Hybrid Reef Lighting: How interested are you?

[Reef Tripp]

T5 and led bar.

 

[acropora4u]

I currently have 2x250w hqi halide fixtures, 4 x t5 80w tubes, 1 x kesssil ap500x and 2 x orphel or3 bars over my 225 peninsula and love it!

 

[HBtank]

I currently have 2x250w hqi halide fixtures, 4 x t5 80w tubes, 1 x kesssil ap500x and 2 x orphel or3 bars over my 225 peninsula and love it!

Now THAT’s a hybrid!

 

[JNalley]

I rarely see single fixtures suspended like that over a rimless tank, that would be the exception and the way to bring out the best in rimless.

Though I would be remiss to not mention the lack of a screen cover, which also makes the rimless drop down a notch in visual appeal when added. Anyone without one is just asking for fish to go carpet surfing. A must for me and another reason I like canopies.

I think a rimless with an acrylic net top from Toplids, or ClearView Lids, or KrakenReef looks nice. I dislike the RedSea DIY and other screen kits though

Edit: Something like this

or this:

 

[Strat1960s]

My setup is doing it for me. I could upgrade LEDS, but the ReefBreeders are working pretty well.

 

[rtparty]

Halides and LEDs. By far the best combo I've had so far.

 

[Fishy888]

Hybrid lights certainly have their advantages. They spread light a bit more evenly. But to me that's all they really do. Until the price drops, the color rendition is that of metal halides, as well as the shimmer effect, I won't be going that route.

The technology has really matured over the last decade. So much so that we are about as far as they can go. Sure things like storm mode, cloud effects, etc are nice. Maybe they can make new and better effects but that is about all they can do at this point. The only real advances they can make to the LEDs at this point are to increase power and to improve the optics. That's why hybrids are needed.

I'll still watch the technology and see how well it does for others but I'll stick with the black boxes at this point.

 

[JNalley]

Hybrid lights certainly have their advantages. They spread light a bit more evenly. But to me that's all they really do. Until the price drops, the color rendition is that of metal halides, as well as the shimmer effect, I won't be going that route.

The technology has really matured over the last decade. So much so that we are about as far as they can go. Sure things like storm mode, cloud effects, etc are nice. Maybe they can make new and better effects but that is about all they can do at this point. The only real advances they can make to the LEDs at this point are to increase power and to improve the optics. That's why hybrids are needed.

I'll still watch the technology and see how well it does for others but I'll stick with the black boxes at this point.

I kind of disagree with the sentiment that "we are about as far as they can go". LED technology (not specific to reef lighting) is growing and maturing still to this day. Look at microLED as one example. Check out the ultra-low pitch LED walls making large event screens displaying animated graphics and video as another. Single wavelength LEDs are also growing in number. Once these newer frontiers become cost-effective to mass-produce, we may end up seeing them creep into the reef lighting category. Imagine a 36" x 24" microLED panel where every 0.82mm you have a different single wavelength LED that when combined in varying intensities gives you a blanket of homogenous light similar to a T5, and then pop in 2 Dense matrix LED arrays that provide the MH look and shimmer on top of that. I think we're just at the beginning of where LED tech can eventually take us personally.

 

[HBtank]

Hybrid lights certainly have their advantages. They spread light a bit more evenly. But to me that's all they really do. Until the price drops, the color rendition is that of metal halides, as well as the shimmer effect, I won't be going that route.

The technology has really matured over the last decade. So much so that we are about as far as they can go. Sure things like storm mode, cloud effects, etc are nice. Maybe they can make new and better effects but that is about all they can do at this point. The only real advances they can make to the LEDs at this point are to increase power and to improve the optics. That's why hybrids are needed.

I'll still watch the technology and see how well it does for others but I'll stick with the black boxes at this point.

I actually think LEDs have lots of room for improvement. I think the manufacturers are realizing there is a market for larger panel(s) that cover most of the top of the aquarium and give T5 like coverage.

I think the evolution is similar to smart phones, where the thought (and ability to manufacture) of smaller being better with LEDs. using lenses and small form factors, isn’t a reality with it comes to actually using them long term… basically losing sight of the lessons T5s taught reefers.

Many “hybrids” wouldn't be needed (particularly adding T5s) if the lights were designed to cover entire aquariums correctly and prevent shadowing.

