I’m building my “dream reef”- 8’x30”x31” “385 gallon”. This is a big upgrade from my $500 6’ 150g marineland tank with a diy stand, ocean revive and kessil lighting. Unfortunately budget is a real thing and I need to keep it under $15k in addition to the ~15k worth of “reef infrastructure” i already have from many years in the hobby. Properly lighting a display of this size with name brand lights could easily cost $5,000-8,000. My budget has me needing to chose between:
1- Name brand lighting and a diy stand to hold a fragile glass box with 350 gallons of saltwater/priceless livestock.
2- Budget lighting and a 2” welded steel stand from the tank mfg(glasscages).
I’ve built my own stands for 17+ years but the sheer weight, volume and investment inside this tank has me thinking this is best left to the pros. I’ve had great success growing colorful, dense sps colonies with black box lighting and know many others have as well. Unfortunately it seems like ocean revives are no longer produced but I hear great things about the viparspectra “165w” lights. I bought 5 the other day and they appear to share many features and components with the OR T-247 lights. One relatively disappointing aspect it that they all draw 94-95 watts with channels at max. I would likely run blues at a 100:40 ratio with whites so that puts the fixtures at roughly 65 watts a piece.
after a little more research, it appears the “Wills 165w” is identical minus the control timer. At $96 vs $150, i’ll make up the rest of my lighting with these. The viparspectra will be staggered over my reef with timers allowing a “ramp up&down”. I also own 4 older kessil 360we’s and I would like to use them for a bit of shimmer and the dusk/dawn ramping. I would like to implement a total of:
-5x viparspectra
-7x wills
-3x kessil 360we
I have an extra kessil and I will buy an extra of each black box so I can have a spare to rotate them out for cleaning, inspection and maintenance without any downtime. I plan on the lights being a good 18” above water built into a rack within a “floating” canopy to keep the weight off the glass. I own a par meter and don’t intend to go near max on the lights but would like the flexibility for when things grow in thick. Limiting whites to 40% with everything else at max, this would give me about 960W of LED lighting over a 20sqft area with ~27” of water to penetrate before hitting the sand.
any thoughts, input or concerns? I realize this is potentially overkill however they ARE adjustable
1- Name brand lighting and a diy stand to hold a fragile glass box with 350 gallons of saltwater/priceless livestock.
2- Budget lighting and a 2” welded steel stand from the tank mfg(glasscages).
I’ve built my own stands for 17+ years but the sheer weight, volume and investment inside this tank has me thinking this is best left to the pros. I’ve had great success growing colorful, dense sps colonies with black box lighting and know many others have as well. Unfortunately it seems like ocean revives are no longer produced but I hear great things about the viparspectra “165w” lights. I bought 5 the other day and they appear to share many features and components with the OR T-247 lights. One relatively disappointing aspect it that they all draw 94-95 watts with channels at max. I would likely run blues at a 100:40 ratio with whites so that puts the fixtures at roughly 65 watts a piece.
after a little more research, it appears the “Wills 165w” is identical minus the control timer. At $96 vs $150, i’ll make up the rest of my lighting with these. The viparspectra will be staggered over my reef with timers allowing a “ramp up&down”. I also own 4 older kessil 360we’s and I would like to use them for a bit of shimmer and the dusk/dawn ramping. I would like to implement a total of:
-5x viparspectra
-7x wills
-3x kessil 360we
I have an extra kessil and I will buy an extra of each black box so I can have a spare to rotate them out for cleaning, inspection and maintenance without any downtime. I plan on the lights being a good 18” above water built into a rack within a “floating” canopy to keep the weight off the glass. I own a par meter and don’t intend to go near max on the lights but would like the flexibility for when things grow in thick. Limiting whites to 40% with everything else at max, this would give me about 960W of LED lighting over a 20sqft area with ~27” of water to penetrate before hitting the sand.
any thoughts, input or concerns? I realize this is potentially overkill however they ARE adjustable
