Fresh Water Satellite LED+ Plus

[Montu]

Hello,

New to the hobby and currently just have a newly cycled 30 gallon with only Live rock fish and snails.

However, the guy at the LFS that got me started sold me this light, he said it would be able to grow beginner corals and I believed him at the time..anyway I would like to purchase some frags in the next few weeks and was wondering what can I expect this light to grow and what can't I?

I was going to buy a Tank Mount bracket for it, but if i'll need to replace it soon then I won't bother.

Thanks for any input!

 

[jsker]

You are going to looking for a new light pretty soon. Kind reminds of my first LED light that I replaced after a year of sub par growth and corals loss.

 

[Montu]

Should I not bother with softies just yet?

 

[mcarroll]

I think you're lacking blues in that light, correct or no?

Adding on a blue strip, such as one (or more) of their TruLumen Pro's might be just the ticket. Cost seems reasonable.

 

[Montu]

It has Blues, I have a SenEye ..I can take some Par readings if that would be helpful.

 

[mcarroll]

Please do.....I'm especially interested in the peak reading you can pick up. The power level is in the right neighborhood – which is good – but it has some issues with color.

I looked them up and those are white + RGB strips, so it will have some additional blue you can turn up.

But you'll have the Green and Red channels at zero or very close.....so I predict that your 36 watt fixture is going to be more like 20-25 watts when running. That's on the low side of low.

I predict you'll want more power and a lot more blue.

If you talk to that store, is there no way he'll order in some reef lights for you from the same vendor?

CurrentUSA has plenty, so he should theoretically be able to....

• A combo of two TrueLumen Pro LED Strips would be sweet.
• One of these is probably what you'll want to add to the Freshwater+.

Or any of the fixtures from their Orbit line:

• Orbit Marine
• Orbit IC LED
• Orbit Marine Pro

That's in order of power...and the second two are definitely better options. The plain "Marine" would only work cuz you have a pretty shallow tank and it would be low-level lighting.

http://current-usa.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Orbit_Marine_Light_Specifications.pdf

 

[Montu]

Okay, I will take some readings tonight.

What preset should I take the readings on? Right now I have it on cloudy day preset just because... color is ~4875k - 5100k

If this doesn't cut it I'll probably sell this (if he wont take it back) and the ramp timer and upgrade to the Orbit Marine Pro (or something else you guys would recommend)

 

[mcarroll]

If upgrading is an option, just do that....simpler. Go back to the shop and keep the business with them if you can.

But for the readings, Whites at 100%, Blues at 100% and Green and Red low enough not to make the tank look weird. (close to zero, or zero)

 

[Montu]

Here are the readings from the sand bed.

thanks!

 

[mcarroll]

Low, and the color....as expected. Not impossible.

If you want to start with it, just start small with one frag at a time and see how things go.

If you're happy with results, you can keep on keeping on. If not, you can add a blue strip or switch altogether, etc.

 

[Montu]

Thanks!

The readings don't mean much to me as a newbie so thank you for your help.

I'll maybe start with a zoa frag and see how it goes.