Nicrew or noopsyche

[bigbsreef]

Hey everyone I'm reefing on a budget. I have a 90 gallon system. Its 48 long 18 wide and 24 deep. I would love to set myself up with some nice primo lights but that's just so far out of my budget. I'm currently running 2 95watt smatfarms and honestly they aren't great. I was thinking about getting 3 lights and upgrading to 100watt nicrews or I have a nano tank with a noopsyche. Anyone have any insights?

 

[EricR]

I have no experience with any of these lights but just curious:
What is it that you don't like about the 95W SmatFarm LEDs?
*just curious what you'd expect to gain if you switched to Nicrew,,, also I think those still need a separate controller for ramping and such, right?

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Hey everyone I'm reefing on a budget. I have a 90 gallon system. Its 48 long 18 wide and 24 deep. I would love to set myself up with some nice primo lights but that's just so far out of my budget. I'm currently running 2 95watt smatfarms and honestly they aren't great. I was thinking about getting 3 lights and upgrading to 100watt nicrews or I have a nano tank with a noopsyche. Anyone have any insights?

I have two nicrew hyperreef 150's for my 75, with a controller. I honestly can't see why I would want any "premium" light.

 

[bigbsreef]

I have no experience with any of these lights but just curious:
What is it that you don't like about the 95W SmatFarm LEDs?
*just curious what you'd expect to gain if you switched to Nicrew,,, also I think those still need a separate controller for ramping and such, right?

The smatfarms don't really have any pep to therm even full blast nothing wants to grow unless it's at the top of my tank. I am not sure about the controller

 

[bigbsreef]

I have two nicrew hyperreef 150's for my 75, with a controller. I honestly can't see why I would want any "premium" light.

Good to know ok

 

[fishcore]

I also have the HyperReef Gen 2 150W for my 29 gallon. It's been great so far but you definitely need the controller to do anything useful with it.

 

[Shnetts]

I’ve run the nicrew gen 2 on 4 tanks since they came out and honestly I have only good things to say. They are super easy to program, give out amazing spread, are dead silent until you hit 90ish percent and everything on them was extremely robust.

 

[fishcore]

Oh another thing is the nicrew lights are BRIGHT, at least the 150W. I watched a YT video where they measured the PAR and at 100% it was like 200 PAR at the sand bed in a 2 foot deep tank so it's definitely possible to accidentally fry things with them.

 

[mcarroll]

I'm currently running 2 95watt smatfarms and honestly they aren't great.

Do they turn on and have more blue lights than white lights? If so they should do the job.

That said, what's "not great" about them? As you can imagine, knowing that will help with our recommendations.

The smatfarms don't really have any pep to therm even full blast nothing wants to grow unless it's at the top of my tank. I am not sure about the controller

I'm not cheerlieading Smatfarm (because that's a dumb name ) but I think you should check the light's setup as well as the rest of your setup for potential issues. 95 watts should be fine for most tanks.....24" isn't that deep. (Just for one reference example, Kessils are about the same wattage and almost surely have wider angle lenses so generate less intensity than you lights.)

How are your lights currently set up? (E.g. hanging height, power settings, et al.)

What are your tank's water test parameters and water flow like?

 

[bigbsreef]

Do they turn on and have more blue lights than white lights? If so they should do the job.

That said, what's "not great" about them? As you can imagine, knowing that will help with our recommendations.


I'm not cheerlieading Smatfarm (because that's a dumb name ) but I think you should check the light's setup as well as the rest of your setup for potential issues. 95 watts should be fine for most tanks.....24" isn't that deep. (Just for one reference example, Kessils are about the same wattage and almost surely have wider angle lenses so generate less intensity than you lights.)

How are your lights currently set up? (E.g. hanging height, power settings, et al.)

What are your tank's water test parameters and water flow like?

Lights are about 8 inches off the top of the tank. Currently running at 100% on all spectrum. I have successfully kept pavona and digitata plus Duncan's and zoas but everything had to be in the upper third of the tank. My flow seems pretty high. I'm running 2 hygger 24 v dc wavemakers at about full blast and on the opposite side of the tank and one large hygger intelligent bar style wavemaker varying between 50-75% power. My tank stays about 450 calc 9.5 kh and 1350 mag at 1.026 salinity. I dose once a week.

I took a few pieces out and put them in my nano tank that's rocking a noopsyche and had great luck