Looking for Advice on Reef Tank Lighting

[Readd13]

Still working on cycling my tank here. I have a 80 gallon 4 foot long Innovative Marine. Im hoping to get some lights that will be suitable for some softies, gonis, duncans, torches, pretty much wavy corals to give extra movement to the tank. Prefer to get something 4 foot to give maximum coverage on the tank and would prefer to not have to hang from the ceiling if possible as well. Do you guys have any recommendations? Or Brands to look into? Thanks ahead of time and i will be doing a build thread at some point to show off my progress with some rock scaping ive been planning.

[Carlos G.]

I'm getting the orbit marine ic pro dual. They have a 48" version, you get two lights for around 430 shipped with the discount code "WELCOME10". They mount pretty close to the water with the included legs but they also have a light mount that looks pretty sleek. Having two strips of light is nice so you get a even spread. It can be controlled via bluetooth also.

[Carlos G.]

I'm no expert so maybe the others can give you a better suggestion lol

[TangTamer]

Is it an open top or is it closed top? If it is open I always have to recommend either 2 or 3 kessil a360 tuna blue led lights, those are awesome lights for both lps, softies, and if you eventually wanted to go into sps they would work well too. These can attach to the side of your tank if you get the gooseneck, so then you wouldn’t have to hang them from the ceiling. If you have a closed top I would go for some t5 lights, those were awesome at growing lps for me before I had to switch to led to get more par. Also, t5-lit tanks are one of the most appealing tanks to look at, for some reason they just look so much better IMO.

[Readd13]

Its got a mesh screen lid with the Innovative Marine, just in case for jumpers, dunno if that will effect what your asking.

[TangTamer]

Oh ok yeah I meant like a canopy type top for your tank. Personally I think kessils are a great choice you can’t rly go wrong with them, except for they are a little more expensive. No matter what you choose lps and softies are very forgiving, good luck with that tank.

[dshillen]

It really depends on what your budget is. I have the same footprint with 2 Kessil 360's along with Aquatic Life's 48" DX T5 dimmable that setup is roughly about 2K.

[PatientZero]

You can probably find a used T5 light for a good deal if you look. 6 bulbs should grow pretty much anything you want and you can add actinic led strips down the road if you want to play around with color.

[Casinova]

Fluval 2.0 and 3.0 marine work pretty good