How Much Were Your Lights?

D

Dustin07

Active member
I'm just gonna be blunt and ask straight up, what did your lights cost? :ROFLMAO:

I used to have too many tanks, focused mostly on seahorses and some very easy corals and fish but it was years ago now and I'm having to relearn everything. and technology has changed.

I've been scouring this forum and I'm more lost than ever in regards to selecting lighting. We are doing an upright 10g nano tank (man when I had salt 20 years ago people would give me so much crap for running a small saltwater tank). Tank has been cycled for many months with live rock, live sand, we have some happy clowns, shrimp, crabs, snails but our end goal is nano reef and quite frankly I'm concerned about lighting.

Do I have to spend $250 on an AI Prime 16HD lighting kit to happily raise my corals? Are the knock off brands on Amazon for $60 cutting it? Most don't give me any info on par so i'm just... overwhelmed.

I put off making this post for about 2 weeks as I read more and more because quite frankly I feel like it's a repetitive question and didn't want to be obnoxious, lol.
 
When you say 'easy corals', do you mean zoas (not really a coral), LPS, SPS, softies? That will determine your requirements. NooPsyche gets good reviews and are somewhat cheaper than the name brands. I do like AI and have four over one tank and two over another. Everyone has their opinions on lighting though...like motor oil.

You are fortunate that you are purchasing lighting for a 10g nano. I have around $3000 invested in lighting over my 100g.
 
mtnbike101 said:
When you say 'easy corals', do you mean zoas (not really a coral), LPS, SPS, softies? That will determine your requirements. NooPsyche gets good reviews and are somewhat cheaper than the name brands. I do like AI and have four over one tank and two over another. Everyone has their opinions on lighting though...like motor oil.

You are fortunate that you are purchasing lighting for a 10g nano. I have around $3000 invested in lighting over my 100g.
Click to expand...

To start yes, definitely. But I'm of the mindset that while I don't want to spend 5x more than necessary, I do want to set the tank up for long term success because I know how much I loved doing this in the past and my wife is quickly getting hooked now...

I'm fortunate that my wife hasn't found a place for a larger tank at the moment lol. AND she sees how long it could take to fully fill even her little 10g, so this should keep us consumed through next summer lol.
 
It's interesting, I normally recommend the primes, hydras, radions, etc. - you know buy the best you can afford. But I totally do the opposite myself. I ran DIY LEDs from rapidled for years. Right now I'm using T5's in a Vivosun horticultural fixture I got from amazon and DIY led strips. I think as long as you nail the right spectrum, it really doesn't matter how you do it...

frag_light.jpg
 
kharmaguru said:
It's interesting, I normally recommend the primes, hydras, radions, etc. - you know buy the best you can afford. But I totally do the opposite myself. I ran DIY LEDs from rapidled for years. Right now I'm using T5's in a Vivosun horticultural fixture I got from amazon and DIY led strips. I think as long as you nail the right spectrum, it really doesn't matter how you do it...

View attachment 32375652
Click to expand...

Definitely, but again not everyone is DIY inclined. I just can't see spending just under $3000 to light my 6' 125 gallon! That's straight up robbery to me.

I would definitely look at Viparspectra's before anything else.

My Mars Aquas are still running after all these years. Never needed any "warranty" or app to run them.
 
On my 65 I spent about $400 for my halide/LED set up (looking to upgrade to a better fixture but want a better stand first)

On my wife’s 32 $120 on the SmatFarm LED system
 
kharmaguru said:
It's interesting, I normally recommend the primes, hydras, radions, etc. - you know buy the best you can afford. But I totally do the opposite myself. I ran DIY LEDs from rapidled for years. Right now I'm using T5's in a Vivosun horticultural fixture I got from amazon and DIY led strips. I think as long as you nail the right spectrum, it really doesn't matter how you do it...

View attachment 32375652
Click to expand...


