Best LEDs

[greengalaxy]

I want to see your guys opinions on the best LEDs for a reef aquarium

[sethsolomon]

Radeon G2 Pros proved to be about 80% the growth rate of metal halides. So pretty good.

[Bruleyii]

I know mine are not the "best" but for the price I have always enjoyed the IT series. I have had 2 IT2040's and now have an IT2080. The hardest part with any LED is fiddling with the channels to get the desired effect with them.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Bruleyii

[pizzaguy]

The real question is how much you wanna spend i believe

[YHSublime]

Loaded question.

[Bruleyii]

+1 lol

 

Loaded question.

 

Edited March 29, 2016 by Bruleyii

[blesk]

Also vhot you cona have in the reef or fish only soft or hard corals size of the tank  lotc of factors here you have 16-20 inch deep tank you maibe good vith AI prime , coral box , black box , 20-24 maibe ai 26 or 52 hd , radions , kessil there is plenty lights out there dependse off use.

[sethsolomon]

Also vhot you cona have in the reef or fish only soft or hard corals size of the tank lotc of factors here you have 16-20 inch deep tank you maibe good vith AI prime , coral box , black box , 20-24 maibe ai 26 or 52 hd , radions , kessil there is plenty lights out there dependse off use.

I disagree with the entire kessil group for >24" the ap-700 sure but the old pendants are much lacking. I would say 20" tops for the 350 and 360s.

 

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[nextlevel808]

I agree here as well. I personally have Kessil's which I like for a few reason. I love the shimmer aspect but they are single point and shoot so coverage isn't spread out as well. That's why I run 2 360we and 2 160we on a 4' 120g. I get great growth on lps and sps. They also have probably the best customer service I have come across in this hobby. Now the Radeon I've heard are really nice but you will pay twice as much as any other light. Next would be AI are nice but pricey as well and I would go with Ecotech or Kessil's over them but that's me. Then for price Black boxes all day and there are a few brands way better then others in this category. For black boxes I would check out SB Reef lights they come with upgraded fans, LEDs, and come with 2 year USA warranty. There site is sbreeflights.com if want to look into them.

 

The real question is how much you wanna spend i believe

[blesk]

I disagree with the entire kessil group for >24" the ap-700 sure but the old pendants are much lacking. I would say 20" tops for the 350 and 360s.

 

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Agree vith you on that sorry was not more specific I only try to point out hi need to look every aspect not  only vhot is the best some people like Kessils some people like radions some AI some cheap Black box main think is vhot you use it for and vhot you try to hold in your tank maney options out there and hove deep packets you have .

[sethsolomon]

Agree vith you on that sorry was not more specific I only try to point out hi need to look every aspect not only vhot is the best some people like Kessils some people like radions some AI some cheap Black box main think is vhot you use it for and vhot you try to hold in your tank maney options out there and hove deep packets you have .

Yah for the most part. But I think China black boxes are better than the old kessils.

 

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[blesk]

Yah for the most part. But I think China black boxes are better than the old kessils.

 

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You right also new models off chines aqua light start using Cree and Epistar Led.

[pizzaguy]

I run 4 ocean revives and a 4 bulb ati on a 200 gallon deep dimension. I get almost 300 par on the sandbed growing sps on the bottom. Actually have them turned down a good bit as it was to much for alot of the lps

[pizzaguy]

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Edited March 29, 2016 by pizzaguy

[pizzaguy]

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Edited March 29, 2016 by pizzaguy

[pizzaguy]

[s2nhle]

Wow, so bright.

[greengalaxy]

Yah for the most part. But I think China black boxes are better than the old kessils.

 

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I have a kessil running in my tank. Looks awesome

[sethsolomon]

I have a kessil running in my tank. Looks awesome

 

Kessil lights are like Apple products  you are paying a lot for a good warranty but the hardware is lacking. My thoughts on lighting is if you are spending that kind of money on a light it should fulfill all coral needs. Kessils can do this up to about 18 inch deep tanks. After that they are just overpriced blue accent lighting.  There are lights that are cheaper that do better for all tanks. The only thing that the other lights don't have is the spotlighting effect.

 

Just to show why:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2yEq0TsOfU   330 par out of water at 12 inches.  That's extremely low.  A360we was the model.

[donnievaz]

I know mine are not the "best" but for the price I have always enjoyed the IT series. I have had 2 IT2040's and now have an IT2080. The hardest part with any LED is fiddling with the channels to get the desired effect with them.

 

I'm dealing with that now. I have to be really careful not to bleach. I switched from a 150W MH to an IT2040 and I'm running both channels at 20% or lower and some of the corals are still kind of light shocked. 

