Reef breeders photon v2?

bubbaque · May 12, 2017

Does anyone use the Photon v2 exclusively for sps here? I am setting up anfrag tank and am thinking about using this light. I am a little nervous to use just leds, since I have always used t5 in the past.
Thoughts on the light?

Brew12 · May 12, 2017

bubbaque said:
Does anyone use the Photon v2 exclusively for sps here? I am setting up anfrag tank and am thinking about using this light. I am a little nervous to use just leds, since I have always used t5 in the past.
Thoughts on the light?

I use one on my frag tank and it is great. I don't keep SPS frags in it long enough to really get a feel for growth but the corals seem to love it.

Vaughn17 · May 13, 2017

I just switched from T5 to the Photon V2. Tank is a 180 that has only been cycled for 2.5 months, but my acros and other sps seem to love it. Seeing really good growth. Coloration is not bad, but it's too early to tell if it will be comparable to a T5. Plus, I have the light dialed back as the tank is not fully lit (so I don't want to fry chalices and other lps). I have two more ordered that are in route. Can't wait!

bubbaque · May 13, 2017

Does the light cover the 24" well?

Vaughn17 · May 14, 2017

I have a 32". I think two would work fine over a 180, but because I have a peninsula tank I will be using three.

bubbaque · May 14, 2017

It's for a frag tank, not a 180. The size of it is 48" x 24" 10". Would one be enough to cover 24" front to back?

Kmsutows · May 14, 2017

I have two 32"s on my 150 6ft and my spa does great

Maacc · May 14, 2017

Probably would be. I am setting up a a 180 60x30x24 where I am going super heavy coverage to eliminate shadowing, so I am going to run 4 perpendicular to the tank higher for diffusion.

Velcro · May 14, 2017

@Battlecorals

bubbaque · May 15, 2017

I talked to Adam about it. He said they are great stand alone lights.

Maacc · May 15, 2017

I believe he uses them in his own setup.

bubbaque · May 15, 2017

Yes, along with radiums I believe. I was wondering how the would work as a stand alone light.

Maacc · May 15, 2017

Well he has some mh, some t5 and some led. All of those lights are stand alone from each other.

bubbaque · May 15, 2017

They look to be next to the halides.

bubbaque · May 15, 2017

And in his drawing looks to only be stand alone t5, unless I am missing something.

Salty_Box_Reef · May 18, 2017

You could ask him and maybe he could chime in here... possible he ran them as stand alone lights in his old system. I think I remember him saying he has them as stand alone lights in his backup flats.

bubbaque · May 18, 2017

I ended up buying an ATI t5 fixture.

Velcro · May 23, 2017

bubbaque said:
I ended up buying an ATI t5 fixture.

You won't be unhappy with T5. I am currently running an 8 build with some actinic LED strips.

That said, I would love to see what my tank looks like with 2x 24" reefbreeder v2 (30x30 cube).

Velcro · Jun 8, 2017

Velcro said:
You won't be unhappy with T5. I am currently running an 8 build with some actinic LED strips.

That said, I would love to see what my tank looks like with 2x 24" reefbreeder v2 (30x30 cube).

Annnnnnnnd now I know what the photon looks like over my tank

I ended up buying two and I absolutely love them. I have them hung about 20" up running something similar to the SPS AB+ (same percentages as the radion version). I see zero color separation. I am currently running 40% royal blue, 40% cool blue, 40% violet, 10%white, 10%red and 10% green. This is basically the SPS AB+ profile at 40%.

I LOVE the way the tank looks at 100%blues and 24%white/green/red so I hope to get there slowly.

Here are some pictures:

All channels 100% (this about about 500+ par most parts of the tank :-o)

My favorite blend (100 on RB, blue, violet. 20ish on whites, reds, greens) This provides around 350 par everywhere in the tank IIRC.

All blues 100%, 10% red and green, 0% white

SPS pics taken under the SPS AB+ profile.

d_adler · Jun 9, 2017

Velcro said:
Annnnnnnnd now I know what the photon looks like over my tank I ended up buying two and I absolutely love them. I have them hung about 20" up running something similar to the SPS AB+ (same percentages as the radion version). I see zero color separation. I am currently running 40% royal blue, 40% cool blue, 40% violet, 10%white, 10%red and 10% green. This is basically the SPS AB+ profile at 40%.

I LOVE the way the tank looks at 100%blues and 24%white/green/red so I hope to get there slowly.

Here are some pictures:

All channels 100% (this about about 500+ par most parts of the tank :-o)

My favorite blend (100 on RB, blue, violet. 20ish on whites, reds, greens) This provides around 350 par everywhere in the tank IIRC.

All blues 100%, 10% red and green, 0% white

SPS pics taken under the SPS AB+ profile.

Do you think on a 36x36x16 tank 1 photon 32 or 1 photon 24 would be good for Sps or do you think dual photons are necessary?

I'm currently conflicted on what to order because I don't know there exact coverage width wise. Length they have on the site but they don't mention width coverage anywhere