I had a H380 and they are great lights, but not enough spread without a ton of light spill for the size of my fuges. Would have needed 2 and the wife was not having that for 4 large tanks lol. I use the below ones for the ones I have that are dimmable. The dimmable ones are mounted 4-5" above the water, and are cranked up all the way now. But I have 0 light spill at that height.
For the 2 non-dimmable ones I have, they are on my aggressive tank and on my way overfed 220. Both of those tanks have 75s as sumps and the fuges take up the majority of the sumps. There is only enough room for my skimmer in the skimmer chamber and enough room for both of my return pumps in the return sections. The light below is a pricey one, but with the fuges being so large and me not wanting any light spill, they work well. These 2 tanks would have needed at least 3 H380s if I mounted them as close to the water as this one.
At the end fo the day, the Kessil is an awesome light, just not what I wanted with how I have everything set up. The cheap grow lights are working well and give me 0 light spill past the fuge section at 4-5" off the water. I am growing more gracilliria with the grow lights vs the kessil, but that is due to light spread with the grow lights. If I did not mind light spill, the kessil would have more than likely performed just as well. The kessil was not that great 4" off the water when 32"x18"x18" is dedicated for a fuge.
It does need to be noted: Under a stand I saw 0 water temp increase with the kessil. With the larger versions I saw a .5 degree increase in water temp when they were on. With the smaller ones, it was .25-.3 depending on the tank/stand once they were set at 100%. The grow lights do generate more heat than a kessil, but this just means my heater runs less lol. My wife keeps the house so cold, the heaters will kick on at night in the summer.
Ok enough of that lol. How big do you plan to do the fuge or how much room do you have? That is a big factor. What is your NO3 and PO4 right now? Both of those need to be taken into account, as you can make a fuge too big, although with the puffers, I think Paxtins could support a garage sized sump/fuge lol. And one more thing, since your sump is visible, have you thought of doing a dual section fuge? One area for the fast nutrient uptake macro and another section for the prettier macros? This could also be an area for smaller fish you may want that the puffers would try to eat.
