Upgrade to Steve’s LEDs?

hopperjl16 · Aug 11, 2019

I’m about ready to bite the bullet and upgrade my lights. I have a biocube 29 with stock lights that I’ve replaced roughly every 6 months for 3 yrs. I’m sick of replacing lights [emoji849]. Plus my corals never look as pretty as they do in the stores/pictures and even though I get some growth, it’s not great. And some won’t grow at all. Is the Steve’s led retrofit lighting the way to go? I def need/want something simple, I don’t have a spectacular understanding of lighting (other than knowing my wimpy fluorescent lights aren’t great). I just want something that’s set up all ready to go (besides installation obviously). Any advice?

Thanks!

FugeTown · Aug 11, 2019

What parameters do you test

hopperjl16 · Aug 11, 2019

FugeTown said:
What parameters do you test

Honestly I haven’t been great at testing lately, but when I do it’s nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, phos, ph. Sometimes alk, sometimes calcium, sometimes mg. I do a 20% water change every week and make my own RODI water mixed with instant ocean reef crystals. Every time I question nutrient problems everyone says with this small of a tank I should easily keep in balance with the weekly water changes.

Katrina71 · Aug 12, 2019

Steve's LED. My 10 year old did his own. Grows anything!

hopperjl16 · Aug 12, 2019

I should add I do have a couple corals that DO grow great. A montipora and another one that looks like my monti but can’t remember the name (purple with green dots, long clear tenticles come out to feed). My ricordia yuma is happy and reproduces well too. None of them are the super pretty colors I know they could be though under better lights.

hopperjl16 · Aug 12, 2019

Katrina71 said:
Steve's LED. My 10 year old did his own. Grows anything!

Wow! So pretty! My zoas have NEVER looked that nice!

Katrina71 · Aug 12, 2019

His everything looks that nice. Not kidding. A huge difference between my Biocube and his.

SPLASH! · Aug 12, 2019

I have Steve’s LEDs in my BioCube 32 and they do real well with encouraging coral growth. They are also straight forward to install and set up. That’s my tank in my profile picture.

User1 · Aug 13, 2019

When I had 2 x 29 Gallon BioCubes (Oceanic) one had Steve's LED retro kit and the other had a DIY that I did on my own using LED's from Rapid. Steve's was a bit cleaner of an install since most of it came pre-wired. However, it was a bit, ok, a lot, more blue, royal blue in spectrum. My DIY was more 50/50 and warmer in color. I preferred it to the other. However, both grew corals extremely well. Lighting, intensity, spectrum play big parts but with smaller tanks managing the water top off / evaporation and water quality play a bigger rolls in my opinion.

I should also note that one of the cubes was controlled by a Reef Angel and the other not. Just set the spectrum and intensity, wall timers, and that was pretty much it. In any case Steve's is good and I thought a fair price but this was 4 years ago. Would probably be still using it today but the other cub had a RBTA that split, then we moved it, split again, and again, so finally merged the two together into a 40 breeder.

RBTA split again a few more times so now upgraded to a 210 gallon to hold them off. We shall see. Donated the two cubes and last I heard they are still running strong.

SPLASH! · Aug 13, 2019

saf1 said:
When I had 2 x 29 Gallon BioCubes (Oceanic) one had Steve's LED retro kit and the other had a DIY that I did on my own using LED's from Rapid. Steve's was a bit cleaner of an install since most of it came pre-wired. However, it was a bit, ok, a lot, more blue, royal blue in spectrum. My DIY was more 50/50 and warmer in color. I preferred it to the other. However, both grew corals extremely well. Lighting, intensity, spectrum play big parts but with smaller tanks managing the water top off / evaporation and water quality play a bigger rolls in my opinion.

I should also note that one of the cubes was controlled by a Reef Angel and the other not. Just set the spectrum and intensity, wall timers, and that was pretty much it. In any case Steve's is good and I thought a fair price but this was 4 years ago. Would probably be still using it today but the other cub had a RBTA that split, then we moved it, split again, and again, so finally merged the two together into a 40 breeder.

RBTA split again a few more times so now upgraded to a 210 gallon to hold them off. We shall see. Donated the two cubes and last I heard they are still running strong.

That sounds awesome. I have never heard of donating an aquarium. That sounds cool too, like a fun way to push the hobby. Who did you give it too if you don’t mind me asking?

User1 · Aug 13, 2019

SPLASH! said:
That sounds awesome. I have never heard of donating an aquarium. That sounds cool too, like a fun way to push the hobby. Who did you give it too if you don’t mind me asking?

One to a local school the other Goodwill. Everything was working with both return pumps being only a year old after replacing them. Of course the contents of both tanks went into my 40 breeder and currently reside in the 210 upgrade.

mas52192 · Aug 15, 2019

To piggy back off this question, I have a 32 biocube and just upgraded to Steve’s leds with the bluefish controller. What schedules and intensity do you all use to achieve that growth? I currently am doing the recommended acclimation. Thanks!

SPLASH! · Aug 15, 2019

mas52192 said:
To piggy back off this question, I have a 32 biocube and just upgraded to Steve’s leds with the bluefish controller. What schedules and intensity do you all use to achieve that growth? I currently am doing the recommended acclimation. Thanks!

I just use the recommendations that came in the manual with the lights ramping on at 9 am and ramping down around 10 pm.

hopperjl16 · Aug 17, 2019

Katrina71 said:
His everything looks that nice. Not kidding. A huge difference between my Biocube and his.

Did you (or any of you) use the moonlight system that stevesleds sells? I purchased that along with the lights but I’m not sure how or where it installs in the gutted hood? Can anyone show me a pic of how they did theirs?

Katrina71 · Aug 17, 2019

hopperjl16 said:
Did you (or any of you) use the moonlight system that stevesleds sells? I purchased that along with the lights but I’m not sure how or where it installs in the gutted hood? Can anyone show me a pic of how they did theirs?

Hmmm. Yes I think. Let me take a pic of my son's. His is a Coralife 32. Not sure if this will help.

Katrina71 · Aug 17, 2019

hopperjl16 · Aug 17, 2019

Hmmm. Yeah I can’t tell where the moonlights are stuck to. I’m assuming it’ll be obvious once we start the process of gutting the hood where we’ll need to put the moonlights. I’m just so nervous about the whole thing!