Lighting question for new 75 gallon tank

[advocate777]

I have a Coralife 48 inch double linear strip with two 65 watt Actinic and two 65 watt 10,000K Compact Fluorescent Lamps. Total 260 watts.
But I have been looking at a Maxspect Razor LED which is a 20" 16K fixture with 160 Watt LED lighting.

Question: is my old lighting sufficient for soft corals and maybe a few hard corals?
Could I combine both lighting systems. But since the LED is only 20" I would have to position over just half the tank or something...not sure. Too get two 20" LED's is kinda expensive....plus since I already have the old Coralife (bought it in 2006).....dont know what to do.

 

[softchxntaco]

.should be sufficient for hard and soft and i dont see any harm in combining the two, someone else can chime in if they know more about lighting :)

 

[Bifferwine]

Yes, that will be enough for softies and some LPS corals, as taco said. :) It will be pushing it for SPS corals... I wouldn't try SPS corals without a lighting upgrade. I would save up money to replace it with a good set of LEDs (or two -- however many it takes to cover the length of your tank). You will be fine with the T5s in the meantime.

 

[little_fish]

+1 Biffy

You arent going to want to put only one short LED fixture on the tank, it will create a pretty bad spotlight effect because the LEDs are very direct in emitting light.

 

[poksal]

+1 others..
Save for the LED's and check out the new AqaticLife expandables. I built three 36" rails of RapidLED's and put one 36" x 54 watt AquaticLife with them & love the combination.

In the mean time that LED $$ will buy lots of need stuff. THEN save for LED's/