Smat farms led from Amazon

[LeftyReefer]

I run my E channel on 10. I think I had actually turned it up to 15 at one point, but turned it back down to 10...

I'm currently running my Smat Farms at 15/80/80/80/10/20.

I also added a supplemental 470nm LED light bar to my setup too. I let the Smat Farm lights do the ramping up/down and have the LED bar only come on once the Smat Farms are at peak intensity. The 470nm bar doesn't run when the lights are ramping up or down.

the 470nm bar added a nice little pop, while also increasing coverage and decreasing shadows.
I plan to add another one to my setup soon. I posted some pics of my lights back in post #360.

Looks like the price of the Smat Farm lights have been slowly coming back down too. now the price is back to $125 or so.... think theres any chance they drop back to the $85 range again?? I would love to grab a few more for my QT tanks. haha.

 

[Who me?]

I run my E channel on 10. I think I had actually turned it up to 15 at one point, but turned it back down to 10...

I'm currently running my Smat Farms at 15/80/80/80/10/20.

I also added a supplemental 470nm LED light bar to my setup too. I let the Smat Farm lights do the ramping up/down and have the LED bar only come on once the Smat Farms are at peak intensity. The 470nm bar doesn't run when the lights are ramping up or down.

the 470nm bar added a nice little pop, while also increasing coverage and decreasing shadows.
I plan to add another one to my setup soon. I posted some pics of my lights back in post #360.

Looks like the price of the Smat Farm lights have been slowly coming back down too. now the price is back to $125 or so.... think theres any chance they drop back to the $85 range again?? I would love to grab a few more for my QT tanks. haha.

I have one on a waterbox 20 mixed reef. Running at 6/20/20/20/0/6

Bumping channel E to just 1% makes the tank too yellow for me.

Does the 470nm make the corals pop (fluoresce)? My only complaint about the light is it seems to lack that ability. Even with only blues, it doesn't seem to make the corals glow like they should.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Does the 470nm make the corals pop (fluoresce)? My only complaint about the light is it seems to lack that ability. Even with only blues, it doesn't seem to make the corals glow like they should.

Yes.

 

[Who me?]

Yes.

Which LED bar are you using?

 

[LeftyReefer]

Which LED bar are you using?

I just use one of the 470nm Aliexpress bars. Which are actually pretty nice for the price all things considered.

If you want something nicer, check out the Quanta bars.

 

[Who me?]

I just use one of the 470nm Aliexpress bars. Which are actually pretty nice for the price all things considered.

If you want something nicer, check out the Quanta bars.

Seems like anything over $100 is pushing the total cost too high. There are better options at the 250-300 price point.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Seems like anything over $100 is pushing the total cost too high. There are better options at the 250-300 price point.

Totally agree.
Have to keep in mind that these Smat Farm lights were selling on amazon for only $85 each when they first became popular.
That is what made them so nice back then. They were only $85!!
But once they started gaining popularity, the price started getting jacked up too.
They started out at $85 and the price gradually rose up to $140 at one point....
At $140, they are not as nearly the smoking buy they were at $85.
I'm guessing other people felt the same and sales probably started to drop, which is probably why they dropped the price back to $125 now, which is still considerably higher than I paid for mine.

Still nice lights, but not the smoking hot buy they used to be when you could get them sub $100.

 

[cgripp256]

I just got this light a few days ago and it was shipped with an updated tank mount, i had some issues getting it installed. Had to redrill and tap holes. Has anyone else seen the new design?

Just installed mine today after going topless on the Biocube 32. LOVE the color and shimmer. I separated the new bracket by removing the 4 machine screws that hold the pole clamp to the tank clamp. I was able to use some black screws I had that were a good match to the metal and mounted it directly to the wall behind my cube. Luckily for me there was a stud exactly where I needed it so the mount is super sturdy there and I have easy up/down and swing to the side adjustability.

I am running the lights at about 9" off the water and the spectrum as close to the AB+ profile that was mentioned somewhere on here before of 20/100/100/100/20/60.

This is actually the moonlight at Channel C at 1% and Channel D at 1%. No filter so typical blue and probably too bright for my liking. We will see.

 

[codenfx]

I just use one of the 470nm Aliexpress bars. Which are actually pretty nice for the price all things considered.

If you want something nicer, check out the Quanta bars.

While the colors on the coral with the smatfarm is great, it's missing that pop effect no matter how much I adjust it, I realize this after going to the coral farmers market last weekend and those coral pop compare to when I bring them home. I'm hoping the 470nm bars will give that color pop. Wish it had a dimmer with the sunset/sunrise so I can set it along with the smatfarm. It'll be a bit challenging to mount the bar as my tank is in an open space and I can't mount on ceiling. Thinking of using the smartfarm arm and zip tie it or run a small pvc pipe across it. Which size did you go with? and what size is your tank? Have you measured how much par it outputs?

 

[LeftyReefer]

While the colors on the coral with the smatfarm is great, it's missing that pop effect no matter how much I adjust it, I realize this after going to the coral farmers market last weekend and those coral pop compare to when I bring them home. I'm hoping the 470nm bars will give that color pop. Wish it had a dimmer with the sunset/sunrise so I can set it along with the smatfarm. It'll be a bit challenging to mount the bar as my tank is in an open space and I can't mount on ceiling. Thinking of using the smartfarm arm and zip tie it or run a small pvc pipe across it. Which size did you go with? and what size is your tank? Have you measured how much par it outputs?

