TMC first wave 48L lighting upgrade

[GDR3]

Hi, I’m relatively new to reef keeping. I’ve got a TMC first wave 48l nano aquarium at the moment and have been running it for about 8months. It’s really nicely stable and I’ve recently started adding corals. Initially some Zoa, GSP, Toadstool and more recently a couple of mushrooms a chalice and Kenya tree. They are all happy but just not showing much growth. I have always thought the light on the tank seems a little lacklustre so was thinking of upgrading to an AI blade coral grow 12”.

Does this seem like a reasonable idea and a potential benefit for the corals - especially if I’m going to add more LPS. Any comments or experience with the inbuilt light on the tank? I’ll hopefully upgrade the tank to something bigger in 12 months or so but want to get as much out of my current set up as I can!

 

[TX_REEF]

what is your current lighting? Do you have PAR measurements? Almost all LPS thrive with less than 200PAR.

AI blades are reputable lighting units.

 

[GDR3]

The specs of the inbuilt light are:

Low voltage DC Reef Ready LED with natural light cycle functionality

Wattage 13W
Voltage 12V
Lumens 940lm
Colour Temperature 14000K
LEDs 30pcs White - LEDs 4pcs Blue

From my perspective it seems like a very white light and there is no customisation abilities with it.

I haven’t got a PAR meter but from reviews I have seen it reported at 80 on the sand bed and 290 at the surface. I found a graph comparing the spectrum of both lights (stock light on left and AI blade on right).

If I should be able to achieve decent results with the stock light then I’m happy leaving it and will be patient be but my gut feeling was it would probably a substandard light (but I may be completely wrong!!)

 

[Slider162]

Interested in this tank and had the same lighting question. What was your end result? Did you swap the light or keep it? How did it do?

 

[TX_REEF]

13 watts is generally insufficient (especially bearing in mind that is its max theoretical wattage) for coral growth on most normal sized tanks, in my opinion.