First pictures I have posted, looking for some lighting advice.

[Zero Gravitas]

It's a 55 gallon Plexi I drilled a hole into and added half an old overflow box. 2 250 watt HPS 12k and 15k, also a 50 gallon sump... Was gonna be my main tank but couldn't drill it because it is tempered. Have about 60 LBS of live rock A protein skimmer I took out of my 50 gallon Red Sea all in one tank. Not too many fish, my local fish store gave me ich, or that's what I would like to think, and now I populate with cheaper stock. Made the stand from Home Depot crap, and will prolly upgrade to an 80 gallon tank soon, I definitely have the sump for it. My goal is to get LEDs for this tank so that my roommate will stop whining, what does anyone think would be a good LED replacement for 2 250 HPS lights. I don't think I have anything that needs as much light as I have.

 

[denzil]

Your LFS gave you ich? I'm pretty sure they didn't force you to buy the fish, LoL.

In any case, I would either get two RapidLED Onyx fixtures or two Kessil A360WE lights.

 

[Zero Gravitas]

Your LFS gave you ich? I'm pretty sure they didn't force you to buy the fish, LoL.

In any case, I would either get two RapidLED Onyx fixtures or two Kessil A360WE lights.

I'll check those out! Thank you so much.

The fish always look fine, they eat, fins look clear, etc, get them home and the ich starts to appear. First time I thought it was me, treated the tank, waited 2 months and tried getting another fish from them. I did this because I thought it might have been the extreme lighting on my tank, and they just couldn't adjust. Hell, that still may be the case, but that fish store is the biggest in the Bay Area hard to avoid them... Never had problems with their coral, lol.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Many stores carry fish with some sort of pathogens on them, and much like diseases humans can have sometimes you can't tell because their immune system is doing an ok job fighting them off, it's only when a stressful situation occur that their immune system might be compromised and it turns into full on nasty. That said, yeah everything live you put in your tank came from elsewhere, so yes they're always the reason you have it in your tank... I also see some aiptasia in your pictures, might want to try and get that taken care of before it become a plague.

As to the LED replacements, think about what you want your LEDs to do. Do you want them to dim? have multiple colors that dim independently of one another? A simple off/on ok for you? Do you have a controller if you want to do the dimming or will you need the fixture to have a controller? There are many MANY options as far as LEDs go, so maybe widdle down what you're willing to have before I make any suggestions.

BTW why is your roommate whining? Too much ambient light? Power bill? Heat in the room?

 

[Zero Gravitas]

Many stores carry fish with some sort of pathogens on them, and much like diseases humans can have sometimes you can't tell because their immune system is doing an ok job fighting them off, it's only when a stressful situation occur that their immune system might be compromised and it turns into full on nasty. That said, yeah everything live you put in your tank came from elsewhere, so yes they're always the reason you have it in your tank... I also see some aiptasia in your pictures, might want to try and get that taken care of before it become a plague.

As to the LED replacements, think about what you want your LEDs to do. Do you want them to dim? have multiple colors that dim independently of one another? A simple off/on ok for you? Do you have a controller if you want to do the dimming or will you need the fixture to have a controller? There are many MANY options as far as LEDs go, so maybe widdle down what you're willing to have before I make any suggestions.

BTW why is your roommate whining? Too much ambient light? Power bill? Heat in the room?

I keep the sump light on at night

Many stores carry fish with some sort of pathogens on them, and much like diseases humans can have sometimes you can't tell because their immune system is doing an ok job fighting them off, it's only when a stressful situation occur that their immune system might be compromised and it turns into full on nasty. That said, yeah everything live you put in your tank came from elsewhere, so yes they're always the reason you have it in your tank... I also see some aiptasia in your pictures, might want to try and get that taken care of before it become a plague.

As to the LED replacements, think about what you want your LEDs to do. Do you want them to dim? have multiple colors that dim independently of one another? A simple off/on ok for you? Do you have a controller if you want to do the dimming or will you need the fixture to have a controller? There are many MANY options as far as LEDs go, so maybe widdle down what you're willing to have before I make any suggestions.

BTW why is your roommate whining? Too much ambient light? Power bill? Heat in the room?