 

[mbarton2010]

Currently using AquAticLife T5/AI Prime hybrid and I love it

 

[igord]

I'm using 2x250W MH in combination with 3 x360 Kessils and one ReefBrite strip over my red sea reefer 250. The best combination I've ever tried.

 

[SunnyX]

I voted no. The Radion's I use provide great coverage and to my eyes, the perfect color rendition. Years ago when I ran MH's you all but had to run a hybrid system to allow for dawn, dusk and overall color balance. Without supplemental lighting such as VHO/T5 the aquarium, at least in my case with 10K bulbs, would look very washed out. With the ability today to dial in the exact color I am looking for I have no need any additional bulbs or lighting.

I am getting as SPS growth as good as when I ran MH/T5 without all the hassle. If you have the funds available there really is no better option than a high end LED all-in-one fixture.

It really is amazing that today we have everything that we need in such a small and aesthetically clean fixture(RADION). Best of all, I don't have to clean reflectors or replace bulbs!

-Sonny

 

[Reefacist]

I’m currently running a 4ft dx18 with 2 a360x on my tank but I’ve had my xxl 750 recently delivered at my new house. Planning on switching tank to the bigger xxl750 from the 4ft 120. I’m debating on lighting for the 6ft xxl750. They don’t make 6ft t5s. Do I go with 5ft t5/kessil (add one more kessil) or kessills with 6ft reefbrites. I like the look of the rms light stand of leds coming from the back. Kinda paranoid of hanging electric fixture over an aquarium from the ceiling.

 

[design.maddie]

I want smarter fixtures. I want to select a place in the Bahamas or Fiji, or Australia and it sync that pattern to my device, (even if it is a day late due to time zones). I want my moon cycle to be seamless, I don't even want to have to tell it to do lunar cycles. It is lunar lights, it should just be that way.

 

[JNalley]

I’m currently running a 4ft dx18 with 2 a360x on my tank but I’ve had my xxl 750 recently delivered at my new house. Planning on switching tank to the bigger xxl750 from the 4ft 120. I’m debating on lighting for the 6ft xxl750. They don’t make 6ft t5s. Do I go with 5ft t5/kessil (add one more kessil) or kessills with 6ft reefbrites. I like the look of the rms light stand of leds coming from the back. Kinda paranoid of hanging electric fixture over an aquarium from the ceiling.

there are 72" Fixtures that have 2 banks of 36" T5's.

 

[JNalley]

I want smarted fixtures. I want to select a place in the Bahamas or Fiji, or Australia and it sync that pattern to my device, (even if it is a day late do to time zones). I want my moon cycle to be seamless, I don't even want to have to tell it to do lunar cycles. It is lunar lights it should just be that way

This all the way. I've been toying with the idea of using Google Earth Live data or NOAA weather data for this kind of thing, cloud cover, storm activity, etc. with some simple LED Strips and a Raspberry Pi, just to see if it's possible. If it is (I'm sure it is, it just might be beyond my capabilities) I'd love to see a light incorporating all of these things as well as seasonal spectral changes. The closest light I've seen to providing something similar was the Giesemann Futura-S

Futura S - Giesemann Aquaristic

High-End Aquarium LED Beleuchtung, Aquarium Hybrid Beleuchtung und premium Aquarien. Handgefertigt und made in Germany

www.giesemann.de

 

[Reefacist]

there are 72" Fixtures that have 2 banks of 36" T5's.

Thanks. Who makes it? I haven’t really seen that on brs or saltwater websites

 

[shakacuz]

using hydra 32HD and reef brite hko kit. once i upgrade to my 75, i'll have another set ready for it.

 

[JNalley]

Thanks. Who makes it? I haven’t really seen that on brs or saltwater websites

There are a few companies, I know AquaticLife used to make them for sure as that's the one I had once upon a time. Most of the ones I've seen lately are MH + T5 combos. There's also this (which I ran across and thought it was 8x 36" bulbs, turns out it's 4x 72" bulbs), which uses 6ft T5 Bulbs, but I'd imagine those may be hard to find (thankfully you can buy them with the fixture).

6 ft Cebu Sun Systems - 3 x 250 Watt

 

[Kristopher Conlin]

I have three different tanks at the moment. And the one that has t5 kessil led hybrid is doing the best by far(see the pictures). On my tank that I'm almost finished building I'm going to go with kessil a360x and actinic reefbrites because the color and shimmer is amazing from that combo.