I have no idea how to light my reef!!! Need help

Ok I have a little pico reef as of now. I would like to upgrade to a 15 to 10 gallon for more stable and easier keeping. But I'm not sure what fixture to get!!! Do I get t5 or LED. And if I get led I don't want to hang it high off the tank. So I'm not sure what to do!! Any help will be awesome!!! I am a college student on a low budget! I'd like led but seems like u have to hang to get a nice spread.

 

aquastyleonline or rapidled for DIY LED's
a good quality t5ho fixture 2-4 bulbs depending on what corals
reef breeders, kessil, orphek, and boostled for pre-made LED fixtures

 

I'm assuming you're looking for a fixture for your 10-15 gal? You could DIY an LED fixture for probably less than $100. If you used 90 degree optics (or none at all, which is typically 120 degree spread) you wouldn't have to hang over the tank, and you would probably only need about 10-12 LEDs. So, $4 x 10 LEDs is $40, plus a 700mA dimmable driver with dimmer is $30, plus a 4.25x9" heatsink is $12.50, plus a fan and misc wire is another $10. So, total for a 10 LED fixture would be $92.50 plus shipping, approximately. You could probably host most types of corals, and a 4"x9" heatsink will allow plenty of spread for a 10gal.

Or here's a complete DIY kit (dimmable 12LED for $95), and you could probably even e-mail customer service if you wanted to replace a few whites with violets or cyan, etc.

12 Ultra Premium LED DIY Kit with Dimmable Drivers - Rapid LED

 

Thanks!! I might go with a t5 or something mabey that DIY you posted! What colors and how many should I get?

 

Whats your budget, but sacul prob has the best solution.

12 LEDs DIY kit

do the 5 white 5 blue 2 uv, and UPGRADE to the meanwell drivers

EDIT; if you have the money, def do rapid, and if ya have an extra $15 get the plug and play kit. NO SOLDERING, and you can swap out colors easily

 

use Neutral whites opposed to cool whites too.

 

Ok thanks everyone!!!!

 

I think there are a couple ways to play it. But looking at the complete kits, they don't include a heatsink, or fan, and probably are not too flexible with regards to colored LEDs.

It depends on what you want (and can afford) for your lights. Let's assume you'll use 10 LEDs. Do you want a dawn/dusk effect? Because that will require the blues to be on a separate drive, hence you will need two drivers. Also realize that a dimmable driver still requires a controller to get the ramping effect, ie, increasing intensity over the period of 1 or 2 hours. Otherwise, a dimmable driver would be controlled via a potentiometer, which gives you overall intensity control, but a timer would turn the lights simply on and off (similare to t5 fixtures).

As far as colors, my personal preference would be 2 cool white, 2 neutral white, 4 royal blues, 1 blue, and 1 UV. If you did 12, add a cool white and a blue. This should give you a crisp white look with a very slight blue hue to it.

I did a similar DIY build in my build thread (see sig). You could use that as a starting point.