Just ordered a Reefi Uno

[MartinM]

Just found out about the Uno, and I hope it’ll solve my problem!

I have a Red Sea 200XL (Photos below) that’s clams and anemones. So, I need a lot of light (clams are currently under 600 PAR) *but* I don’t want it in my living room. I typically use halides (3x 250w Giesemann spectras on my ELOS 200XL) but because of the positioning of the tank near the sofa, halides leak too much light (and obscure the top down viewing too much, also). I’m been using a Red Sea ReefLED 160, but it’s virtually 100% blue, which I not only hate, but so do the anemones. Currently using a Volx Japan GrassyCore fixture, which also uses reflectors similar to the Uno, but the formfactor doesn’t work so well for my cube-shaped tank. I can’t stand lens-based LED disco-ing all over the place, so all the other mainstream LEDs were out for that reason, and the Kessil lights are underpowered unless I went with two, which just ruins the aesthetics over a cube.

So, enter the ReeFi uno. Reflectors, low light leakage, high power (I’m glad it’s 180w, IME I need at least 140w), should work great over a relatively cube shaped tank. I’m definitely looking forward to it, @danlu_gt. I’m also happy that the spectrum is similar to the GrassyCore, which I really like.

I’ll update this when the Uno’s arrive and for now, some tank photos (excuse the ritteri, it’s been moved to my large system):

 

[lapin]

Nice. Keep us updated

 

[MartinM]

Thanks, it’s supposed to arrive on the 27th. I will provide updates

 

[Kodski]

Nice! I love my Uno on my tank. Especially for the minimal light spill. I came from a kessil A360x and while I enjoyed that light and color, the Uno looks much better and is a lot more powerful. The simmer on the kessil would give me headaches sometimes due to how strong the shimmer was. With the Uno there is still shimmer, but I definitely forget that its there sometimes because it just looks so much more natural. I'm guessing it would be about the same amount of shimmer you'd get from a halide, but I've never used one.

 

[MartinM]

Unfortunately, it didn’t solve my problems.

The Good
- Good spectrum blending, equal to that of my GrassyCore, which means it’s better at blending than any other LED on the market excepting those under a single lens
- 90 degree angle is perfect, and minimal light spill
- High power
- Compact size, good for hanging (mounting kit is too industrial for my taste)
- An incredible value at the price, if that’s your thing (it’s not for me, I don’t care how much things cost)

The Bad
- Far too blue for me and what what I keep (clams and anemones). Looking at the spectrum I expected it would appear whiter, similar to a GrassyCore Reef LED from VolxJapan. Unfortunately, it appears much closer to a Red Sea ReefLED, which was exactly what I was trying to get away from. Color rendition wasn’t as bad as the ReefLED (everything is either blue or gray under that light) but definitely not as good as the GrassyCore. Even more important, clams and anemones just don’t do as well under all blue as they do under a broader spectrum, so it had to go

- The web-based configuration software is truly awful and full of bugs. It could be incompatibility on Safari, but I‘m not downloading another browser just to attempt to solve someone else’s terrible software. If you own an iPhone, don’t own a Reefi Uno as it stands now. I had to use my iPad in an attempt to make it work at all. It’s shockingly bad for 2021

Summary

After about 45 minutes, I took it down. I prefer the GrassyCore light, although I will also see if I can get a Giesemann Infiniti to work without too much light spill (I always prefer halide if possible). I’ll add it to my big stash of lights I’ve bought to test and will probably never use again, haha. If you like the mainstream LEDs on the market, you’ll probably like the Uno more. However, I don’t, so I don’t.


Spectrum (GrassyCore vs Uno)

(This isn’t apples to apples, because the GrassyCore is showing a percentage scale, while the Uno spectrum profile isn’t)

Final thoughts

Reefi and this product have a ton of potential. It seems very well built, and with a few tweaks, would be my perfect LED light. If I could get the Uno with a few more cool white and warm white diodes, white aluminum housing and cables along with modern software, I’d pay double without hesitation. @danlu_gt, send a message if you 1) make this or 2) want to discuss product iteration/marketing (my strength is direct to consumer product marketing).

