DIY Lighting for my tank build

I am in need of a good DIY for the 75g FOWLR I'm building. I will eventually add some corals. Any lighting is fine. The more lighting types the better because that will give me more options as far as price and ease of build goes. Thanx in advance guys.

 

I've read several things, looked at some DIY threads. I'm looking for opinions on what ppl think the best lighting is for a tank like I'm building, 75g FOWLR. I'd like to go LED, but really I'm going to go the least expensive and easiest route to get through 'til I start to add corals. Any and all suggestions(LED, MH, T5, colors, etc.) are greatly appreciated.

 

Get the taotronics 120w on ebay, 2 of those and done. if your wanting cheap easy and work. IMO lighting is the last place to skimp if your planning a reef though

 

better idea is an aqua style 72 kit kit, better is the rapid 48 kit, better yet 2 AI sols or a radian. budget! thats $150 to $1000

 

Thanx for the info. I'm not looking to skimp. I want to build the best thing for my tank, and also spend the least possible doing while still getting quality. I'm just looking for suggestions to add to my reading info, so I can make the most informed decision.

 

I personally would go LED…

If you really like to tinker around with that stuff and you are starting out with a FOWLR tank, you could start with less than 48 LED’s to save some cash, then as your needs change add additional LED’s to the system until you have the desired amount of light. You would just have to carefully space out your LED’s with the intention of adding more in the future.

 

I looked into the different lights. I'm seriously thinking that I'm going with MH right now and when I start adding corals(probably around a year), I'll put together an LED set up. I know moneywise I should just do the end result to start with, but I can swing a LED setup that is sufficient right now. I have a son turning 16 in a few months(gotta buy him a car). So, that said. I know that I have to get MH bulb wattage that matches the ballast wattage. is there anything I need to pay close attention to? Like, getting everything from the same Mfr. I'm probably going with 2 white bulbs and 2 blues. I think I can do all that for less than $200. If anyone has a different/better setup comparable to that, I'll definitely check it out. Thanx you guys.

 

2 250w MH or a 4-lamp T5HO w/ATI bulbs would support any coral you want to keep in a 75g tank, so you can [STRIKE]upgrade[/STRIKE] switch to LED when and if you want at a later time. IMHO, LED is not the be-all or end-all in reef lighting... at least not yet.

Personally, I prefer the looks of the ATI Coral Plus T5HO bulbs. The Pheonix 14000k MH lamps would be similar- not too white, not too blue. You can check my tank thread for reference, and see the difference between the Coral Plus and the 1 white/ 1 blue combo.

 

Not sure if you've made up your mind yet but here's what i'm thinking of doing.

rapidled.com

12 Cool white LEDs
12 Royal Blue LEDs
2 Drivers
2 6x20 heat sinks
Total=262.20 with shipping.

I think this would do you good to start out as well. It should give plenty of light for a FOWLR setup and still allow for even some softies. The beauty of this setup is it's cheaper than the tautronics pendents mentioned earlier, better quality LEDs, and easily expandable/replaceable. If an LED blows out a couple years down the road, just buy a new one and swap it out. May be a little harder to do that on a premade system. Of course this option assumes you know how to or at least are handy enough to follow a youtube vid and instructions to throw this thing together which will involve soldering.

As mentioned, this is easily expandable in the future. First upgrade i'd do to this is buy another set of 12 whites/blues and drivers and add to the setup. After that you can add another driver for some greens and UVs and maybe a controller of some type. This could easily be done in 3-4 stages, couple hundred a pop to total up to about $500 when its said and done.

Plus is that you wont have to replace bulbs every 6-8 months and it should be more energy efficient and cooler than other options.