Thinking of switching lighting

Aparker2005 · Jan 6, 2023

Currently have a 6ft 125 mixed reef powered by 4 Current USA R24 leds, and 2 of the newer 95w R24 leds.

I absolutely love the cell phone function, as well as the ramp up and ramp down features.

The lights mount on the tank, which is a requirement for us.

For whatever reason, I really think I want to switch. The lights look great, and seem to be giving good growth, but for some reason I've never fell in love with the color spectrum.

I had almost moved to the newer NiCrew leds, but never did.

I've always been interested in a Reefbreeders Photon, but they're pretty expensive. I could always sell these Current USA, they're in excellent condition.

If I were looking for a good light (or lights) for this tank, what would you recommend?

Rtaylor · Jan 6, 2023

I assume you’ve played with different settings to try to find a spectrum you like better? Personally I prefer more white light as it looks more natural.

I think changing up your scape would significantly improve the ‘look’ of the tank. It looks like you’re not using the full height available for rock work. You could create a lot more depth and visual interest by creating islands and varying the height and width of your scape. Also creating pass throughs and caves would be much appreciated by your fish.
This also creates higher light and lower light areas, even dark or shaded areas. All of these might improve how you perceive the lighting. Just some thoughts. It’s a beautiful setup, but could be spectacular with some creative ‘decorating’.

Bucs20fan · Jan 6, 2023

Rtaylor said:
I assume you’ve played with different settings to try to find a spectrum you like better? Personally I prefer more white light as it looks more natural.

I think changing up your scape would significantly improve the ‘look’ of the tank. It looks like you’re not using the full height available for rock work. You could create a lot more depth and visual interest by creating islands and varying the height and width of your scape. Also creating pass throughs and caves would be much appreciated by your fish.
This also creates higher light and lower light areas, even dark or shaded areas. All of these might improve how you perceive the lighting. Just some thoughts. It’s a beautiful setup, but could be spectacular with some creative ‘decorating’.

I agree with this 100% you are gonna want more height the longer your mind lingers and wants different corals. I have a 4 ft with 2 xr15s and one xr30 on my tank and I love them.

Aparker2005 · Jan 6, 2023

Well the scape, my wife did. She has definitely wanted to redo it.There are lots of swim throughs the fish enjoy, but it does lack height/depth. It's kinda hard to place corals on currently as well. We did this scape mostly to have the "racetrack" thing going. Plus these rocks were all glued together and transferred from our 75.

I figure it would be a mess to try and break them up and rescape with everything in it?

Our lights do have more white in them during the day. Maybe it's the scape after all and not a light issue lol

Dburr1014 · Jan 6, 2023

I love the photon v2 pro, but you should play with your settings and make sure you can't get the look you want.
Why do you think the Reefbreeders are expensive?

dedragon · Jan 6, 2023

I would just buy some reef bars to add on to the current setup like quantareef or orphek if you wanted to switch it up a bit, much cheaper than switching up the whole thing. Here is the reefbreeder photons on alibaba if you ever wanted to try them out for cheaper as reefbreeders are just rebranded lights.

This product is no longer available.

www.alibaba.com

Rtaylor · Jan 6, 2023

Aparker2005 said:
Well the scape, my wife did. She has definitely wanted to redo it.There are lots of swim throughs the fish enjoy, but it does lack height/depth. It's kinda hard to place corals on currently as well. We did this scape mostly to have the "racetrack" thing going. Plus these rocks were all glued together and transferred from our 75.

I figure it would be a mess to try and break them up and rescape with everything in it?

Our lights do have more white in them during the day. Maybe it's the scape after all and not a light issue lol

It depends on how it’s glued together. I assume a hammer could fix that problem. I don’t glue my rocks, but I rescape to some extent a few times a year for various reasons. It’s not all that disruptive unless you are insistent on glueing everything together. As long as the rocks are well placed, they shouldn’t topple even without glue. I don’t like glueing the rocks, it’s way too limiting if you want to change things up. Also it doesn’t look like you need a racetrack for the fish you have.

Aparker2005 · Jan 6, 2023

Rtaylor said:
It depends on how it’s glued together. I assume a hammer could fix that problem. I don’t glue my rocks, but I rescape to some extent a few times a year for various reasons. It’s not all that disruptive unless you are insistent on glueing everything together. As long as the rocks are well placed, they shouldn’t topple even without glue. I don’t like glueing the rocks, it’s way too limiting if you want to change things up.

We definitely learned that mistake

Aparker2005 · Jan 6, 2023

Here's a closer view from left to right

Tamberav · Jan 6, 2023

Aparker2005 said:
Well the scape, my wife did. She has definitely wanted to redo it.There are lots of swim throughs the fish enjoy, but it does lack height/depth. It's kinda hard to place corals on currently as well. We did this scape mostly to have the "racetrack" thing going. Plus these rocks were all glued together and transferred from our 75.

I figure it would be a mess to try and break them up and rescape with everything in it?

Our lights do have more white in them during the day. Maybe it's the scape after all and not a light issue lol

Why not just add taller corals to get the height? There is no reason you have to have tall rockwork. I never make mine too tall because then it limits space for corals.

Gorgs and Staghorns come to mind. Fish will absolutely use them as shelter too once they are large.

It just looks short right now with the shorter corals or frags/mini colonies instead of a large impressive tall coral.

Tall soft corals:

Stags:

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