Nicrew Hyper Reef Led

Sebastiancrab · Feb 11, 2021

damselindistress said:
I got them up last night, have not fooled with them much yet. I've got them set on 2nd to lowest blues right now. I want to lower my ap700 this weekend and dial everything in a little tighter.

I saw a Nicrew dual channel ramp timer, ordered that yesterday super cheap like $15. I'll update again this weekend when I get everything dialed in.

Are you happy with the Nicrew's? Which ones did you get?

Chris_Noles · Feb 11, 2021

Elaine123 said:
Are you happy with the Nicrew's? Which ones did you get?

I have 2 50 Watt lights on my 25 Lagoon and honestly they are pretty nice for the price, but I have noticed on amazon the price on them have been going up almost every month so they might be getting more and more popular. My tank has been up for about 2 months and I recently just got some SPS so I have no idea how they grow with these lights.

AnotherReefHobbyist · Feb 11, 2021

Chris_Noles said:
I have 2 50 Watt lights on my 25 Lagoon and honestly they are pretty nice for the price, but I have noticed on amazon the price on them have been going up almost every month so they might be getting more and more popular. My tank has been up for about 2 months and I recently just got some SPS so I have no idea how they grow with these lights.

Love them too! I just purchased my second 50 watt for a 22 gallon long, nothing super special abt them but they do the job and do it well.

Price increase is going up by $5 a month, sooooo if you do want them I would lollygag round forever.

damselindistress · Feb 13, 2021

@Elaine123 I supplement my AP700 with 2 of the nicrew 100 watts and I love them. Not that the AP700 needs supplementing in power but I could not find the sweet spot on my 60 gallon reef without a ton of light spill. The addition of the nicrews let me lower all the lights down and keep them all tight, gives perfect coverage on my 48 inch tank.

I have sps under the 700 and lps under the nicrew but I only have the nicrew on 40% for 6 hrs. The 700 runs 11 hrs with peak at 60% for 4 hrs.

Love the nicrew and would purchase again.

Sebastiancrab · Feb 13, 2021

damselindistress said:
@Elaine123 I supplement my AP700 with 2 of the nicrew 100 watts and I love them. Not that the AP700 needs supplementing in power but I could not find the sweet spot on my 60 gallon reef without a ton of light spill. The addition of the nicrews let me lower all the lights down and keep them all tight, gives perfect coverage on my 48 inch tank.

I have sps under the 700 and lps under the nicrew but I only have the nicrew on 40% for 6 hrs. The 700 runs 11 hrs with peak at 60% for 4 hrs.

Love the nicrew and would purchase again.

That's quite a heads up. Do you think I will be fine with two 50 watt lights on my 40 breeder? Or should I get the 100's? Or bite the bullet and get AI prime or a Hydra? My tank measures 36x18x18. What about the light selection and timer for the Nicrew? I see where they are coming out with a controller in April for it. I am thinking only soft and LPS corals. I want to be able to travel 2 weeks at a time.

Chris_Noles · Feb 13, 2021

Elaine123 said:
That's quite a heads up. Do you think I will be fine with two 50 watt lights on my 40 breeder? Or should I get the 100's? Or bite the bullet and get AI prime or a Hydra? My tank measures 36x18x18. What about the light selection and timer for the Nicrew? I see where they are coming out with a controller in April for it. I am thinking only soft and LPS corals. I want to be able to travel 2 weeks at a time.

I have 2 50 watt lights on my 25 gal and its kinda overkill but I definitely think you would need the 100 watts for a 40 gallon for complete coverage

Sebastiancrab · Feb 13, 2021

smackenzie128 said:
Those look awesome!! Can't wait for mine to come in. Are you using a filter lens for your photos?

What did you order and how large is your tank?

damselindistress · Feb 13, 2021

Elaine123 said:
That's quite a heads up. Do you think I will be fine with two 50 watt lights on my 40 breeder? Or should I get the 100's? Or bite the bullet and get AI prime or a Hydra? My tank measures 36x18x18. What about the light selection and timer for the Nicrew? I see where they are coming out with a controller in April for it. I am thinking only soft and LPS corals. I want to be able to travel 2 weeks at a time.

I like to buy more power and keep it turned down, I would probably go with 2 of the 100 watt nicrews, thats going to give you great spread and coverage on your tank, plus you won't have to keep them turned up on full power but would have that extra power available if you ever decided to stick your toe in the sps pool

. The nicrew 100 watt is actually just two of the 50 watt units built into the same fixture, BTW.

