Neptune sky is by far best spread and colors ive seen
The Sky doesn't have the greatest spectrum or spread though.... good, but not the best.
Telegraham says the Noop K7 has a better spectrum than the Sky, so does the older Gen 4 XR30 Pro, so do several other lights like the Reefi's, Mitra's, etc...
The Sky also scores about the same as the Noop K7 and Gen 4 XR30 when it comes to spread too, so it isn't any better than those options when it comes to spread either. so worse spectrum and same spread than much cheaper lights.
Check his reviews on the humblefish site where he compares the K7 to the Sky and a bunch of other popular lighting options. The thread is full of all kinds of good info and reviews. he spent all kinds of time tearing into a SKY and other popular lights and tested their claims.
Noop K7 review
Reefi review
Sky guts
Sky overview
his take on the K7 V3.
"PAR is good. With the whites turned down to replicate AB+, the V3 hits 97% of the average PAR produced by the XR30 PRO Gen 4. Bring those whites up to add a hint of full-spectrum, and you won’t be disappointed. I like a whiter light, and the PAR is impressive.
The spectrum is awesome, beating the stock spectrums of most AI offerings, the Neptune shared Sky spectrum, and dang near nailing the Ecotech Gen 4 Pro’s output.
Spread is at 75%, besting the Gen 4 XR30, and to date, matching what BRS would consider to be dang good. Here’s Jimbo’s caveat…y’all know I don’t like fresnel/beam expanding lensed lights like the Kessils, but the open-air spread on this thing is up there with the best of them. 75% is totally respectable, but you’ll get shadows. Ain’t no way around that.
Wattage measured right around 116W, and the power supply was a little warm. That’s the expected power draw for these output numbers. Nothing to see here.
Long story short, if you want a light to match last-gen elite class lighting, this is it."
A few of his takes on the Sky
"One of the major marketing point of Sky is it being a panel light, thus the spread is better. But I can comfortably say that it's a myth and it's busted with all the test data available. The same results were showed with Philips Coral Care Gen 2 test from BRS. Its spread has higher hot spot than Radion Gen 5 despite a lot larger lighting panel. Just saying it's bigger does not necessarily mean it's better."
"The Sky will grow corals. No doubt. I know this because when tested the same way, it dang near matched the maybe ~$400 used Gen 4 XR30."
The Noops, Gen 4 XR30 Pro, and the Sky all came in with pretty much identical spread scores at 75%. A cheap $130 Smat Farm light bested them all with 78% spread score, btw.
So for $210 each, you get a light that has a better spectrum than the Sky, and spread just as good if not better than the Sky. again, for a mere $200 each.
A couple Noops and a couple led bars for additional coverage, would be magic. For less than the price of one Sky alone.
The fact that they just upgraded it to give it wifi control now, and kept the same $200 price is just icing on the cake.
You can certainly spend a bunch of money on lights like the Sky, but there is no reason you have to, when a K7 for $200 each will do anything just as well if not better than the expensive lights.
fishtanksdirect.com
