Best lighting for saltwater fish/dry rock?

[Dundermifflin]

110 gallon tank. It's been down for over a year and starting it back up. Only have fish and dry rock. What's the best lighting for this set up. With fish only does it matter between fluorescent and LED?

Thanks.

[Christian J]

What's your budget? Tube fixtures are much cheaper than LED fixtures. There are also LED/T5 hybrid fixtures.

What's your tank's dimensions? Good light coverage may depend on the shape of your tank. A single tube illuminates an oval/oblong area, while a single LED fixture often illuminates a more round/square area (depending on model). You could use lots of short tubes on a square tank, but that's less economical (ditto for using several round beam LED fixtures on an oblong tank).

LED fixtures with a narrow light beam create more contrast between light and shade in the tank, while tubes create a softer light that works better for photography.

Color rendition may depend on individual tube or LED choice. Some LED fixtures are designed to output a lot of blue light, which may benefit corals but appears dim to the human eye. There's no point in paying for all that blue light if you just keep fish --perhaps a fresh water LED fixture would be more economical than one meant for corals?

Some LED fixtures can be programmed in various ways, and unlike tubes LEDs give you shimmer if you want that.

[sowildpaul]

Originally Posted by Dundermifflin

110 gallon tank. It's been down for over a year and starting it back up. Only have fish and dry rock. What's the best lighting for this set up. With fish only does it matter between fluorescent and LED?

Thanks.

Fish doesn't require a correct lighting as corals do. However, if you want a shimmer look, LED can do that. What's more, LED lasts much longer (I would say over 10 years). Blue light (either fluorescent or LED) is nice when you want to watch your colorful fish glow (such as blue tang, blue-face angel, queen angel, bi-color pseudo, etc) while it can be used as dawn and dusk.