How do you pick a fixture?

SO how do you guys go about picking a fixture????

The last time I was involved in reefing, I used T5, which were great, but Im looking at the LEDs now.

Problem is, I'm not sure what to look for in a fixture. I was looking at the aquamana from amazon and the value LED fixture from reefbreeders, but Im not entirely convinced without asking what I should be looking for.

Everything is slowly coming together, and with lighting being so important, Im trying to take my time with this. All I know for sure is that Im not spending $300 + on a fixture.



...........I known someone's going to ask, looking at keeping LPS and most likely SPS in the future in a 25-30 gsallon cube.

 

For that price it's hard to go wrong with reefbreeders. I've seen some fine tanks in person with those.
My favorite light for sheer beauty of the light itself is the Kessils. the shimmer is amazing.
I chose T5 because my favorite tanks on the internet are mostly T5.

 

Reef Breeders fixtures have great reviews. I would personally go with either that or a d120 fixture from ebay. They're basically the same thing, but the d120 has an older casing and will be a bit cheaper.

 

But what do you look for? So far, I'm getting that you at least want a fixture that has fans and can be dimmable?

I really don't care much about creating sunsets and cloudy days, so programming doesn't appeal to me. Am I missing anything else I should be looking for?

 

Well, went ahead and bought a unit from reef radiance today. Their reviews online seemed good, and the customer service so far has been impressive.

Kind of excited, the most expensive part of the setup is done, almost there!

 

Nice which unit did you get..

 

I grabbed the DM 155. I was originally going to go with a Reef Breeders unit, but they are on back-order right now, so I didn't want to wait.

 

I have the same fixture. You'll love it.

 

I have a D120 from eBay coming in the mail tomorrow and then I'm probably going to order 3 more fixtures from ocean revive LLC. The exact same fixture except the new models from Ocean Revive come with timers along with the dimmers. Didn't find those till after I had bought the other haha but just gonna put it on a manual timer. Ocean Revive makes the D120s on eBay. Great light, I saw them in person and was sold. I'm buying 4 lights for the price of 1 radion. I don't need storm settings haha

 

Yeah, now that the most expensive part of the setup is out of the way, My son and I are pretty excited about setting this thing up. Ive always been a T5 guy in the past, and this is my first try at LEDs, so Im even more excited.

Thanks for all the input guys!