Question of the Day What type of lighting do you have and why?

[BagOcroW]

I used to have these too. I also did a ScapeFu Podcast on Lighting with Cara Wade that was very interesting. They were fantastic lights but I think the company was too early into the freshwater planted side and didn't see the return they wanted. It's a shame.

I listened to that podcast, It was great! Cara is good people and I miss her. She really knows her stuff. Don't hear from her much anymore now that she is globetrotting around the world.

 

[Art]

Yes, she was a great resource and proponent for the hobby. I'm hoping one of the other lighting companies decides that it's important to have an ambassador that gets involved with their market. Let's see!

 

[JPog]

My concern with these, Gregg, is that they are on the way out as technology. Over time, it will be harder and harder to find the T5 bulbs.

That is mostly true. Around me the hydroponics shops still carry a good selection of T5HO, and I am hoarding some particularly hard to find bulbs too!

Somehow I see a tailgate party of sorts during the next convention, where @GreggZ and his cronies will be trading T5 bulbs that they've hoarded over the last few years out of their car trunks.

Oh, almost forgot I'm running an ONF Flat One+ on my high-light tank. Really like the ramp up/down via the app.

 

[shopaquariumfish.com]

The company doesn't sell FW lighting anymore but I still use my BML Dutch II leds. I have 2x 36" on my 90p and 2x 60" sitting and waiting for me to set my 125g tank up again. These lights are just about perfect and they have been running steady for over 7yrs. T5ho would probably be my go to if I had to I

The company doesn't sell FW lighting anymore but I still use my BML Dutch II leds. I have 2x 36" on my 90p and 2x 60" sitting and waiting for me to set my 125g tank up again. These lights are just about perfect and they have been running steady for over 7yrs. T5ho would probably be my go to if I had to replace.

I forget his name, but the owner of BML did a great talk at the 2015 AGA convention. It was so good that it was continued during the banquet dinner.

 

[Art]

His name is Nick Klase. It was a wonderful talk, I was there. George Farmer was brought over from England. A lot of fun. I highly recommend going to these if you can.

Nick gave a MACNA talk on LED lighting the year previous which was very similar to the talk he gave at the AGA. Here it is:

 

[ayman.roshdy]

The resources whether videos or articles that you guys keep adding here makes me consider to have like 2 - 3 days off from my work and focus mainly on reading and watching all of these, it is really a pleasure to be part of this awesome community

 

[Tank_scape]

I use Chihiros on all of my tanks. WRGB2 for all my home tanks and the little Chihiros C2 rgb on my office tank. I use them because I like the fact that I can customize the light for each scape. Power, color and ramp time. Seem to be pretty well made for the cost which is expensive but not Ada expensive.

 

[JPog]

Nice, that's definitely a room to envy. Looks real nice when all the lights are uniform, doesn't distract at all from the setups.

 

[GreggZ]

View attachment 266

Wow that is one impressive tank room. Very well done. I look forward to hearing more about your tanks and methods.

 

[RareAquaticPlants]

I have Chihiros wrgb2 which is more than enough for my high tech tank, and my smaller 12x12x12 tank I’m tuning the Chihiros C2 RGB, which is a surprisingly powerful little light, also plenty strong enough for a small high tech tank.

 

[Joel Armstrong]

View attachment 125
Copyright: Viktor Lantos and Green Aqua​

With so many options out there today, what type of light are you using and why?​

My preferred at the moment is a Twinstar full-spectrum LED with expandable feet. Worked wonderful and it was set it and forget it.

Best,

Art

I went with 2 x week aqua a430 pro lights for my 120cm x 60cm x 60cm.

Reason why, is that I very much liked the results I'd seen from people using them with the same tank depth.

The app took me a while to figure out in regard to time programming, few glitches there. But otherwise, I think they're great quality lights, and from what I've heard, they're on par with chihiros vivid II .
( PARdon the pun there )

 

[Art]

I use Chihiros on all of my tanks. WRGB2 for all my home tanks and the little Chihiros C2 rgb on my office tank. I use them because I like the fact that I can customize the light for each scape. Power, color and ramp time. Seem to be pretty well made for the cost which is expensive but not Ada expensive. View attachment 266View attachment 268

WOW! Amazing tanks! Congrats. Five tanks is impressive! A room like that is on my goals list but I don't think I'll get wife approval.

Love the light holders. Are they DIY?

