap and is better than most pre made fixtures.

 

Only if you know what you are doing Seeing as the OP does not seem to have much knowledge on LED lighting, I recommend starting out with a fixture, and then doing an upgrade down the road.