looking for ideas on how to light my 6 foot 150 gallon. Have a flowerhorn so I’m looking for daylight spectrum and a bit of red to make him pop since he is a golden base. I’m ok with cheap strip led but the options are limitless. Thanks guys
Cheap lighting options
- Thread starter jdpeters87
- Start date
It's fairly easy and cheap to put led strips over a tank.
Here's my little build log for my tank.
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/led-strip-lighting-build.704775/#post-7945007
Here's my little build log for my tank.
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/led-strip-lighting-build.704775/#post-7945007
if you get the ebay special with 30 color choices and half a dozen strobe options, they will not work. you would have to run multiple rows like the above poster.
i had 3 rows across the top of the tank and you could barely tell it was on.
at that price, it might be worth it to either get something used or maybe try the lower end aquarium lights on ebay.
i had 3 rows across the top of the tank and you could barely tell it was on.
at that price, it might be worth it to either get something used or maybe try the lower end aquarium lights on ebay.
The strips alone are so cheap you might as well consider them free.It was about$35 shipped for 160 watts or so. Here you'd be looking at $1000 for similar output aquarium lights. More shiny features and probably longer lifespan with the aquarium lights though.
I couldn’t agree more I tried to get away with it after seeing a king of diy video and thought cheap? Custom colors? Led? And was sold. The problem when I bought them and plugged them in I couldn’t see the fish. I didn’t even bother to do the build right back they went. Now I have 2 4’ fluval 3.0’s on my tank and couldn’t be happier. Cheap and led don’t go together. To the Op save up the money and get something nice. I wouldn’t trust the beamswork fixtures as there not ul rated but some people go that route. The cheapest option would be led shop lights if you don’t mind a ugly light on your tank or have a hood to hide them in.
I use the cheap LED "Aquaneat" fixtures off ebay on most my tanks. 4' 1w versions run about $38 and the 6' ones run about $70. I have six of those fixtures currently running on tanks and have been very happy with them. Have been using them for about 3 years now and for the most part have had no issues with them.
Hmmm, Looking at Current Satellite Plus Pros, they're 25W each so let's say 4 of them for 100W output would be roughly as good as my 160+Ws of led strips. That would be about $1200USD shipped. Assuming there aren't any more taxes on top of that.
Sooo, yeah, not in a big hurry.
Can't remember how they rate the Aquaneat ones, if its 1w per led diode or what is it, but it does not take much to light up a tank. Definitely would not take $1200 to do it unless you have a 30ft long tank 
This is my 30" tall 240g with a total of about $150 worth of Aquaneat light fixtures on it (one 6ft and a pair of 4'ers). Lights reach all the way down to the bottom very nicely and show fish colors well. I started this tank with LED strip lights and just didn't like the way the strip lights didn't reach down the 30" depth very well.
Not that there aren't other options for lighting out there, but IMO it's just hard to beat those Aquaneat LED fixtures for the price and quality of light they put out.
This is my 30" tall 240g with a total of about $150 worth of Aquaneat light fixtures on it (one 6ft and a pair of 4'ers). Lights reach all the way down to the bottom very nicely and show fish colors well. I started this tank with LED strip lights and just didn't like the way the strip lights didn't reach down the 30" depth very well.
Not that there aren't other options for lighting out there, but IMO it's just hard to beat those Aquaneat LED fixtures for the price and quality of light they put out.