Best lighting on the market? Is there one?
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Reefin’ Rumors
Active Member
CMH’s!!!!
Heck to the yes!!! Waiting on reflector and digital ballast for new testing. Last magnetic all in one wasn't impressive.
Thought they couldn't run on magnetic.. Some square wave nonsense.
Anyways the growth curve here is in competition to LEDs since they require new ballasts, new sockets.
Retrofitting an industry has the same err "catch" as retrofitting with LED.
Better spectrum, longer life, less energy usage/output.
All the 315 stuff is on clearance lol. The hort guys laughed at them like they do 400s. Gavita or nothing for them. Only thing holding up the reef guys from using them was the lack of bulbs. Now there is a 10k bulb, and the equipment is dirt cheap. Digital dimming ballasts for $100, socket $15, reflector under 200.
Turd Ferguson
Community Member
Metal Halide with T5 supplements is ideal. Growth, colour, ease of use.
Second choice would be ATI T5 fixture, 6-8 bulb.
Aside from Orphek, can’t say I’m pressed with what LED fixtures are on the market. Reef Brites seem decent tho...
Second choice would be ATI T5 fixture, 6-8 bulb.
Aside from Orphek, can’t say I’m pressed with what LED fixtures are on the market. Reef Brites seem decent tho...
BlackGoldReefs
Active Member
I am in the same boat as your friend. I have researched lighting for well over 6 months and have reach out to numerous coral farms. I have came to the conclusion the T5 Hybrid is the way to go. I am ordering them in stages just because of the costs. My hybrid fixture gets here tomorrow and over the next two months I’ll add 3 XR 15’s gen 5 blues over my 125 gallon. I would highly suggest telling your friend to rent a par meter and expect to spend some time fine tuning the spacing. Don’t just wing it on the LEDS app. You can destroyed colonies quickly with to much power. Hope this helps.
neonreef3d
Well-Known Member
Have you checked out the pop bloom LEDs? It’s the most par for the $$ .
I love mine!!
Scubatricky
Community Member
You seem to have massive confusion between opinion that is cited repeatedly, and scientific evidence. Correlation is not causation.
Unfortunately when there is no empirical and scientific evidence to be produced, and simply opinion based on observation you can appear to be a little bit 'cultist'.
drblakjak55
Active Member
I might get hate mail on this. 90g mixed reef 4 years. Stocked with shrooms, blastos, euphyllias, zoas, chalices. Two six inch clams. Under maxspect Razor plus a Current orbit pro led both running four years. This tank will NOT grow SPS, montis, setosas period. I think these lights great for what I have.
My QT is a 29g biocube. Cut off the top leaving perfect hole for Wills Dimmable aquarium light from Amazon. 80$ shipped. Running 18 mos. Growing setosa and monti. Will try acro soon. My 90 will need two units. Yours three for 240$. Plug into its own gfci plug. Really like this light.
My QT is a 29g biocube. Cut off the top leaving perfect hole for Wills Dimmable aquarium light from Amazon. 80$ shipped. Running 18 mos. Growing setosa and monti. Will try acro soon. My 90 will need two units. Yours three for 240$. Plug into its own gfci plug. Really like this light.
neonreef3d
Well-Known Member
perhaps if you were dancing in the rainy season that would be a fact.
Had T5, Halide and LEDs over 25 plus years. My preference by far is LEDs for growth and power savings. Reefbreeders is a very reasonable option, but programming is not up to par with some of the other options.
A. grandis
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Worse is to use science to back up inexperience.
Be "happy" with your LEDs, man!
Scubatricky
Community Member
I'm more than happy with the mixed lighting system in use on my tank. None of which is based on science or inexperience.
Scubatricky
Community Member
Some people would believe that to be the truth, then post it all over the internet as fact
rgulrich
Active Member
My profuse apologies to the OP if I put this thread into a bit of a power drift going around this curve,
I understand the angst topics like this can cause. I don't even have a pickup truck. I do, however, have a Harley. It serves my purposes well, too. I also built some Suzukis in the past, a GS-1000 and a GS-750E (from scratch, a road rocket...). I still like my Harley, now that I remember that I'm still mortal. I also like my '76 Kubota L245DT, but I live on a small farm so it comes in mighty handy.
Some folks mistake these threads as a big-bucks bass tournament and drop the lures off the back of the boat, if you "catch" my "drift".
I read, and even understand some things about physics (although the new stuff on travel faster than light speed is just now sinking in...) and photons being photons (h/t to Dana!) and the reactions some aquatic lifeforms have to some of these photon-thingies. Lotsa research papers out there to read and not nearly enough time...
I'm on the forum to get ideas from other reefkeepers and hopefully provide some insight into what went into my decision matrix for my current reef while preventing some problems for folks here that haven't been keeping aquatic critters for a number of, uh, um, decades, to pick up a few ideas themselves for success.
Background: This 300 gallon reef is a 360' walk around viewable from all sides. The reef itself is built from the visible back left corner to the right front corner, with another pillar on the back right corner. Lots of caves and arches formed by rock and coral. When making decisions about things like lighting, filtration, food, cooling, heating, and all that, we should make the decisions on our individual circumstances and requirements.
The view from the left end:
I needed a lighting solution that provided the following, and it took me a while to get there:
1. Could provide enough light to support acropora under 27" of water without overpowering the planned top of the reef, but down the entire length of the reef as well. So I needed kind of a uniform PAR all the down, within, say 100-150 PAR.
