You have a lot of options at this price range. Is this a 5 foot tank?

That will be your biggest limiting factor if this is a 5 foot tank. A lot of light bar options are going to be for 4 foot tanks. Twinstar is an easy 4 foot recommendation. On a 5 foot you would want to hang it and center it as best you could. Not ideal but doable.

Sbreef freshwater is another option. Could use 2 of the smaller ones to get good coverage.

There are other options but I suppose we would want to know your priorities. Do you want point source lights? app control? aesthetics on the lights themselves? Etc also am I right in assuming this is a 5 foot tank?

 

You have a lot of options at this price range. Is this a 5 foot tank?

That will be your biggest limiting factor if this is a 5 foot tank. A lot of light bar options are going to be for 4 foot tanks. Twinstar is an easy 4 foot recommendation. On a 5 foot you would want to hang it and center it as best you could. Not ideal but doable.

Sbreef freshwater is another option. Could use 2 of the smaller ones to get good coverage.

There are other options but I suppose we would want to know your priorities. Do you want point source lights? app control? aesthetics on the lights themselves? Etc also am I right in assuming this is a 5 foot tank?

It's a standard 125 - 72"L X 18"W X 21"T

Controllability would be a great asset. I was driving a Kessil on my reef tank through an aquarium control (Apex) and it was great. I'm not planning on doing a controller so independent ability to control the lights I'd say I'd place a pretty high premium on.

 

AI Prime freshwaters . 4 or 5 of them .

$1348 for 5 w/ arms.

Going off the beaten path a bit Popbloom array would cost like 1/3 that amount

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Other pendant/puck brands.

Aquarium Lighting

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I was in the same boat with my 245 gal six foot tank. I stumbled on to some LED fixtures that are 68”for 209.00 with a controllable dimmer.
They offer full spectrum or you can get 8k. I am running 3 of them on a 30” wide tank that is 27” deep and having no problem growing a variety of plants. Company is in Texas and have been great to deal with. The name is 21LED USA

 

Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the leads on lights. When I got out of the planted tank hobby in favor of reef aquariums, LED's were just starting to become a thing in freshwater, and mainly only fish only lights. I bought a Kessil for my reef tank and loved how well it did, but didn't really keep up on new lighting over the last several years. It's shocking how many options exist today in not just the planted tank world, but also in the reef world.

Over the weekend I swung by Petsmart to pick up some dog food for my pup and they had a 125 on display. Honestly I was a bit disappointed in the dimensions. 72X18w just made is seem really long and narrow, which would make it pretty difficult to scape and have some depth.

I went back to the drawing board for tanks that were larger (100+ gallons) but at least 24" wide. I ran across the UNS 120U and while it's not as long as I'd like, it seems like it would be a good choice. I just wish it was 60X24X24. I started looking for those dimensions and found a starfire glass tank for a shockingly good price on Amazon...basically the same price as the 120U. The only problem is getting it into my basement because it weighs 300 lbs. The 120U is a lot lighter and would be easier to get down a set of stairs with a turn at the bottom. The other issue with the larger tank is it has a build in overflow, and having come recently from the reef keeping world, I'd be too tempted to set up a big reef tank again lol. I am going to set up another reef, but a smaller one since I already have all the equipment.

Anyhow thanks again for the comments. I appreciate the leads on different light manufacturers since I didn't know of any of them prior to this thread. If I wind up going with a 120U, that simplifies lighting significantly.