When I was researching about Meridians I came across a YouTube content creator a good week or so ago that did a review on a Meridian 45/Bar combo. He did not specify if he bought the light combo or if Reef Breeders sent him it to peddle. I know they sent him all the lenses to par test and whatnot. Like a month later he goes back to his old lights in a video and in the comment section (best part of videos) another content creator asked what happened to the lights? The YouTube guy just said he wanted to go back to something different. The content creator pressed him again in a follow up comment and the YouTube guy said he gave the lights back, they were great lights, it’s just didn’t work out with people behind the company. LOL.
I don’t know who this is or anything about the situation.
So I gotta ask VintageReefer? Did you buy your lights with your hard earned money?? Or are you being sponsored by Reef Breeders??
Great question! I am not sponsored by them. I am a knowledgeable customer and a techie, and I have been buying and using reefbreeders lights for 10 years.
I owned and/or still own:
Photon 48 v1
Photon 32 v1
Photon 48 v2
Lumenbar v2 24”
Lumenbar v2 48”
Pico v2
Meridian 11’s
Edge Bar 45’s
I did receive my current lights at a reduced rate, but only because I had a photon 48v2 in excellent condition and a lumenbar v2 48” that was new, and I traded them in for credit that I used towards the meridian setup.
I spoke with them and expressed interest in the lights, I asked tons of questions because I had a very successful tank under the photons and was nervous going to a brand new light. I liked the info I heard. I asked them if they would accept my current setup as a trade in for credit since they sell recertified lights on their website. They made me an offer. I accepted. I applied the credit towards the meridian setup. That is what I mean by “reduced rate”
If someone bought a recertified photon 48 from RB at a discount, around march / April 2025, you might be the new owner of my light!
I think you should be clear about that as you are known to be the biggest cheerleader for the company around here.
I believe this was answered sufficiently in my last text block. I do chime in often but there are many other owners that are very happy with the products that chime in also in threads
Anyways, I was watching that guys video and the one thing, I also noticed it on a members tank picture on the forums here, is that meridian 45 had some pretty good disco ball going.
I have no disco ball with the meridian 45
Sometimes phone cameras can capture shimmer, and sometimes they pick up on certain spectrums more than others because of the cameras sensitivity
My build thread has plenty of pics, you can see there is no disco ball
Here is a meridan 11, one panel from a meridian 45, over a stock tank, no disco ball
There is a reflection on the surface but no disco ball effect. I find the optics are extremely good with color blending. The stock tank is the default optics. I have used the default and encompass lenses on my main tank.
I wondered with the bigger single point leds being spread like they are and that light requires such a tall height at around 14”, any disco balling for me is a deal breaker (seen it on some Orpheks also which it reminds me of). The other thing on his par tests that specific light had crazy hot spots, like 500 par under the light and like 175 at the edge width wise, not length wise (on like a 24” inch tank I believe).
This sounds to me like a mounting height issue. On my main tank I have them at 10” which is below recommendation and I did have some low par areas on the outskirts of the tank. I was told this is because I should be running them higher height, with higher channel levels, so the lights output could have more space to develop, blend and spread. I didn’t want to do this due to my center brace, I wanted to avoid shadows, and I wanted that cone to go under the brace. So I kept my lights mounted low. I switched to the encompass lenses and it smoothed things out for me and I’m very happy with them
But much research and looking around Reef Breeder lights personally just aren’t my flavor or what I’m looking for for a whole host of reasons.
You might be missing out. Feel free to take this offline and dm me
But yeah after putting it all together it just made me think.. hmmm, I wonder if our boy VintageReefer was given the lights from Reef Breeders or if he is a random paying customer. You probably wouldn’t make it know either way, but what you got?? Are you Reef Breeder sponsored little buddy???? Lol
A totally valid question! I have been nothing but transparent and open in this reply, and I feel I have addressed everything asked of me. If you have any more questions for me feel free to post them here or ask me privately.
LOL) and I can tell you one thing my favorite light company won’t be charging me to buy a part they had to come up with to fix their light because of a situation they created.
