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Time for a lighting upgrade


Chief

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Ok I’m calling on all the experts.  I’m looking to upgrade the lighting on my 8x2x2 240 gallon mixed reef.  I’m current running 4 reef star leds that are on their last legs.  Some of the lights I have been looking at:

cheaper:

5 ocean revive,  5 Noopsyche k7 pro

mid range:

2 reefbreeder photon v2+ 48

upper range:

3 kessil A360x or 2 ap700

I’m open to suggestions.  My budget isn’t unlimited but I want the most bang for my buck.
 

I like the reefi but they are probably out of my price range for an 8 foot tank.  

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5 hours ago, Tandor69 said:

Love love love my Reefi lights. (Reminds me I need to post some pics of my new setup). I think @danlu_gt said he was extending his promotion.

Unfortunately even though it is a great deal, my wife would kill me if I spent $2600 on lights.  That is the struggle of a large tank.  I am leaning towards the reefbreeders if I can find them in stock. 

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1 hour ago, Chief said:

Unfortunately even though it is a great deal, my wife would kill me if I spent $2600 on lights.  That is the struggle of a large tank.  I am leaning towards the reefbreeders if I can find them in stock. 

You could probably get away with 3 ReeFis for your tank. 4 would be better, but 3 is doable. Put your sps right under that lights. With a 3 yr warranty, you'll be running them a long time and you could add a 4th later.

Reefbreeders are decent lights, from what I have heard.

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I have (2) AP700 over a 6' x 2' x 2' tank and i think you would need (3) over an 8' tank.  I'm also running (2) 6' VHOs.  thanks to Markvo...  I really like the AP700s.  i found new ones on the RC for significantly less than the price of new.  the AP700s don't seem to be as popular as a lot of the other lights so they don't sell very fast and if the seller is motivated you can save some money.  also, if you are wondering how old lights are in the classifieds and you have the serial number i've had good luck getting manufacturing dates from the manufacturer so you know how long they have been in circulation.  you might not know how many hours they have been run but it's better than nothing.  

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I have reefbreeders on some of my tanks and love them. If you end up wanting to go that route give me a buzz. I have an account with them. 48" V2 estimated delivery date is May 7th i am told

Edited by MrBret
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I am running the AP700 over a 4' tank and am debating adding a little something to hit the corners, so for an 8' tank I would suggest 3, or 2 with some supplemental lighting mixed in somewhere (T5's, smaller kessils, etc). 

Love the AP700 though, cant speak highly enough about it. 

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45 minutes ago, jadams7 said:

I am running the AP700 over a 4' tank and am debating adding a little something to hit the corners, so for an 8' tank I would suggest 3, or 2 with some supplemental lighting mixed in somewhere (T5's, smaller kessils, etc). 

Love the AP700 though, cant speak highly enough about it. 

The colors in your tank certainly looked great under this light!

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I like all the options everyone suggested. Since you mentioned you were on a budget, maybe ocean revives might be an option. I am running my old ones over my frag tanks. I replaced almost all the whites with 3 different nanometers of blues and uv. They do a great job.

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Interesting to see many local reefers haven't heard of Nanobox yet. 

I have seen or had almost every light on the market and these are the best hands down. 

Mine is T5/Hybrid which I always recommend doing a hybrid on a mix reef especially if sps are there. So I agree with above posters that doing a combo somehow would be best. 

Spendy though... but Dave can always build a custom light. I.e two 3 or 4 footers with how ever many pucks you want. 

The Reefi are cool but at their asking price for what it is I'm not convinced yet. They still use cool whites and Ambers which are not really that useful. I would have put more blues and warm white/neutral whites in for more par. 

http://nanoboxreef.com/index.html

If you go on R2R or NanoReef you will see a bazillion setups using Nanobox. 

They're diodes are far better than most on the market. 

 

They're Instagram also has many tanks using them so you can get an idea. 

Otherwise I like the two A700 ideas. If you could also throw T5s in with the two A700 you'd be golden pony boy 😎👉

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Now I’m thinking 4 radion XR15w G4 Pro’s.  I will probably add some t5’s also.  I’m not keeping sps currently.  If I did they would go directly under the lights.  I would probably add another in the future.  

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On 4/26/2020 at 8:24 PM, Chief said:

Now I’m thinking 4 radion XR15w G4 Pro’s.  I will probably add some t5’s also.  I’m not keeping sps currently.  If I did they would go directly under the lights.  I would probably add another in the future.  

If that is your budget I would contact Dave at NanoBoxReef. He can build you a custom light like this one. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fs-nanobox-led-fixture.165407/ I remember when this was on sale on NR for like $700 shipped. 

 

https://www.instagram.com/nanoboxreef/?hl=en 

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Now I’m thinking 4 radion XR15w G4 Pro’s.  I will probably add some t5’s also.  I’m not keeping sps currently.  If I did they would go directly under the lights.  I would probably add another in the future.  

If you go that route, I’d go with XR30 G3 pro’s and save some money. The G3’s are great lights, I’ve seen XR30’s for $275-$300 on R2R. That’s a lot of light for that price


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On 4/26/2020 at 8:24 PM, Chief said:

Now I’m thinking 4 radion XR15w G4 Pro’s.  I will probably add some t5’s also.  I’m not keeping sps currently.  If I did they would go directly under the lights.  I would probably add another in the future.  

G4’s are sold out everywhere.  After doing more research I think I’m sold on AI Hydra 32HD’s.  Honestly I don’t think I can go too wrong with AI, Kessil, Or Ecotech.  

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