Inexpensive led lighting

Killerflash · Dec 23, 2015

Hey guys! I know it's not ideal and many people like to stick with t5s, metal halides, or the more expensive LED's like radions, but it's not possible for me at the moment to look at those.

I want to get some new lights, LED's, but I'm on a budget and need to keep it <$200. It is going to be for my 90 gallon tank which has a few softies in it and I want to make it a mixed reef eventually.

I've looked through a lot of options and got a small list and was wondering if you guys had any feedback or could point me in the direction of which one of these would work best.

Options:
Orbit marine LED fixture gen 1

Reef breeders value LED's

Buildmyled lighting, they have multiple options

Ecoxotic panorama marine
LED's

Marineland reef LED's

Aquatic life edge LED's

Blue line 120w VHO LED's

I can get some links to specs of these if needed. Not sure if any of these get ruled out easily or not.

ndz98 · Dec 23, 2015

I'm in the same boat as you man lol. Except I'm looking at the SB reef lights extreme and reef radiance Starfire. Idk if you've checked either of them out but I know the reef radiance has a sale right now. Although I'm thinking both might be out of your budget since I'm guessing you would need a bigger light for your tank.

Triggreef · Dec 23, 2015

How much space do you have to hang them above the water?

I would suggest the cheap chinese black boxes on ebay that resemble reefbreeders. I like them better than some very expensive ones I have. Also, reefbreeders just buys them cheap as well and adds his sticker, and maybe a controller to the larger ones. Same light.

Killerflash · Dec 23, 2015

ndz98 said:
I'm in the same boat as you man lol. Except I'm looking at the SB reef lights extreme and reef radiance Starfire. Idk if you've checked either of them out but I know the reef radiance has a sale right now. Although I'm thinking both might be out of your budget since I'm guessing you would need a bigger light for your tank.

Yeah they would be a bit out of my budget since my tank is 48" long.

Triggreef said:
How much space do you have to hang them above the water?

I would suggest the cheap chinese black boxes on ebay that resemble reefbreeders. I like them better than some very expensive ones I have. Also, reefbreeders just buys them cheap as well and adds his sticker, and maybe a controller to the larger ones. Same light.

I have plenty of space it's about 3 and a half feet to the ceiling from the top of my tank. I'll check those out I had not looked on ebay, thanks!

Triggreef · Dec 23, 2015

Try to stick with the ones that look exactly like RB's they are better IMO than the ones that have the curved edges. I believe marsaqua has the curved edges and they are okay but just seems like the leds are closer together/ less spread.

jman9331 · Dec 23, 2015

I have the marine orbit lights on my tank. I have both LPS and SPS coral growing in mine. so far no problems and they all still have their color.

redfishbluefish · Dec 23, 2015

I cannot say enough about this inexpensive light....HERE....called Mars Aqua. When I purchased 8 months ago, they were 78, shipped; shortly after that they went to 83; and now I see they are up to 90....that must of just happened.

I only purchased one fixture to compliment the two Apollo fixtures I had. But if I were starting fresh today, these are the fixtures I'd get. My only complaint is that they do have a couple 3500 K beads....and if and when I have the time, I might switch them out. Otherwise, it's a deal!

Killerflash · Dec 23, 2015

Triggreef said:
Try to stick with the ones that look exactly like RB's they are better IMO than the ones that have the curved edges. I believe marsaqua has the curved edges and they are okay but just seems like the leds are closer together/ less spread.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/165W-LED-Aq...113350?hash=item2a34d6b786:g:9h4AAOSwHjNWAM-N
Were you talking about these? I would think I'd probably need two if I were to get these.

jman9331 said:
I have the marine orbit lights on my tank. I have both LPS and SPS coral growing in mine. so far no problems and they all still have their color.

That's good to hear as they are my favorite out of this list and they are almost 50% off right now which puts them in my budget!

redfishbluefish said:
I cannot say enough about this inexpensive light....HERE....called Mars Aqua. When I purchased 8 months ago, they were 78, shipped; shortly after that they went to 83; and now I see they are up to 90....that must of just happened.

I only purchased one fixture to compliment the two Apollo fixtures I had. But if I were starting fresh today, these are the fixtures I'd get. My only complaint is that they do have a couple 3500 K beads....and if and when I have the time, I might switch them out. Otherwise, it's a deal!

The link didn't work for me, but I searched for mars aqua led's on ebay and I found a couple different ones are you talking about the boxes or the longer light fixture?

Dtackett · Dec 23, 2015

ive used the mars aqua. they work well and are worth the price but the SB Reef Lights are better. theyre basically the mars aqua on steroids. and still very affordable and well under your budget for basic.
https://sbreeflights.com/

look into the technical stats for the orbits. they will grow some coral, but technically speaking, theyre junk. low wattage, low par, just lots of bells and whistles.

Killerflash · Dec 23, 2015

Dtackett said:
ive used the mars aqua. they work well and are worth the price but the SB Reef Lights are better. theyre basically the mars aqua on steroids. and still very affordable and well under your budget for basic.
https://sbreeflights.com/

look into the technical stats for the orbits. they will grow some coral, but technically speaking, theyre junk. low wattage, low par, just lots of bells and whistles.

My main problem with smaller lights like that are that I would need multiple fixtures for my tank as it is 48" long so the price ends up going a bit higher.

