I've narrowed it down to three lights. Kessil A360 Tuna Sun, Aquaticlife Halo or Radion XR15 FW. The tank is a 40gal breeder.
The problem is I only have 10 inch space above the water line. I choose these lights for future possible deeper tanks. I currently have a Ecoxotic E-90 and I don't like it. I run 80% still gets hot, and after 9 months it started to lose intensity, had it for almost two years. It is probably lost 20% of its brightness.
Love to hear your thoughts and opinions.
I'd say the lights your looking at are all good, but that 10 inches above your tank is going to be a problem for any pendant type lighting. I think your going to find that any of the fixtures your looking at are going to get fairly hot. Maybe not as bad as what you have, but you'll notice them.
By the time you mount them, I think you'll find that the any of the lights will be right on the water surface. This isn't going to be too good for them. You don't mention how many fixtures your planning on getting. I will say it's asking a lot of a pendant type LED fixture to illuminate more than about 18 to 24 inches, depending on how high you mount them. If you don't want dim ends of the tank, for best results you'd likely want two fixtures and run them at a fairly low level. Yea I know, we are talking about twice as much money.
I would likely choose the Radion, but I wouldn't call anyone wrong if they chose the Kessil or Aquaticlife.
Considering the little room you have to work with, I'm going to suggest you consider T5 lighting. I know LED lighting is the "be all end all" lighting currently, and it can do a lot of nice tricks. However your tank doesn't give you much room to really mount the pendants far enough away from the water for them to really work well. T5's would still give you good light, and would fit your space better.
If you can move the tank, and get some more overhead space, then I'd go with the LED fixtures.
Halo has 2 lenses..80 and 100 degrees..
At 10" the Halo, theoretically will cover a 24" square. Keep in mind edge lighting is considerably weaker than the center cone..
Radion has an 80 degree lenses w/ a 120 degree option so good to go there too.. Kessil choices are 60 and 140
At 10" 11.5" cone(60 degree) and 55" cone (140 degree)but of course then you can go a lot closer.. 4" height w/ a 140 degree lens will give you 22" cone at the surface
I watched a review of the A160 and A360, the reviewer recommended 5 to 6in above water and got great spead for an 80 gallon tank. The A360 is only 4.5in tall. The radion is only 1.75 in thick. I was thinking two Radions or two A360s.Not sure about the radions spead though. The halo is 5.5in tall not sure about that one either.
So figure 2" thick and 120 degree lens for the Radion.
So you have about 8" of height..
28" cone which is pretty good for a 24" tank..
And keep some "distance" between the water and the fixture..
Sorry I didn't see your rely, I posted right after you. If I mount the radion or kessil the lenses will be 6.5 to 7in above water line. Are the radions real good at plant growth, I know they are the easiest of the two to repair if ever need be. I was waiting for the finnex planted plus II or planted elite, but gave up. Haven't heard anything of them for six months.
I have a Kessil A360WE over my 24" x 18" x 18" tank. The coverage is great, I have my light(from the bottom of the light) 9" above the water line. If you check my journal(link in my signature) you can see how it looks. I'll link you to my album to show you the color and intensity, thought the pictures really do no justice and aren't true representations of it. I'd try to find a LFS that has them and check them out. But with all that, I think you could drop the height and still get great coverage from two kessils. How would you mount them? Gonna hang them? I love my lights and I use an apex to control my ramping. Kessil does make a controller that is great as well.
I hope I am not just adding to the hard work of getting lighting figured out. I thought that this light may be a good solution to your space issues. Check out the NanoBox Reef Beam (planted). I have one on a goose neck (can be hung as well), on a tank under some cabinets in my kitchen. The exact same clearance, 10inches. Here's a link to the forum where the specs, including par readings, for the light are. Nano Box Reef BEAM Series - Nano Box Reef - Nano-Reef.com Forums
Here's a link to the NanoBox site. NanoBox Reef | Home
I hope this is helpful instead of just adding work.
The Beam is not on the NanoBox website but if you contact Dave he will build one for you, no problem. If you have a bigger budget the NanoBox Duo or Quad might be a solution.
Thanks for the opinions and suggestions. Does anyone with a Radion have good red plant growth? Also thought about a Photon 24 V.2 with custom spectrum. Been playing with spectra and think I have a good color spectrum covering most all plant needs. Does anyone have experience with reef breeder custom plant spectrum? Like to hear about it.
P.S sorry for slow reply, work an all.:grin2:
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