180 Gallon Freshwater

I got a new tank set up 180gallon tank with a 40 gallon sump.. everything is set up except the lights... I have topsoil under a thin layer of small gravel.. I will be adding freshwater plants... that need medium to low lights... dwarf grass... java moss and a few others... but I can’t find much info on lights... I seen a post saying lumens per liter. 180 gallon is almost 700liter. According to the post I read. I would need about 15000 lumens for 700liters. That’s pretty bright. Was I reading that correctly??? The tank Dimensions are 72” x 24” x 24”. What are some recommendations for some good lighting

 

I hope you're sitting down, this might get expensive my friend

 

I run 2@ 36" 24/7 and 2@36" Beamsworks DA FSPEC on my 180.
The 24/7 are on cycle and the Beamsworks come on around noon for 4 hours.
I like the flluval 3.0 much better then the 24/7 and wish it was an option when I lighted this tank.
The beamsworks are very affordable and I add a $5 ebay dimmer to adjust it.
The fluval 3.0 are pricey for sure but worth it IMO. Completely adjustable.
I would try the 2 fluvals alone first and see. The 24/7 feature and phone access make it pretty nice light.

 

I’ve been looking around trying to decide do I want LED or T5 or a combination of the two... do I really need 15,000 Lumens or more.. my wife loves our tank but says she don’t want it looking like a airport runway... I’ve seen some very nice lights with all kinds of gizmos and settings... they r neat. I don’t know about how practical they are.. lights with sunrise and sunset setting. Cloud cover and lightning storm programming.. if it’ll help the plants and not harm the fish it may be a neat idea. I don’t mind spending a lil money on the lights.. a good tank can look great with the right lights.. and an amazing tank can look blah with the wrong lights..

I sent an email to marineandreef.com asking them about which of their lighting solutions I need for my specific tank and plants.. just waiting for them to return the email

 

You’ll probably need to suspend the lighting because I don’t think there are any lights with clips/brackets for a tank that size. Unless you use two and stretch them off a middle brace. Is it 6 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet?
If you want dwarf hair grass or any small carpeting plant in a two foot tall tank you’ll need some good lighting. If you don’t mind spending, check out Kessil LEDs. The Tuna Suns are some serious lights, but you’d be set for any big tank with them, and you’d be able to grow almost anything. George Farmer on YouTube has a personal tank with them if you want to see how they look
Lumens is a measurement of how bright lights are to human eyes. Plants don’t have human eyes, so they use PAR instead (photosynthetically active radiation). Sometimes people just rely on lumens because the data for PAR doesn’t exist or is expensive to obtain for a lot of common lights. However, some hobbyists own or rent PAR meters and will collect their own PAR data to share on the internet. Also, sometimes expensive lighting does come with PAR data.
Some good info about PAR: