Tank Light Upgrades

[Grimmj]

My tank is a custom odd ball size of 36L x 22W x 21D I currently have the current ic pros. I think I need more powerful lights to get better growth and be able to move things lower in the tank.
I like the programmability and sunrise sunset feature of the currents. My wife likes that they are sitting on the tank rim and no blinding her while she watches TV.
Question is what would be a reasonable upgrade to these lights. I previously had a 4 bulb aquatic life fixture and hated it. Not looking to go back to T5s.
I have been looking at kessils, I was thinking maybe 1 ap9x but it's pricey. ( Tank has a center brace). Wanting to stay under 1k not opposed to buying used but unsure what the life span is of some of these fixtures.

 

[Shirak]

Couple ReeFi Unos? They are supposed to be great for not blinding anyone standing along side them.

 

[Grimmj]

Couple ReeFi Unos? They are supposed to be great for not blinding anyone standing along side them.

I haven't seen those will have to look them up

 

[Shirak]

Dana Riddle test on them
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reefi-led-uno-testing-soon.766239/

 

[Grimmj]

Anyone mounted these to a tank with a rim?

 

[RELLIK-REEF]

Reefbreeder photon
Great lights IMO.
I will probably forever use them on every tank we ever do. I just say hey the pro version of the size you want and the app has worked flawless for us. Good luck on your upgrade.

 

[Grimmj]

Couple ReeFi Unos? They are supposed to be great for not blinding anyone standing along side them.

Seems they only have 1 uno in stock currently. Did a lot of reading up on these and they seem great especially for directing light into the tank and not flooding out into the room. Are they only sold through the website? I emailed them asking when they would be able to ship 2 lights since the website is only letting me add 1 to my cart. Not sure if anyone has additional insight on this.

 

[Shirak]

Seems they only have 1 uno in stock currently. Did a lot of reading up on these and they seem great especially for directing light into the tank and not flooding out into the room. Are they only sold through the website? I emailed them asking when they would be able to ship 2 lights since the website is only letting me add 1 to my cart. Not sure if anyone has additional insight on this.

I am sure Daniel will get back to you shortly. Looks like he was on vacation recently. I don't know when he will have another shipment arriving from overseas. I don't believe any 3rd party vendors carry them. I did recently see one for sale on the marketplace.

 

[Grimmj]

I have doing a lot of googling around about these lights and how they are built and function. It really seems for my needs and desires that the Reefi is where I am going to be happy. Now my next question. Should I go with 2 UNO or 1 duo extreme. Either way I have to mount the light to the tank as hanging is not a option. Going with 2 unos is a little more money when figuring the additional mount. The duo extreme I would mount with the RMS and adapter. From what I can find this would cover my tank nicely and save around $200 (more coral)

Tank size 35.75" x 23.75" x 21.25" LxWxH

 

[Shirak]

The Duo Extreme is a very nice light. I agree it would work well on your tank and provide plenty of power should you want it. The Duo Extreme I have seen a few here and there on the market place as well so you might be able to save a few more $ on a slightly used one. I would check with ReeFi and confirm if you pick up a used one the 3yr warranty is still good, even if it's prorated from the original owner purchase date. The RMS setup should work well for either the Uno or the Duo Extreme.

 

[Grimmj]

Update:
I got ahold of Daniel and he was able to get me 2 Unos. I am super excited to get these on the tank hoping for some good growth with the lighting update. Currently I have 2 36" Current IC Pros; I am not sure where to start these new lights at so I don't bleach out the existing in habitants that are used to my low light.

 

[Shirak]

Update:
I got ahold of Daniel and he was able to get me 2 Unos. I am super excited to get these on the tank hoping for some good growth with the lighting update. Currently I have 2 36" Current IC Pros; I am not sure where to start these new lights at so I don't bleach out the existing in habitants that are used to my low light.

WOOT Post some pics when you get things rolling! I am sure Daniel can help you out with an acclimation schedule if you give him the current lighting specs so you can start roughly where you are and ramp over a period of time.

 

[Dburr1014]

Do you know where your par is currently? If you do, I would start just below that and then ramp up like 10% a week to the way you want them.

 

[Grimmj]

I don't know my current par; I tried using that PAR app that was posted on here but on my android got weird results. I am running the current ICs at 100% blue 40% white 20% red/green at peak with a sunrise / sunset with blues down to 70% whites at 24% and 0% red/green.
All my assumptions are that the unos are going to be significantly more powerful than my current setup

 

[Shirak]

How many watts are your current LEDs? Can get a reasonable estimate since you are going from LED to LED.

running two of the 36" Current ic pro?

 

[Grimmj]

I have 2 strips of the 36" lights each fixture has 72 LEDs.

MODEL(S)	FITS AQUARIUMS	DIMENSIONS	WATTS	TOTAL LED'S	DUAL ACTINIC LEDS 445NM/460NM BLUE	DUAL DAYLIGHT LEDS 6700K/10000K WHITE	RGB
4336	36"-48"	34.8” x 7.5” x 0.44”	72	144	36/36	28/28	16

 

[Shirak]

Lets see.. the 36-48" is listed at 72watts total - 144 leds. Yes 72 but they are dual leds So if we break it down to .5 watts/led and there are 82 blue led at 100% that's 41 watts/fixture of blue so 82 watts on blue.

whites at 40% (.4 x .5watts = .2 watts per white led) 56 white led x .2w = 11.2 watts x 2 fixture = 22.4 watts on white

red and green don't do much for par so not going to worry about that.

So you have roughly 104 watts of LED on your tank now. Each Uno is max 180watts and most of that is uv-blue with a little white and other colors for balance.

To hit roughly 104 watts total output on 2 Uno's combined you are looking at about 104/360 x 100 = 29% starting point for acclimation mode. Might want to start a little lower say 25% and see how the corals look.

 

[Shirak]

The other thing to consider is the distance to the water. The Currents are pretty close to the water and the Uno's will be elevated. Not a lot of par lost I don't think but it's not quite apples to apples comparison.

 

[Grimmj]

Thank you very much for the assistance. This will be my first big boy light since my old T5 fixture gave up the ghost. I am very excited as I can should be able to get some more light demanding things into the tank in the future. Definingly going to start at the cautious end with the lower settings. My mushrooms have always been towards the top but I think I might have to look at moving them down as the lights come up in intensity. They are only about 3-4 inches down of the water surface currently.

 

[MaxTremors]

The other thing to consider is the distance to the water. The Currents are pretty close to the water and the Uno's will be elevated. Not a lot of par lost I don't think but it's not quite apples to apples comparison.

Wattage is not a good measure of light output with LEDs.