Hey, so the 15G AIO i got came with a AI Blade Grow 12" and in a lot of ways, it's a very nice light. It can push out way more than enough PAR for a take like this.
I have it on RB:40%,Blue:40%, and CW:67% (11000K on the app) on a parabola, 12 hours. This is probably as close as i can get i think for par and what i aesthetically like.. it gets blue morning, evening bright in the afternoons etc. Stocking is a tail spot blenny, clown, randall's goby, candy cane pistol, peppermint shrimp and snails. Coral stocking is Duncan, Clove Polyps, ricordia yuma, an Acan/Micromussa and Blasomussa - so softie/LPS.
However, drawbacks (for me):
- there is no warmth, it just gets less blue; if i go any more blue the clown coloration starts to suffer
- some color pop from the RB, but blade has no indigo,violet,uv (cause the Blade Glow exists). i bought a 395nm flashlight to experiment with and can see there is at least some improvements down there in the coloration.
So I guess, in summary, i have no doubt that this thing has good blue bland growing power. I'm worried about below blue and warmth. Blade Glow would cover the below blue but $186 and the space a whole other blade will take up, and not giving me any warm white or cyan/green/red to add tiny amount of warmth. So that is not really what I want either.
I currently don't see any 12" type / 15 gallon suitable supplemental LED bars that might could be used to boost everything except what the blade does well. Below Blue + Above blue. Poking around on Steve's LEDs and maybe i could do something custom with him.. but then we have one light on an app and another that would have to be on mechanical timer (and maybe that is fine cause it will be very low and maybe could only turn it ). >> Any other options come to mind?
The alternative is totally replacing the Blade Grow with something else. After looking around all weekend at things < $300 , the NooPsyche K7 Pro III .. on paper seems like exactly what i want. Hopefully not giving up too much spread (the blade's do a good job at this at least). But that is a full replacement light for less than adding the Glow. Smatfam G5 looked good too but no app. I guess what put me over the edge was @BeanAnimal 's profile generator as that was definately a pain point with the blade was forced to use a phone instead of computer/keyboard/mouse to input stuff haha.
any other opinions?
I have it on RB:40%,Blue:40%, and CW:67% (11000K on the app) on a parabola, 12 hours. This is probably as close as i can get i think for par and what i aesthetically like.. it gets blue morning, evening bright in the afternoons etc. Stocking is a tail spot blenny, clown, randall's goby, candy cane pistol, peppermint shrimp and snails. Coral stocking is Duncan, Clove Polyps, ricordia yuma, an Acan/Micromussa and Blasomussa - so softie/LPS.
However, drawbacks (for me):
- there is no warmth, it just gets less blue; if i go any more blue the clown coloration starts to suffer
- some color pop from the RB, but blade has no indigo,violet,uv (cause the Blade Glow exists). i bought a 395nm flashlight to experiment with and can see there is at least some improvements down there in the coloration.
So I guess, in summary, i have no doubt that this thing has good blue bland growing power. I'm worried about below blue and warmth. Blade Glow would cover the below blue but $186 and the space a whole other blade will take up, and not giving me any warm white or cyan/green/red to add tiny amount of warmth. So that is not really what I want either.
I currently don't see any 12" type / 15 gallon suitable supplemental LED bars that might could be used to boost everything except what the blade does well. Below Blue + Above blue. Poking around on Steve's LEDs and maybe i could do something custom with him.. but then we have one light on an app and another that would have to be on mechanical timer (and maybe that is fine cause it will be very low and maybe could only turn it ). >> Any other options come to mind?
The alternative is totally replacing the Blade Grow with something else. After looking around all weekend at things < $300 , the NooPsyche K7 Pro III .. on paper seems like exactly what i want. Hopefully not giving up too much spread (the blade's do a good job at this at least). But that is a full replacement light for less than adding the Glow. Smatfam G5 looked good too but no app. I guess what put me over the edge was @BeanAnimal 's profile generator as that was definately a pain point with the blade was forced to use a phone instead of computer/keyboard/mouse to input stuff haha.
any other opinions?