Looking for supplemental lightning recommendation

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Oscarmk

Premium Member
I am very new to reef keeping, despite having been in saltwater for 3 years now, anyway about 2-3 months ago I bought my first frags, I got some candy canes, zoanthids and mushrooms, all except the mushroom I currently have them about mid height on a standard dimensions 75 gallon with a single marine orbit led which outputs 46 watts, using a 48 inch array of 0.25 watt leds. The lightning completely covers the 75 and I would consider it to actually be bright, tank is now about 9 months old, and I am not seeing much grow if any of my frags, I think it might be the lightning, it seems most people choose to have a supplemental light if they are using a single marine orbit led on a 75. I am only interested in keeping softies and lps, but I feel with my very limited coral experience, that my corals are not receiving enough light, and therefore are not multiplying. All my frags look pretty good and stay open for the most part, except for 1 which is just partially open and another one with only 5 polyps that was doing great, and then it suddenly closed a month ago never to open again... the polyps still look fine.

With this in mind my first though was to simple buy a second marine orbit 48 led, but I am not sure this would be ideal, as I understand this would in theory about double my current par?, not sure how this works to be honest. It is my understanding that a light with full spectrum would be ideal, which brought me to perhaps a marine orbit led PRO which has 67 watts with 0.5 watt leds and full spectrum, but it seems there are probably better options available, and the marine orbit led PRO seems rather pricy to me for the power it offers.

Ideally I would like a LED light that would supplement mine, would like for it to be a strip just like my current one so I can just place it side to side on the rim, I don't need a timer, as I would use my current led for the ramp up and ramp down, and I would just control the lights from an Apex controller. I looked at reef radiance starfire and it seemed like a pretty nice light, but because of how it needs to be mounted, I would have to also somehow mount the marine orbit or sell it, which is why it would prefer a strip full spectrum LED. It would also appear that a single radiance starfire would not be sufficient for my 75 as per their website, not sure how it would do on a 75 as a single light, or if 2 is the recommendation if you want to keep SPS, or if it simply would leave some dark/shade areas in the 75. Wattage wise at 165 and with the full spectrum it would certainly appear to be more than enough for my softies/lps needs, but concerned if a single one would leave some shaded areas on my 75 tank.

Is buying a second identical marine orbit going to give me a signficant PAR increase?, is the marine orbit led PRO worth the price?, what would you guys recommend as a LED light supplement for my 75 for softies and LPS? Any suggestions welcome!.
 
I have a Mars Aqua 165w LED on my 65 gallon. The 3 w LEDs give great penetration. I like it, was considering the Orbit for the programmability but did not get it due to the .25 LEDs.
Drawbacks for you are:
The mount, it only comes with the hanging mount, someone skilled could fabricate something but it will have be above the tank a little ways to get coverage.
Length the 165 will be a bit short for your 70 gallon, the 300w would probably work it is 31 inches long as opposed to the 16 inches of the 165w.
Not programmable, yet. Since it would not work well with your current light you would not have ramp up and down function. They are working on a programmable model not out yet.

Whatever you get, get the good 3w LEDs, you won't be sorry with them.
 
Thank you, I also looked at that mars led, it seems to be a non programmable Version of the reef radiance, the radiance I think has identical leds, but can be programmed. It definitely seems like a good light, but I would have to sell my orbit and as you mention won't have the ramp up and down, which I think is a very nice feature.

That 300w model would definitely work, albeit it would almost seem like too much light based on the watts, how is the noise level of those fans?, kinda concerned about that, because I used to have a biocube and those fans were quite loud!.
 
@barticus wrote:
Look up sbreeflights. Good led lights Sent from my SCH-S968C using Tapatalk said:
Thanks those 30 look pretty awesome, and they expand to 48 just perfect, how does it mount to the rim?, it seems it has suction cups on the photo?, that seems like it wouldnt work, it seems that light would be enough even for high light sps which I dont plan to keep, but I assume you can adjust the intensity?, that same shape (bar shape) is what I am looking for, I think it could even coexist with my marine orbit. How is the noise in the fans?.
Click to expand...
 
Super quiet. He has some breakdown videos on you tube.
Upgraded fans, thicker heatsinks. Upgraded spectrum.

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I read some reviews, light seems pretty good, granted I would have to run it at 50% or lower though, and likely move all my zoanthids lower but I'll probably just start at like 20-30% see how my corals adjust and go from there, because it seems the difference in PAR would be very dramatic.
 
Yeah thats pretty typical. They blast some light. I heard one guy say he had 200 par on the sand.
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I got this schedual from his video

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Bulb layout for mine. They swith to 20k with the sb lights

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@barticus wrote:
Super quiet. He has some breakdown videos on you tube. Upgraded fans said:
Just hanged my sbox 32 timer, it looks perfect! i hanged it with wall brackets 9 inches from the top and covers everything perfectly, they are definitely bright, so I am running 40 % blue 20 % white atm.

I don't know of I would call the fans super quiet though. They are definitely not as loud as the ones on the biocube I had, but you can definitely hear them. They also don't appear to ramp up or down as I move the light intencity which I find odd. I am assuming it should be doing that?, it appears to just be at the same speed all the time, or at least the same noise level.
Click to expand...
 
@barticus wrote:
My fans cut on at 35° Celsius. No speen variant. Sent from my SCH-S968C using Tapatalk said:
What do you mean cut on at 35 C?, my fans start as soon as the unit is turned on, is it supoosed to turn on and off depending on temperature?, they are definitely pretty cool right now, and even when I tried them the first time when they were cold, they turned on immediatedly with the unit. How do you measure the unit temperature?, is that on the menu somewhere?.
Click to expand...
 
Well, different gen. I got mine from a group buy on facebook. When he was in his testing phase. Either way, its an awesome light for the price. Im sure youll be happy with it. Take your time adopting coral and youll be good. Check out the chines led proof group on fb for pics

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@barticus wrote:
Well said:
Ah I see, it is definitely a very nice light!, the color is pretty awesome, and it is extremely bright, I will run the lights at 20% whites, and blues at 40-50% the first 2 weeks, I can tell just by looking at it, that at this intensity it is already way brighter than my orbits at 100%/100%. I will give them some time to acclimate and then probably go to 60% blues, 35% whites?. Just out of curiosity at what intensity are you running yours?. I might even get one or two SPS corals now since this light can definitely support it, don't want to get too many SPS, as I don't want to have to supplement too much. I'll probably just get more LPS and softies.
Click to expand...
 
I posted my scedual on the first page. I think it peaks at 90% blue and 60% white for 4 hrs then ramps down

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