“LIGHTING” and growing corals….. where have you settled in???

[Glenner’sreef]

From Metal Halides to T-5s to LEDs. My last two lighting choices were from one extreme to the next. A couple of years back I was growing “literally” a tank full of sps with 3 Viparspectras. The good news with that was new lights and a tank upgrade from a 137g to 180g. The 180g is now lit by 4 - Kessil a360x.

1. Your type of lighting and the success they bring your reef ?

 

[shakacuz]

started my 40B with 1 hydra 32hd. later then bought the reefbrite kit to go along with it. fast forward about a year later and i managed to find someone selling another hydra 32hd, AND reefbrite kit for a decent price. now i have two hydra32hd and two reefbrite kits over my 40B. am in the works to upgrade to a 75G soon. just need to get a skimmer, return pump, heating, and plumbing then put everything together!!

 

[Glenner’sreef]

started my 40B with 1 hydra 32hd. later then bought the reefbrite kit to go along with it. fast forward about a year later and i managed to find someone selling another hydra 32hd, AND reefbrite kit for a decent price. now i have two hydra32hd and two reefbrite kits over my 40B. am in the works to upgrade to a 75G soon. just need to get a skimmer, return pump, heating, and plumbing then put everything together!!

Great lights! Let me recommend a skimmer if I could. The Bubble Magus Curve 7. Mines a workhorse!!!

 

[shakacuz]

Great lights! Let me recommend a skimmer if I could. The Bubble Magus Curve 7. Mines a workhorse!!!

currently planning on getting one from a local reefer who upgraded his skimmer.


previously thought of getting 2 smatfarm LED's and supplementing with 2 aliexpress led bars, but now i don't have to!

 

[afrokobe]

on my cube, I have a a360x then I added on the reefbrite xho kit. I started a 20 peninsula recently and have gotten two quanta pro led bars. I am absolutely blown away by the quanta bars especially for the price. I do lose some controllability, but for the price you can't beat it. I will definitely be using this on the big tank build

 

[Glenner’sreef]

currently planning on getting one from a local reefer who upgraded his skimmer.


previously thought of getting 2 smatfarm LED's and supplementing with 2 aliexpress led bars, but now i don't have to!

Very cool with friends skimmer. I may soon be adding some supplemental lighting as well. The back of the tank is a bit dark.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

on my cube, I have a a360x then I added on the reefbrite xho kit. I started a 20 peninsula recently and have gotten two quanta pro led bars. I am absolutely blown away by the quanta bars especially for the price. I do lose some controllability, but for the price you can't beat it. I will definitely be using this on the big tank build

Nice tip. Thx. I will look into those.

 

[shakacuz]

I may soon be adding some supplemental lighting as well. The back of the tank is a bit dark.

based on reviews from other reefers here, the aliexpress bars are definitely a very good bang for buck route. if i didn't already have my lighting decided on, i would definitely get a bar or two.

 

[shakacuz]

on my cube, I have a a360x then I added on the reefbrite xho kit. I started a 20 peninsula recently and have gotten two quanta pro led bars. I am absolutely blown away by the quanta bars especially for the price. I do lose some controllability, but for the price you can't beat it. I will definitely be using this on the big tank build

which colorway did you go with?

 

[EugeneVan]

Great lights! Let me recommend a skimmer if I could. The Bubble Magus Curve 7. Mines a workhorse!!!

I have the Curve 9 and I love it too. The amount of rotten egg smell skimmate coming out from the skimmer is unbelievable and I have to empty it everyday

 

[afrokobe]

which colorway did you go with?

I got one meso blue and one AB+. Both visually, the par output looks to be incredible. I wish I had a meter to test

 

[Uncle99]

From Metal Halides to T-5s to LEDs. My last two lighting choices were from one extreme to the next. A couple of years back I was growing “literally” a tank full of sps with 3 Viparspectras. The good news with that was new lights and a tank upgrade from a 137g to 180g. The 180g is now lit by 4 - Kessil a360x.

1. Your type of lighting and the success they bring your reef ?

Three Visparspectra, two Halos, one T5 Super Antinic, one T5 Purple Plus.
None are name brand.
300 on the top, 150 in the middle, 80 bottom, 50 corners.

