What new light should I get?

nickenayat · Oct 16, 2016

Hey everyone,
I currently have a 36" innovative marine skyye light LED light strip. The light seems to be effective just the design is so bad in the sense of not knowing the output and I have to remove the entire light fixture every time I need to get into the tank.

Current output-
White 14k day 350mA
Actinic 456mA

I am looking to upgrade the light however due to the length and shallowness of my tank i don't know what would work best. I like the pendant or minimalist look opposed to a big light strip.

Hoping to get opinions on which of these would be best for the corals, fish, and bang for my buck.

Potential upgrades:

(2) kessil 165w
(2) AI prime nano
(1) current orbit marine pro strip

P.S- willing to sell the current LED strip if anyone is interested.

nickenayat · Oct 16, 2016

Better pictures

bif24701 · Oct 16, 2016

Is this a 40 breeder?

madweazl · Oct 16, 2016

SBReef 16" basic boxes were used until one week ago (switched to Kessil so I could use my existing canopy). For the cost, I think the SBReefs performed admirably and hope the Kessils provide the same results.

mcarroll · Oct 16, 2016

@nickenayat those photos give you a good view of the difference in some more spread out lights vs spotlights like you're looking at.

Especially the last photo-pair of the Torch coral.

Your switch is likely to be at least as dramatic. (Not to say good or bad...that's a matter of taste. It's just going to be pretty different.)

The exception on your list is the Orbit Marine Pro. Is will do well suspended over the tank and will maintain the same type of light output you have now....no excess shadows.

nickenayat · Oct 16, 2016

bif24701 said:
Is this a 40 breeder?

its an IM 27 gallon, here are the rough dimensions: 35l x 12w x 12d.

Nano101 · Oct 16, 2016

nickenayat said:
Hey everyone,
I currently have a 36" innovative marine skyye light LED light strip. The light seems to be effective just the design is so bad in the sense of not knowing the output and I have to remove the entire light fixture every time I need to get into the tank.

Current output-
White 14k day 350mA
Actinic 456mA

I am looking to upgrade the light however due to the length and shallowness of my tank i don't know what would work best. I like the pendant or minimalist look opposed to a big light strip.

Hoping to get opinions on which of these would be best for the corals, fish, and bang for my buck.

Potential upgrades:

(2) kessil 165w
(2) AI prime nano
(1) current orbit marine pro strip

P.S- willing to sell the current LED strip if anyone is interested.

Love my Prime HD!

nickenayat · Oct 16, 2016

@mcarroll

Thanks, what do you think, if any, will the effects be on the corals and fish. Better or worse?

madweazl · Oct 17, 2016

mcarroll said:
@nickenayat those photos give you a good view of the difference in some more spread out lights vs spotlights like you're looking at.

Especially the last photo-pair of the Torch coral.

Your switch is likely to be at least as dramatic. (Not to say good or bad...that's a matter of taste. It's just going to be pretty different.)

The exception on your list is the Orbit Marine Pro. Is will do well suspended over the tank and will maintain the same type of light output you have now....no excess shadows.

While there certainly is shading with the Kessils that will require more thought in regard to placement, the photos were taken with drastically different settings (washed out in the September pics and under exposed in the October torch pic).

madweazl · Oct 17, 2016

Same torch with better exposure.

Orcus Varuna · Oct 17, 2016

nickenayat said:
Hey everyone,
I currently have a 36" innovative marine skyye light LED light strip. The light seems to be effective just the design is so bad in the sense of not knowing the output and I have to remove the entire light fixture every time I need to get into the tank.

Current output-
White 14k day 350mA
Actinic 456mA

I am looking to upgrade the light however due to the length and shallowness of my tank i don't know what would work best. I like the pendant or minimalist look opposed to a big light strip.

Hoping to get opinions on which of these would be best for the corals, fish, and bang for my buck.

Potential upgrades:

(2) kessil 165w
(2) AI prime nano
(1) current orbit marine pro strip

P.S- willing to sell the current LED strip if anyone is interested.

I Love my AI HD lighting, I run a 52HD and a Prime HD (as a nem spotlight) on a standard 29 gallon. Programming the lights is a breeze and you can copy, apply and share programs between lights and with others so easily! My one regret/wish however is that I should originally gone with 3 Primes instead of the 52HD. By going with the 52hd I have found out the hard way (by costing myself an extra $230 for the prime HD) that with these spotlight type LED's the more point sources of light the better, as it is the only sure fire way to reduce shading. Even AI's master display tank runs like a dozen primes arranged at different angles (I wish I could find the pictures... if anyone else can please share). As such with your tank being significantly wider then mine I would recommend 3 of the AI Primes or Kessils. The current lights are nice but if your doing this upgrade partially for asthetics the primes and kessil's look so much cooler suspended over the tank. As you can see below the AI lighting on my home tank looks so much cooler then the current strip light on my cycling cichlid tank at work lol Also, the cool thing with the primes and kessils you can always add lights. You can start with 2 and if the shading is killer just buy another later on. One thing that pushed me to AI over kessil was the integration. No spectral controller, no wonky apex coding, no eye grating reef link, separate cords etc. All you have to do is plug in the light, connect to the internet and move bars up and down to program!!!!!!