What is/are the best reef light?

[SliceGolfer]

For me a combination of great growth and great colors. Also I would like to find the best bang for my buck.

From your build thread (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brandons-diy-reef.672831/) you have metal halide and T5 over your 75 gallon. What is prompting the change?

ReefBreeders Photon V2+ will be hard to beat for this size of tank. Illumagic Blaze (uniquecorals has them) is another consideration. AI Primes, EcoTech Radions, or Orphek will be expensive as you’ll need multiple lights.

 

[User1]

Tbh thats what gets so difficult about choosing one for me, but I always really enjoy seeing everyone elses personal tastes to see if anything would match up with what i am trying to achieve.

Yep, totally agree. It is a difficult decision really especially because shrink wrap or over the counter lighting isn't cheap. It isn't uncommon for lighting to run more than the bare bone tank cost if truth be told.

In 2000 I used 2 x 175W MH bulbs mixed with 2 x 48" SVHO actinics. Thought they looked grand and had pretty good success with them. Over the years though I've switch everything to LED's. Most of the time it is DIY using cree's or multi channels from blue acro. Cheaper and equally effective although not as pretty as over the counter(by pretty I mean form factor / enclosure). Currently I mix in the blue acro's with my Kessil a360x's. I like it.

With regards to those saying natural sunlight and corals looking different and/or drab. Correct. If you are a SCUBA diver corals look a lot different at depth compared to our aquariums. Sometimes our aquariums scream of skittles the colors are so unnatural looking mixed in with lights.

 

[ThatTennesseeBeardedGuy]

From your build thread (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brandons-diy-reef.672831/) you have metal halide and T5 over your 75 gallon. What is prompting the change?

ReefBreeders Photon V2+ will be hard to beat for this size of tank. Illumagic Blaze (uniquecorals has them) is another consideration. AI Primes, EcoTech Radions, or Orphek will be expensive as you’ll need multiple lights.

So in the works are plans to upgrade to a larger tank, however that will be a ways away and I trying to get a feel for the best (in everyones opinion) lights that they have had success with.

 

[JoshH]

Okay so since being in this hobby nobody can seem to give a straightforward answer. So i just wanted to ask about yalls best experiences with reef lighting. T5s, MH, or LEDs? Or a mixture? Would love to see if we get some trends!

 

[Oldreefer44]

Have had all 3 including various combinations, over several decades in the hobby. All have worked. You will see threads where that is shown. Currently have Orpheks because I think they are as good, if not better, than anything else out there. The problem with threads like this is that you will end up getting endorsements of whatever that person owns. As long as you get something with enough PAR to grow what you want, where you want it, IMO water quality and stability will be the single thing that determines how successful you will be.

 

[Ann Enomy]

Best growth I ever had was on a combo VHO actinic and 3 250W 14k metal halides over a 6 foot 250 gal. But... then I had to run a chiller, replace bulbs often and pay the electric company almost $100 a month. Now I accept slower growth with 2 Radions, a Kessil in the middle and 2 T5 actinic bulbs. Expensive to purchase, cheap to run!

 

[Cathics88]

I've used almost everything but power compacts, loved halides/t5 back in the day, and those produced fantastic growth. For ease of use and how controllable led lighting is, it's hard for me to reccomend anything else. I have 2 reefbreeders, but just swapped over to kessil a360x love the shimmer and color blending. But easily over 1000 bucks for a 75g tank. I agree with other about reefbreeders, great lights for what you pay.

 

[stephj03]

Everybody is about to tell you:

LED:. Ecotech Radion G4 Pro with Aquatic Life hybrid running ATI blue+ bulbs

If you really are a noob. Do that and call it a day, you'll have the best combo of performance growing any coral type, support both from the company and the greatest number of ppl on the forums and resale value if this hobby is short-lived for you.

A few yrs from now when you're bored and want to get the absolute most out of your SPS dominant upgrade, swap to:

1. whatever is the newest Orphek (V4.2 currently), if you're fully bought in on LED programmability and want to maintain the greatest number of friends on the forum

2. ATI T5 8 bulb power module with bolt on ReefBrite XHO Or Orphek OR LED bars if you want to better growth and want to have a few friends on the forms

3. 250W Radium MHs in Hamilton Cayman pendants run on M80 hqi ballasts with ReefBrite or Orphek LED bars and want to be criticized by the greatest number of people while achieving the best growth and color. But be prepared for everyone to tell you about all the added headaches of heat and electricity that you personally will not be experiencing.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Everybody is about to tell you:

LED:. Ecotech Radion G4 Pro with Aquatic Life hybrid running ATI blue+ bulbs

If you really are a noob. Do that and call it a day, you'll have the best combo of performance growing any coral type, support both from the company and the greatest number of ppl on the forums and resale value if this hobby is short-lived for you.

