Just wondering what my options are for lighting on a nano tank.

Tank size as follows: 15x15x12 (just shy of 12 gallons)

Don't ask what I intend to keep cause I have not got that far yet.

If you could hit me up with some links that would be cool.

Thanks...........

here is a great option. No heat transfer to tank, great for just about anything you want to keep. I will be running 2 on a 12x12x12 cube for SPS


Nanotuners.com

Do they need a power supply?

I think you just screw it into a standard lightbulb socket if I'm not mistaken...if so, that's really cool!

Kaiden32 Like the nano in your gallery. how big is it?

I've seen people with those before.. they've had to use 3 (the big one and two smaller ones) to get good growth out of the coral due to their spot lighting. they were also mounted quite high from the tank.
Here's a good site that will help you with the LED aspects as well as reef stuff in general. Reef Builders | The Reef and Marine Aquarium Blog
Here's another site that specializes in LED reef lighting.
Reef Led Lights

If you dont want to go the route of LEDs then you can look into some 12 inch T5 high output lamps. You'll need several of them if you want to go as far as SPS coral. A few if you do LPS or soft coral. If fish only, then maybe one or two will suffice.

phys how many watts per gallon do I need to keep corals healthy? Led lighting is new to me. Don't really understand it all. I am reading alot more stuff about it. I can't find any places with 12 inch T5 lighting. Could you point me a direction?

the watt per gallon speak is a load of crap. PAR is what you should be measuring. PAR or (Photosynthetic Active Radiation) is a measurement of the amount of light that falls onto an area, that falls on a response curve for photosynthesis (400-700nm, ignoring UV and IR light). Basically what this means is that more PAR equals more growth out of photosynthetic corals. Because of this, LEDs do not have to produce as many lumens as other forms of light to reach the same growth potential. This also means less power is required too.

and yes the PAR 38 just screws into a normal light socket. Just be sure the you leave enough room for the fins to disperse the heat out

So, what I'm left with a few more questions. How many of these would I need? 1 or 2?

Also have another option. I know a guy who has a 4x96 power compact hood. I would have to break it down to center the lights together and re-wire it. What would you guys do?

How high do the par 38s have to be above the tank? (15x15x12)


Just trying to get this right. And help is good help.

Fine if you have a PAR meter ;)

Which I don't. Can anyone here really help?

I don't either :(. I've been working on setting up a planted nano cube with LED lights but I'm still trying to work it all out myself and what I am learning is for fresh water, so I'm afraid I can't help you too much. One problem is that LED lighting is still relatively new in the hobby so many people are still experimenting.

Knowing what you want to keep might be a good start because different corals need very different amounts of light so if you give people something specific to work with it will be easier to get specific answers. Other than that look around and see what works for others and if it might work for you, cost and what coral you want to keep will be the biggest factors.

Thanks for the info. snail. I will just keep researching.

I just last week put a LED Wholesellers PAR 38 dimmable on my 7gal. Playing with the remote is a lot of fun; but, will see about the corals.

I've noticed my corals doing well in my 20gallon. Everything seems to be growing and doing well. I'm running about 46 watts of LEDs right now. I have a wide variety of low to high light corals. I think you'll probably need about 30 watts for your tank. So here's my suggestion. Go to this place "www.reefledlights.com" and look at their systems. You can custom order one to fit your needs. Start off with 6 royal blue and 6 white Cree XP-E LEDS. Find the heat sink that will fit your tank in length. Then get something like a Meanwell 35-700 (this one you cant dim) or a meanwell 60-48D (this one is dimmable). Them some adhesive thermal paste. (all this can be purchased from the site) Also get a fan. Then wire it up with the proper fuses (1A) and resistors (1 Ohm). The good part about getting your own DIY system is if it turns out to be too dim, just add a few more LEDs. All you'll need to do is solder them together. (soldering is fairly easy but practice with something other than ur LEDS first). Price this system and you'll see that it's comparable to a new t5 setup but will last a lot longer.

Now, here's what i've learned about LEDs so far and hopefully it'll help you:
There are tons of benefits of LEDs over the other lighting sources. First and most important is light output and efficiancy. LEDs are more wavelength specific than other light sources. The Cree LEDs that i mentioned above have a spectral response that peaks at 560 (peak between 500-720nm) and 450 (peak between 400-480nm) nanometers. Which is where coral and plants have their photosynthetic reponses. Other fluorescent bulbs have a much wider response (fairly uniform between 380-780 nm and a peak at 6700K). This means that the light output by LEDs is concentrated more where it is usable by plants and corals. This also means that the light bulbs dont need to be as bright to have the same effectiveness.

Also, LEDs have a higher output per wattage used meaning they are also more efficiant at producing light. This leads to less heat loss and less heat in your room and tank.

From my setup so far, I've seen growth from all of my coral using around 46 watts of power. Compare this to a person having to use a 150 watt MH bulb AND 130 watts of CFLs to get similar results. Thats 5.5x the energy usage to get the same results! Some would use less but this is what was suggested by a few people online. So think of the energy cost savings!

LEDs (if powered properly) can have a lifespan of up to 10 years and only lost 30% of their output (it may be more but this is what i've read so far). So imagine not having to purchase new t5 bulbs every 10-12 months for upwards of 20 bucks a pop AND saving that much energy. Over a 10 year period you can save at least 1400 bucks (its a number i've calculated for a system with 72 watts of leds compared to a 4 light t5 setup with 12 month replacements). Imagine the corals and fish you could get instead of paying for landfill and pollution.

So you're not only getting a better lighting system, you're saving the environment.

Now, this whole watts per gallon thing can be settled a bit... compare the growth on a 20 gallon with those MH bulbs i mentioned earlier to the LEDs. If you can get the same growth from a 150-200w MH as you do with a 50 watt LED, then you can safely say, to get that growth, you'd need 7.5-10 wpg with MH and 2.5 wpg with LEDs. Its not a rule, but a guideline to start from. So properly stated, it can be a useful guideline and from my experience, 2-2.5 wpg is sufficiant for a reef aquarium using proper LEDs.

Proper LEDs? Well there are several types but really, you shouldnt use anything less than a 1 watt high output LED. Otherwise, those little ones you see on stuff are .01 - .1 watts each, which is why some early led fixtures you may have seen have upwards of 800 of those buggers. Saving energy, yes, saving landfill? no.

Hope this helps. let me know if you need clarification or have other questions!