best SPS light?

[jda]

If you point is that subjective posts that might happen in this thread are worthless and that people who might trust somebody's subjective post rather than make a decision on their own are likely doomed to fail already, then that is a hard point to argue with. However, as useless as the observations are, it is important to try and help people understand what might be important to them so that they can make their own choices. Even if the end result is failure, why be on here if not to try and help?

Let's not confuse this with situations where they truly is a "best" something for a job - there are some of these in the hobby.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

I have the new XR30 gen5 blues there great lights too.

 

[A. grandis]

There is absolutely no better lights than halides for reef tanks, period. Each and every day I try to understand the concepts and dynamics involved. The only explanation I find is: there are many things we still can't fully understand about corals' metabolism and behavior related to light. Logically we see shimmer, great rich spectrum, UV and IR from halides. Those are things we can attribute to the amazing success and advantages of halide bulbs. If part of your definition of "best" or "healthy" includes: great growth, abundant tissue formation, vitality, colony structure and great rich colors, halide bulbs will provide like no other besides the sun.
Hard corals, soft corals, zoanthids, anemones, clams! Even the fish do better.
The help of T5s will bring it to the best you can offer, providing a sheet over the system to reach those pockets! Just amazing!
There is no other artificial type of light that can provide to captive corals in order to reach similar to the complete quality we find in nature! Results!
People keep playing too much with PAR, PUR and forget the most important aspects of the spectrum and intensity/photoperiod balances! Those are great part of the essence of this hobby.
It's so simple...
Other types of light will work ok. They will survive and even reproduce. They will be "just fine".
The answer for "best SPS light?" is with halides/T5s because every good king needs a beautiful queen.

 

[Plecosam]

Halides are ok.

 

[Bpb]

Those of us posting, and especially those of us reading be wary of recommendations by folks with only a few days/weeks with a product. That’s not enough time to see a full adjustment of how the livestock will respond. At this point you’re seeing colors developed by your Previous lights. Give it 6 Months to a year before giving it your badge of approval

 

[dohc97]

Even though you picked kessil I will give you my opinion.

MH will grow acros like crazy and color them like nature intended, add t5 and you cover shadowing for the best natural sps coloration and coverage you can buy.

LED if you are into the glow in the dark scene (which is sadly the majority now).

T5 only, no tinkering besides bulb mix, no fuss, just works but no shimmer.

If I lived in an area where summer was cooler I would 100% be running a MH/t5 hybrid, unfortunately I live in a place with high temps in summer and I don't have room for a chiller. I'm currently running an 8 bulb t5 and love the growth and coloration, just wishing I could have shimmer.

 

[X-37B]

I run 8 T5's on my 120.
I am switching to MH.
I have 2 lumen bright mini's, DE 250 watt 14K phoenix bulbs.
I have had them since startup but decided to run T5's on a used unit.
I am not going to run any T5's as their is really no room.
Not a fan of the glow in the dark tanks either.

The best light is the one that grows your corals and has the look you like.
Today its the glow in the dark look but its not for me.

I have found after talking to many reefers that alot of led light issues are caused from constantly changing settings.

Lfs runs all radions in the blue mode.
I got them to set one tank that is seperate from their large sysyem to 14K.
Man that tank looks just like MH.
90% of the people that notice ask why is it so bright and not blue lol.

 

[Joedubyk]

I have only used LEDs OR T5s.

T5s are awesome becaused they are much cheaper fixtures, they have amazing spread and they are plug and play.

LEDs are so much harder. Their spread isn't great, it's tough to figure out intensity and color. They are far from plug and play. That said, I LOVE Radions. Nothing colors up acros as good as an awesome LED fixture. I also prefer the shimmer to the dull T5 coloration.

The pucks are problematic in relations to spread, but 2 should work more than fine on a 29. If you upgraded to say, a 120, you could just buy an AI hybrid fixture and boom--problem solved with spread and you'll still get the shimmer and color frrom kessils.

 

[X-37B]

Even though you picked kessil I will give you my opinion.

MH will grow acros like crazy and color them like nature intended, add t5 and you cover shadowing for the best natural sps coloration and coverage you can buy.

LED if you are into the glow in the dark scene (which is sadly the majority now).

T5 only, no tinkering besides bulb mix, no fuss, just works but no shimmer.

If I lived in an area where summer was cooler I would 100% be running a MH/t5 hybrid, unfortunately I live in a place with high temps in summer and I don't have room for a chiller. I'm currently running an 8 bulb t5 and love the growth and coloration, just wishing I could have shimmer.