@Kodski, nothing looks like a halide except a halide. Typically, if you’re a halide user, you don’t like anything else, because nothing else looks as good or performs as well (except natural sunlight , which this system receives several hours of per day so all good there). I was in the hobby far before LEDs existed at the consumer level, so I started with VHO’s and Halides. However, for this system, light spill is a concern, because it’s in the living room near the sofa, so halides are difficult. I do agree that the Uno is definitely superior to a Kessil, if the software ever gets vastly improved.

 

[Biologic]

Unfortunately, it didn’t solve my problems.

The Good
- Good spectrum blending, equal to that of my GrassyCore, which means it’s better at blending than any other LED on the market excepting those under a single lens
- 90 degree angle is perfect, and minimal light spill
- High power
- Compact size, good for hanging (mounting kit is too industrial for my taste)
- An incredible value at the price, if that’s your thing (it’s not for me, I don’t care how much things cost)

The Bad
- Far too blue for me and what what I keep (clams and anemones). Looking at the spectrum I expected it would appear whiter, similar to a GrassyCore Reef LED from VolxJapan. Unfortunately, it appears much closer to a Red Sea ReefLED, which was exactly what I was trying to get away from. Color rendition wasn’t as bad as the ReefLED (everything is either blue or gray under that light) but definitely not as good as the GrassyCore. Even more important, clams and anemones just don’t do as well under all blue as they do under a broader spectrum, so it had to go

- The web-based configuration software is truly awful and full of bugs. It could be incompatibility on Safari, but I‘m not downloading another browser just to attempt to solve someone else’s terrible software. If you own an iPhone, don’t own a Reefi Uno as it stands now. I had to use my iPad in an attempt to make it work at all. It’s shockingly bad for 2021

Summary

After about 45 minutes, I took it down. I prefer the GrassyCore light, although I will also see if I can get a Giesemann Infiniti to work without too much light spill (I always prefer halide if possible). I’ll add it to my big stash of lights I’ve bought to test and will probably never use again, haha. If you like the mainstream LEDs on the market, you’ll probably like the Uno more. However, I don’t, so I don’t.


Spectrum (GrassyCore vs Uno)

(This isn’t apples to apples, because the GrassyCore is showing a percentage scale, while the Uno spectrum profile isn’t)

Final thoughts

Reefi and this product have a ton of potential. It seems very well built, and with a few tweaks, would be my perfect LED light. If I could get the Uno with a few more cool white and warm white diodes, white aluminum housing and cables along with modern software, I’d pay double without hesitation. @danlu_gt, send a message if you 1) make this or 2) want to discuss product iteration/marketing (my strength is direct to consumer product marketing).

@Kodski, nothing looks like a halide except a halide. Typically, if you’re a halide user, you don’t like anything else, because nothing else looks as good or performs as well (except natural sunlight , which this system receives several hours of per day so all good there). I was in the hobby far before LEDs existed at the consumer level, so I started with VHO’s and Halides. However, for this system, light spill is a concern, because it’s in the living room near the sofa, so halides are difficult. I do agree that the Uno is definitely superior to a Kessil, if the software ever gets vastly improved.

I just got the Reefi Uno two weeks ago.

I have a leaning to like a whiter light myself. I like the color of a Phillips Coral Care 2 or a Neptune Sky. OR way back when --10,000 K CoralVue Single Ended 400 Watt MH with luminarc's.

Too blue? Did you adjust the sliders channel to make a custom spectrum? Why not max out all the spectrum channels?

While I found the pre-set Photo-SPS to lean too blue, I added more Lime channel which has considerable amount of green yellow/orange spectrum, then added more cool white channel, and I got a 14,000 K look. Now I am sure if I added more cool white, I can get that down to a 12,000 K look. Adding more warm white will push more yellow into the spectrum, which starts washing out colors. It definitely for me get too yellow at that point for most applications.

I agree the interface could use a bit of work, but I use this exclusively on my iPhone's Safari browser and I have no trouble at all. Its HTML 5 based, which can be customized pretty much into anything, rapidly. Not that most people would do this --- it's open source and you can load in your own GUI, which gives a lot of potential.