Since I run them with the ap700, I ramp the ap700 but the nicrews I just have on the cheap, twistable light timers to come on and go off at the same time every day. They stay at 40% strength so no ramping. If I did not have the ap700 to ramp up and down I would definitely want to find a ramp timer thats compatible with the nicrew 100 watt.

Sandwinder · Feb 13, 2021

4 month old tank setup.
Two Nicrew 100w run at 2nd to lowest setting blue,and lowest setting white, added the viperspectra to center and run it 15% blue 1% white.
have around 220 par top of rocks, 60 par sand bed. Nicrew white channel way nicer color than viperspectra, bad thing with nicrew is no timer, but my apex takes care of that.

Sebastiancrab · Feb 13, 2021

Sandwinder said:
4 month old tank setup.
Two Nicrew 100w run at 2nd to lowest setting blue,and lowest setting white, added the viperspectra to center and run it 15% blue 1% white.
have around 220 par top of rocks, 60 par sand bed. Nicrew white channel way nicer color than viperspectra, bad thing with nicrew is no timer, but my apex takes care of that.

What are your tank measurements?

Sharkattackmack · Feb 13, 2021

Elaine123 said:
What did you order and how large is your tank?

I had the 50w and I wasn't very happy with it at all. I returned it on Amazon and found a used xr30 pro. Running that with a rms mount. My tank is a fluval Evo.

Sebastiancrab · Feb 13, 2021

smackenzie128 said:
I had the 50w and I wasn't very happy with it at all. I returned it on Amazon and found a used xr30 pro. Running that with a rms mount. My tank is a fluval Evo.

What were you unhappy with?

Sharkattackmack · Feb 13, 2021

Elaine123 said:
What were you unhappy with?

Didn't feel like it had a lot of power. Blues weren't very blue and the whites looked dull. The mount also didn't work the best with the Evo. It would have been fine mounting it on the shorter sides vs the longer ones but knowing I wanted to grow SPS I sent it back.

Sandwinder · Feb 13, 2021

Elaine123 said:
What are your tank measurements?

Its a 120 gallon
72” long, 24” tall, 18” front to back

lpsouth1978 · Feb 14, 2021

If you use the Kessil Spectral Controller, what cable do you use? It looks like the standard Kessil cable is a USB-C, but Nicrew says to use an RJ-45 or 3.5mm plug. Sorry if this is a no brainer, just trying to make sense of it as I have considered these for my 40B. Also, can a single Spectral Controller control multiple lights?

Sandwinder · Feb 14, 2021

Elaine123 said:
What are your tank measurements?

Here is the tank at about 5 weeks with only the nicrew 100watt lights and blue channel only on 3rd setting

lpsouth1978 said:
If you use the Kessil Spectral Controller, what cable do you use? It looks like the standard Kessil cable is a USB-C, but Nicrew says to use an RJ-45 or 3.5mm plug. Sorry if this is a no brainer, just trying to make sense of it as I have considered these for my 40B. Also, can a single Spectral Controller control multiple lights?

not sure who you are asking, i personally first used them with a christmas tree timer, then got my apex and just plug them into my power bar and apex turns on and off. I did find a review on amazon i believe where the guy said he connected it to apex with the 0-10v port, i believe he said he modded the kessil cord to use it, then you have control of both channels from apex, i have not done this myself yet.

Sandwinder · Feb 14, 2021

lpsouth1978 said:
If you use the Kessil Spectral Controller, what cable do you use? It looks like the standard Kessil cable is a USB-C, but Nicrew says to use an RJ-45 or 3.5mm plug. Sorry if this is a no brainer, just trying to make sense of it as I have considered these for my 40B. Also, can a single Spectral Controller control multiple lights?

Here was review i found

lpsouth1978 · Feb 14, 2021

Sandwinder said:
Here was review i found

@Sandwinder thank you for that info, however ALL of it is how you connect it to the APEX. I do not have an APEX and was hoping someone could clarify connecting it to the Kessil Spectral Controller.

Chris_Noles · Feb 14, 2021

lpsouth1978 said:
@Sandwinder thank you for that info, however ALL of it is how you connect it to the APEX. I do not have an APEX and was hoping someone could clarify connecting it to the Kessil Spectral Controller.

Im pretty sure you just plug in a 10v cord in it, someone in another thread told me how to do it. I’ll try to find it for you

lpsouth1978 · Feb 14, 2021

Ok, So I just ordered 2 of the 100W version along with a Kessil Spectral Controller X. I will be using these over my 40B. I should have the lights in a couple days and will get PAR readings by next weekend.