 

[Acroporaguy]

T5 and LED. I feel like reefers hyperfocus on lighting too much. Just pick a proven fixture/spectrum and set it and forget it. That's why I love T5.

 

[rgulrich]

300 gallon 360' walk-around island with a reef running diagonally from the left rear to right front.
Three Kessil A360WE in the back, three A500X in the middle, and three A360WE in the front.
300-350 PAR at reef crest, 200-250 PAR at the rubble line 27 inches down.
The A500X never go above 40%, and the A360WE I limit to 60%.

Down the "front" of the reef from the left side.
Cheers,
Ray

 

[X-37B]

In the process of switching all halides to led.
Here is my frag tank with a 250 halide and now 3 16hds.
What look do you like best?

 

[rgulrich]

In the process of switching all halides to led.
Here is my frag tank with a 25 halide and now 3 16hds.
What look do you like best?

And you hit the nail on the head - what does each reefer like best, balancing what they'll be looking at every day, the health and well being of the animals we're keeping, the home environment/heat/humidity or lack thereof - all of this and more goes into the choice. If the mix works for the reefkeeper and their menagerie - great.
Cheers,
Ray

 

[Glenner’sreef]

300 gallon 360' walk-around island with a reef running diagonally from the left rear to right front.
Three Kessil A360WE in the back, three A500X in the middle, and three A360WE in the front.
300-350 PAR at reef crest, 200-250 PAR at the rubble line 27 inches down.
The A500X never go above 40%, and the A360WE I limit to 60%.

Down the "front" of the reef from the left side.
Cheers,
Ray

I see a lot of happy corals!!! Inspiring. Thx.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

And you hit the nail on the head - what does each reefer like best, balancing what they'll be looking at every day, the health and well being of the animals we're keeping, the home environment/heat/humidity or lack thereof - all of this and more goes into the choice. If the mix works for the reefkeeper and their menagerie - great.
Cheers,
Ray

Don’t forget the “heat” output of mh. I recall accidentally hitting a bulb with my elbow for a fraction of a second. That burn was there for a week or more.

 

[vetteguy53081]

From Metal Halides to T-5s to LEDs. My last two lighting choices were from one extreme to the next. A couple of years back I was growing “literally” a tank full of sps with 3 Viparspectras. The good news with that was new lights and a tank upgrade from a 137g to 180g. The 180g is now lit by 4 - Kessil a360x.

1. Your type of lighting and the success they bring your reef ?

Im Orphek do doubt and nothing but results.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I prefer a wall of light, lol. When I built my first DIY LED lights, when LEDs where just being introduced, I used massive aluminum plates with a ton of 3W, 10W and 20W LED modules on them. They worked great but had annoying DIY complications (neatness, wiring, weight, etc.) so for my 500G build I decided to buy off the shelf.

I will not go through the various lighting versions of the 500G planned, the tank is still not wet, but in the frag tank holding the livestock waiting for it to be done, I utilized some of the planned solutions to pretest them. I started with a single AP700 over the 4'x2' frag tank. That worked fine, but I still saw issues with shadowing and the undersides of SPS dying off. So I added 4 T5 retrofit bulbs. That really, really improved the result. It also reminded me of my DIY LED version. I never struggled with shading with the 'wall of light' DIY LED approach.

So I decided to see if I could replicate the wall of light approach and get T5 like end result using LEDs on the frag tank. I replaced the AP700/T5 hybrid with 4 LumiLed Pro bars and 1 Orphek OR3 (Actinic with lenses removed). I set the PAR on the bottom of the tank to 150 and 250 PAR starting about 1/3 up from the bottom (the frag tank is shallow, 16" deep). This worked really well for shading and uniform light coverage. I am not to taken with the colour and pop though, but that can be tweaked with LEDs that allow for control, which the bars do not.

After the frag tank light bar test, I decided to make my 5th and (hopefully) final change to the 500G lighting. I purchased (5) ATI Straton lights to cover the 120" x 36" footprint of the tank with a wall of light. I expect to run the Stratons for the long term.

I still have the 4th version of lights over the (empty) 500G waiting to be removed, (21) AI HD26 LEDs. They will get added back into my pile of almost ran (AP700, T5 retrofit/Aquaticlife, MH, HD26) and hopefully get re-used on other projects at some point.