[kds]

I am looking to start my 75 gal soon and need some help with my lighting before I build a stand and canopy. Their seems to be so many different choices in lighting types, brands, and temperatures and I’m a little confused onto what to get. I am planning on having a little bit of everything. Fish, invertebrates, liverock, soft and hard corals. Obviously id like it to be colorful and vibrant. I know some types of lighting is better then others for color. I’m hopping to build a setup where my corals will flourish well enough to multiply. I would like to have a good diversity of life in my tank.
What type of lighting system should I go with? I notice there are units that also seem to combine them as well. What temperature and bulbs should I use?
What are the recommended units I should use and which ones or brands should I avoid?
I am comfortable in either buying a premade setup or building my own as well.

[Samper]

I'm a big fan of the Coralvue 48" 54w t5 lighting systems that Dave gets in. They run roughly $125 or so and you can fit three on a 75 gallon tank but you can get away with 2. T5's are all that I've ran on my two systems for a few years and I get great color and growth. One set of 3 fixtures is mounted in a hood and the other set consisting of 2 fixtures sits right on top of the tank but I had to build a plexiglass lip for the sides so that they aren't at risk of falling in. The huge advantage is that there is very little heat generated by them and they can be ran basically open top. The ballast is built into the fixture and they are plug and play although they come with mounting brackets if you want to put them in a hood. For a 75 I wouldn't run anything but T5's.

[Samper]

You will want to order some icecap metal clips because most T5's come with the cheap plastic ones that will break quickly. The extra clips are something like 50 cents for a set of them.