[dpassar12]

I have 4 radions on my display, 1 maxspect razor on my shroom frag tank 4 T247s on my SPS frag tank and 8 black boxes over my soft frag tanks.  They all grow what they are lighting and none of them are anywhere near 100%. I like the T247s, they grow SPS as well or better than the radions and are a fraction of the cost. I keep the par ratings of all of my lights at about 400 about 6 inches depth. In my experience anymore then that tends to bleach SPS. For softies I keep the par at about 325 at 6 inches of depth. 

 

Black boxes $95  24 inches above water, built in driver box, double cord, no built in timer ( i have an APEX) manual controls if you have par meter not hard to adjust settings, looks are ok a bit bulkier then Radions

T247 $165 24 inches above water, built in driver driver box, single cord, easy to use built in timer and channel settings, remote and manual programming, decent looking light

Razor $400+  16 inches above water, separate driver box, programming is manual only and not that intuitive ( i need to read the manual if i want to make a change), very cool looking light.

Radion G2 $600+ 12 inches above water, separate driver box, programming done through software, customer service very good ( also the only light i have ever needed to call service on)  decent looking light

 

All of these lights cover 2x2 area on the tanks they are mounted above. The colors of all of the lights to the human eye are basically the same. If you want shimmer then ripple the surface water and all lights will give you shimmer. 

 

My personal rankings taking into consideration cost, growth, which light pisses me off least, cords and drivers, programming etc..

 

1 T247s will replace any of my lights with this light. I can buy a lot of these for the cost of a single radion or razor I get the same or better growth as my radions

2 Radions good lights if you want to spend the money, I just don't see that they are any better than the T247s

3 Black Boxes I i have not tested growing SPS with these yet they work fine on softies at $95 dollars you can buy 4 of them for one razor if they break in 3 years throw them out and buy another it will still be cheaper than radions and razors

4 Razor ehh not much to say has most of the bad characteristics of the 3 lights listed above, was going to use it a fuge light but went with a fluorescent bulb from HD instead. Coolest looking light of the bunch but still has a bulky separate driver as the radions

[pizzaguy]

Same here on the t247

[newbie2014]

I have 4 radions on my display, 1 maxspect razor on my shroom frag tank 4 T247s on my SPS frag tank and 8 black boxes over my soft frag tanks.  They all grow what they are lighting and none of them are anywhere near 100%. I like the T247s, they grow SPS as well or better than the radions and are a fraction of the cost. I keep the par ratings of all of my lights at about 400 about 6 inches depth. In my experience anymore then that tends to bleach SPS. For softies I keep the par at about 325 at 6 inches of depth. 

 

Black boxes $95  24 inches above water, built in driver box, double cord, no built in timer ( i have an APEX) manual controls if you have par meter not hard to adjust settings, looks are ok a bit bulkier then Radions

T247 $165 24 inches above water, built in driver driver box, single cord, easy to use built in timer and channel settings, remote and manual programming, decent looking light

Razor $400+  16 inches above water, separate driver box, programming is manual only and not that intuitive ( i need to read the manual if i want to make a change), very cool looking light.

Radion G2 $600+ 12 inches above water, separate driver box, programming done through software, customer service very good ( also the only light i have ever needed to call service on)  decent looking light

 

All of these lights cover 2x2 area on the tanks they are mounted above. The colors of all of the lights to the human eye are basically the same. If you want shimmer then ripple the surface water and all lights will give you shimmer. 

 

My personal rankings taking into consideration cost, growth, which light pisses me off least, cords and drivers, programming etc..

 

1 T247s will replace any of my lights with this light. I can buy a lot of these for the cost of a single radion or razor I get the same or better growth as my radions

2 Radions good lights if you want to spend the money, I just don't see that they are any better than the T247s

3 Black Boxes I i have not tested growing SPS with these yet they work fine on softies at $95 dollars you can buy 4 of them for one razor if they break in 3 years throw them out and buy another it will still be cheaper than radions and razors

4 Razor ehh not much to say has most of the bad characteristics of the 3 lights listed above, was going to use it a fuge light but went with a fluorescent bulb from HD instead. Coolest looking light of the bunch but still has a bulky separate driver as the radions

 

I notice you hang the black box 24 inches above water. Do you mind me asking how deep below water is the sand? And how high is the intensity?

 

I have the 300w 32inches long model, and I'm still trying to figure out the intensity for my 40B.

 

Thanks

[dpassar12]

the black boxes are set to 65 blue and 50 white. These are frag tanks that are only 12 inches deep. My racks are varying sizes so i can move a coral closer to the light on higher racks.

[gmerek2]

I'm an ocean revive fan but I have grown stuff under a few different fixtures. They all grew stuff even the cheap EBAY one