Jestersix

Nano lighting suggestions?

treylane

treylane

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Alright, I thought I could convince myself that some PC's with reflectors would be enough for this tank, and .... they're just not cutting it.

This is a 7-8g tank, about 12" wide and 12" deep and hardier acros need to stay colored up. Budget is hopefully closer to $200, but up to $300 if there's something worthy of the extra dough. I'd drop a 150w halide over it and call it done, but the power bill... ohhh the power bill....

Suggestions? Which LED fixtures/pendants/spotlights have the best oomph per dollar these days?
 
treylane said:
Alright, I thought I could convince myself that some PC's with reflectors would be enough for this tank, and .... they're just not cutting it.

This is a 7-8g tank, about 12" wide and 12" deep and hardier acros need to stay colored up. Budget is hopefully closer to $200, but up to $300 if there's something worthy of the extra dough. I'd drop a 150w halide over it and call it done, but the power bill... ohhh the power bill....

Suggestions? Which LED fixtures/pendants/spotlights have the best oomph per dollar these days?
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PM Matt_Wandell he has a tank around that size and I think he used soem NanCustom PAR38's on it.

I'd think just one of the new Kessils on that would ROCK!!
 
With 80 degree isn't that rather wide, or is it pretty close to the tank?
 
I haven't seen a kessil in person, they're sort of alarmingly small - would one do the job?

Just for kicks I grabbed the 50w multichip fixture out of the sump and hung it over the nano - HUGE improvement! I've had some problems with sumped maxi-mini nems looking bleachy after long-term exposure to it. Perhaps the issue was just distance - there's almost 2' of air between the fixture and the surface of the water in the sump.
 
Here's a nice graph for the par 38 lamps. https://www.nanotuners.com/pages.php?pID=4 When building my own the 60* optics really played a huge role in my satisfaction of their output.
 
treylane said:
I haven't seen a kessil in person, they're sort of alarmingly small - would one do the job?

Just for kicks I grabbed the 50w multichip fixture out of the sump and hung it over the nano - HUGE improvement! I've had some problems with sumped maxi-mini nems looking bleachy after long-term exposure to it. Perhaps the issue was just distance - there's almost 2' of air between the fixture and the surface of the water in the sump.
Click to expand...
you kinda answerred your own question given you have seen the power of a multichip :lol:
 
Curious what 50w multichip you are using? Also 50w is brighter than the Kessil, and figure on losing some oomph the more blue your light is.
 
I snagged one of the 50w versions from Neptune Aquatics last year when I installed a refugium: http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/9003

I know little about the fixture's par ratings or other specs. I've always been curious as to why Neptune stopped selling/producing them, but the color temp is excellent, and the banished softies and macroalgaes in the sump have been growing well despite the fact that I hung the fixture waaay too high.

Kessils are 32w each... and getting two would blow right past my budget. I could get two 21w par38's pretty comfortably, but I've got no idea where all these different products line up on the efficiency scale.
 
Wait until BAYMAC if you can, the BAR tank will have 3 Kessil's over them to give you an idea on color, brightness, etc. Also nothing says you have to use the same fixtures, a Kessil + PAR38 (god I hate that name) could give you a nice 1-2 punch.
 
treylane said:
I snagged one of the 50w versions from Neptune Aquatics last year when I installed a refugium: http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/9003

I know little about the fixture's par ratings or other specs. I've always been curious as to why Neptune stopped selling/producing them, but the color temp is excellent, and the banished softies and macroalgaes in the sump have been growing well despite the fact that I hung the fixture waaay too high.

Kessils are 32w each... and getting two would blow right past my budget. I could get two 21w par38's pretty comfortably, but I've got no idea where all these different products line up on the efficiency scale.
Click to expand...

IMO 50w chip is over kill for such a small tank. 32w multichip IMO will look a hell of a lot better then par38's with multiple color LEDs making the typical shadow casting of different colors. IMO that stinks. I doubt you'd need (2)
 
anathema said:
Curious what 50w multichip you are using? Also 50w is brighter than the Kessil, and figure on losing some oomph the more blue your light is.
Click to expand...

Sure and a 50w multichip on such a small tank would cook anything under it. I was suggesting it as a reference since she knows how her 50w'er works ;)
 
I've got two evil's par 38 over my 12g which is 20" long and all my coral are thriving, and i only do 2gallon water change a week... sometimes two because im lazy only fitration is a AC70 hob fugi and a skimmer that doesnt even work anymore.
 
I picked up a slimline fixture, and it's amazing for the price, anyway! I picked it up for a friend, so aside from setting it up beside the multichip for a few minutes, I really didn't spend any time with it. Seemed well made, plenty bright enough for a shallow tank. The remote was a bit fiddly, but way better than no remote! Neither the kessil nor the slimline made me want to bust out my wallet and replace the multichip.

After seeing the AI fixture in person at BAYMAC (**DROOL**), I've been eyeing the kits on rapidled.com - drilling and tapping a few holes and burning everything in sight with a soldering iron is well within my DIY capabilities. Thinking of building a smallish kit for the nano as a test run, and hopefully swapping out the MH's in the main tank for a bigger LED kit in the fall.

Ohyeah, and the tank has "grown" .... it's a 15gallon 13 x 15 x 18 now. ;)
 
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