93 Cube - SPS dominate lighting

[tyguy1482]

Hello fellow reefers,

Looking for some advice on lighting my tank, as I am not happy with the current visual aesthetic. I have a 165W black box (actually don't know the brand, got it from another reefer who said "it was the best around 2014"). My first corals (LPS and Zoa) are doing great and already showing significant growth after just 2 weeks. Now, the eventual goals for the tank are bottom half LPS/Zoa and top all SPS. I am in the process of building a canopy with adjustable lighting mounts. My current issues:

1. Black box is not dimmable. I use my controller to switch on/off the blues/whites. Was considering wiring in a 0-10V controller.
2. Spectrum leans towards daylight/white with both channels at 100%. I'd like to use all the power from the LEDs but prefer a slightly blue look for coral fluorescence.
3. Shadowing, its bad.

My proposed solutions:

1. Another black box, Viparspecra and order a 0-10V module.
2. 1-2 Kessil A360. Not the newer 'X' model, as I need the 0-10V input.
3. 4x 24" T5s. ATI Blue+ and Actinic bulbs.

My questions:

1. Should I angle the additional lights towards the center?
2. Will the T5s add enough additional light for my SPS goals?
3. Since I will have a canopy, is it worth getting something like the Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid fixture or just 2 separate, cheap fixtures and ballasts?

Really appreciate all the help and look forward to sharing a very comprehensive build thread once I have the tank in a more presentable state. :)

 

[Aldrinlights]

It would help to know you aquarium size and depth. I recommend adding a couple of NicoBars in the blup pop spectrum. You should get the ones that are as long as your tank is. I actually just replaced my Kessils with 4 NicoBars. I got 2 blue, 1 uv, and 1 white. Kesils have way too much issue with hotspots and lower pars outside of the fixture. Also they cause a lot of shadowing in the tank. Check out this site though. Let me know if you have any questions about them.

https://www.reefdelight.com/nicobar/

 

[tyguy1482]

It would help to know you aquarium size and depth. I recommend adding a couple of NicoBars in the blup pop spectrum. You should get the ones that are as long as your tank is. I actually just replaced my Kessils with 4 NicoBars. I got 2 blue, 1 uv, and 1 white. Kesils have way too much issue with hotspots and lower pars outside of the fixture. Also they cause a lot of shadowing in the tank. Check out this site though. Let me know if you have any questions about them.

https://www.reefdelight.com/nicobar/

Hmmm...I haven't considered those but they look really nice. Sorry my bad, the tank is 30"x30"x24" with a 1.5-2" sand bed.