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Lighting ideas for a 24 inch cube.

L

Lance1968

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Joined
25 Aug 2022
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7
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Nottingham
Hi, I have a 24 inch cube tank that is a full reef system at the moment but I want to return to my orginal love of a planted tank so I am going to convert it to fresh water, I'm trying to work out what light(s) would be best, I don't intend to grow a carpet plants etc and only intend buying what's classed as easy plants, although I will be adding CO2 as I had loads of success with that in the past.
In the past (20 years ago) I had a deep planted tank and used mercury vapour bulbs, obviously these aren't really an option now days, can anyone recommend some lights I should consider?
 
Lance1968 said:
Hi, I have a 24 inch cube tank that is a full reef system at the moment but I want to return to my orginal love of a planted tank so I am going to convert it to fresh water, I'm trying to work out what light(s) would be best, I don't intend to grow a carpet plants etc and only intend buying what's classed as easy plants, although I will be adding CO2 as I had loads of success with that in the past.
In the past (20 years ago) I had a deep planted tank and used mercury vapour bulbs, obviously these aren't really an option now days, can anyone recommend some lights I should consider?
Click to expand...

You have lots of options at that 600mm size - I would suggest you look at Chihiros RGB lights as one option. If you want a point source light, then my pick would be an AI Prime. I'm currently testing out Week Aqua T90 Pro's which offers the colour rendition of programmability of the Chihiros lights, in a point source pendant form factor - but I've not used them nearly enough to be able to offer them as a recommendation yet.
 
Tnanks for the replies, I'll check out the recomendations, I'm running AI Hydra's on my reef so I'll check out the fresh water offerings.
 
Lance1968 said:
Hi, I have a 24 inch cube tank that is a full reef system at the moment but I want to return to my orginal love of a planted tank so I am going to convert it to fresh water, I'm trying to work out what light(s) would be best, I don't intend to grow a carpet plants etc and only intend buying what's classed as easy plants, although I will be adding CO2 as I had loads of success with that in the past.
In the past (20 years ago) I had a deep planted tank and used mercury vapour bulbs, obviously these aren't really an option now days, can anyone recommend some lights I should consider?
Click to expand...
Do you have your reef light still? And which?
Some can make "acceptable" fw lights w/ channel selection (assuming led)
Or bulb change (MH/t5)
 
oreo57 said:
Do you have your reef light still? And which?
Some can make "acceptable" fw lights w/ channel selection (assuming led)
Or bulb change (MH/t5)
Click to expand...
Hi Oreo, I do, Hydra 26 HD, I think the 'minimum' it can go down to is 10,000k, so quite blue, and that would entail not using some of the LED (or at least at really low power)
oreo57 said:
Do you have your reef light still? And which?
Some can make "acceptable" fw lights w/ channel selection (assuming led)
Or bulb change (MH/t5)
Click to expand...
Just checked the app and according to that the light will go down to 5000k, at 6500K pulls 68 watts at max power 9 (although theLEDs can go another 20% higher with manual tweaking. My corals are lit at 20000k and this pulls 70 watts, but I have the light 14 inch above the water, coral growth is mental and needs regular pruning, I could lower the light quite a lot. Had a mess with the light and it looks pretty good at 6500k and 'looks' very bright.
 
Surprised it maintains that much power at that low of k temp.
Bravo to AI and hyperdrive as well. 90 watts was max .
You may want to check out the condition of the violet lenses
They brown over time.
I believe replacements " may" still be available. Ok maybe not.
Might matter if you decide to sell the light or not.
Though arguably, the violets/" uv" are unnecessary for fw ( good discussion point with corals) they sell for sw
If keeping
I suggest favoring blue over rb if adding any blue to the " non- blue" channels.
Cool whites have plenty of rb. Regular blue can improve color rendition( cri).

Adjusting the height so that most of the light enters the tank at the water surface and not spill over and then dimming to reach par values is my sop.
With the 2 puck rectangle over a cube that does imply some light spill in front and back to cover left and right.
More a matter of personal choice though.
Believe 10" was for an ai prime single puck over a 24" cube.
Find the brs video on ai prime placement
 
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