Hey there. I'm new to R2R but not new to the hobby. After a few years of hiatus I re-entered the hobby recently with a little 20g long build that I'm keeping pretty simple. I wanted to take a chance to share my fixture I built just in case people are looking for a reasonable cost fixture for a smaller tank to emulate.
First things first, I saved some money by buying a lot of stuff on clearance. That may not be an option for you depending on what is available. But that's part of the advice, buy things on sale or clearance where you can, even if you have to change the plan around to fit it. I ended up changing a few things around to fit the sales I found.
I chose to do a T5/LED hybrid for a few reasons. First I'm just not a fan of pure LED lit tanks, something about it doesn't look right to me. Sometimes the shimmer can be way too intense and make me nauseous. If you love them, more power to you. Second because this is a 30" long tank it's difficult for some of the smaller LED pendant style lights (like a Kessil) to really give me great corner to corner spread, while a 24" T5 can throw a ton of light off the edges to cover the difference. Finally, price. No explanation needed.
For this unit I am running a Agrobrite Designer 4x24w T5 HO unit I got on Amazon for $90 with free shipping and some plant bulbs included. I liked this over the other barebones horticultural fixtures just because it isn't the industrial white and instead has a nice bronze powdercoating. It only has one power cord and one switch so no dawn/dusk here. I use basic light timers for everything.
For the LED side I grabbed a couple of 24" Reefbrite Tech 50/50 units on clearance from BRS for $80 each. I'd estimate they are around 24w each. These are about $160 each normally (if they still make them, that might be why they were on clearance) so it cut down on cost a lot with the sale. I'm sure some Current USA or other brand strips would have a similar effect. To attach the Reefbrites to the Agrobrite T5 unit I just used a basic self-tapping screw. I did predrill the hole a little bit to make it easier, but there's no nut or anything holding it in besides the screw and it feels plenty sturdy.
The T5 bulbs can get pretty expensive, that's for sure. 4 bulbs for this unit can easily cost $80-$100. In my case a LFS near me had a bunch of the older Geisemann Powerchromes from maybe 2012 lying around for 30% off so I cobbled together my blend from those at $14 a piece. Geisemann bulbs are good quality and on par (pun intended) with ATI in my opinion so I'll take them at that price all day. I ended up using 2 Actinic+ (comparable to Blue Plus from ATI) and one Lagoon Blue (I don't really have a comparison there, it's just a white bulb with a hint of blue. Maybe Aquablue Special?) and I kept one of the 6500k bulbs that came with the fixture in there. I like the combination with the 50/50 Reefbrites. It's maybe a 14k color temp when everything is on.
I hung it from the ceiling using some very basic drywall anchors and hooks from home depot and some $8 ratcheting horticultural light hangers from amazon. It works well.
All I said I spent:
T5 Fixture: $90
Reefbrite Strips: $160 for both
Bulbs: $45
Mounting Hardware: Maybe $20?
Basic Light Timers: $10
So all said this cost me roughly $325 for around 48w of LED and 96w of T5 over my 20 Long. Right now I barely run the T5s (just one little mushroom frag, the tank is only 3 months old) but I intend to do the LEDs around 8 hours and T5s for maybe 4 hours once this thing is full of corals. I like the color, I like the mix of even T5 spread and subtle LED shimmer, I like the simplicity of the design, and I definitely like the price compared to some of the full feature LED units or LED/T5 Hybrid units.
I don't know if this will help anyone looking to do something similar down the road, but I hope it does.
First things first, I saved some money by buying a lot of stuff on clearance. That may not be an option for you depending on what is available. But that's part of the advice, buy things on sale or clearance where you can, even if you have to change the plan around to fit it. I ended up changing a few things around to fit the sales I found.
I chose to do a T5/LED hybrid for a few reasons. First I'm just not a fan of pure LED lit tanks, something about it doesn't look right to me. Sometimes the shimmer can be way too intense and make me nauseous. If you love them, more power to you. Second because this is a 30" long tank it's difficult for some of the smaller LED pendant style lights (like a Kessil) to really give me great corner to corner spread, while a 24" T5 can throw a ton of light off the edges to cover the difference. Finally, price. No explanation needed.
For this unit I am running a Agrobrite Designer 4x24w T5 HO unit I got on Amazon for $90 with free shipping and some plant bulbs included. I liked this over the other barebones horticultural fixtures just because it isn't the industrial white and instead has a nice bronze powdercoating. It only has one power cord and one switch so no dawn/dusk here. I use basic light timers for everything.
For the LED side I grabbed a couple of 24" Reefbrite Tech 50/50 units on clearance from BRS for $80 each. I'd estimate they are around 24w each. These are about $160 each normally (if they still make them, that might be why they were on clearance) so it cut down on cost a lot with the sale. I'm sure some Current USA or other brand strips would have a similar effect. To attach the Reefbrites to the Agrobrite T5 unit I just used a basic self-tapping screw. I did predrill the hole a little bit to make it easier, but there's no nut or anything holding it in besides the screw and it feels plenty sturdy.
The T5 bulbs can get pretty expensive, that's for sure. 4 bulbs for this unit can easily cost $80-$100. In my case a LFS near me had a bunch of the older Geisemann Powerchromes from maybe 2012 lying around for 30% off so I cobbled together my blend from those at $14 a piece. Geisemann bulbs are good quality and on par (pun intended) with ATI in my opinion so I'll take them at that price all day. I ended up using 2 Actinic+ (comparable to Blue Plus from ATI) and one Lagoon Blue (I don't really have a comparison there, it's just a white bulb with a hint of blue. Maybe Aquablue Special?) and I kept one of the 6500k bulbs that came with the fixture in there. I like the combination with the 50/50 Reefbrites. It's maybe a 14k color temp when everything is on.
I hung it from the ceiling using some very basic drywall anchors and hooks from home depot and some $8 ratcheting horticultural light hangers from amazon. It works well.
All I said I spent:
T5 Fixture: $90
Reefbrite Strips: $160 for both
Bulbs: $45
Mounting Hardware: Maybe $20?
Basic Light Timers: $10
So all said this cost me roughly $325 for around 48w of LED and 96w of T5 over my 20 Long. Right now I barely run the T5s (just one little mushroom frag, the tank is only 3 months old) but I intend to do the LEDs around 8 hours and T5s for maybe 4 hours once this thing is full of corals. I like the color, I like the mix of even T5 spread and subtle LED shimmer, I like the simplicity of the design, and I definitely like the price compared to some of the full feature LED units or LED/T5 Hybrid units.
I don't know if this will help anyone looking to do something similar down the road, but I hope it does.