An engineer designed this system, so it's not going to have the frills of say like an Radion XR15 G5, which is made for the masses. The $100 more might be worth it for some if you want to have some additional GUI features and a native app.

 

[MartinM]

Everything maxed out was still far too blue. Pulling down the blue channels means the light doesn’t output enough PAR for my clams. Cost is no object for me, I have every major American and German LED, T5, and Halide light on hand to test/swap/use (Except for budget stuff like AI, or made-for-Americans-so-it’s-nearly-100%-blue like Radions).

I do realize an engineer created this light, but being an engineer is no reason to exclude UX/UI, even if that aspect requires some outsourcing. Of course, I could get one of my engineers to write myself a custom UI, but am I going to? No, nor should I have to. I think the spectrum is good for most Americans who just want blue, but the UI/UX will prevent any kind of scale until that’s solved.

I ended up sticking with my GrassyCore, although I have a Straton on order to test. So far I’ve yet to see another LED fixture offer better color rendition and not be ‘any color you want as long as it’s blue’.

Btw, I also use Halides on a different system. My all time favorite is Phoenix 14k, I’m using Giesemann 14k’s right now, supplemented with T5s. I’m a big fan of halides, but unless I get something custom made from Giesemann (they have offered!) the glare is too strong due to the living room placement. The GrassyCore with all channels at 100% looks very much like a Phoenix 14k, which I suppose makes sense seeing as they’re both from Japan.

 

[Biologic]

Everything maxed out was still far too blue. Pulling down the blue channels means the light doesn’t output enough PAR for my clams. Cost is no object for me, I have every major American and German LED, T5, and Halide light on hand to test/swap/use (Except for budget stuff like AI, or made-for-Americans-so-it’s-nearly-100%-blue like Radions).

I do realize an engineer created this light, but being an engineer is no reason to exclude UX/UI, even if that aspect requires some outsourcing. Of course, I could get one of my engineers to write myself a custom UI, but am I going to? No, nor should I have to. I think the spectrum is good for most Americans who just want blue, but the UI/UX will prevent any kind of scale until that’s solved.

I ended up sticking with my GrassyCore, although I have a Straton on order to test. So far I’ve yet to see another LED fixture offer better color rendition and not be ‘any color you want as long as it’s blue’.

Btw, I also use Halides on a different system. My all time favorite is Phoenix 14k, I’m using Giesemann 14k’s right now, supplemented with T5s. I’m a big fan of halides, but unless I get something custom made from Giesemann (they have offered!) the glare is too strong due to the living room placement. The GrassyCore with all channels at 100% looks very much like a Phoenix 14k, which I suppose makes sense seeing as they’re both from Japan.

where you found the GrassyCore? What model? Interested in that little know fixture.

 

[Biologic]

Everything maxed out was still far too blue. Pulling down the blue channels means the light doesn’t output enough PAR for my clams. Cost is no object for me, I have every major American and German LED, T5, and Halide light on hand to test/swap/use (Except for budget stuff like AI, or made-for-Americans-so-it’s-nearly-100%-blue like Radions).

I do realize an engineer created this light, but being an engineer is no reason to exclude UX/UI, even if that aspect requires some outsourcing. Of course, I could get one of my engineers to write myself a custom UI, but am I going to? No, nor should I have to. I think the spectrum is good for most Americans who just want blue, but the UI/UX will prevent any kind of scale until that’s solved.

I ended up sticking with my GrassyCore, although I have a Straton on order to test. So far I’ve yet to see another LED fixture offer better color rendition and not be ‘any color you want as long as it’s blue’.

Btw, I also use Halides on a different system. My all time favorite is Phoenix 14k, I’m using Giesemann 14k’s right now, supplemented with T5s. I’m a big fan of halides, but unless I get something custom made from Giesemann (they have offered!) the glare is too strong due to the living room placement. The GrassyCore with all channels at 100% looks very much like a Phoenix 14k, which I suppose makes sense seeing as they’re both from Japan.

also elaborate more on color. Curious to know your thoughts. Also did you know Reefi-UNO 2.0 is coming out soon? Thoughts on the LED mixture?