A few yrs from now when you're bored and want to get the absolute most out of your SPS dominant upgrade, swap to:

1. whatever is the newest Orphek (V4.2 currently), if you're fully bought in on LED programmability and want to maintain the greatest number of friends on the forum

2. ATI T5 8 bulb power module with bolt on ReefBrite XHO Or Orphek OR LED bars if you want to better growth and want to have a few friends on the forms

3. 250W Radium MHs in Hamilton Cayman pendants run on M80 hqi ballasts with ReefBrite or Orphek LED bars and want to be criticized by the greatest number of people while achieving the best growth and color. But be prepared for everyone to tell you about all the added headaches of heat and electricity that you personally will not be experiencing.

Haha. LED/T5 (Radion XR30 Pro’s with Aquatic Life T5 Hybrids running ATI Blue+) exactly what I am running...... The “noob” setup...... and then when you “get woke” change to something else.....

And Metal Halides won’t increase electricity or heat? He won’t experience that how exactly? I need a chiller just for my setup as it is, so Metal Halides would be problematic for me.

There are FAR bigger things to screw with for coral color/growth. Stick to LED/MH//T5 or any combination of those and you can grow coral.

Although in jest, the MarsAqua I mentioned earlier absolutely grew everything very well.....

 

[happyhourhero]

I recently switched to photon V2+ from SB reef Lights. Will have to see how everything looks in a couple months.

 

[Just_Pete]

'Best ones are the ones you can't afford'

But seriously, I have the "noob" setup. One XR15 and Aquatic T5's over my 40g cube. Very happy with it for my setup.

 

[Fourstars]

In my cool Colorado basement MH with Phoenix HQI 14K bulbs reign supreme.

 

[lexinverts]

These are my favorite:

Interesting 'New' LED Light

I just received two ReeFi LED lights for testing purposes. This company has been around for a while, but it is new to me, and I'm impressed with the thoughtful design. There are 72 LEDs in the array including cool white, warm white, amber, lime, blue, royal blue, violet, 420nm and 400nm, each on...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Keith Burns]

I have Reefbreeders Photon V2 48 inch LEDs on a 90 gallon mixed reef and love it. Great color and growth. The only negative with this light is difficult to program.
My old 120 system I used six T5s on it. I was always replacing the bulbs, which became very expensive.

 

[Deschutes541]

Slightly off topic but would an Aquatic Life T5HO be sufficient for softies and LPS at 24" depth? My thoughts are I could always buy additional LEDs when I wanted to begin caring for SPS.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Well MH/t5 is best but you can grow corals with most any light. From what i have seen and used in led best looking fixture, coral color and growth is Orphek. Still making decision on next setup. Waiting on Red Sea being out longer but good bang for the money if they last. May do Led/T5 combo

 

[divewsharks]

Slightly off topic but would an Aquatic Life T5HO be sufficient for softies and LPS at 24" depth? My thoughts are I could always buy additional LEDs when I wanted to begin caring for SPS.

Yes, you should not have any issues. 2 ATI Blue+ and 2 ATI AB Specials if you like light blue/more white in the tank. 3 Blue+ /1 AB Special if you like more Blue.

 

[Toolman]

How about Aquatic Life Halo? Does anyone use them,?

 

[jim_fitz]

Personally prefer to controllability on my Radions, and yes they are expensive initially, but probably not so in the long term. If you intend to go to a bigger tank in the future you need to ensure that T5 unit will be compatible assuming you will need to add to it. This is not an issue with Radions. My first tank had 2 that are on my current tank that has 9. As for LEDs creating shadows, thats purely down to placement and the amount you have. My tank is 2.44m L x 1.22m W and has no shadows, and i would hate to replace the bulbs every 6 months. If you only had 1 T5 tube you would have shadows too

 

[NanoDJS]

Having owned the previous 30 yrs worth of lighting, from vho, pc, t5,mh, leds from pre- vendor through current day , and literally have the newest leds out just to test em . My answer is the best lighting is the one that provides 10k-23k at the correct peaks 430nm, 620nm and lower uv if possible, with the correct coverage for your tank, to allow around 200 par average. Im speaking for the coral, they dont care if its 1000 bucks or 20 if it can do the right thing, it all depends what your trying to accomplish also , a perfect nano light ....... for example vs lighting a custom 48x36x20 style lagoon. Very subjective