Running 2 DE 250 watt in lumen bright reflectors should not raise tank temps if kept at 14 inches from the surface.
Summers are 100°F+ in my area and I do not anticipate any increase in temps.
I run my T5's 4" off the surface.
You can run a poor mans chiller like I do and it works well. Small 8" fan on the sump.
I have a chiller but ha e not needed it.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Do none of you read threads before posting? OP bought a light halfway through page 1.

 

[Tom Blevins]

I have had MH on our 300 and loved them, but my wife hated the chiller running in the warmer months and yes
the SPS grow well, Had the Hydras 26HD and never really cared for them, now I have the Photons and the color and growth are great!

I feel the best tank I have seen in person to date had T5'S only and it was Beautiful!

 

[X-37B]

Yea saw that. I think he was just looking for feedback that he bought the right one.
We tend to go off in different directioms when light or water changes are mentioned in any thread lol.

 

[jose hernandez]

im debating now do i sell my radions and go with straight t5s but my tank is 6 feet dont know what 2 do now

 

[brandon p]

Do you think forum opinion is the best way to find the best light leprechaun?

Wellllll.... I know that there is always gonna gonna be a couple gems in the responses no matter what i ask. I was mainly looking for people's opinions of their own lights and was going to turn that into usable data. I ended up buying 2 kessil 360Xs with goosenecks and a controller. I've ran through cheap lights. All the money I wasted on cheao lights that under performed amounted to what I spent on these. Yes, I'm running them at like 25% on my 29 gal but I never want to buy another light even when I upgrade. Unless it's for additional tanks

 

[brandon p]

That should be a sticky and gets my 150% approval, but if people listened to that comment like they should we wouldn't have meaningless forum traffic about UV LEDs and full spectrum nonsense. I mean, how is it possible to grow SPS without blue tooth and firmware updates? Blasphemy

Grown SPS with halides , tubes, DIY everything, LEDs, etc.

Always liked Reef Breeders. Personally I would start with a Mars Aqua and save money. Wont entirely cover a 29 standard but you can always get another one later.

these last 2 responses are WAAY more than I needed. I'm a decent refer who's main issue is having crap lights fail me. And I NEVER decide what to do based 100% on what others would. I bought 2 kessil 360Xs that I can run on low intensity now and bump it up when I upgrade tanks

 

[brandon p]

That should be a sticky and gets my 150% approval, but if people listened to that comment like they should we wouldn't have meaningless forum traffic about UV LEDs and full spectrum nonsense. I mean, how is it possible to grow SPS without blue tooth and firmware updates? Blasphemy

Grown SPS with halides , tubes, DIY everything, LEDs, etc.

Always liked Reef Breeders. Personally I would start with a Mars Aqua and save money. Wont entirely cover a 29 standard but you can always get another one later.

these last 2 responses are WAAY more than I needed. I'm a decent refer who's main issue is having crap lights fail me. And I NEVER decide what to do based 100% on what others would. I bought 2 kessil 360Xs that I can run on low intensity now and bump it up when I upgrade tanks. And so far- WAY happy with them

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

On the economic end, be sure to check out Noopsyche and on the higher end, check out the new Phillips CoralCare

 

[Mark Gray]

Halides for sure are the best but use to much power. They cost me a fortune with my AC bill. I tried the Radons G4, dont like them. I have a Reefbreeder V2 its ok, but my favorite by far is Orphek

 

[Tuffloud1]

Running Orphek Atlantik V4 Gen2’s on my Acro dominated tank.

My mother colonies have improved dramatically since switching from Hydra’s. All my new frags are encrusting.

I have a few acro frags all the way at the bottom of my 30 inch tall tank and they are encrusting with good color. Lights are super powerful it seems.

Switched to the Atlantik’s about 4 months ago.

 

[pledosophy]

I ordered a double Kessil 360X package a few hours after I posted.

I have a Kessil 360 on a 50g cube and I really enjoy the light. I am not sure you will need two of them on a 29g tank, but two is better than one.

I just added the narrow reflector to my light to focus that wide spread a bit and also cut the glare from infront of the tank.

If you are using 2 on a 29 that reflector might be a good option for you as well so you do not have a dramatic light spill out of the tank. The reflector does have the side effect of making the light 3x as powerful. On full power you can get a par of about 1100 6 inches under the water.

I have both the plug in controller and the wifi dongal. I found the plug in controller very confusing to use but I really do like the wifi app and being able to customize my light pattern. I prefer to run tanks with more UV in them, and as silly as that rainbow function is I did program it in to let me know when my kids bed time is incase I am working. (tank is in my office). I also did program in two cloud covers during the peak intensity for my display.

Kessil is coming out with some additional preprograms that you can read about on their forum here.

I hope you enjoy your light as much as I have enjoyed mine.