Upgrade Lighting or Add More Livestock

[TrampledByEwoks]

Thread title really should have just been "Help me spend my money", but that's not very specific! Currently I am running a pretty established 90 gallon (3 years as FOWLR) that just finished year 1 of being a mixed reef. I wouldn't go as far to say it is a budget build, but I saved money where I could. One of those places is lighting as I currently have 2 Viparspectra 165W that are growing easy to keep softies and making a rainbow bubble tip happy. I know these black boxes have plenty of horsepower to them but don't have the spread and adjustability of the name brand lights.

Recently an unused AI Hydra 32HD came on FB marketplace from a guy who got in and quickly out of the hobby for $200 which sparked the idea on if I should start spending money on upgrading lights or just be happy with the current black boxes and put the money into adding more coral to the tank. Any and all thoughts are welcome but anyone with black box to upgraded lightning scenarios I am very interested in if you think it was worth it and what made life better with the name brand lights.

 

[mike550]

@TrampledByEwoks if possible try to get a sense of your current PAR and then how much additional power your lights could put out if needed. That might sway how you spend your money