A review of my 60" ATI Retro from NanoBox Reef

BetURWrasse · Nov 21, 2016

This will make the third lighting system I have tried from Dave the previous two being his Beam and Hybrid T5/LED. For those that don't know NanoBox is a small company ran by Dave Fason who has been making custom lighting for the past couple years. His customer service is second to none, well Ecotech is pretty darn good.

Hybrid above old IM 30L

Dual Hybrids above 130g

Beam over refugium (when I first started the tank, its full now. )

Back to the Retro.
I was torn during my initial build on what way to go with the lighting. I had ran Radion 15's over the 30L and liked them but wanted to try something different with the 130g. The tank was custom built, I built the stand and shelving over it and I wanted something somewhat custom for the lighting. I found NanoBox on another forum and that was about the time Dave was coming out with the Hybrid system. I was told then he could do the retro (and it was suggested by others I go that way) but I like to try new things and decided that the 2 Hybrids would look pretty cool. You can pretty much get them painted any way but I just chose the Black.

After running them for a little over a year now I was seeing good color on my coral and the system was running pretty well. BUT I got the itch. I needed to try something new. SO I got ahold of Dave again and decided to go with a 60" ATI 6 bulb. The 8 may have been better but I wanted a gap that I could get into the top of the tank with banging into the light every time.

Dave custom painted my ATI a flat white

You can choose the number of LED clusters and I went with 8 since I was losing 2 T5's. They contain Royal Blue, Blue/cyan, white, lime, and violet. The LED's are controlled with my iPhone via a Bluefish controller app.
This is Bluefish controller that is placed inside of the ATI: (This one controlled my hybrid)

This is the light settings field in the app showing the 5 individual channels

Setting up the LED schedule is pretty straight forward although there is room for improvement. I like the ability to add individual points like ecotech allows for changes during the day. The Bluefish pretty much allows you to set Morning, Midday, evening, and night. It gets the job done but like we all know, more control is always better.

My understanding is that Dave can have the LED controlled by the apex 0-10V connection but he recommends the Bluefish integration for better control.

As for the T5's and Fans on the ATI light they are controlled via the plugs connected to my apex. Simple ON/Off programing on the apex gets it done.

Speaking of plugs, you will have 3. Fans/T5/LED

The wiring and setup on/in the light is very clean.

Really really enjoy this system and it looks great.

It always comes down to price so

ATI PowerModule Hybrid
60" 4xT5 with 3xLED cluster $1700-$2000 (Currenty $1885 BRS)

ATI Retro painted, 8 led clusters and Bluefish 5 channel control approx. $1500.

Caveats:
1) prices differ depending on ATI size, LED customization and paint choices. Mine is pretty much the most expensive option.

2) I had Dave get the ATI sunpower for me and I got a slight discount on the light like you would during a sale at MD or BRS, actual price may very and you could always do better if you can buy the ATI at discount and send to Dave. (Black Friday deal)

If you are looking for a T5/LED and don't just want to add the external LED bars to an ATI or don't want to do it yourself I highly suggest checking out Nano Box Reef.

Finally in no way did Dave ask me to do this. I didn't get any special pricing or discount for doing it on top of the regular light cost discount I mentioned which in the end is probably less than a Black Friday deal. I just have had 3 of his lights and they are great. He is very easy to reach and when situations have arose that needed correcting he was super fast in making it right. Some other companies out there should take notice, this is how you make your customers happy and in return they write positive reviews and get you more business. No waiting 2 days for an email response from Nano Box, LOL