(2) AI Prime HD's or (2) Smatfarm's on a 60 Breeder?

[rennjidk]

Tank is 40x18x16. I plan on doing a softie and LPS dominate tank with SPS on top. The smatfarms and kessil arms come out to $410, and the AI's are $460 together so price is about the same. Which one of these lights would serve me better for this set up? I want to stay at or around $400 and I'm not interested in black boxes or T5.

 

[Reefing102]

The SmatFarms should come with new arms. People are saying they’re like knock off kessil arms but there’s photos on page 23 of this thread

Smat farms led from Amazon

Could I get away with 2 of these on a 48x18x21 75g or would I need more?

www.reef2reef.com

Edit: to correct info from above thread

 

[rennjidk]

The SmatFarms should come with new arms. People are saying they’re like knock off kessil arms but there’s photos on page 23 of this thread

Smat farms led from Amazon

Could I get away with 2 of these on a 48x18x21 75g or would I need more?

www.reef2reef.com

Edit: to correct info from above thread

They do have new arms but they're not a sturdy as kessil and, more importantly to my application, they do not fit on rimmed tanks.

 

[Hellic]

I have a smatfarm led light and the included arm. It fits on my standard 40 breeder just fine with thumb screws. My overflow is in the middle and the bottom of the arm is too long so i had to mount it off to the side a little. Ignore the dust The light itself is mounted by two thumb screws. Over the fan area.

 

[punchy7080]

A 60 breeder is 48”. I have two AI 16 HDs on a 40 breeder and don’t think they’d cover another 12” very well. Had two smatfarm lights on a 48x24 frag tank and they covered very well.

 

[Hellic]

Yeah I get about 24" on the sandbed with my single smatfarm in terms of good usable light. The par drops quickly beyond that. Im running a LPS tank though so a single smatfarm is plenty of light... i have it set to like 53% on the AB+ spectrum.

To the original poster though, the smatfarm is technically a black box light. Albeit a pretty good one.

 

[radfly]

Where is your fan? Does it get hot at 53%? I may remove mine, sound is very irritating.

 

[Hellic]

It turns on and off but I hardly notice it. The fan sits directly on top of the light. Mines always run pretty quietly.

 

[radfly]

Oh, you just removed the cover. Does that make it quieter? I have that light, and I hear the fan all day until the light intensity drops below 15%...

 

[Hellic]

Oh, you just removed the cover. Does that make it quieter? I have that light, and I hear the fan all day until the light intensity drops below 15%...

Maybe you could replace it under warranty? Not sure if the cover makes a difference or not. I took it off because at the time the thumb screws were too short to hold the light with the cover on lol. I was afraid the light would fall off the mount. Removing it made it feel sturdier. You could always remove it and see if it helps

 

[Dedicated Reefer]

Tank is 40x18x16. I plan on doing a softie and LPS dominate tank with SPS on top. The smatfarms and kessil arms come out to $410, and the AI's are $460 together so price is about the same. Which one of these lights would serve me better for this set up? I want to stay at or around $400 and I'm not interested in black boxes or T5.

I would go with the Smatfarms. The controllability with the primes is better. But your par will be much lower. The total light coverage will be much better because with the Smatfarms you get four pucks. And the AIs you only have two

 

[piranhaman00]

AI and most expensive and will break sooner

 

[Hellic]

Something ive discovered more with the smatfarms recently is that the reds, yellows, and orange corals dont really have a lot of punch in terms of color. They are those color, but they all seem to have a browner hue under my smatfarms than what I see at the fish store. And the yellows appear slightly greener. They just don't have the same vibrance, especially the orange color. Not sure how well the AI's do with those colors. May be worth considering.

 

[codenfx]

As someone who has both, I’ve changed to smatfarm. Par was struggling with the primes in my tank. The color isn’t too great though but I’m okay with it. Can add the Ali express light bar for more color pop.