Ecoxotic EcoPico LED or Archaea LED?

[mdisalvo55]

I tried posting this over on nano-reef, but I didn't get much response. I'm hoping some of you might have experiences with these two lights.


I'm trying to decide between these two LED's for a mr aqua 8 gallon cube (12x12x12). The tank is freshwater, it's for my brother and he's really not too picky, so I'm just trying to figure out which one puts out more light and looks better over the tank. Does anybody have any insight? They are similar prices, right now I'm leaning towards the eco pico as some of the reviews were pretty good, but I haven't found much on the Archaea light.

http://www.ecoxotic.com/led-arm-light.html

http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_pa...products_id=666

Any opinions/experience would be appreciated!

 

[NemusMaximus]

I have the EcoPico light, running 5 strips. I like it a lot. Keeping acans, shrooms, zoas and LPS very well.

 

[ange062]

For a FW tank the warmest color you can get the EcoPico in is 12k which is way too blue IMO. You need something closer to the 6.7-8k for it to look natural.

 

[mdisalvo55]

That's a good point, but he doesn't have any plants, so it wouldn't matter as far as growth goes right? I was under the impression that the EcoPico light was designed for freshwater, but maybe that's not right. Can anyone confirm the wattage these two lights run their LED's at?

EDIT-looks like they both run at 3 watts, and the archaea light is somewhere around 10k so I'll be going with that.

 

[ange062]

This is what my tank looked like under 10k / actinic combo, not a pleasant look for FW even outside of plant growth.

The natural colors of the fish and the way it works with the substrate and even artificial plant colors plays much better with a more natural and warmer color like the 6.7k/10k combo that I run now:

Kessil now makes a 6700k version of their a150w pendant, I'm looking to upgrade my T5 fixture to one of these. Just my 2c, hope that helps!