New Reefi Lab Uno 2.0 Pro - unboxing

[Haacheew]

Finally, got my pre-ordered Reefi Lab Uno 2 two days ago. It was worth the wait. I like trying new toys, LED lighting is one of them (the other is skimmers, lol). I have tried AI Prime, Radion G5 xr-15 Pro, GNC M Pro and now Uno 2. All of them are good lights. The new Uno 2 is packed with features and PAR power. Particularly its coloration rendering to corals is very impactful.

I have an approx. 24"x20"x16" Fiji Cube AIO tank (focusing on SPS). So, the very first thing I did was to replace the installed default 90-degree Reeflectors with the 120-degree. The light is 11" above the water surface. Trying to spread the PAR to left and right as much as possible without too much center hot spot. I might end up with 2x Uno 2s if the hot spot becomes a huge problem or not enough PAR for the edges.

Color of the default SPS settings is remarkable. Freaking awesome PAR (measured with iPhone Photone apps). I had to lower the Master intensity from 100% to 70% for the default SPS settings. Set Acclimation to 60% for 20 days based on the 70% Master intensity. Its still very intense.

Sorry for the bad photos. I can never be able to get the photo coloration right (gave up on the iPhone 12SE. I just don't have the skills). The real live coral color is loads better.

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[Robertcuvalo]

Hey, thanks for the detailed post! I have a tank similar size to yours running a G5 blue. I'm intrigued with the extra UV spectrum on this light. Do you see any extra fluorescence with these over other lights you've owned?

 

[Haacheew]

Hey, thanks for the detailed post! I have a tank similar size to yours running a G5 blue. I'm intrigued with the extra UV spectrum on this light. Do you see any extra fluorescence with these over other lights you've owned?

I am not sure what the extent of fluorescence improvements of having the extra 420nm and 400nm. I haven't tested channel by channel. But coral vivid color is remarkable. The overall coloration is the BEST I have seen among all the LED lights that I had owned.

The G5 Pro xr-15 could grow coral but the over all color rendering on coral can't compare to Uno2. My JF Homewrecker, Orgeon Tort, ShowGirl and BubbleYum, to name the few, have beautiful fluorescence radiance. I bet you will appreciate it. Too bad my lousy camera skill can never reproduce, not even close to, the true color . I hope other Uno2 users can post their tank shots to show off their beautiful corals.

Btw, watch out the monstrous PAR power of this light. Although the fan turns on frequently, fan noise is extremely low, near quiet. G5 was pretty bad in comparison.

For people thinking about the $500 Radion XR15 G6, they should seriously research of the $450 Uno2 before making the final decision. -- "Why would I pay more for less: quality, PAR power, loads features and warranty?" ahh, the premium may be for the brand name and re-sale value. But who knows Uno2 won't keep its re-sale value as much as Radion? Will see. Or who cares.

The only minor complaint I have thus far is the not-so-pretty GUI, it is text base (reminds me of eons ago MS DOS). But it is fully functional and stable.

 

[TheWB]

I am not sure what the extent of fluorescence improvements of having the extra 420nm and 400nm. I haven't tested channel by channel. But coral vivid color is remarkable. The all overall coloration is the BEST I have seen among all the LED lights that I had owned.

The G5 Pro xr-15 could grow coral but the over all color rendering on coral can't compare to Uno2. My JF Homewrecker, Orgeon Tort, ShowGirl and BubbleYum, to name the few, have beautiful fluorescence radiance. I bet you will appreciate it. Too bad my lousy camera skill can never reproduce, not even close to, the true color . I hope other Uno2 users can post their tank shots to show off their beautiful corals.

Btw, watch out the monstrous PAR power of this light. Although the fan turns on frequently, fan noise is extremely low, near quiet. G5 was pretty bad in comparison.

For people thinking about the $500 Radion XR15 G6, they should seriously research of the $450 Uno2 before making the final decision. -- "Why would I pay more for less: quality, PAR power, loads features and warranty?" ahh, the premium may be for the brand name and re-sale value. But who knows Uno2 won't keep it re-sale value as much as Radion? Will see. Or who cares.

