Lighting Recommendations

[sharis100]

One of my AI lights went out over the display. Getting a temporary light to rig over the tank blank spot for now. Also upped the T5 supplemental lighting schedule to carry over corals for now.
Looking at long term solutions. Thinking about whether to keep with the AI lights or switch. I could put a couple of reef breeders or reefi-leds or go high end with kessils keeping the same aquatic life fixture. Or overpriced sky lights. Too many options is confusing…. What would you do?

 

[Adam]

I've made it known that I'm not a fan of AI, so I would get rid of them. What to go with would depend on your budget, how many would you need to buy for a full swap out?

 

[sharis100]

I've made it known that I'm not a fan of AI, so I would get rid of them. What to go with would depend on your budget, how many would you need to buy for a full swap out?

6 foot tank
So AI 4 fixtures
Kessil 4 fixtures
Reefbreeders 2 3 foot
Reef2-led either 4 or 2 depending on duo or uno
Ecotech 4 fixtures
Sky 3 fixtures
So ranges from low end $1400 to +$5000
And I don’t want to spend the high end.

 

[hiimsean]

Are you set on LEDs?

 

[sharis100]

Are you set on LEDs?

Yes, prefer programmable via app led lighting. This is a main dt in my kitchen. Lighting is key.

 

[Adam]

With the Kessil's, figure 6 A360X's. not 4. Call it $2694
Ecotech, you could probably get away with 3 XR30 G5 Blue's, $2672, four would set you back $3562
Neptune, 3 Sky's hit the wallet at $2610.
Reefbreeders, 2 Photon 32-V2 Pro's $1410

The Reefbreeders allow you to easily add LED bars down the road and still come in less than the other 3, much less.
Now controllability that's another story. But I'm happy with my RB's so far. The steps are defiantly visible and not a smooth transition like the 1st 2 on the list.

On the Neptune, I don't like not having the led layout and which chips used. The way I look at it is, what do ya got to hide and why? I also have not see one of these in use yet. They may be a good luminaire, I just don't know.

 

[sharis100]

With the Kessil's, figure 6 A360X's. not 4. Call it $2694
Ecotech, you could probably get away with 3 XR30 G5 Blue's, $2672, four would set you back $3562
Neptune, 3 Sky's hit the wallet at $2610.
Reefbreeders, 2 Photon 32-V2 Pro's $1410

The Reefbreeders allow you to easily add LED bars down the road and still come in less than the other 3, much less.
Now controllability that's another story. But I'm happy with my RB's so far. The steps are defiantly visible and not a smooth transition like the 1st 2 on the list.

On the Neptune, I don't like not having the led layout and which chips used. The way I look at it is, what do ya got to hide and why? I also have not see one of these in use yet. They may be a good luminaire, I just don't know.

My reefbreeder for my pest tank was a plug and play with the Wi-Fi attachment. I don’t want the tank to suffer with a transition. Might consider Ecotechs. 6 lights is crazy, would look too messy and want to streamline look. Would love to see a sky on someone’s tank in real life.

 

[ichthyoid]

What about Orpheks? Either Atlantik or OR3 bars?

The bars have no programming, but no fans either. You could use your Apex to program, and tune the mix, on/off sequence & periods to get the effect you want.

I’m not sure about the status of the Atlantik v3 release, but they appear to be the shiznick of LED’s, except for having fans.

Either way, I believe you could potentially light that tank with Orpheks for under $2500.

 

[Adam]

My reefbreeder for my pest tank was a plug and play with the Wi-Fi attachment. I don’t want the tank to suffer with a transition. Might consider Ecotechs. 6 lights is crazy, would look too messy and want to streamline look. Would love to see a sky on someone’s tank in real life.

The latest Pro version of the RB have the WiFi included. The A360X are sexy, I don't care what anyone says

With the Kessil, you can start with 4 @ $1796 and add more down the road if you feel the need. Like I said with the RB, easy to add bars.

Unless I only needed one I wouldn't go with Ecotech. I'm just not drinking that $$$ coolaid.

 

[Adam]

Orphek is definitely a viable option too.
I'd say the Atlantik next gen is imminent, the v4 g2 and gateway2 are on clearance at Bulk Reef.

I looked at them all this year, I just have 32 square feet to lite up and the cost was a big factor for me.

 

[york1]

I recently upgraded my RB lite to the new wireless control through the app. It isnt perfect but it is sooooo much better than programming with the remote.

 

[sharis100]

Orphek is definitely a viable option too.
I'd say the Atlantik next gen is imminent, the v4 g2 and gateway2 are on clearance at Bulk Reef.

I looked at them all this year, I just have 32 square feet to lite up and the cost was a big factor for me.

I will have to call to see if the new ones have a release date. Those orphek lights are a dream.

 

[Adam]

I will have to call to see if the new ones have a release date. Those orphek lights are a dream.

Or go with 3 of the current version with a gateway for $2022 and save almost $300. I mean $363

 

[sharis100]

So orphek has the new icon leds with new app for smart phones

 

[snarky shark]

I know those are all the known entities but we do have an in house insight with Noopsyche v3 which are improved. I’m actually going to go with 2 Noopsyche and 2 48” orphek or3 over my 120.

Noopsyche v3 are $250 each and 0R3 are $190 per 48”.

You could do 4 Noopsyche and 2 OR3 -$1380


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[drnecropolis]

I will have to call to see if the new ones have a release date. Those orphek lights are a dream.

I have an older V2.1 over my 90, it's amazing!

 

[Wmb0003]

The Phillips Coral Care fixture looks good, I haven’t done too much research on them since I am not in the market for lights but I have heard good things about them on R2R.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

My reefbreeder for my pest tank was a plug and play with the Wi-Fi attachment. I don’t want the tank to suffer with a transition. Might consider Ecotechs. 6 lights is crazy, would look too messy and want to streamline look. Would love to see a sky on someone’s tank in real life.

I rather like the 3 eco techs on my 6 foot 210. They provide plenty of pop and mount easily in my canopy. I had a Kessil and a reef breeder in the past on a smaller tank, later traded the reefbreeder and then to ecotech. Kessil is a close second to me, but I prefer the controllability with the eco tech.

I use an apex and module to control them. Quite easy to control individually but setting them as a group requires setting up a profile for each lighting scenario. I only have 3 profiles, so not too bad to setup once I figured that part out - not necessarily plug and play with apex controlling it though.

 

[scuba steve]

I've been very happy with my 3 Radion XR30 Gen 5s over my 6' 240g.
Disappointed they got away from controlling through the Apex. I have very mixed opinions on the new Mobius app, I initially had a bunch of connection issues with them but I got them very shortly after release and they've seemed to correct a lot of the issues since then so it's been slowly growing on me. Too many dropped signals with Bluetooth between the 3 lights and 4 VorTechs but that's also much improved, and enabling WiFi on them was a huge improvement.

 

[Cook]

The cheapest solution is to replace the existing AI fixture and unless there is something you really don't like about them. Why incur all the expense to replace them? It's may be worth sending it in to see what it might cost to repair also. Is it a Prime 16HD that you need? If so PM me, if nothing else you can borrow one of mine until you come to a decision on what to do. I don't buy a Gen 1 anything and the Neptune is using the Phillips coral care design, so both of those are a wait for the Gen 2 release as far as I am concerned.