When they become available again at marinedepot, I am going to buy an Aquamaxx 16.9 gallon cube (15.6”x15.6”x15.6”). This will be a high tech tank and I am looking for at least medium-high light. With substrate, I am looking at about 14-15” depth.
Stipulations:
1. No T5’s and no diy cfls.
2. Want to buy from a reputable place with free returns. Amazon preferred.
3. No ceiling suspension (gooseneck or brackets only)
4. Under 200$ (Kessil etc. is out unless the A80 would be enough)
5. Dimmable/adjustable preferred.
What I have found so far….
1. 1 16” Finnex Planted Plus (worried this won’t be enough light)
2. 2 12” Finnex Planted Pluses
3. 2 16” Finnex Planted Pluses (worried that I can’t dim and will be too much)
4. 1 Current Satellite Plus Pro 18-24” (actually the light is only 16.8”)
5. 1 Twinstar Led 360E 14”
6. 1 Chihiros Aquasky ADA Style E401 15.7”
7. 1 Chihiros RGB series ADA style Plant grow LED RGB30 30-45cm
Which option do you think is the best? I am leaning towards the Current Plus Pro. Any lights I might have missed?
Hmmm interesting. That link sent me to the saltwater version but I checked the website and they have a basic freshwater version for only 130$. Do you have experience with these lights or this company? Do they do free returns?
Suspending lights is out as per wife's orders. I think I could finesse fitting the sbreef on the tank with a little diy. Jeff....do you really think it is overkill even though it's dimmable? What do you think about a single 16" Current Plus Pro instead?
sb reef is so stinking overkill lol. might want to see if they would do a freshwater vesrion of there sprite light for a 16in cube.
for me cube tanks just scream for a single point light either on a goose neck or a pendant. just look so much better imo essestically. if kessil is out there it just leaves you to diy to hit that price point which is very doable and shouldn't be hard and could look really sweet but that's my vote for cubes atleast.
my other vote would be for a beamswork quad clipon
there 80 bucks. way more light than you would ever need on a cube that size. then you could buy a TC420 and hook the light into the controller and you would have sunset/sunrise and have complete control of timing and brightness of the light.
i'm not a huge fan of current lights but I only have a sat plus not a pro. but defiatnly not worth the money imo. yeah beamsworks aren't the best color quality.
kessil would be sweet but yeah lot of money. more than enough light though.
Just a thought here. If your wife prohibits you from performing DIY projects it would only be fair to charge her the difference in cost to get what you need. Just saying DIY is one of the best parts of this hobby. Next time she goes to put on make up you tell her she has to get it done at the salon. Some woman take pride in their make up and aquarium people take pride in there aquarium stuff. Probably not good advice on second thought.
Just a thought here. If your wife prohibits you from performing DIY projects it would only be fair to charge her the difference in cost to get what you need. Just saying DIY is one of the best parts of this hobby. Next time she goes to put on make up you tell her she has to get it done at the salon.
I still recommend if you are going "expensive" aquaticlife Halo and Radion xr15fw gen4 are better alternatives..
Or even Orphek.. https://orphek.com/pr72-planted/
So I think this is going to be my plan of attack....First, I am going to contact sbreef and ask them if they will make me a freshwater Sprite. It they will for 100$ or less I am probably going with that. If not, I am going to buy a single Current Plus Pro off Amazon. If I don't like it, I will have 30 days to return it. From there, I will probably go with a full sized sbreef or possibly a Kessil A160we. Jeff I know you think I should go Halo or Radion but with the gooseneck, they are both at least 100$ more than the Kessil and I can't justify that.
There are aquarium goosenecks for sale and a cheap PAR30 or 36 LED..
Few are very pretty though..
Shouldn't run more than $60 total for a quality bulb..
Can then change the color intensity to suit.. like the ole t tube days..
@5000k and 90 plus CRI.. https://www.earthled.com/collection...immable-wet-outdoor-rated?variant=21563585988
Only a 5" cone at the water line approx.. Problem will be finding a "wide angle" bulb..
So I emailed sbreefs (seems like a cool guy by the way) and he basically agreed that the 16” basic would be too much. He then told me he would make me a freshwater Sprite for 100$ shipped as long as I give him some feedback. Seems like a good deal. What do you guys think?
So I emailed sbreefs (seems like a cool guy by the way) and he basically agreed that the 16” basic would be too much. He then told me he would make me a freshwater Sprite for 100$ shipped as long as I give him some feedback. Seems like a good deal. What do you guys think?
modification of the drivers to PWM is not too difficult (not too easy also) but it depends on the "flavor of the day" driver they throw in..
In the old Kessil days some even added a pwm controlled stepper motor to the dim pot shaft.. Now that was tricky.
I emailed sb about the diode layout and he replied “We will scale down the 16" layout to fit the Sprite. Keeping the same spectrum.” So I think I’m good to go Jeff? Two more questions then I will stop bugging you guys haha….
1. This light would be enough if I decide to buy an Aquamaxx 24.1 cube (18x18x18) instead right?
2. I currently have a medium-low light C02 injected Aqueon 15g column (13.6"L x 13.8"W x 24.8"H ) with the distance to substrate at about 19-20” from the top of the tank. You think I could crank up the C02 and throw this baby on? Maybe even get a little carpet going?
that is what they want to scale down..
Opinion: Not ideal..
Really want a warm and a cool channel..
#1 (4)Blue/(2)teal/(2)violet/(6)10k = infinite
#2 (6)Warm/(2)Neutral/(6)(4 660 2 620)red =4000k approx
Overall will be 16000k-ish both channels on full
"cool" channel dimmed 50% would give you a strong 9000k
just a thought..
Skipping the green since "white" LEd's have plenty.
Looked at the spectrum it's based off. It's not bad. Warm side is 4700k cool side is about 22k
Mixed it's about 9k. Way I'd prolly end up running it would be 50 percent cool 100 warm. That's just looking at estimated spectrum numbers not visually though
At 100 it's a fair price. I'd go for it. It's half a normal light I believe so should be same as what I guessed.
after playing with the led layout on these lights I like them a lot more. real flat overall midrange to the color and a red peak and as much blue as you want without futzing too much with the rest of the spectrum as you want. heck i played with taking out the greens and the CRI is higher with them left in in most situations so can't fault them too much on the green leds even though if I was building a layout by gut feeling I'd leave them out.
This is taking into account that you can only dim and raise the 2 channels right? The light can't be programmed. Thank you this is very helpful. That program your using is very cool. So with tinkering I could get 6500k? I don't want a bleached look the the Ray2.
So one more question I swear (I think). With the 1:2 ratio at around 6500k I would be able to get low, medium, or high light on my original posted 16.9g (15.6x15.6x15.6) or a 24.1g (17.8x17.8x17.8)?
wow i have always considered getting sbreef for high output / low cost solution
that sucks they blew you off
for cube i was going to recommend kessil or another pendant style but looks like you got it figured out
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