 

[Ed Wiser]

I use GHL LED lights.

Mitras LX 7206, black, USA/CND - GHL USA

7206 Saltwater Model, six cluster, black, power supply included

www.aquariumcomputer.com

I have been in the marine hobby since 1980. I have used all kinds of lighting. In real life as an electrical tech for a large food company. I was responsible for maintaining lighting at our inspection stations. Dealt with color of lighting.
In the last few years LED’s have replaced all lighting across all segments of the lighting we use.
A that why you see less T5’s.
The GHL LED’s are made by a life long freshwater Hobbyist. The LED’s can me changed out if one goes made and you can change the spectrum of the LED’s too. You have full control of the spectrum the lights put out. As well as the intensity of each spectrum channel. You have the ability to change spectrum and intensity over the coarse of the day also. I have learned over the years that T5 bulbs can change spectrum and intensity at different points of the life span. LED lighting doesn’t have this problem.

 

[ayman.roshdy]

Today I heard an advice related to light that makes sense to me; the advice is to keep your CO2 and ferts levels constant without changes while the light consider it as a variable to adjust until things are stabilized, the light changes can be done through adjusting the intensity of the light, the distance between the light and the plants (which is related to the intensity as well) and the photo period

What do you think about this advice, does it make sense, or we need to adjust the 3 variables: Light, CO2 and Ferts?

 

[Ed Wiser]

I would set one parameter first. Then wait a few weeks a see it’s effects.

 

[Ultum_Hiep]

The UNS Titan 1 for a few years now (Since 2018) and so far it has been my favorite light. It doesn't cost as much as the ADA Solar RGB (I am still a huge ADA fanboy at heart) but has the same intensity, color rendition, and aesthetic. I really love how the reds and greens pop under these lights

 

[DTWGulo]

I'm running Orphek iCon Atlantik lights on all of my larger enclosures. They're by far the brightest and most productive lights I've ever owned. They do freshwater spectrum as a special order. I've got 2 of the large on my 180, one large on my big pal, and a small one on my smaller pal.

In the past I've had BuildMyLED, black box LEDs from Mars Aqua (seems to be defunct now), MicMol LEDs. Way back my first low-tech had a mainland double bright LED, and I use various Finnex models or ONF Flat Nano on my small terrariums currently.

Shown below are the Orphek Atlantik lights.

 

[Art]

I had no idea they would do a freshwater spectrum as a special order. I'm going to have to ask them about that spectrum. Did you get an info?

 

[DDio]

I have the Twinstar 1200 SP. I took par readings in my 120U and if I want high light from front to back, I'd need a second fixture.

Rather than shelling out another $400-500, I decided to keep the higher light stuff towards center to back, and then focus on lower light stuff in the front since my scape allows me to do that. Those 24" tall tanks are pretty tough to get "high light" in without spending a lot of cash.

A cousin of mine was over shortly after I tested par and I was telling him about the tank and the challenges I've been having. He owns a company and holds a bunch of patents for mobile and stationary observatories (astronomy). He went down a rabbit hole with using all manner of gadgetry to mechanize the light brackets so that the fixture would slowly move back and forth from back to front throughout the photoperiod and then I'd have high light in all areas of my tank, but not for the full photoperiod. I remember telling him it was a great idea, but it really isn't that serious lol.

I think the biggest disappointed coming over to the planted side after reef was learning that Kessils are pretty "meh" for planted. That was the direction I was going to go in since using Kessils for my reefs, but after seeing examples of tanks I just wasn't impressed with the colors. Color is more important to me than shimmer.

That's how I ended up with Twinstar. I didn't like that you need to add on a separate controller for ramping and intensity, but Chihiros having some quality issues really steered me towards Twinstar. I did consider UNS Titan, but I'd need two of them to cover 48" so my options were fairly limited.

I can't say I'm displeased with it. If it were controllable natively I think they'd have a winner. Even better would be controllability through the Apex. I noticed that they recently released a fixture with controllability built in so maybe the S models will eventually get a refresh.

 

[DTWGulo]

I had no idea they would do a freshwater spectrum as a special order. I'm going to have to ask them about that spectrum. Did you get an info?

It's super hard to dig up on their site. If you email them they'll get you in touch with someone who runs the orders. Prices are the same as the freshwater, I think.
The Freshwater bars are NOT the same spectrum exactly and I don't like the color. Too yellow for me. Much prefer the white to cool white K personally.