2. Able to keep the temperature in the living within reasonable limits without buying the executive staff of the local power company a fleet of new limousines (they have a enough already, frankly) with my summer air conditioning bill. This also goes in the category of maintaining a good relationship with my significant other.
3. Able to run off of an average 15amp circuit in the house, something the six(!) 250W metal halides (@2amp per ballast) I converted from had difficulty doing if anything else was plugged into the circuit and switched on.
4. Gotta look pretty good - highly subjective from somebody that spent a major portion of their life floating with a mask and snorkel...
So, I began my LED journey. I went through a few iterations and even some DIY to get to what I wanted, and ended up with an array of moderately inexpensive ViparSpectra to provide the smooth, broad coverage meeting minimal lighting requirements 27" down. I removed the stock lenses and affixed a dispersion panel (95% transmissivity) to increase the light spread. I'm running at about 250 PAR across the entire bottom of the aquarium at about 50% across blue and white channels. The top of the reef sees about 350-400 PAR across the length and width.
The array supports zooxanthellae down there, and the coral grows quickly and well -
I supplement these with an array of six Kessil A360WEs - a more expensive option, but this covered two bases. They made things "look good" by providing that extra kick of point-source lighting that produces the "glitter lines" under water. They also add another 150 or so PAR during the "high noon" part of the day, about five hours mid-day an extra dose of photons is chucked into the vat. I think many of my longer-limbed acros really appreciate this and tend to stretch out a bit more toward the surface. The shorter-branched varieties tend to pull in their outer polyps to lower the surface area exposed.
I hope this helps the OP a bit in their decision, or perhaps anyone else that doesn't doze off while reading it.
Cheers,
Ray
I understand the angst topics like this can cause. I don't even have a pickup truck. I do, however, have a Harley. It serves my purposes well, too. I also built some Suzukis in the past, a GS-1000 and a GS-750E (from scratch, a road rocket...). I still like my Harley, now that I remember that I'm still mortal. I also like my '76 Kubota L245DT, but I live on a small farm so it comes in mighty handy.
Some folks mistake these threads as a big-bucks bass tournament and drop the lures off the back of the boat, if you "catch" my "drift".
I read, and even understand some things about physics (although the new stuff on travel faster than light speed is just now sinking in...) and photons being photons (h/t to Dana!) and the reactions some aquatic lifeforms have to some of these photon-thingies. Lotsa research papers out there to read and not nearly enough time...
I'm on the forum to get ideas from other reefkeepers and hopefully provide some insight into what went into my decision matrix for my current reef while preventing some problems for folks here that haven't been keeping aquatic critters for a number of, uh, um, decades, to pick up a few ideas themselves for success.
Background: This 300 gallon reef is a 360' walk around viewable from all sides. The reef itself is built from the visible back left corner to the right front corner, with another pillar on the back right corner. Lots of caves and arches formed by rock and coral. When making decisions about things like lighting, filtration, food, cooling, heating, and all that, we should make the decisions on our individual circumstances and requirements.
The view from the left end:
I needed a lighting solution that provided the following, and it took me a while to get there:
1. Could provide enough light to support acropora under 27" of water without overpowering the planned top of the reef, but down the entire length of the reef as well. So I needed kind of a uniform PAR all the down, within, say 100-150 PAR.
2. Able to keep the temperature in the living within reasonable limits without buying the executive staff of the local power company a fleet of new limousines (they have a enough already, frankly) with my summer air conditioning bill. This also goes in the category of maintaining a good relationship with my significant other.
3. Able to run off of an average 15amp circuit in the house, something the six(!) 250W metal halides (@2amp per ballast) I converted from had difficulty doing if anything else was plugged into the circuit and switched on.
4. Gotta look pretty good - highly subjective from somebody that spent a major portion of their life floating with a mask and snorkel...
So, I began my LED journey. I went through a few iterations and even some DIY to get to what I wanted, and ended up with an array of moderately inexpensive ViparSpectra to provide the smooth, broad coverage meeting minimal lighting requirements 27" down. I removed the stock lenses and affixed a dispersion panel (95% transmissivity) to increase the light spread. I'm running at about 250 PAR across the entire bottom of the aquarium at about 50% across blue and white channels. The top of the reef sees about 350-400 PAR across the length and width.
The array supports zooxanthellae down there, and the coral grows quickly and well -
I supplement these with an array of six Kessil A360WEs - a more expensive option, but this covered two bases. They made things "look good" by providing that extra kick of point-source lighting that produces the "glitter lines" under water. They also add another 150 or so PAR during the "high noon" part of the day, about five hours mid-day an extra dose of photons is chucked into the vat. I think many of my longer-limbed acros really appreciate this and tend to stretch out a bit more toward the surface. The shorter-branched varieties tend to pull in their outer polyps to lower the surface area exposed.
I hope this helps the OP a bit in their decision, or perhaps anyone else that doesn't doze off while reading it.
Cheers,
Ray
Turd Ferguson
Community Member
I did t realize Icecap under performed so much compared tM80. When I ordered my new fixture Cayman Sun, ice cap was all that was available. Looking at the Hamilton websiteM80 is out of stock. Are they no longer manufactured?
A. grandis
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
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You never get tired... enjoy your light.
It's your tank.
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