Light decisions, help!

[NorthernCoral]

Go with leds, and more specifically kessils. With your budget they are the best bang for your buck. If you are looking for more controllabilty than you will either have to step up your budget or go diy. But as for the kessils I had 2 on a 65g 36x18x24 and they were deadly. Sufficient lighting to grow anything at almost any coral depth in my tank. Your tank is not likely as deep as mine so you could raise your lights to provide you with the 24" spread that you require. For my depth of tank my spread was maxed out at about 18". So, if you are planning on packing the tank with sps from top to bottom corner to corner, I might suggest a 3rd pendant ,some supplemental strips or go with 2 a350s which would cost almost the same as 3 a150s. If that is not the case and you can sacrifice a few inches of low par lighting on the sides of your tank you will be fine with just the 2 lights.

[mike31154]

One of the advantages of the Kessils is that it's not difficult to add another one or two down the road if you decide you need additional light for more demanding livestock. There are also plenty of DIY LED options out there these days, although as time passes the cost difference is shrinking.

[Snaz]

DIY LED for the price and you can build exactly what you want.
http://www.aquastyleonline.com/

[wickedfrags]

An Vertex Illumina 200 or 260 (LED) will provide enough light to grow whatever species of coral you like, and you should never need to upgrade it unless you change lengths of tanks. You can control it in essentially any manner you like. Be mindful water quality is also important for coral growth, but you gotta have adequate lighting at the same time. cheers.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by wickedfrags

An Vertex Illumina 200 or 260 will provide enough light to grow whatever species of coral you like, and you should never need to upgrade it unless you change lengths of tanks. You can control it in essentially any manner you like. Be mindful water quality is also important for coral growth, but you gotta have adequate lighting at the same time. cheers.

Starting at $2600, these are probably outside of the budget

[mandyplo]

Alright, we have decided!!

A big THANK-YOU to NorthernCoral for suggesting the Kessil a350's as I did not even know a higher quality kessil existed other than the a150.

The significant other and myself went with two A350's! He bought one and I bought one. They will be in very soon and I will post pics of the tank once we set the lights up as well as the skimmer and powerheads once they come in. SO EXCITED!!!

Been running this tank for so long with only snails and hermit crabs and liverock, finally going to really get it ready for some corals! (And hopefully fish down the road !)

Thank you everyone for your help and advice, we were finally able to come to a decision and could not have done it without this forum thread!

[subman]

Great give us a review once there up and running,

[burgerchow]

Originally Posted by mandyplo

Alright, we have decided!!

A big THANK-YOU to NorthernCoral for suggesting the Kessil a350's as I did not even know a higher quality kessil existed other than the a150.

The significant other and myself went with two A350's! He bought one and I bought one. They will be in very soon and I will post pics of the tank once we set the lights up as well as the skimmer and powerheads once they come in. SO EXCITED!!!

Been running this tank for so long with only snails and hermit crabs and liverock, finally going to really get it ready for some corals! (And hopefully fish down the road !)

Thank you everyone for your help and advice, we were finally able to come to a decision and could not have done it without this forum thread!

good for you. I've got 2 on order myself, but waiting for the A350W, which have wider optics so more spread in the tank.
Where did you buy them? Didn't know anybody in Canada had stock yet. I was told mid June by J&L