The only minor complain I have thus far is the not so pretty GUI, it is text base (remind me eons ago MS DOS). But it is fully functional and stable.

Glad to see you are happy with the Uno 2.0‘s. I have a pair of Uno 1.0 that I was running on my IM Lagoon 50 (29x19.5 display area). I really liked the color they brought out in my corals. I have switched to different lights ahead of a tank upgrade but I will use my Uno’s on other projects. The 2.0 looks incredible, these lights should really get more love. They are very well made and outperform pretty much everything else out there for the money. I do agree with your minor complaint about the GUI, it was mostly operator error but I never really understood what I was doing with it.

 

[Haacheew]

more coral photos under Uno2

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[Luckyduck]

Excellent write up man! I've had mine since last week still sitting in the box downstairs. I'm super excited as today is the day I will be hanging it. I actually bought it for my frag tank. One side is the ReeFi 2.0, the other I have a 20k halide over and I have two Quanta Reef Meso Blue strips. Originally I was going to use the ReeFi for my LPS side and Halide for the SPS side but after seeing your pictures I might have to switch sides! Wow! I just built a custom fixture to house all of my lights and installed a GFI receptacle in the ceiling right above the lights. Should look tight when it's all hung. Can't wait! I also rented a Par meter that I should have in a few days so I will be taking measurements. I will document and share when I'm finished. Although the tank is only 12" being a frag tank but still none the less some still may find the results useful.

When did you pre-order yours? I've had mine locked in since May!

 

[Haacheew]

Thank you. Testing/using a new toy is exciting. I am certain you will enjoy your Uno2. And thanks to Dan Lu of Reefi Lab bringing us such a great light.

Look forward to your PAR measurements. I don't have access to a real PAR meter, so do me a favor if you could. With the 120 degree Reeflectors installed, please measure 3", 6" and 9" from surface of water -- (1) at the center, and (2) 11" left from the the center to the left side. Thanks in advance.

I missed the 20% OFF Pre-order deadline while waiting for the ATI Straton Pro. Some posts mentioned that if we were lucky Straton Pro might take at least 18 months to reach U.S. So, I pre-ordered Uno2 at full price $450 in September.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I just setup one of these over my reefer 170 and am finding seemingly impossible PAR values using my Apogee sq120 sensor.

Using the sps prebuilt settings, at peak (185w or so), at 19in from the light, I’m seeing that over 650 par in the center. This is with the 90deg reflector.

The built in sps setting gives a very nice color combination, too.

Very happ!

 

[Haacheew]

The default SPS settings is already very good. I like a bit more white. So I added 10-15% to those non-blue and non-violet channels for Day/Peak/After modules. Awesome color for my tasting and enough blue and PAR for SPS.

 

[SilverBulletPRN]

I just got a MQ-510 yesterday. Did a couple of tests with it on a Reefer 200XL, @LARedstickreefer your readings are pretty similar to mine. On the default SPS setting, in the middle I got 600+ par and 250-350 on the sandbed with the lights hanging 10" with the 120* reflectors

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I just got a MQ-510 yesterday. Did a couple of tests with it on a Reefer 200XL, @LARedstickreefer your readings are pretty similar to mine. On the default SPS setting, in the middle I got 600+ par and 250-350 on the sandbed with the lights hanging 10" with the 120* reflectors

Looks like I might need to use acclimation mode then as this would be a large increase in par from what my corals were used to (300par). I might also need to swap my 90deg reflector to the 120deg.

Feels good to finally have more par than I need!
-Matt

 

[trmiv]

I’m considering switching from my 3x radion xr15 g5 pros to a couple of these. I like the reduced side glare since my wife always complains about that. The Radions work great for me, but I do need a bit more par. I’m worried I won’t like the color as much on these since I can’t see them in person. Also the UI, while functional, doesn’t look great. Also it looks like maybe it does work well on mobile. I’d hate to have to break out my laptop every time I want to make a change, or set a different mode for pics or whatever.

