29 BioCube Light Options?

[Alex1524]

Hey guys, I recently purchased a 29 biocube for my house and was wondering what everyone's opinions were on aftermarket lighting? I would like to have the option of growing everything from zoas to sps if I wanted to. I am open to a retrofit kit in the existing hood or even taking the hood off and making the tank rimless and putting a fixture above it.

I am leaning towards rapidled retrofit under the hood but then again I just saw a nice rimless mod which I love also but obviously can't put the rapid retrofit as the hood will be off. I've seen a lot of posts on this but the majority are older and seeing as technology has drastically changed with lighting I just want to hear everyone's opinions.

Thanks!

 

[jonnyu]

Intank fuge and media tray then a good skimmer . For lights retro kit works great. I would do the silentx fans

 

[MrYenko]

I have a Coralife 29, and did a RapidLED retrofit kit back in March. I love it, with three caveats:

I'm probably a bit above the average of electrical and electronic skill level in the hobby. The Rapid kit as delivered to me came with complete, but not particularly detailed instructions. I could easily see someone with less electronics experience popping emitters during assembly and testing. I was also unhappy with the electrical installation as provided, and added quick disconnects (as supplied and instructed, the hood becomes hard-wired to the ballasts,) and quite a bit of modification of the electrical system, for mechanical strength.

My array has the recommended 10x Royal Blue, 8x Cool White, 4x UV, and one each red and green emitters, and I still I wish I had gone bluer, in terms of color balance. I end up with the white array turned all the way down, and the blue/color/UV array turned all the way up. I'd like the ability to go just a bit bluer. This is a personal thing, and Rapid will send whatever emitters you ask for, but you're pretty locked-in once you actually assemble the thing. (Yes, I could change them, but it'd be a pain in the ***.)

Heat. Holy crap heat. This is south Florida, and with a 78°F room temperature, and stock PCs, my tank would hover around 80-82°F with the lights on, and both the equipment lid and feeding lid open. After the LED installation, that temperature became scary-high, which led me to a chiller. Not cheap. Of course, the chiller has also made my tank significantly more stable, and consequently healthier, and cut WAY back on the amount of top-off water I use. Not a dollar saver, but its significantly more convenient now that I'm not schlepping five gallons of RO/DI around my living room every week.

TL;DR: This array is more than enough light to grow anything I could possibly want, and I'm very happy with it, but I would suggest something open-topped if you're unable or unwilling to run a chiller.

Here's my thread in the vendor forums after I finished it. I hadn't completely figured out the controller, so the colors were still rather white.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2395030

And here's a current shot. It shows up quite a bit bluer than it appears to the eye.

http://i.imgur.com/IMdPCyr.jpg

If you have any specific questions, shoot.

 

[sarko]

if i was to do one, it would be make the tank rimless and hang a led over it. Had a AI sol over my biocube and that was nice, also really like my Chinese led boxes.

 

[jonnyu]

If you do rimless maybe the onyx would be a good choice

 

[Alex1524]

Thank you all for your input. I think I figured out what I'm going to do. I am going to remove the canopy and rim from the tank and add the new Kessil a160 led. It's very clean and from what I've read the reviews of the light are amazing. Haven't read one bad review to date granted the a150 is the predecessor to the new a160 which is dimmable and you can adjust the color spectrum. They ship out at the end of the month and msrp is $249 from what customer service told me.

Will keep you all posted when I get it all done.

 

[sarko]

word, those are nice too, Elite marine uses them and they are nice lights and really small so it should look clean over the smaller tank.

 

[necrio]

I kept the hood in place to control evap.

I took out just the bulbs and a couple other parts, cut a hole into it and placed a $130 dollar reef breeder nano lite. ( https://www.reefbreeders.com/shop/nano-lite/ )

I can promise it can grow everything. Had it since the day it came out and I have huge growth. Even acro

 

[maxheadroom]

I'm currently running one of the 120W Chinese dimmable lights over my Biocube 29. Looks great with great results but as soon as AI releases their new Prime light, I'll be switching to that. $199, full spectrum controllable and no timers needed. It's Wifi controlled thru your PC or smartphone.

 

[rovster]

LED and MP10 and you shouldn't have any heat issues.

Kessils are nice. Never used them as a primary but I have 2 over my ghetto tank. Spread is pretty good. If the new ones are dimmable and controllable even better. Shimmer is insane!