Sps dominant lighting?

[GinoGino]

I have a RSR 250 (36x20x21) which is mixed currently. I’m slowly transitioning into more sps. What type of light would be best for heavily sps but still some lps? Currently looking at

AI Hydra 32 HD (two) / t5 hybrid (4 bulb)
Kessil a360x (three / t5 hybrid (4 bulb)
Illumagic X Blaze
Orphek Atlantik v4 gen 2 (hesitant cause I hear so many people, multiple times, burning out the 380 and 420nm diodes)

I’d like to grow some acro’s in the lower half of my tank if possible, if not, then other stick type sps. Thanks for any help whatsoever!

 

[Edp251]

Hi,

what are you running now? I recently went through a similar transition on my 170 Max E and added an aquatic life T5 hybrid to my hydra 26. It looks great and the change in uniformity of light over the hydra 26 is impressive. I had no idea how shadowed things were until I turned those T5s on. Net effect in par was to add about 100 par to the bottom and a bit more up top which placed me perfectly in the 250-350 par range everywhere. The only downside is that it is now a bit bright in that tank for some of my lps so I have had to carefully position them in a bit of shade. Good luck!

 

[GinoGino]

Hi,

what are you running now? I recently went through a similar transition on my 170 Max E and added an aquatic life T5 hybrid to my hydra 26. It looks great and the change in uniformity of light over the hydra 26 is impressive. I had no idea how shadowed things were until I turned those T5s on. Net effect in par was to add about 100 par to the bottom and a bit more up top which placed me perfectly in the 250-350 par range everywhere. The only downside is that it is now a bit bright in that tank for some of my lps so I have had to carefully position them in a bit of shade. Good luck!

I’m currently running two Prime HDs, which I just saw that video on brs where they tested the Aquatic Life with different lights and when they added two Primes on a 4 foot tank, which mine is a 3 foot tank, the par was really impressive, and the flat even spread was exactly what I was looking for! I was thinking of buying the Aquatic Life fixture first and seeing what I get with my current lights, but if I still need to upgrade my LEDs then take it from there. Could I see a picture of your tank? Which bulb combo are you running? I was thinking 1 Blue +, 1 True Actinic, then1 Blue +, 1 Coral +

 

[Edp251]

Hey. Yes. Will do later today when i am back home. I went with 2 coral plus and 2 blue plus and like the effect. It looks like natural sunlight on the beach to me. I bet you could get good par using your prime hds with one of the hybri setups. Easy enough to test before you invest in stronger leds. More later. Thx.

 

[Edp251]

Actually, as i am slowly preparing for my new peninsula, I moved most of my SPS to my nano over the weekend as they will be the last going into the new tank. Pictures attached. This is the 24" looking way too big over my nano with the AI prime. PAR in the middle is 325-350. Everywhere else it is around 260 so pretty high, even on the edges. The numbers were similar in the Red Sea Max-E

170 although another 100PAR higher due to the differences in the prime and the Hydra 26

 

[GinoGino]

how’s the Aquatic Life as far as spillage into the room? Does it bleed a lot? One thing I was wondering. Your corals look good - what size peninsula are you upgrading to? I saw some other hybrid fixture by noopsyche or something? The t5 part is adjustable so you can angle them upwards or downwards - but the brand I’m not familiar with and I think it’s an Chinese brand that I can’t find much info on. Their website is a little sketchy too so not sure if I’m crazy about it - but wish the Aquatic Life fixture you could re position the t5 part

 

[Edp251]

Thanks. Upgrade is to a 130 gallon. Light spill is all about geometry. In my upgrade, i am building a custom hood with retrofit T5s and LEDs. Thr tank is 55” by 26” and i am designing the hood so the lights are approximately 10” above the tank

There is an excellent BRS TV video that compares the aquatic life and Giesemann T5 LED hybrids. The giesemann has optional end plates that slliw you to effectively reduce the width of the fixture to avoid light spill. This may be closer to what you are looking for

of course, this is why i am building a custom hoof for my 130 peninsula. It allows me to fo whatever i want within the boundaries of the tank geometry but i am also a hobbyist woodworker so that bit is fun for me

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Hmmm...of the options you listed, I'd probably personally choose the Hydras although the Kessils and the Orphek would probably make fine choices as well.

 

[DropInTheOcean Matthew]

I have a RSR 250 (36x20x21) which is mixed currently. I’m slowly transitioning into more sps. What type of light would be best for heavily sps but still some lps? Currently looking at

AI Hydra 32 HD (two) / t5 hybrid (4 bulb)
Kessil a360x (three / t5 hybrid (4 bulb)
Illumagic X Blaze
Orphek Atlantik v4 gen 2 (hesitant cause I hear so many people, multiple times, burning out the 380 and 420nm diodes)

I’d like to grow some acro’s in the lower half of my tank if possible, if not, then other stick type sps. Thanks for any help whatsoever!

I choose the hydra 32. I started out wanting to get the Orphek but was deterred by them by the same reason as you have.. $1100 and they burn out? Yeah no thanks.. then I looked at the radion xr30 blue that are made out of cheap plastic and crack.. again for around $1000 no thanks.. I almost got the red sea 160 but I hear about power supply overheating.. so I went with the hydra because I have one that has been growing my sps for 5 years and it has never had an issue. My new hydra will be here Monday

 

[minus9]

Orphek OR3 blue plus bars and Kessil 360x's with narrow lens will punch par to your sand bed.

 

[minus9]

The glass is dirty, which makes for a hazy pic, but you get the idea.