That said they are tempting since I’d have power to spare. I’m running my radion pros at 93% right now so I don’t have much room to go up. Also the reduce side glare aspect is nice.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I’m considering switching from my 3x radion xr15 g5 pros to a couple of these. I like the reduced side glare since my wife always complains about that. The Radions work great for me, but I do need a bit more par. I’m worried I won’t like the color as much on these since I can’t see them in person. Also the UI, while functional, doesn’t look great. Also it looks like maybe it does work well on mobile. I’d hate to have to break out my laptop every time I want to make a change, or set a different mode for pics or whatever.

That said they are tempting since I’d have power to spare. I’m running my radion pros at 93% right now so I don’t have much room to go up. Also the reduce side glare aspect is nice.

Color on these is spot on and the mobile interface works fine.

 

[trmiv]

So you are able to make adjustments on mobile? Cool. I always just see screenshots and videos from a computer and I wasn’t sure how well it would scale to a mobile screen.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

So you are able to make adjustments on mobile? Cool. I always just see screenshots and videos from a computer and I wasn’t sure how well it would scale to a mobile screen.

I stopped using my laptop long ago and use my iPhone for pretty much everything now. I wouldn’t say that the Reefi web interface is perfect, but it’s easy enough to do whatever you want.

 

[trmiv]

Thanks good to know. Well certainly something to think about. Not that I have any reason to switch since my tank is doing well, but I like messing with stuff unnecessarily.

 

[7107islands]

Debating over 2 Reefi uno v2 or illumagic blaze x 36” for my 36x19x13 innovative marine tank.

 

[Haacheew]

Need help with how the Cloud settings works in details.

For the purpose of this discussion and the figures used, refer to the above screenshot, please. I set the Global Max to 30% and different Cloud Factor 3,2,1 to different color channels. Master at 80%.
Q: let's say the current Master (intensity) is 80% and the current Cloud is 9%. So the effective Master would be 80% x 91% = 72.8%. Is this correct?
Q: does it means that a channel with Cloud Factor 3 has 20% dimmer than a channel with Cloud Factor 1?
Q: what's the probability % (frequency) of the Cloud effects taken place in an hour or any given time? Or, what's the Cloud RNG? -- (Dan @reefi might be the only one can answer this)
Q: Does the Cloud effects in sync (or averaged probability) with different seasons using a specific coral reef region, e.g. Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Maldives? -- well, this could be a selling point

Thank you in advance.

End.

 

[danlu_gt]

Need help with how the Cloud settings works in details.

For the purpose of this discussion and the figures used, refer to the above screenshot, please. I set the Global Max to 30% and different Cloud Factor 3,2,1 to different color channels. Master at 80%.
Q: let's say the current Master (intensity) is 80% and the current Cloud is 9%. So the effective Master would be 80% x 91% = 72.8%. Is this correct?
Q: does it means that a channel with Cloud Factor 3 has 20% dimmer than a channel with Cloud Factor 1?
Q: what's the probability % (frequency) of the Cloud effects taken place in an hour or any given time? Or, what's the Cloud RNG? -- (Dan @reefi might be the only one can answer this)
Q: Does the Cloud effects in sync (or averaged probability) with different seasons using a specific coral reef region, e.g. Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Maldives? -- well, this could be a selling point

Thank you in advance.

End.

Let's see if I'm allow to answer this...

For channels with Cloud Factor of 1, then yes, you get 80% x 91% =72.8% of your settings.
For channels with Cloud Factor of 2, then you get 80% x 91% x 91% = 66.248% of your settings.
For channels with Cloud Factor of 3, then you get 80% x 91% x 91% x 91% = 60.286% of your settings.

Cloud is randomized every 5min from 0% to Max%.

For channels that you don't want to have Cloud effect, set Cloud Factor to 0.

 

[speedinc]

Any update on your light? Seeing that you’ve used most of the name brands in the past, it’s a good reassurance that you’re saying this gives out the best looking spectrum to your eyes and pack a bunch of par should you need them. I have used xr30 G5 blue, ATI Stratton on my old 170reefer and now I’m using illumagic blaze x120 with the vitamini strip on my reefer425xl. I’m considering strapping over to 4 x G5xr15 or 2 x uno2.0

I’m an sps guy so coverage is very important to me.

there’s not a lot of reviews on this light yet that’s what’s keeping me away from buying