SuncrestReef
That Apex guy
Last weekend I hosted my local aquarium club (PNWMAS) monthly meeting at my house to show off my Reefer XL 425 and all my Apex automation. It was a great turnout with about 30 people, and I also spent some quality time grilling up chicken, burgers, and bratwurst on my BBQ for the crowd. Fun times!
But the other highlight of this meeting was a demo of the new ReeFi Duo Extreme LED light system by Daniel Lu. I had only recently learned of ReeFi from Daniel’s posts in our local PNWMAS forum, and knew he had been hard at work for the past year to design and produce the newest product in his successful line of LED lighting systems using his skills and knowledge from years of working at Intel and his extensive engineering college background. A couple other local reefers had nothing but praise for these new lights, and after seeing one on display at my LFS I realized that these were not just some knock-off black box LED.
As I was planning for the monthly meeting, I learned that Daniel would be back from his overseas trip with a big batch of new lights, so we arranged to do a demo and side-by-side comparison of his new ReeFi Duo Extreme against my Radion XR30w Pro G4. Daniel lives only 20 minutes from my house so he stopped by a few days in advance of the meeting to get his light installed and tuned for my tank. These lights are beautifully designed and professional looking, on par with the major manufacturers in the industry.
He custom 3D printed an adapter to fit my Radion RMS mount arm perfectly, so it was really easy to pop his light onto my existing mounting arm.
The first thing I noticed was how the ReeFi had no side glare like my Radion. My aquarium is in my living room, and when you sit on the couch or chairs to watch TV or just relax, the glare from the Radions is always in your face. The ReeFi, on the other hand, has no side glare and all the light is projected straight down into the tank. Here's a shot of the Radion on the left, and the ReeFi on the right:
Rather than using lenses like the Radion, Daniel invented “ReeFlectors” which are parabolic reflectors surrounding each of the 72 LED diodes that aim the light down without spreading it too far to the sides. This blends the light nicely without the need for diffusers like I have on the Radions and produces a very nice even light spread in the tank without lighting up the rest of the room, and very little disco effect.
The 72 LED’s are grouped into two 6 x 6 grids and produce a total of 216 watts. There are 9 separate LED channels with a unique combination of colors: 400nm UV, 420nm deep violet, 435nm violet, 450nm royal blue, 470nm blue, lime, amber, 3000K warm white, and 6500K cool white. When you first boot up the ReeFi, it goes through a self-test process and you can see each of the channels light up:
The fit and finish on the lights is amazing, and you simply need to see the mirrored glass panel that covers the bottom of the light fixture in person to appreciate it. The glass is held on by magnets allowing easy access to the LED’s and circuit board if necessary, but the magnets are strong and hold it firmly in place. I have actually knocked my Radion diffusers off a couple of times by mistake while working on the tank from above because the magnets aren’t very strong, but that’s not the case with the ReeFi’s.
Another really nice touch is the LCD panel on the front that displays the IP address and statistics of the current lighting mode, as well as cooling fan status.
These lights connect to WiFi and are controlled by any web browser. The user interface is simple and self explanatory, and multiple lights can be grouped together to manage them as a single unit. I’ll admit one thing I’ll probably miss is the ability to manage my Radions through my Apex Fusion console, and I also had just recently set up a custom switch box connected to my Apex breakout box so I could quickly turn on blue lights or white lights with the push of a button. But I think the overall form and function of the ReeFi’s will help me get over that, and it’s pretty easy to change the lighting spectrum from my phone or other web browser when needed.
For now I have the ReeFi spectrum set as close as possible to what I had on the Radions, and used my PAR meter to make sure the intensity is about the same. Over time, I’ll probably adjust the spectrum a bit to take advantage of the new color channels I have available. Only time will tell to see how my corals respond to the new lights. But overall I’m pretty excited and impressed with my new ReeFi’s. I feel like I’m getting in early on a new successful product in the reefing industry.
Here's a full tank video under the new ReeFi lights:
But the other highlight of this meeting was a demo of the new ReeFi Duo Extreme LED light system by Daniel Lu. I had only recently learned of ReeFi from Daniel’s posts in our local PNWMAS forum, and knew he had been hard at work for the past year to design and produce the newest product in his successful line of LED lighting systems using his skills and knowledge from years of working at Intel and his extensive engineering college background. A couple other local reefers had nothing but praise for these new lights, and after seeing one on display at my LFS I realized that these were not just some knock-off black box LED.
As I was planning for the monthly meeting, I learned that Daniel would be back from his overseas trip with a big batch of new lights, so we arranged to do a demo and side-by-side comparison of his new ReeFi Duo Extreme against my Radion XR30w Pro G4. Daniel lives only 20 minutes from my house so he stopped by a few days in advance of the meeting to get his light installed and tuned for my tank. These lights are beautifully designed and professional looking, on par with the major manufacturers in the industry.
He custom 3D printed an adapter to fit my Radion RMS mount arm perfectly, so it was really easy to pop his light onto my existing mounting arm.
The first thing I noticed was how the ReeFi had no side glare like my Radion. My aquarium is in my living room, and when you sit on the couch or chairs to watch TV or just relax, the glare from the Radions is always in your face. The ReeFi, on the other hand, has no side glare and all the light is projected straight down into the tank. Here's a shot of the Radion on the left, and the ReeFi on the right:
Rather than using lenses like the Radion, Daniel invented “ReeFlectors” which are parabolic reflectors surrounding each of the 72 LED diodes that aim the light down without spreading it too far to the sides. This blends the light nicely without the need for diffusers like I have on the Radions and produces a very nice even light spread in the tank without lighting up the rest of the room, and very little disco effect.
The 72 LED’s are grouped into two 6 x 6 grids and produce a total of 216 watts. There are 9 separate LED channels with a unique combination of colors: 400nm UV, 420nm deep violet, 435nm violet, 450nm royal blue, 470nm blue, lime, amber, 3000K warm white, and 6500K cool white. When you first boot up the ReeFi, it goes through a self-test process and you can see each of the channels light up:
The fit and finish on the lights is amazing, and you simply need to see the mirrored glass panel that covers the bottom of the light fixture in person to appreciate it. The glass is held on by magnets allowing easy access to the LED’s and circuit board if necessary, but the magnets are strong and hold it firmly in place. I have actually knocked my Radion diffusers off a couple of times by mistake while working on the tank from above because the magnets aren’t very strong, but that’s not the case with the ReeFi’s.
Another really nice touch is the LCD panel on the front that displays the IP address and statistics of the current lighting mode, as well as cooling fan status.
These lights connect to WiFi and are controlled by any web browser. The user interface is simple and self explanatory, and multiple lights can be grouped together to manage them as a single unit. I’ll admit one thing I’ll probably miss is the ability to manage my Radions through my Apex Fusion console, and I also had just recently set up a custom switch box connected to my Apex breakout box so I could quickly turn on blue lights or white lights with the push of a button. But I think the overall form and function of the ReeFi’s will help me get over that, and it’s pretty easy to change the lighting spectrum from my phone or other web browser when needed.
For now I have the ReeFi spectrum set as close as possible to what I had on the Radions, and used my PAR meter to make sure the intensity is about the same. Over time, I’ll probably adjust the spectrum a bit to take advantage of the new color channels I have available. Only time will tell to see how my corals respond to the new lights. But overall I’m pretty excited and impressed with my new ReeFi’s. I feel like I’m getting in early on a new successful product in the reefing industry.
Here's a full tank video under the new ReeFi lights:
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