Less Expensive Lighting Suggestion for SPS

[NanoNerd]

I have a 5g, 20" L 10" deep tank that I want to keep some less-demanding SPS in(as in, no acros). Right now, there's some birdsnests and a digitata that I'm all in love with. As well as my group buy favia and zoas. 🥰 But I want to invest in good lighting for them of course. I'm not convinced my current nicrew will be completely adequate for the sps, even at the top level of the tank. 

So anyhow, looking for recommendations for a good light that won't break my bank. TIA!

[Kerbash]

i use those 120 watt chinese black box led over my frag tank, i think 120 bucks a unit?, seems to grow everything fine even acro, the only issue seems to be high end acros dont color up as nice as my main tank.

[DaveZ]

As someone who has successfully kept acros in nano tanks, I will tell you that lighting with sps should be lower on the list of things to concern yourself with. Flow, major/minor elements uptake and replenishment, and nutrient stability and export are for sure more important for sps in a nano.  
 

Your Nicrew should be totally fine to start. Most lighting can provide for any corals needs and a good aquacultured sps pieces will settle far quicker. Par and spectrum matter but shooting a bit lower in the par range 150-200 is still perfectly fine for most sps and having a full spectrum is a good starting point. Par and spectrum are useful but it’s usually not life and death for most sps, they’re pretty good at adapting to different light. They might not reach optimal or peak coloration possibilities but also remember to not overhaul the whole system and create mass instability for all the other animals to accommodate one or two pieces  

Flow is always the biggest and most critical aspect with making the jump from softies/LPS tank into sps…most especially in a nano. There’s typically nowhere near enough flow in a LPS/Softie nano tank to support any sps. A good sign that flow is adequate is that your sand bed is getting blown around. If your sand is still, then there’s not enough flow for sps.  

Naturally the trade off is that most LPS will suffer with that high of flow. It takes an incredible amount of zonal planning for the LPS to make sure they’re both acclimating to higher par and not getting must direct force of the flow. 

Most jumping from LPS/softies to sps is not being ready for the elemental uptake of Alk and calcium. Tough part of a nano with low water volume buffer is that the uptake can happen fast to insanely fast. Water changes are great and I really am a big proponent of water changes for nano reef keepers but it’s for sure not enough to keep up with stability when doing an sps mixed reef. Likely a two part or 1 part solution for consistent daily dosing is great. 
 

Most sps can adjust to higher nutrient tanks but the key is stability and smaller fluctuations. If the tank has good husbandry schedule; then it will be fine for sps.
 

now, to help provide some validity to what I’ve shared I will showcase my results (as that’s the only thing we can really do as reefers to make our points more valid). I will post a picture below of my Nuvo 20. It’s become an acro dominant mixed reef display over time. It’s 6 years old, lit by an old and crappy Nanobox Quad not running even running 50% and a 24” custom spectrum LED bar I got a company in China to make me through AliExpress. Most of the top portion of water column where the acros are has par around 300-375 and bottom/sandbed is 200-250. It is also running dual Jebao SLW 10 and SLW 20 for flow. The 10 is running 100% on a constant and the SLW 20 running near full power on a pulse. 
 

I do weekly 25% water changes and only have 3 fish in the system. Just two bags of Chemi-pure blue for media. No skimmer or any other filtration. This tank is just heat, lights, flow, carbon, sand, rock…and lots of coral. 

Im always open for DMs or texts if you have more questions or want to chat/ come see the tank. 
 

 

[Colbymac92]

In my 170G tank, I use these in certain spots. I’ve used a par meter on it and in a 12x12 area, it emits 300 par near the surface and 80 par at the sand bed. Best part is it’s like $50 bucks

 

LED LIGHT

Edited September 26, 2023 by Colbymac92

[islandVib3s]

Amazon smatfarm led 95w light is pretty solid for the price.

[NanoNerd]

Thanks all! It's been a busy few days so haven't been able to reply.

 

I have looked into the smatfarm brand, since I have heard good things, despite the weird name lol. I also heard good things about this light: https://noopsychereeflight.com/products/k7mini The controls sound maybe annoying, but honestly the ones we have right now are not great anyhow. So no difference.

Dave, thanks for your great reply! Ill probably take you up on PMing you. Today will be our weekly water change for the three nanos, so we'll do some testing first too and see where the numbers are. As fsr as flow, yeah my sandbed has been blown all around, and i worried it was TOO much flow, so was going to look into that too (I tried to find thenl smallest power head i could for this tank). Ill take a pic later once the lights come on.

I think this tank wont be much of a mix, just almost all sps and MAYBE 1 or 2 really hardy corals who are ok with the flow and the bright lighting (GPS, e.g.).

[DaveZ]

19 minutes ago, NanoNerd said:

Thanks all! It's been a busy few days so haven't been able to reply.

 

I have looked into the smatfarm brand, since I have heard good things, despite the weird name lol. I also heard good things about this light: https://noopsychereeflight.com/products/k7mini The controls sound maybe annoying, but honestly the ones we have right now are not great anyhow. So no difference.

Dave, thanks for your great reply! Ill probably take you up on PMing you. Today will be our weekly water change for the three nanos, so we'll do some testing first too and see where the numbers are. As fsr as flow, yeah my sandbed has been blown all around, and i worried it was TOO much flow, so was going to look into that too (I tried to find thenl smallest power head i could for this tank). Ill take a pic later once the lights come on.

I think this tank wont be much of a mix, just almost all sps and MAYBE 1 or 2 really hardy corals who are ok with the flow and the bright lighting (GPS, e.g.).

Good stuff. I haven’t personally used the Noopsych light I would say any of these lights are good. Not sure what your budget is for lights but I’m super curious on the Chinese near 1 for 1 knockoff of the XR30 for only $250 with a mounting bracket:

A8se Smart Full Spectrum 215W WiFi APP Programmable Saltwater Aquarium Coral Reef LED Light
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMEQY94

Keep in mind with budget lights that have an app, it’s likely to be total crap. But for a set/forget one time thing I’m sure this $250 instead of Ecotech $1100 (with mount), the juice could be worth the squeeze.

 

Another Chinese option is the Kessil knockoff for $125 with stand: A7 2.0 Generation WiFi App Control Full Spectrum 100W Marine Led Aquarium Reef Light
https://a.aliexpress.com/_m07ABYm

 

But for 5g tanks, these lights are way overkill. You would absolutely need to get a par meter to make sure you’re not destroying them with 600+ par  

 

And as for flow and SPS, there’s no such thing as too much flow. The only thing you don’t want (and a major challenge in nano’s) is not blasting them with insane direct flow or you could blow tissue off. You want to think “raging currents”