The power bill, the ambient lighting, even though I have it on when he is at work, the weekends get to him. Need to either make a hood or get some LEDs. Also I keep the sump on at night, this seems to be a source of anxiety for him sometimes, at least hes not complaining about the awful noise my protein skimmer makes, lol. Jed is super passive aggressive and a great guy, after dropping some arcane hints I pretended to misinterpret, (guess we are both a bit passive aggressive) he offered to pay for half! He is the owner of the house and pays the electricity bill, as there are other tenants on the upper floor. So he figures it will pay him back at some point. Also we have been friends for years. Heat is OK, though sometimes the tank will get to 82, seems to handle that fine though. I'm glad I finally posted here, hard to get good advice at my local fish stores.

I'm looking to spend around 1000$ or so, I would like as much functionality as I can in that price range. Remote access, individual dimmers and I'd like it to look nice... I know its a lot.

The one picture with that plump aptasia was from my older tank, just trying to show the growth, I have since dried all the rocks out and made my current tank. There are still some though very small, and I've found if your not wholly committed to its eradication, as in breaking the tank down, better to leave it alone, every part of those fuckers turns into a new little fucker...

 

[tr1gger]

$1000 for lights? 2 Kessil a360we's with goosenecks. That will kill that grand real quick. You will have to adjust by hand but you can always get yourself a controller later

 

[rygh]

You might want to consider a MaxSpect Razor for lighting as well.
Nice combination of LED wavelengths. No fans.
But no remote access or individual dimmers.
Perhaps consider a semi-DIY kit?

Your heat issue will pretty much go away with LEDs.
To be somewhat replaced by increased cost in heating the tank.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Ok now we're getting somewhere, with a price range to boot!

Lets deal with the complaint issues first
Power bill, ok this is something that is doable
Ambient lighting, this is going to be any issue regardless of the lights. IIRC those 55g tanks are not terribly wide front to back 14 inches or so? So there is going to be some light spilling over unless you get really tight optics, however the downside with that is your tank is 4 feet in the other direction which means you do need coverage. So either make a hood to wrap around the thing or stay away from any point source like Kessils, you will get a cone of light that will spill over, think about doing linear designs.
Sump light on, Make a simple curtain to pull over the sump, or put some door system on the bottom part of your tank.


That said, my recommendation would be for something like a MaxSpect Razor as Mark said. It has a built in program adjustment, so you can have them come on and off, it has 2 channels a "white" and "blue" channel that you can independently control. You could go with 2 - 120W units and place them as you see fit where you need the light, or a single 300w version which should cover the entire tank without issues, and you can put it lower to the tank too to remove the light spilling out. I also think they come with mounting brackets and hanging cables so you have a choice of how to do it.

And I wasn't talking about one aiptasia, I was talking about the 3+ that I saw in the photos

 

[Zero Gravitas]

Ok now we're getting somewhere, with a price range to boot!

Lets deal with the complaint issues first
Power bill, ok this is something that is doable
Ambient lighting, this is going to be any issue regardless of the lights. IIRC those 55g tanks are not terribly wide front to back 14 inches or so? So there is going to be some light spilling over unless you get really tight optics, however the downside with that is your tank is 4 feet in the other direction which means you do need coverage. So either make a hood to wrap around the thing or stay away from any point source like Kessils, you will get a cone of light that will spill over, think about doing linear designs.
Sump light on, Make a simple curtain to pull over the sump, or put some door system on the bottom part of your tank.


That said, my recommendation would be for something like a MaxSpect Razor as Mark said. It has a built in program adjustment, so you can have them come on and off, it has 2 channels a "white" and "blue" channel that you can independently control. You could go with 2 - 120W units and place them as you see fit where you need the light, or a single 300w version which should cover the entire tank without issues, and you can put it lower to the tank too to remove the light spilling out. I also think they come with mounting brackets and hanging cables so you have a choice of how to do it.

And I wasn't talking about one aiptasia, I was talking about the 3+ that I saw in the photos

The ones in the close ups are an older tank, there are some smallish ones in my new tank, been watching over the past year, and am reluctant to take action as they seem to be progressing slowly. I've had to start over several times due to unsuccessful removal, very wary... Although I do have this other pest problem, those little brown tube worms keep coming back, scrubbed the rocks a couple times they come right back. They don't seem to effect my other live stock though. I will check out those lights, and I thank you dearly for taking the time to respond!

 

[kavcheung]

As for LED's you can always looked for some "cheap" used Ecotech Radions and upgrade them.