help choosing a budget light for a tank

jmc1974

jmc1974

Member
hello everyone, I am trying to comeback to the hobby after several years out, I found a great little 20g JBJ Frag tank and stand. I ordered 3 light to try and see what would be better for this small frag tank.

The Luminix Pixie 30
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

or

The HIPARGERO LED 30W
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

or

The WILLS Newest 165W LED Black Box
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and last I found but have not ordered yet

The ASTA 120 Saltwater
https://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-Plan...410148061&th=1


what would you recommend and why?


thanks in advance
 
Well I see your budget is "bottom of the barrel" budget.

But what's your goal with this tank? Fish only? soft corals? SPS?

I'd stay away from black boxes, they seem to follow the Amazon motto of selling things, just rebrand crap that comes out as fast as they can make it Chinese factories. You may do good with it, you may do not so good with it.

I would thing that Hipargero one would be the most trouble free though, maybe 2 of them. Uses single LEDs instead of a dense cluster, so you don't have to worry quite as much about cooling quality (which often is why these die), they keep things simple blues white and violet LEDs.

But ultimately you got 3 of them, you'll have to see which one you like best. But if you want to keep SPS coral, I probably would just dump the budget and go with a higher priced light from one of the more known brands.
 
 
dswong01 said:
why not just order a kessel a80 tuna blue for that tank
Click to expand...


I was hoping to keep the light cost under $100 and still have a decent output for a shallow frag tank... I will try to grow everything from zoas, LPS and SPS. so the idea is since the tank is only the JBJ 20 Gallon Shallow Frag tank I can assume I just need decent coverage and PAR, not so much deep penetration as a regular reef tank would need.


20 Frag Tank Specs: Features: "¢All-In-One Filtration
"¢Designed specifically as a frag tank and great as a shallow reef
"¢Frag Rack: consisting of black eggcrate and stand-offs
"¢Strong water pump (266GPH) for water circulation
"¢Designated center column for heater and/or chiller pump
"¢Black cover lid pre-cut to fit and clamp JBJ Pacifica LED light
Aquarium Specs: "¢Approximately 20 Gallons
"¢6 mm Bent Glass
"¢Dimensions: 20" x 24" x 9"
"¢Center Filter Chamber Dimensions: 13.5" x 5" x 9"
"¢Left and Right Filter Chamber Dimensions: 5" x 5" X 9"
Filtration: "¢Acrylic Filter Wall w/ Overflow
"¢Mechanical Sponges
"¢Activated Carbon Sponges
"¢Biological Ceramic rings
"¢Return Spray Bar
"¢Designated Center Column for Heater and/or Chiller Pump
 
I recently bought a lightly used Kessil A80 with gooseneck for $100. I think I saw another one recently in the for sale section for $90.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well I see your budget is "bottom of the barrel" budget.

But what's your goal with this tank? Fish only? soft corals? SPS?

I'd stay away from black boxes, they seem to follow the Amazon motto of selling things, just rebrand crap that comes out as fast as they can make it Chinese factories. You may do good with it, you may do not so good with it.

I would thing that Hipargero one would be the most trouble free though, maybe 2 of them. Uses single LEDs instead of a dense cluster, so you don't have to worry quite as much about cooling quality (which often is why these die), they keep things simple blues white and violet LEDs.

But ultimately you got 3 of them, you'll have to see which one you like best. But if you want to keep SPS coral, I probably would just dump the budget and go with a higher priced light from one of the more known brands.
Click to expand...


yes my budget unfortunately is low, I wanted to save as much as possible to re-enter the hobby and then buy better quality for the future main tank.

now regarding the lights, I have tried to follow the extra long thread on the chinese boxes and seems alot of people like them and they have more than enough power to grow anything, and can be cheap to customize and change LED's and spectrum, as for the mini lights the few reviews I seen got me more confused as now I don't know and this is why I ask all of you for input

see the youtube reviews (this have PAR readings)

Pixie 30
https://youtu.be/_knq3ITwI48


HIPARGERO LED 30W
https://youtu.be/Aa7lwC8uWO0
2nd PAR review on a BIOCUBE 29
https://youtu.be/KJK6vvVcmQc
 
jmc1974 said:
yes my budget unfortunately is low, I wanted to save as much as possible to re-enter the hobby and then buy better quality for the future main tank.

now regarding the lights, I have tried to follow the extra long thread on the chinese boxes and seems alot of people like them and they have more than enough power to grow anything, and can be cheap to customize and change LED's and spectrum, as for the mini lights the few reviews I seen got me more confused as now I don't know and this is why I ask all of you for input
Click to expand...

I totally understand you just want to get something working now to make you happy, however you say buy better later, but then talk about customizing the black box, etc those kind of are counter intuitive. Get something you that'll make you happy now, don't think about what upgrade path there is if your upgrade path is to upgrade to better lights, that should be your focus.

My reason for not liking the black box is because there are so many different branded versions of the same thing that just says "here I'm making this cheap generic thing, but we can customize it with your company logo" and like a lot of Amazon things there ya go. Plus that frag tank is what 10" deep? That's an awful lot of power to put over something so shallow.

That said, here's another review on it by BRS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCSbukB3Ieg
And before anyone scoffs at them doing it, it is a fairly honest look at the product and they even state at the beginning that you can grow stuff with this, they just go a bit further.

That said I don't think I'd go with the ASTA one because it is obviously just a blatent attempt to make a copycat Kessil 350/360 fixture. Not sure any of them even have dimming logic controllers in them, it's basically off/on and you can dial in how much of each channel. Personally if that was my options I'd go with some T5 retrofit kit, probably could throw something together fairly easily for $100, or heck it's "old technology" might find people in the area just trying to get rid of it too :D
 
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