Seems a simple question doesn’t it.

Cost depends on the type of LED lighting you want, which could be a full LED canopy to LED ‘tubes’. A full canopy contains many lights, usually white and blue, and the tubes often contain eight or so bulbs, again usually blue or white (often one colour to a tube). A full canopy could cost hundreds, and tubes considerably less than a hundred each.

So requirement depends on the aquarium. I would suggest that LED’s are wasted on a fish only, probably better to stay with fluorescents. The usual requirements apply for a reef, power and spectrum.

So at risk of it sounding like a cop-out I’d suggest typing into Google (or another search engine) ‘Aquarium LED Lights’ and check out the items on offer.

The canister filter can be used though for additional filtration. For example detritus removal plus activated carbon and phosphate removal. In addition a canister loaded with bio-media can be run continuously discretely attached to the main aquarium – it comes into use when the quarantine aquarium is required (so the canister is pretty small).

Budgeting aquarists who want to minimise their spend can still use a canister for bio-filtration, but need to watch nitrate levels (as do we all). The best method though is live rock, perhaps coupled with a deep sand bed as said.
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