Thoughts on new light for 29G Mixed Reef

Dkmoo · Jan 4, 2021

Hi All, as I stare at my tank today thinking of different ways to upgrade it/burn my money, i thought maybe it's time to get better lights.

I currently have a 29G mixed reef with all the major corals popular in our trade (see build thread for full list). I current have a 5 year old first gen AI prime and a 4 year old second gen AI prime "HD". While it has provided enough PARs for everything and tank generally looked "nice" it still lacked the "pop" in color that I see on some of the video/pictures/store DTs. What do you guys think I should do? Choices are:

1) upgrading to 2 of the latest AI Prime HD 16s
2) add a third "something else" to supplement the color "poppingness"
3) get something else completely.

I understand the transition will need to be slow and steady so assume that's not an issue. getting 2 AI Prime 16HD is probably the easiest and i do prefer LEDs for controllability, but i am open to all suggestions.

Thanks.

LegendaryCG · Jan 4, 2021

I dunno I think a lot of the colors you see in photos are from filters/adjusting light colors/editing the photo. I like my AI prime 16 on my small tank.

Dkmoo · Jan 4, 2021

LegendaryCG said:
I dunno I think a lot of the colors you see in photos are from filters/adjusting light colors/editing the photo. I like my AI prime 16 on my small tank.

yeah i suspected there's some of that in the pictures but even for the live DTs I see from my LFS they colors pop a lot more than mine. I know the LFS probably dumped thousands of dollars to make the DTs shine so just want to get some ideas. I'll be asking them what lights they use next time i go visit them.

LegendaryCG · Jan 4, 2021

Could be T5 lighting maybe?

Spare time · Jan 4, 2021

You could try and supplement with something like a reef brite actinic or an actinic t5. However, you would need a hybrid kit to have those with the primes. Upgrading to the new primes may allow you to get more par out of the "pop" channles so you can turn the other colors down

Dkmoo · Jan 4, 2021

Spare time said:
You could try and supplement with something like a reef brite actinic or an actinic t5. However, you would need a hybrid kit to have those with the primes. Upgrading to the new primes may allow you to get more par out of the "pop" channles so you can turn the other colors down

Oo this could work! Ty!

The older primes' blues are mostly 450nm - 485nm range and lack the "overdrive" feather found in the HD16. The one you suggested is mostly 420nm- 440nm. A 12 inch strip would fit nicely between the 2 current primes and could be the missing piece in terms of complementing the spectrums.

Dkmoo · Jan 9, 2021

New toy arrived! Ty @Spare time for the suggestion.

The install bracket holes luckily lined up perfectly with the DYI rack i made for the 2 primes so the install was super easy.

Noticed a "bluer" shade for sure so definitely helped out since the prime's blue channels were already maxed out.

The added benefit is that since it fit in the middle of the primes, I have less spread issues which kept the primes pretty far up. Now I moved them 2 inches closer which by itself also caused better coloration due to higher intensity.

Turned acclimation mode on at 30% reduction to account for the new light which will bring everything back up to max in 3 weeks

Spare time · Jan 9, 2021

Dkmoo said:
New toy arrived! Ty @Spare time for the suggestion.

The install bracket holes luckily lined up perfectly with the DYI rack i made for the 2 primes so the install was super easy.

Noticed a "bluer" shade for sure so definitely helped out since the prime's blue channels were already maxed out.

The added benefit is that since it fit in the middle of the primes, I have less spread issues which kept the primes pretty far up. Now I moved them 2 inches closer which by itself also caused better coloration due to higher intensity.

Turned acclimation mode on at 30% reduction to account for the new light which will bring everything back up to max in 3 weeks