AI hydra 26 and 52?

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greennd79

Member
I have an sr60 innovative marine tank would like to know if I stock with sps can i get away with 2 26hd ? or should i go with 1 26hd and 1 52 hd?
 
G

goat585

Administrator
With SPS I think two 26's should be fine. Your tank is not that deep so you should have plenty of light. I think 52's would be overkill especially since the two 26's are going to overlapp there spread a lot.
 
ultimatemj

ultimatemj

Active member
For me, it comes down to how you can mount/hang the lights and how you aquascape.

Meaning, 2 26 HDs is plenty of power, but if you have a hood that mounts them "close" to the water then you will have hot spots and shadows.

I have a shallow hood, end to end aquascape, and hated the dispersion pattern from 2...so I'm running 4 26HDs @ 40% power to get the light fill I want over my 55g (48"long).

I originally ran 2 52s, but had middle and end shadowing. Then I ran 2 26 and 1 52, but my center overflow wasted a lot of the 52. Not an inexpensive approach, but I sold the 52s and am happy with the 4 26HDs. Note: I have them on rails that allow me to slide them left/right to adjust where "max" light hits.
View attachment 25338 View attachment 25337

2 26HDs is plenty of power...just depends on what you want.
 
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mikenh77

mikenh77

Member
yeah with 18" deep you should be good with 2 26 hd. like said above, it depends on the height. I have 4 52 hd on a 210 gallon. and it's honestly overkill. I had to dial them way down because par was reading too high and fried corals.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
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