 

[MartinM]

One of the First things mentioned about the 2.0 was “significantly more blue” so I stopped reading. The first one was far too blue for me. Of course, for the US market, going all blue is good for business, but for Asia and Europe, we look for something other than windex and neon!

Like I said, I really wanted to like the Uno. I would if it wasn’t so blue, and if someone had spent more than 5 minutes on the UI.

I love the GrassyCore, but it won’t be easy to get outside of here in Japan. Rakuten has them, not sure about shipping though.

FWIW, I think the Radeon is far too blue, too much disco effect, and stuffed into a cheap black plastic housing, so clearly my tastes tend towards German standards as opposed to American.

 

[MartinM]

I just got the Reefi Uno two weeks ago.

I have a leaning to like a whiter light myself. I like the color of a Phillips Coral Care 2 or a Neptune Sky. OR way back when --10,000 K CoralVue Single Ended 400 Watt MH with luminarc's.

Too blue? Did you adjust the sliders channel to make a custom spectrum? Why not max out all the spectrum channels?

While I found the pre-set Photo-SPS to lean too blue, I added more Lime channel which has considerable amount of green yellow/orange spectrum, then added more cool white channel, and I got a 14,000 K look. Now I am sure if I added more cool white, I can get that down to a 12,000 K look. Adding more warm white will push more yellow into the spectrum, which starts washing out colors. It definitely for me get too yellow at that point for most applications.

I agree the interface could use a bit of work, but I use this exclusively on my iPhone's Safari browser and I have no trouble at all. Its HTML 5 based, which can be customized pretty much into anything, rapidly. Not that most people would do this --- it's open source and you can load in your own GUI, which gives a lot of potential.

An engineer designed this system, so it's not going to have the frills of say like an Radion XR15 G5, which is made for the masses. The $100 more might be worth it for some if you want to have some additional GUI features and a native app.

What frills does the Radeon have besides “blue”, “very blue” and “ultra blue”.

 

[Biologic]

One of the First things mentioned about the 2.0 was “significantly more blue” so I stopped reading. The first one was far too blue for me. Of course, for the US market, going all blue is good for business, but for Asia and Europe, we look for something other than windex and neon!

Like I said, I really wanted to like the Uno. I would if it wasn’t so blue, and if someone had spent more than 5 minutes on the UI.

I love the GrassyCore, but it won’t be easy to get outside of here in Japan. Rakuten has them, not sure about shipping though.

FWIW, I think the Radeon is far too blue, too much disco effect, and stuffed into a cheap black plastic housing, so clearly my tastes tend towards German standards as opposed to American.

I see what you mean, and I would appreciate a shift to the right in white balance from the UNO. They absolutely made a shift the the right and made it less over all violet, which I see as an improvement. What I love about the UNO is the multi-led chip. It’s interesting method for spectral blending and saving space. I think Reefi is a quality product, but yes the UI is a little weak but for as much as you actually use a UI as an engineer he put more effort in lowering the cost. But yes the UI could be improved for just the novice user as well. I spent a lot of time tweaking the perfect schedule, when that’s basically default on most larger companies.

I would be very curious to get a hold of a GrassyCore. I thought about it, but it would be costly. I totally understand the spectrum choice for Reefi to stick with blue, but if it was me, I would totally added neutral white to the list to round out the spectrum. Better to be different than everyone else.

that said, the Reefi UNO and 2.0 version are still probably one of the best underground premium lights on the US market. Hands down. No way I’d spend that money on a ecotech when I know that option even with the UI issues. Lots of horse power for not a lot of money, you just might need to know what to do with that power to use it well.

 

[legionofdoon]

One of the First things mentioned about the 2.0 was “significantly more blue” so I stopped reading. The first one was far too blue for me. Of course, for the US market, going all blue is good for business, but for Asia and Europe, we look for something other than windex and neon!

Like I said, I really wanted to like the Uno. I would if it wasn’t so blue, and if someone had spent more than 5 minutes on the UI.

I love the GrassyCore, but it won’t be easy to get outside of here in Japan. Rakuten has them, not sure about shipping though.

