What Lights do you own and what do you like and dislike about them?

[vetteguy53081]

Many of us have a certain light or chose a certain light?

What light are you using and what was the reason you chose your light?
What do you like and dislike about your lighting?

Mine are Orpheks - Atlantiks and Bars.

I Love the color effect on fish, coral and tank and growth of coral

Dislike- Heavy and the large ballasts under the tank. Im going to mount them soon onto a bnoard

 

[fishface NJ]

I have 6 bulb T5 with two Orpheks bars

my tank is 90% SPS. The t5 give me great growth and color. The Orphek bars is for when the T5 switches off at the end of the day. It’s a nice soft view

I don’t like the bricks of the Orpheks

 

[nuxx]

Ran 6 Kessil A360w-e on a 10 foot tank.

Liked:
Small foot print.
Looked good on a gooseneck.
Shimmer was nice.
Easy to connect to each other and the Apex.

Disliked:
Looking back, probably weren't strong enough for full coverage and to pernitrate 31", probably why I had some random issues with SPS even with pristine and very stable water.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ran 6 Kessil A360w-e on a 10 foot tank.

Liked:
Small foot print.
Looked good on a gooseneck.
Shimmer was nice.
Easy to connect to each other and the Apex.

Disliked:
Looking back, probably weren't strong enough for full coverage and to pernitrate 31", probably why I had some random issues with SPS even with pristine and very stable water.

My daughters' school has this very configuration and amazingly, corals grow like crazy

 

[Gtinnel]

I have 6 Noopsyche K7 V3 on my 125 and I like the light color and control-ability (compared to the black boxes they replaced) and quality for the price of them. I dislike the controller and user interface in general.
I also have a K7 mini on a nano tank and I like it too. It uses the app, which I dislike even more than the controller.
They’re both great hardware with not so good software.

 

[Hats_]

i run 4 AI Prime HD, love them to bits, colour is great, corals grow well and i like the app and i think they have a leg up in comparison to the bluetooth model (the 16hd) since i can turn them off or tune them down remotely. They are however sometimes a pain to get them to connect to certain modems or routers for no apparent reason

 

[EricR]

2x AI Prime 16 HD LEDs.

Purchased because BRStv YouTube video had PAR testing and suggested mounting arrangement and settings for my exact tank size.
*also price seemed reasonable while shopping other options within my budget

Likes -- reasonable price for what you get (IMO), programmability is way more than enough for my needs, myAI app control over lights and pumps in same app
(if you happen to use AI powerheads), soft corals seem to like 'em, no issues (yet).

Dislikes -- none for me yet, although I only have limited experience with a few other LEDs.

 

[14 foot reef]

What light are you using and what was the reason you chose your light? QTY - 6 Radion G6 XR30 Pro - reason, research Data and reputation from coral farms

What do you like and dislike about your lighting? Like - Form, design, Spread, color, and adjustment of color and intensity. Dislike - honestly, nothing at all yet, 6 Months running

 

[exnisstech]

I have an AI hydra 26 over a spare tank that houses nems that wander and temporary housing when fish need a time out. It was my first "high end" light and I really have no complaints. I like the app best of all the lights I have.

Three radion xr15 gen4 one over frags and two over a reefer 170
Pros: I don't have to use mobius

Cons: original cost and having to buy a reeflink to control them using ESL (but I would do it all over again rather than deal with mobius)

Six Noopsyche K7 pro V3 over a standard 180 gallon
Pros: serious par output. I'm getting 300-350 at the bottom with max channels at 70%. Everything in the tank is thriving
I like the color of everything better than my other lights but maybe I haven't spent enough time tweaking the others?

Cons: the app. It's not terrible but I struggle getting it to connect via wifi. I'm not a super techy guy so it may be me. Work around is they do allow 2 connection methods, wifi and AP so I just use an old cellphone and leave it connected via AP so it's basically my controller for the lights.

Reefbreeders photon 32 v2 pro over a reefer 300 G2
Pros: I really like the panel layout vs the pucks. Seems to be better light distribution and don't get the spill that comes with pucks. Includes 2 mounting systems so no need to spend more $ after the purchase to mount them.

Cons: I have this light over a newer build so don't really have complaints other than I can not figure out how to save my settings so I can revert back to them if I want. I have to write them all down to keep track. Not a biggie once they are dialed in but it's kind of a pita when trying to get it dialed in.

Aquatic life 24inch 4 bulb t5 hybrid
Pros: love the look of t5s and the added light this fixture provides front and back. I actually just pulled it off of the reefer 170 last night and added it to the Photon over the reefer 300 to give me more front and back coverage on that tank.

Cons: It's not controllable but I knew that when I made the purchase so it really isn't a con.

Marsaqua black boxes. These were my very first lights.
Pros: they're cheap and will grow coral

Cons: they are bulky and ugly with no controlability at all. On/off thats it. I think newer ones offer more features. These are sitting on the surplus equipment shelf for emergency use.