Post #360 has pics of my Smat Farm light setup over my 40b.
Lights

I just used the 24" bar over my tank. A 36" bar would have been better, but I didn't want to make my light canopy any wider than the tank itself. both are the same width, 36", so I needed something that would fit inside, so I went with the shorter 24" bar.

i just have my LED bar on a smart timer so that it only turns on after my smat farms are done ramping up. The LED bar is only on wen the Smat Farms are at full intensity. It is programmed to turn back off when the Smat Farms start ramping down again for the evening.

having it on a smart switch also allows me to just turn on the LED bar whenever I want with minimal effort.
If i need a light on in an emergency, just hit the switch and the LED bar is on. Don't need to bother messing with the smat farms to do this.

Some of the newer ones have bluetooth now and you can dim them, so you could ramp them up or down now or maybe even use them for moon lighting, depending on how far down they dim.

 

[codenfx]

Post #360 has pics of my Smat Farm light setup over my 40b.
Lights

I just used the 24" bar over my tank. A 36" bar would have been better, but I didn't want to make my light canopy any wider than the tank itself. both are the same width, 36", so I needed something that would fit inside, so I went with the shorter 24" bar.

i just have my LED bar on a smart timer so that it only turns on after my smat farms are done ramping up. The LED bar is only on wen the Smat Farms are at full intensity. It is programmed to turn back off when the Smat Farms start ramping down again for the evening.

having it on a smart switch also allows me to just turn on the LED bar whenever I want with minimal effort.
If i need a light on in an emergency, just hit the switch and the LED bar is on. Don't need to bother messing with the smat farms to do this.

Some of the newer ones have bluetooth now and you can dim them, so you could ramp them up or down now or maybe even use them for moon lighting, depending on how far down they dim.

Nice setup! I just purchased the 24" bar for my 36" tank also. I feel the 36" bar would be too much and spill over. Saw video of inappropriate reefer doing the same going smaller bar than his tank and it looks great. I'm also planning to plug it into the smart switch and doing the same with it coming on when the smat is on full intensity. Can't wait to try it out when it gets delivered. Did you lower the intensity of the smat to acclimate with the bars on your initial setup?

 

[Reefing102]

While the colors on the coral with the smatfarm is great, it's missing that pop effect no matter how much I adjust it, I realize this after going to the coral farmers market last weekend and those coral pop compare to when I bring them home. I'm hoping the 470nm bars will give that color pop. Wish it had a dimmer with the sunset/sunrise so I can set it along with the smatfarm. It'll be a bit challenging to mount the bar as my tank is in an open space and I can't mount on ceiling. Thinking of using the smartfarm arm and zip tie it or run a small pvc pipe across it. Which size did you go with? and what size is your tank? Have you measured how much par it outputs?

I’ll agree with this. Even with a 3 hour sunrise, I get a bit of pop when it’s just blues but add any white and it goes white way to quick. Thinking of getting some LED bars myself for the Biocube

 

[HermanoToro]

My Smatfarm light didn't ship with a manual so I'm reading all these threads figuring it out. FWIW, I've had the light for a few weeks now and I'm pretty impressed with it. That being said, I was wondering if anyone knows how to save custom settings? Until today, I've just been running the preset SPS mode...although I do not have any extremely needy corals at the moment.

I copied some of the AB+ settings from around r2r and, when I back out of the menu, it reverts to the blindingly white SPS preset each time. Do I have to just stay in the manual adjust mode to keep my settings? Will this override the sunset / sunrise feature? As always, thanks for your time!

 

[Who me?]

My Smatfarm light didn't ship with a manual so I'm reading all these threads figuring it out. FWIW, I've had the light for a few weeks now and I'm pretty impressed with it. That being said, I was wondering if anyone knows how to save custom settings? Until today, I've just been running the preset SPS mode...although I do not have any extremely needy corals at the moment.

I copied some of the AB+ settings from around r2r and, when I back out of the menu, it reverts to the blindingly white SPS preset each time. Do I have to just stay in the manual adjust mode to keep my settings? Will this override the sunset / sunrise feature? As always, thanks for your time!

Make the changes under mode settings, user defined, sunlight. Then you need to go back in the menu one step and set the timers.
Then back out to main menu and select mode selection, select user defined and you should be good to go.

Hard to explain, but there is a good YouTube video you can follow

 

[HermanoToro]

Nice! Think I figured it out. I was able to figure out the sunrise / sunset times and everything. Should be squared away now. Thanks!

Next question: what (if anything) are you guys doing for moonlight settings?

 

[Reefing102]

I don’t run moonlight with this. It’s way to bright for me even at 1%

 

[cgripp256]

Is there a way to disable the ridiculous self test it runs upon power up? I was hoping to have my Apex turn the light on/off to be able to use the moonlight channel for a couple hours after sunset but when they power cycle on in the AM it runs through every channel at max brightness. ‍

 

[cgripp256]

I don’t run moonlight with this. It’s way to bright for me even at 1%

Agreed. For all night moonlight I personally feel it’s too bright even with channel D only on 1%.

 

[Who me?]

Bought a cheap led strip on eBay, have that on a separate timer for moonlights

 

[Reefing102]

Is there a way to disable the ridiculous self test it runs upon power up? I was hoping to have my Apex turn the light on/off to be able to use the moonlight channel for a couple hours after sunset but when they power cycle on in the AM it runs through every channel at max brightness. ‍

Can’t say I’ve ever seen that but I’ve never seen my light come on in the morning. Although I’m curious if that’s cause my light is always “on” per se with night times just listed at 0%