looking for the best reef light for DIY canopy

hey everyone, I am setting up a 150g reef tank and I plan to build a custom wood canopy over the top. This will hide all the lighting and anything else that will be up there so there is no need for fancy looking fixtures.

Im just not sure what direction to go as far as lighting choice. Im looking to do a cheap custom fixture of some kind with a high quality lighting. I also plan on putting fans in the canopy for cooling.


Im looking for the best choice for coral growing that also allows me the flexibility of putting together a custom fixture.

any suggestions?

 

There is many people that are DIY LED's or MH with T5 retro kits you can do.

 

do you know of any good forums you could refer me to?

 

check with rapidLeds on here in the sponsor thread they can tell you how many and what colors you would need for your tank. Also a few members on here have went the DIY route on LEDS. Let me see if i can locate a MH DIY though.

 

IMO I would go with MH. 3x 250 watt. LED are awesome but I've read so many issues with them that's I've choosen to stay away. Especially with DIY LED setups which sounds like what you will need since.your canopy is diy. With me the more I read and try to learn about LED the more confused I get. This person says his LED does wonders the next guy says everything is dying. That's just my 2 cents. I say go MH because there pretty much idiot proff and there is many different types of retro kits out there. LED has alot to be figured out imo. Gl

3x 250w MH. I love 14k phoenix. Awesome look! Gl

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How deep is your tank? This will have a lot to do with what kind of lighting you want to use. You need to look at the PAR of the lighting you want to use.

 

3x175w MH for shallow tank or 3x250mh for taller tank. maybe 2 t5's for actinics or led strip.

 

my tank is 31" deep.

I started reading alot about the MH lights last night but just got frustrated. I have alot of freshwater tanks right now but nothing that requires special lighting so I don't know what im looking at or what I need.

I found a deal on 4 T5 (2 fixtures and 4 bulbs) so i was thinking about using those and 2 MH lights.

what do you guys think about that?

 

or maybe i could use 1 T5 fixture and 2 MH lights in the hood and use the other T5 in the stand for the sump/refuge

 

I would use the 4x T5's along with 2x 250w MH if it was my tank.

How long is your tank?