Reefbreeders Photon V2+: Seeking advice...

KevyKevTPA · Jan 7, 2022

We've decided to return our "black box" lighting back to our friends at Amazon (thank you Prime!), and I'm fairly certain we're going to get these Reefbreeders, details of which can be found here: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/photon-48-v2-reefbreeders.html

There have been some threads about this with mostly good things being said, but it's been a while, so I wanted to see if anyone out there might have any thoughts about it before we make a final decision... And please don't say "Just get the Kessils", that is budget prohibited. Looking at the 48" version for a 48" wide 55g tank that our ultimate goal is for a mixed reef.

I very much appreciate any insight anyone might have, and thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts...

jgirardnrg · Jan 7, 2022

I have them on 3 tanks and love them. I would spend the little extra and get the Pro... the app connectivity makes them much easier to live with.

jda · Jan 7, 2022

Go and find therman's threads - probably SPS section and for-sale section. He has perhaps the best corals that I have every seen under LEDs. I don't use them so I have no idea about ease, apps, etc., just that his results speak for themselves.

Brian_68 · Jan 7, 2022

They work for sure, this is 1 1/2 year growth from a small frag to almost 8" across for my vivid confetti under RB 32" V2 plus lumenbars on my 125.

elcapitan1993 · Jan 7, 2022

They are better than the “black boxes” BUT if you have the means I would go with a kessil or radion

jda · Jan 8, 2022

Has anybody seen any tanks with Kessils (especially) or Radions that has better results than therman has with his Photons? I would like to see those. Perhaps I am too focused on acropora, but if you can do well with those, other stuff should be a lot easier. I don't know how anybody could say that Kessil, Radion or even Hydra are better.

Brian_68 · Jan 8, 2022

jda said:
Has anybody seen any tanks with Kessils (especially) or Radions that has better results than therman has with his Photons? I would like to see those. Perhaps I am too focused on acropora, but if you can do well with those, other stuff should be a lot easier. I don't know how anybody could say that Kessil, Radion or even Hydra are better.

It is all hype with Radions and similar higher cost options. I had them at one point now RB V2 pro. No different than certain car manuafacturers that you pay a lot lot more yet the quality is actually inferior than the cheaper options. But you can't say you run XYZ lights on your tank though and to some that is most important. Lights are only one aspect of successfully keeping acros / coral, and I would argue water is more important.

Brian_68 · Jan 8, 2022

Brian_68 said:
It is all hype with Radions and similar higher cost options. I had them at one point now RB V2 pro. No different than certain car manuafacturers that you pay a lot lot more yet the quality is actually inferior than the cheaper options. But you can't say you run XYZ lights on your tank though and to some that is most important. Lights are only one aspect of successfully keeping acros / coral, and I would argue water is more important.

Homewrecker and Therman's Dark Knight under RB, have a tough time getting a good pic showing the color. This Homewrecker is one of many frags from the original branch.

jcates · Jan 9, 2022

Good lights. I owned one, eventually replaced it when I got a bigger tank. Never had any issues with it. My sps are however growing better under Sky's my guess is because I am using the preset color spectrum choices as opposed to trying to adjust each individual channel. Lighting really is all about what your goals are but these lights have proven to be effective

Bpb · Jan 10, 2022

No complaints with mine. Excellent growth and color. The remote is kind of goofy to use but it’s a good thing. It’ll discourage frequent changing of spectrum.

KevyKevTPA · Jan 13, 2022

Bpb said:
No complaints with mine. Excellent growth and color. The remote is kind of goofy to use but it’s a good thing. It’ll discourage frequent changing of spectrum.

I absolutely agree, that is excellent growth and color, great tank, well done.

What are your spectrum and intensity settings, and did you change them for acclimation when you put new ones in? Thanks for any insight you may have...

Bpb · Jan 13, 2022

KevyKevTPA said:
I absolutely agree, that is excellent growth and color, great tank, well done.

What are your spectrum and intensity settings, and did you change them for acclimation when you put new ones in? Thanks for any insight you may have...

Settings is an easy but tough question. I’m absolutely of the mindset that programming should follow this formula

Mount the fixture as high as you can. I use the included legs and use the longer parts to get them taller

Start with all blue and violet channels raised equally to achieve 70-80% of your par goal

Add in white to get yourself most the rest of the way there

Add in a small amount of green and red at your leisure.

This works well for using the mounting legs or going lower than 12”. Reason being the lenses are super tight so if you’re 12” or lower they can easily over-light just about any tank less than 30” deep.

If you are able to hang them in the 18-24” range over the water. Super high. I’d crank all channels equally like @therman does or @Battlecorals does. I find they look visually most appealing with all channels at 100%. You just can’t do that when they’re mounted too low. The par will be very much in excess

I can’t remember the exact settings I used in the tank pictured. It was a single fixture over a 90 gallon tank. I’m guessing it was with
blues/violets around 80%
Whites around 60%
Red and green around 15%

But I used a par meter to get in fhe 200-400 range throughout the rock work. I tend to prefer a whiter tank, so even that program was a little blue for my liking.

I didn’t adjust the lights to acclimate corals. Doing that just forces the entire tank to adjust. Instead I put new sps on my frag rack which was getting 150-200 par. I’d let them ride on there for a few weeks and regain color from shipping before putting them on the rocks

KevyKevTPA · Jan 13, 2022

Thank you so much for such a thorough and thoughtful answer!

Van Eternal · Jan 24, 2022

Hi,
I've been running the reef breeders on my tank for around a year now on my first ever reef tank. Therefore can't compare them to any other lights, but from seeing other tanks running high end lighting such as the Radions I can't really tell much difference. I recently added an another fixture, to get a more even spread. The reef breeders definitely get the job done, they use high quality leds (believe they are the same leds they use for radions), the only major difference is the controllability. The remote itself can be quite frustrating to get used to at the beginning, but once finding your schedule, you will only need to set it once and forget about it. I believe they can now be controlled by using the app, by adding a chip. Overall, I like the look of the light fixture itself and the light it outputs and are definitely worth the money.

For reference, I am attaching my current schedule that I use for my mixed reef, the fixtures are fitted at 13" from the water level.

Pghreefer91 · Jan 25, 2022

	red	green	royal blue	white	cool blue	violet
	channel 1	2	3	4	5	6
8:00
9
10
11	0	0	5	0	5	3
12:00	0	0	25	5	25	20
13	5	5	35	15	35	30
14	10	10	55	25	55	50
3pm 15	15	15	70	35	70	65
16	15	15	70	35	70	65
17	15	15	70	35	70	65
6pm 18	15	15	70	35	70	65
19	10	10	65	25	65	60
20	0	0	55	5	55	50
9pm 21	0	0	45	0	45	40
22	0	0	35	0	35	30
23	0	0	25	0	25	20
24	0	0	5	0	5	3

bradenr · Aug 16, 2022

Brian_68 said:
They work for sure, this is 1 1/2 year growth from a small frag to almost 8" across for my vivid confetti under RB 32" V2 plus lumenbars on my 125.

What settings are you running