EDIT: no I do not need an intervention. I'm an old retired guy with an addictive personalty and reefing is one of my addictions that helps to keep me semi sane

 

[Hooz]

I use older generation AI Lights (Prime HDs and Hydra 26HDs). I use them specifically so that I can upgrade the LEDs to LuxEngine pucks. The Lux pucks give the widest blue spectrum on the market and improve on the original AI design as much as is possible within the original design constraints.

I've upgraded 7 Prime HDs and have 3x Hydra 26HDs ready for new pucks right now.

There are things about the lights themselves that I wish were different or better, but the Lux upgrade is well worth it.

 

[vetteguy53081]

What light are you using and what was the reason you chose your light? QTY - 6 Radion G6 XR30 Pro - reason, research Data and reputation from coral farms

What do you like and dislike about your lighting? Like - Form, design, Spread, color, and adjustment of color and intensity. Dislike - honestly, nothing at all yet, 6 Months running

agree

 

[AJsReef]

Radion XR30 Gen 5s and 6s

Ive run Radions since Gen3 days and love them overall. I absolutely HATE how loud the gen5/6 fans are. I used to despise Mobius but I’ll give it to Ecotech it’s come a long way. Not having wifi connectivity is odd for sure, can’t say I need it though.

 

[oldmonk]

Started with RedSea T5 bulbs in a Hopar fixture over a 3ft tank.

Reason to choose: Not much options available back in 2016 given my affordability.

Liked : Spread and no disco ball.

Disliked: Hopar reflectors and plastic build.

For next 6 ft build, got in to the led crowd with 3 x Hydras 26hd.

Reason: Hydras were affordable over Radions although both needed to be imported and Redsea has discontinued their t5s

Liked : ease of usability, app control

Disliked : Except for cable/ power brick management can't think of any. But couldn't find the sweet spot in them to mimic the tanks on AI site

And now for final Cade build, ATI hybrid 6 bulb 54w with 3 x 75 W module.

Reason: Tried and tested proven record of ATI on this forum and in general. Got a local distributor for ATI bulbs.

Like: Best of both ( led + t50. Tank still maturing to see full benefits

Dislike: Huge power brick/ ballast. After 8 months still struggling to find a decent location.

Thanks

 

[John Bolden]

Radion XR30 Gen 5s and 6s

Ive run Radions since Gen3 days and love them overall. I absolutely HATE how loud the gen5/6 fans are. I used to despise Mobius but I’ll give it to Ecotech it’s come a long way. Not having wifi connectivity is odd for sure, can’t say I need it though.

I think you can turn down when the fan turns on? I haven't really noticed the fan but my house is pretty loud in general.

 

[nothing_fancy]

Kessil fan boy over here. I ran AI Hydra until the leds burned out. I have nothing negative to say about the A360x. I chose them due to the way I needed to mount them, otherwise I might have went with Radions. They are plenty strong enough for me and the narrow lense gives me good par to the sand bed. I personally think they should be sold with the narrow lenses. I started with one A360x and then shortly thereafter added a second fixture. Biggest pro's for me are the size, excellent par readings at half power, and the ease of use in dialing in color and schedule. I run moon light for an hour just before lights out and I like that feature as well. Lastly, might not be important to some but they are dead quiet.

 

[Infinite Reef]

I like the lights that are on other peoples tanks and how they look.

I never like how those same lights look on my tank though... Maybe I'm just being too picky

 

[paragrouper]

Fluval marine 3.0

Why? They came with the tank.

Likes: (this one’s tough): the user interface, via their app is fairly easy to use.

Dislikes:
1. heat, which causes the canopy to warp over time.
2. power: they are a tad lacking
3. color: what can I say.

I have a number of LPS and soft corals, all are growing and look healthy. I tend this to be my next upgrade when I address the cheap canopy that came with the tank too.

 

[FishTruck]

Radions XR30s older ones - my favorite viewable spectrum is the "AB+" setting. I like the slider bar programming.

Orphek Atlantics. Needed to supplement with orphek bars to get the color I wanted, but, I like the huge panels, high over the water mounting position. The programming is kind of a pain - but, this discourages me from messing with it, which is probably a good thing.

 

[fodsod]

I run the ReefBreeders Photon 48 V2 Pro on my 90g and so far it's been great. Everything in my tank improved across the board. I previously had a Fluval Marine 3.0 when the tank was a FOLWR but when I started adding coral the lighting needed to get better. I still use a Fluval Marine 3.0 on my FOWLR 50g cube as it's a pretty decent light for the money. Just not adequate to build a great mixed reef tank.

Other than having to spend another $100 on the ReefBreeders HOB brackets to mount the light (didn't like the side mounts it comes with) it's been super easy to program, quiet, looks great, covers my whole tank and totally worth the initial cost. My LCS (local coral store, they sell more coral than fish) uses the same lights on some of their tanks and their coral look fantastic so I went with what they had.

 

[vabben]

What light are you using and what was the reason you chose your light? 3 XR15's with two Quanta Bars.

What do you like and dislike about your lighting? The only thing I dislike is the Mobius app. Time falls out of sync sometimes on the Radions, and I'll catch my lights coming on in the middle of the night.