I spent a lot of time these past few days and... maybe it's just because I've been out of it so long that I dont even know where to start, but I struggled to find fixtures that would be small enough for a nano for T5s. I don't particularly care (at the moment) if it's LED or not as long as I'm giving the corals the best possible scenario. But being as the tank is only about 12"x12" footprint a 24" fixture wouldn't work... the LED's are small and compact and... expensive, lol.
 
Flippersreef said:
CCB's
Click to expand...

Can you give me more info on CCB? sorry.... lol I'm not familiar and googled it but came up a little dry.

I did see these though which look like the lights in your video. claims high Par, just a little too wide for my nano tank but I bet there is a smaller one.

 
Dustin07 said:
Can you give me more info on CCB? sorry.... lol I'm not familiar and googled it but came up a little dry.

I did see these though which look like the lights in your video. claims high Par, just a little too wide for my nano tank but I bet there is a smaller one.

Click to expand...
He meant CBB - Chinese Black Boxes. Many many successful coral growth stories with them but the quality varies. As @Flippersreef said Viparspectra and Mars Aqua have good followings. @Uncle99 hasn't been around lately but he uses the Mars I believe and has a great tank.
 
Agreed. Viparspectra and MarsAqua and others will give you growth. The smatfarm light I have will also likely work very well for your tank (the remote is junk but the screen controls are fairly simple).
 
Well... right now unless I can find a fixture small enough to go with T5 I'm leaning heavily towards AI Prime for a couple reasons:

a. the programming seems easy enough, and the price of the Kessil is the same as the Prime when you add controller.
b. seems to have equal to or better than performance in regards to par for anything else in that price range or less
c. trusted brand, new fires (lol)

I don't want to go drop $250. I might attempt picking up a used one here on the forums. But I'm leaning heavily towards the AI Prime vs experimenting with a $50 setup that ends up being no better than the cheapo LED's I have over my nano right now.

If anyone can give me a reason not to go this route I'd love to hear it (and save money LOL). But I also recognize that considering the eventual cost of corals I'll be investing, the light will not be the most expensive thing by the time the tank is complete.


I might experiment with a cheaper light for a 5g nano I plan to setup at work on my desk though.
 
Dustin07 said:
Well... right now unless I can find a fixture small enough to go with T5 I'm leaning heavily towards AI Prime for a couple reasons:

a. the programming seems easy enough, and the price of the Kessil is the same as the Prime when you add controller.
b. seems to have equal to or better than performance in regards to par for anything else in that price range or less
c. trusted brand, new fires (lol)

I don't want to go drop $250. I might attempt picking up a used one here on the forums. But I'm leaning heavily towards the AI Prime vs experimenting with a $50 setup that ends up being no better than the cheapo LED's I have over my nano right now.

If anyone can give me a reason not to go this route I'd love to hear it (and save money LOL). But I also recognize that considering the eventual cost of corals I'll be investing, the light will not be the most expensive thing by the time the tank is complete.


I might experiment with a cheaper light for a 5g nano I plan to setup at work on my desk though.
Click to expand...
Can't go wrong Primes. Here's a current listing. Not HD's but I believe the only difference is LED channels can go over 100% on the HD's. @griss just dealt with him and no problems.

https://forums.reefcentral.com/thre...na-test-kits-and-more.32371917/#post-32384951

Dude should be giving me a cut, lol.
 
If you aren't familiar, Luxdium makes replacement pucks for a few of the AI HD lights. I have two Gold pucks in a Hydra 26HD and am very impressed! I hope they come out with pucks for the Hydra 32HD sometime in the future. I mention this in case you get a deal on an older AI light.
 
OK so after the posts here, a lot of reading, considering T5 and MH, then going back and forth between new and used I finally did decide on the RedSea 50w. I bought new + arm so I paid plenty for it... But I'm happy to finally have made a decision and I'll learn the new system tonight! I'm pumped for this because I think lighting is the biggest thing holding me back right now.
 
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