Additional Lighting Ideas for SPS/Mixed Reef

[Tommy B]

I bought two Quanta helix bars for my new setup, one reef crest and one meso blue. These lights are powerful and built well, planning to test PAR in a week or so.

 

[maxthisout]

I too am also using Quanta Helix bars, started with two Reef Crests to supplement my system moving to mostly Acros and recently added two Meso Blues.

Acros that were taking a while to color up instantly reacted to the Mesos with increased polyp extension and starting to pull more colors. The tank looks great for fish and corals. Luca is pleasure to work with too.

 

[Reef Puncher]

Wish it was a good morning all, after several struggles with SPS, even with stable parameters, no coral pickers, and plenty of feeding, the only thing I could think of as the issue was lighting, so I got a par reader off amazon to test it. Turns out, these lights I paid a pretty penny for, that were supposed to be able to support reefs, barely give me 115 par at the top of my rockwork, with lights cranked up to blues/violets 100%, white 65%, red and green 50%. (x2 Nicrew hyperreef gen 2 200w) Very frustrating. They are on the arm mounts they came with, which sets them roughly 12" off the surface, and about 20" from the top of the rocks. They can't go lower with the arm mounts without the bottom half of the arm being in the water, and I wasn't sure if they'd rust out and poison the tank. Do I need to DIY a bracket to get them closer to the surface? Can I add more to these or will I need to replace the whole thing? My guess is unfortunately I just need more light. Would like something slightly affordable, since I already dropped a chunk of change on these two. I was thinking a t5 setup, but not all of them come with the mounting hardware. Looked at a quanta helix 4 bar combo too. Rock is centered and has a 4-6" wide sand bar around all sides. Tank 5ft, aquascape close to 4ft. I'm looking to grow SPS dominant, with some LPS and softies farther down towards the sand. Anyone have recommendations?

lol nicrew and smatfarm are popular amazon lights that are fine for lps. but not for acros. i had to end up getting better lights. i bought a LED Strip bar and 2 radions. i then few weeks ago added a kessil for little extra shimmer and par for my homewrecker and WWC after party acros. if i could do it all over again, i would do a couple T5's instead of my LED Strip, and then keep the radions. having a mix of LED and T5's just feels right, like im covering all my bases. but the LEDs i have work fine, i just feel the mix sounds better i dunno.

 

[MYACROS.WONTGROW.504]

I was getting 300+ par B-40% w-5% in a 90 gallon with 2x nicrew 150 w G1 & 2x 48in reef lit bars thats odd
Maybe try and borrow a apogee from a local or LFS
But I do agree on the bars but they might only add 100-150 par like mine did, but that still not sufficient for sps.
Meridians seem to be the wave right now for acros specifically everyone that has them loves them.

 

[minus9]

I have a 36x36x16 that's lit by a single Atlas and two meso blues (pros) full of acropora and they cover it nicely. Although your lighting may be the issue, but looking at the pic of your tank, there's a lot more going on than just lighting. What do you have for CUC to take care of that algae? That much algae will prohibit corals, especially sps from growing. I'll clean my glass and post a pic of my tank so you can see the lights in action. It's not a pretty setup, but very effective in growing acropora.

 

[Reef Puncher]

I can't justify spending ridiculous money on lights. I don't need bells and whistles.

My next light upgrade will be replacing my 3x v2(90w) and 2x v3(140W) noopsyches with v3 pros(140w with app). I can get 6 lights delivered for under $1k and my old lights can go on my frag tank and upgrade my wifes tank.

I would only run 4 on your tank.

First picture is running a white to blue ratio of 1:2
Second is 1:4

My tank is 84x24x24

those dimensions are the exact dimensions im looking at for my next tank upgrade. Im jealous.

 

[PPBlimpy]

those dimensions are the exact dimensions im looking at for my next tank upgrade. Im jealous.

RedSea s1000+ those dimensions listed are close to what it really is. Its some odd ball redsea measurements. I had to go look it up

It is actually 82.7 inches (L) x 25.6 inches (H) x 26.75 inches (W). its a nice tank.I just hope it doesn't pop one day.