Recomend a few LED setups for...

[meegwell]

90g 48x24d
Fish, Rock, some soft corals (currently on rocks)

Want: sleek, low-profile design.

A recommendation for a low, mid, and/or "higher" budget would be great!

Anything other than ON/OFF would be in the "nice, but not necessary" category for me (moonlight, storms, disco ball, etc).

I've been out of the game for a while and my head started spinning looking for the latest and greatest....

 

[surferarnie]

Check out the brs 160 videos on youtube week 21 is ofr leds. The whole series is great. Filled with lots of info. I added t5's to supliment my Led's after watching the other lighting videos.
Looking at replacing my reef breaders photon 16s. With kessil ap700 or a360ew's, or radion gen 4 leds.
Good luck

 

[Ron Reefman]

Reef Breeders Photon V2 in 32" or 48" would probably fit as an upper midrange fixture. Very slim case, sunrise/sunset/moonlight, 6 channel color control, legs & hangers and a light weight aluminum case. One fixture is all you need and it's under $600. The top end would be EcoTech Radions, they don't do much more than the RB Photon V2 and you'd need 2 of them. Oh, and they are $700 each!

There are less expensive fixtures that still do sunrise/sunset and cost half as much, but they only have 2 channel color control (not a big deal really) and the case is 3 times thicker and very old school looking. The older RB Photons were like these as well (2 channel and thick case).

My 2 DT's with RB Photon V2 fixtures:

 

[meegwell]

Thanks - considering my tank dimensions and fish/soft coral only, what kind of minimum LED wattage should I be looking for?

 

[Ibuild2586]

I have 2 AI Sol for the last 5 years in LPS heavy tank. I had to design my rockscape to work with the coverage areas. Back corners and middle have lower light. Only run a 60% and still have 200+ par on sand.

 

[Ron Reefman]

At 4' long you'd want 2 Chinese black boxes as a minimum and that would be 110 of the 3 watt leds probably driven at 2.2 watts each, so 220 watts (or 1.9 watts if it's the MarsAqua). That would be my minimum. Don't be confused by the claim, or misleading marketing, of fixtures that say 165 watts. The 55 leds are made to run at 165 watts, but almost no led fixture actually drives their leds at 3 watts each. Look in the specs for wattage output. Most will say 120 watts for 55 leds which is 2.2 watts per led.

You'd probably get better coverage with a 32" fixture and for sure good coverage from a 48" fixture. The Reef Breeders Photon V2 48" fixture is 220 watts

 

[zooman72]

I am a big fan of the Maxspect Razors, and the 320W 44" fixture would work well on that tank, is very sleek, fits in that mid-high range (~$900), and has very simple 2-channel control. I recommend hanging them 12"+ above the aquarium for best coverage and color blending. Great fixture for soft coral aquariums IMO...

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks. I agree they look pretty good and they run very cool. I like the CADlight tank and stand too. Looks like a Red Sea system but has several advantages and costs less too!

 

[meegwell]

Those look 1000 times better than the typical black boxes. Logan should use your photos on their website.

When we (read: you all) say "chinese black boxes" I have come to assume what is menat is the common..literally 'black boxes' like the:

galaxyhaydra, beamnova, viparspectra, oceanrevive...which all seem to be very similar looking products with similar features.

these black boxes are all also priced from 80-199 each.

The Photon V2 seems to be in a different class (and price)...and yes, looks much much better !

 

[Ron Reefman]

When we (read: you all) say "chinese black boxes" I have come to assume what is menat is the common..literally 'black boxes' like the:

galaxyhaydra, beamnova, viparspectra, oceanrevive...which all seem to be very similar looking products with similar features.

these black boxes are all also priced from 80-199 each.

The Photon V2 seems to be in a different class (and price)...and yes, looks much much better !

You are right.

Except the OceanRevive is a bit better looking than the other typical black boxes... although it is still black. And up until the V2 came out, so was Reef Breeders Photon. My concern is some/many people may consider all inexpensive Chinese led fixtures as black boxes. And that gets less and less true by the month.