FWIW, I think the Radeon is far too blue, too much disco effect, and stuffed into a cheap black plastic housing, so clearly my tastes tend towards German standards as opposed to American.

Not everyone in America likes the neon, Windex, plastic standard. America is a gigantic country with many different preferences. Some of our states are bigger than the biggest European country and have unique identities. I prefer halides and so do a lot of Americans who have had reef tanks for more than ten years. Hell my Current USA R24s have metal housing not plastic and they definitely are less expensive than Radeons. I think you are confusing taste with availability. My uncle when he lived in Europe drove a Porsche because they were less expensive there than they are here.

 

[MartinM]

Haha I am from the states, I just got out as soon as I could (thankfully over a decade ago now). Doesn’t mean the market doesn’t speak for itself. That being said, this thread is about the UNO, and how it’s blue enough for the US market…unfortunately.

 

[Wtyson254]

My H. mags like my unos (4 over a 48x24x20). I run the light fairly white during the day with blue bookends.

at peak each light is pushing out 110W. My biggest H. mag gets 600-700 par at peak

 

[Tamberav]

I appreciate the feedback. I am considering the new UNO Pro's but I am currently using t5 and like a whiter tank.

My tank is pretty shallow though at 16 inches so I am guessing I could just turn the blues down and the whites up and it probably won't be an issue for me.

Main interest in the UNO is the fact that it looks to be built so well and has a 3 year warranty.

 

[Biologic]

I appreciate the feedback. I am considering the new UNO Pro's but I am currently using t5 and like a whiter tank.

My tank is pretty shallow though at 16 inches so I am guessing I could just turn the blues down and the whites up and it probably won't be an issue for me.

Main interest in the UNO is the fact that it looks to be built so well and has a 3 year warranty.

If anything I think the new 2.0’s will be better for color overall and much whiter. I max out all the color channels on mine at 77% intensity. It’s white, but no yellow but there is a slight tint of violet that peaks through. Kind of like VHO atinic. The new ones look shifted to whiter color.

it’s a solid made light. Ton of wattage. Though in a plastic housing, all the money is in the heat sink and LED’s. The new one has 4 in 1 diodes for superior color mixing
. I really want the 2.0 based on that alone. This 1.0 that I use has zero disco and has great caustic shimmer.

Its like an ecotech and a kessil had a baby, that would be Reefi uno.

 

[Plaidjoker1321]

One of the First things mentioned about the 2.0 was “significantly more blue” so I stopped reading. The first one was far too blue for me. Of course, for the US market, going all blue is good for business, but for Asia and Europe, we look for something other than windex and neon!

Like I said, I really wanted to like the Uno. I would if it wasn’t so blue, and if someone had spent more than 5 minutes on the UI.

I love the GrassyCore, but it won’t be easy to get outside of here in Japan. Rakuten has them, not sure about shipping though.

FWIW, I think the Radeon is far too blue, too much disco effect, and stuffed into a cheap black plastic housing, so clearly my tastes tend towards German standards as opposed to American.

Have you tried Orphek? I heard they are similar to GrassyCore from reading around but I honestly would love your opinion. I take most opinions with a grain of salt but you seem to have a passion for this.

Also, Thoughts on the Kessil AP 700? I heard the blues are turned down on that light. (I am in the market for a light and don't like overly blue as well... Makes my tank look like a toddler ate a box of crayons)

 

[Big E]

I hate the overly blue look as why I'm hesitant on the 2.0 as it has a ton of blue diodes but because it's such a par monster you can probably get a nice white look with it.

I own a duo extreme and you can get some nice whites and shimmer from them if you really like shimmer.

You can also get nice whites with Orpheks with plenty of power to spare. I've got two I'll be mounting soon. I've seen them in person and they do a great job.

 

[Miguel.PT]

My H. mags like my unos (4 over a 48x24x20). I run the light fairly white during the day with blue bookends.

at peak each light is pushing out 110W. My biggest H. mag gets 600-700 par at peak

I’d burn all my corals with it at medium

Hoping I could get it in Europe which it could be awesome, but if I need to activate warranty I need to pay shipping both ways… that’s a bugger…