Which lights?

Oceanavekid · Sep 21, 2017

Eric23 said:
If you're dead set on LEDs there's an article I don't remember which site it's on but it basically is a comparison of all these high-end lights versus Black Box LEDs and after reading it I can definitely say that if I was going to buy a new LED fixture I wouldn't go with any of the expensive brands I would probably get a photon version 2 or something similar

Bulk reef just did a video about the black boxes

mcarroll · Sep 23, 2017

Roberto CRC said:
The tank stockings are 63x25x21 (long x high x width) and I have soft corals, LPS and SPS.

What you have probably looks a little like this:

That's already pretty good coverage....adding even one more might give you the overall light density you're looking for.

If you really think you're looking for double the intensity, then upgrading to Hydra26's probably makes sense.

I'd say to get that $12 lux meter. Measure the lights as-is and see what you get for a peak. Then crowd your 4 Prime's together as if there 5 or 6 in the row instead of 4 and take a new peak measurement.

Eric23 said:
I have a 4x20x20 tank right now running 2 kessil A360we's 12 Inches above the water line at a Max of 65% power and I can grow everything in my tank however because of the shadowing with most led fixtures my sps looks like crap underneath. You really only get good color on top which I hate.

You would generally want those to be more like 4-5 inches off the surface...you get a boatload of reflection from inside the tank that way. At 12" you lose almost all the reflection. The N model would help.

Ideally, at around 4" from the water they should look roughly like this:

At 12" off the water (three times higher) a significant portion of the 360's light isn't even hitting the tank, it's lighting the room. You can see the difference this "wasted light" makes in the lack of reflected light in the tank compared to the above example:

saltyfilmfolks said:
you could almost just stuff two more primes in there.

See I'm not the only one!

Wh00pS32 · Sep 23, 2017

BRS have posted a video on using multiple Primes to grow SPS.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...m_medium=email&utm_campaign=September_22_2017

Also with your whites at 15% that is very very low on a 25" inch high tank, on a 14"cube i run all blues, Uv etc at 100% white at 35% and red and green at 35% and no they don't cause algae problems, in the 2.5 years i have run this light at those settings i have had zero algae problems.

Sonor · Sep 25, 2017

Check out the BRS TV video, came out 9/22/17. Can AI Primes really support SPS corals? I thought it was a good video, might help you with your questions. I think R2R also has a link on its site for this same video.

Roberto CRC · Sep 25, 2017

mcarroll said:
What you have probably looks a little like this:

That's already pretty good coverage....adding even one more might give you the overall light density you're looking for.

If you really think you're looking for double the intensity, then upgrading to Hydra26's probably makes sense.

I'd say to get that $12 lux meter. Measure the lights as-is and see what you get for a peak. Then crowd your 4 Prime's together as if there 5 or 6 in the row instead of 4 and take a new peak measurement.

You would generally want those to be more like 4-5 inches off the surface...you get a boatload of reflection from inside the tank that way. At 12" you lose almost all the reflection. The N model would help.

Ideally, at around 4" from the water they should look roughly like this:

At 12" off the water (three times higher) a significant portion of the 360's light isn't even hitting the tank, it's lighting the room. You can see the difference this "wasted light" makes in the lack of reflected light in the tank compared to the above example:

Great information, the weekend I was talking to my wife. We need to do some repairs in the house and that includes having to move the place tank.

To do this would take advantage of the repair of the furniture that is somewhat damaged, the idea would be to make a new tank in which to divide two rooms of the house, to do this would take to change the height of the current tank and make it lower thus 63x21x24 (long x high x width).

I think that this would get my Prime to reach the bottom of the tank more intensely, the width would not affect me because only the center of the tank would be the aquascape.

What do you think of this solution and so I do not have to invest in new lights to look for more coverage in the bottom of the tank?

See I'm not the only one!

mcarroll · Sep 25, 2017

@Roberto CRC Well upgrading the tank just to avoid upgrading your lights seems pretty extreme – but I like it!!!

If you're happy enough with the distribution of light, then the simple boost to power (by the lower water height) might be just what the situation calls for.

Roberto CRC · Sep 26, 2017

mcarroll said:
@Roberto CRC Well upgrading the tank just to avoid upgrading your lights seems pretty extreme – but I like it!!!

If you're happy enough with the distribution of light, then the simple boost to power (by the lower water height) might be just what the situation calls for.

Thanks, really the upgrade in the tank is not by the lights. The idea of improving it is because it is necessary to make repairs in the house and it is necessary to move the whole tank of place, in addition the cabinet requires repairs by the termites, then it is ideal to do of once an improvement in the tank and to improve the coverage in depth of light.