Lighting a LPS reef on a student budget?

[Formerly Freshwater]

Hey everyone, it's been a long time since my last post but I'm back!

 

So here's the problem - I'm currently running a nano (about 36 gallon) reef with relative success, but I'm going off to college this fall. My folks love the tank and want to keep the reef, but want something a little more stable. I've since bought a used 65 gallon tank (36wx18dx24h) and plan to set it up, transferring all of the stock and live rock from the 36 to the 65. My parents are helping to pay for it, but had some sticker shock when checking out the lights. My top choice is a 36" orbit marine pro, which I could get for ~$360, but I was wondering if WAMAS had any better suggestions. My coral are basic leathers, euphillia, zoanthids, and one small Acan colony, lit by a Current Orbit standard, but the power and blend of the light leave something to be desired. Is the $360 LED my best option, or is there something better? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[monkiboy]

I don't have experience with the current orbit marine pro but really find it difficult to believe you will extract value totaling anything near the asking price it is at in the market. there are a couple options in the FS section here, I'd be glad to help you with a value evergrow fixture or even a programmable evergrow would be cheaper and I would argue a better performer with a longer proven history than the one listed if you're interested I could help you with that. you have a lot of options under $350 especially used in this community. glad to have you back and look forward to seeing photos of the build!

[AlanM]

If you don't care about fancy features like dimming and wifi, I bet monkiboy here could source you a chinese black box light like an Evergrow that he would support locally for less than half that price.  Even with those features it would still be way cheaper.  They're seriously simple and good LED lights with parts that are easy to replace if anything goes wrong.  It's only around 16 inches long, but would be piles of light even with just one in the center for a primarily LPS tank.

[sethsolomon]

+1 for an evergrow  cheap and good for lps and the basic sps.

[khh27]

Ditto evergrow even a it2060 would he cheaper and are controllable via on board screen and remote. Even seen gen2 xr30's go for this price.

 

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[Formerly Freshwater]

So I've been looking online and I can't find an evergrow for less than 400 anywhere. Where can I find them? Also, this tank does have a solid center brace, so how well would a single hanging light (I've never used that style) illuminate the whole tank?

[sethsolomon]

Search 165w aquarium light on eBay. That's basically the evergrow people are talking about. There are tons of different brands of the same light. Some have warranties and some don't.

 

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[monkiboy]

Search 165w aquarium light on eBay. That's basically the evergrow people are talking about. There are tons of different brands of the same light. Some have warranties and some don't.

there are two major places these lights are coming out of. the ebay variety you will find much cheaper are at a much lower cost for a reason. many of the very early adopters from 4+ years ago will remember working with logan and group buys we facilitated with greensun fixtures that ended up causing many issues in the first year of ownership. credible folks jumped shipped to evergrow factory units which are more expensive because of more care and slightly higher quality components but also because of their willingness to adapt to customer feedback and provide a better solution at a consistent value the entire time. you open them side by side and it's obvious but the customer and retailer experience is where it really stands out.