lighting help-aquamana

Maximizer · Oct 18, 2015

Will 2 of these aquamana lights work for my 50g. Tank is 36x18x18. I'm not looking to grow sps, just softies and LPS.

http://www.amazon.com/AQUAMANA-LED-...=UTF8&qid=1445201098&sr=8-1&keywords=aquamana

Lenny_S · Oct 19, 2015

I don't have any personal experience with these, but they claim to have a 24" spread (not sure at what height). So I would think 2 is plenty, you might get away with one if it's high enough and you aren't keeping SPS. The only down side I saw with these is they are not programmable/controllable. So basically they get set with the dimmers and are either on or off (no ramp). I saw a couple of folks claiming they did mods to add control through an Apex or ReefKeeper, but no details. For the price I'm not sure you could beat it though, it would cost at least twice that for a similar programmable LED fixture. If you can live with the limitations I'd say go for it.

Maximizer · Oct 19, 2015

I wouldn't be able to hang them very high my canopy is only 6" above the water line

Lenny_S · Oct 19, 2015

Maximizer said:
I wouldn't be able to hang them very high my canopy is only 6" above the water line

I'd go with 2 then

Maximizer · Oct 19, 2015

Perfect I will give them a shot and let you know how they turn out. Think they should be enough to grow lps on the sand bed?

Lenny_S · Oct 19, 2015

Yep, they look strong enough. And with 2... Should be fine

Squadir · Oct 19, 2015

Hey, I use Aquamana LED's. I grow sps and lps (mostly sps) with my light 12" above the water line and not at full power. My tank is 48x20x18 (LxHxW). They aren't programmable, just on/off and dimmers on the units. Had mine for over a year now without any problems. If you hang one in the middle you'll get about 6-8" of shadow on either end at the height of your canopy so 2 units will definitely cover it end to end and you'll be able to grow sps as well if you decide to go down that road later on.

Squadir · Oct 19, 2015

This is the unit I use, basically a bigger model. I didn't want to 'hang' 2 units and have to adjust both. It would have worked out a lot cheaper and I would have ended up with more lighting in the end(110 LED's instead of 100), but just for ease of use I bought this one.
http://amzn.com/B00LBM5K74

Maximizer · Oct 19, 2015

Thank you. That was a ton of help. I will probably go with 2 of the units I posted. Got a FTS?

Squadir · Oct 19, 2015

sure, np

i'll post up one shortly.

Squadir · Oct 19, 2015

Tried out the HDR mode on my phone camera... Not too bad for a crap phone lol

Maximizer · Oct 19, 2015

Tank looks great. Looks like you have some sps pretty close to the sand bed, pretty impressive light for the cost. Picture wasn't too bad haha. I've had my phone for 5 years, bought it when I graduated high school and haven't upgraded since. It doesn't take bad photos overall, just not good ones of a fish tank. Tried once and haven't tried again lol

Squadir · Oct 20, 2015

Thanks, yeah some of them are really low down, any higher and they start to bleach except for those high light acros and such. Some of those frags doubled in size in just around 3 months. I had to put my cyphastreas and chalice at the edge of the tank because they were starting to bleach anywhere else, maybe too much light. The smaller frags are ones I got a few weeks ago. and the algae on the sand on the right started recently when I stopped vodka dosing. So as you can see its a pretty good light for the price. I would definitely buy another if the need arises.