Dtackett · Dec 23, 2015

2 of the 165 would grow anything except the highest light corals (and would even grow most of those) or 1 of the 32 inch would grow pretty much everything with minimal shadowing on the edges.

with your 90 youll be lucky to grow moderate light corals more than halfway down in your 90 if you go with the orbit.

now the mars aqua work. the color on them isn't very good though. comes out kinda like windex looking. heres an example of the blue under mars aqua.

this is 2 mars aqua on my old 75 (seam split not long after it was setup... wasn't happy.)

on the left of that pic, the light has the lens on. if you notice its almost a spotlight in the middle, the one on the right has the lens removed for a much better spread. the SB Reef Lights are designed to prevent that spotlight while keeping the lens on to allow for maximum par/pur at depth. read the FAQ on the SB website for info on the lights and youll see why I say its worth it.

Jwalker814 · Dec 23, 2015

With the 48" tank you would be able to get away with 2 of the Mars aquas I believe.
I'm looking into them for my 7' tank and I was only planning on running 3.

Jwalker814 · Dec 23, 2015

Dtackett said:
2 of the 165 would grow anything except the highest light corals (and would even grow most of those) or 1 of the 32 inch would grow pretty much everything with minimal shadowing on the edges.

with your 90 youll be lucky to grow moderate light corals more than halfway down in your 90 if you go with the orbit.

now the mars aqua work. the color on them isn't very good though. comes out kinda like windex looking. heres an example of the blue under mars aqua.

this is 2 mars aqua on my old 75 (seam split not long after it was setup... wasn't happy.)

on the left of that pic, the light has the lens on. if you notice its almost a spotlight in the middle, the one on the right has the lens removed for a much better spread. the SB Reef Lights are designed to prevent that spotlight while keeping the lens on to allow for maximum par/pur at depth. read the FAQ on the SB website for info on the lights and youll see why I say its worth it.

That's both blue and white at 100%? I want a little bit more white of a color. This is my current light setup (rewrapping stand and canopy) 18k 400w MH on the right and a 12k 400w MH on the left.

Triggreef · Dec 23, 2015

Killerflash said:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/165W-LED-Aq...113350?hash=item2a34d6b786:g:9h4AAOSwHjNWAM-N
Were you talking about these? I would think I'd probably need two if I were to get these.

That is it. Those are the exact same thing as RB value fixture, half the price.

One thing I will mention about the photon 32 though... only 1 plug instead of 2. And that one plug can be in an "on all the time outlet" instead of needing a controller or timer for 2 plugs. Also the controllability is priceless and ramping up and down intensity is priceless. Well not priceless, but it is very nice and you'll eventually want it after breaking into the LED world...

Dtackett · Dec 23, 2015

Jwalker814 said:
That's both blue and white at 100%? I want a little bit more white of a color. This is my current light setup (rewrapping stand and canopy) 18k 400w MH on the right and a 12k 400w MH on the left.

no that was the setting I liked best. it seemed to not give a blue wash while still giving enough blue for the corals to look a bit better.

this is 100% on both.
sorry, best pic I have of it. didn't normally run it like this but was trying to count the babies lol

but the SB Reef Lights have a deeper blue plus UV purple which means you can run the whites higher to achieve the look you want while the deep blues and UV purple show the colors that a blue wash would normally show.

jujuman16 · Dec 23, 2015

redfishbluefish said:
I cannot say enough about this inexpensive light....HERE....called Mars Aqua. When I purchased 8 months ago, they were 78, shipped; shortly after that they went to 83; and now I see they are up to 90....that must of just happened.

I only purchased one fixture to compliment the two Apollo fixtures I had. But if I were starting fresh today, these are the fixtures I'd get. My only complaint is that they do have a couple 3500 K beads....and if and when I have the time, I might switch them out. Otherwise, it's a deal!

I like these lights a lot too. I have some that are just like it on my 75, but i got them 2 years ago under a different name. My friend has the same on a 90, we both grow softies, lps and some sps . I have birdnests and pocilopora sps that grow faster under those lights than the frags I break off them and put under my T5 in my 80 gal frag tank. I wouldn't consider them ideal for all sps but it should do ok for the easy ones. If you find cheaper than marsaqua, try to look for the ones that have the option to daisy chain the lights (the marsaqua does, look at the extra power plugs up front). You can get short pc cables and only run 2 cables down, its a cleaner look.

jujuman16 · Dec 23, 2015

These ones grew from 1/2 to 1 inch frags to softball sized under those lights. and the monti cap in the back also ;)

Killerflash · Dec 23, 2015

Wow so many replies! Thanks everyone for the input guys.
I looked at the sb reef lights and they are nice, but are over my current budget.

I think I am going to get two of the mars aqua lights I found a 2 piece for 176.99 with free shipping on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-MarsAq...919399?hash=item3a8f569567:g:yKkAAOSwT5tWG12l

It seems like a lot of you guys like these and have had good experiences with them; they also look nice IMO from the pictures that you guys posted.

Dtackett · Dec 23, 2015

theyre good lights but I would buy them individually. you can get them for about 80 a piece so youre overpaying when you buy the set lol

Killerflash · Dec 23, 2015

Dtackett said:
theyre good lights but I would buy them individually. you can get them for about 80 a piece so youre overpaying when you buy the set lol

Really? All of the mars aqua ones I see on ebay are 89.99 or higher. Could you link me?