Reefing on a Budget | Do you Need REEF LED Lights For A Marine Tank
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2023
- Reefing on a Budget | Do you Need REEF LED Lights For A Marine Tank
We explore whehter the benefits match the cost when it comes to reef branded LEDs and whether you can use budget alternatives instead
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LIGHTS
AQUEON Nano LED
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Fluval Sea Marine 3.0 LED amzn.to/3Rd3aiH
FILTERS
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FLUVAL 07 External Filter amzn.to/3R7JrRH
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EQUIPMENT
Fluval UVC Clarifier amzn.to/3yJk0i5
Interpet Deltatherm Aquarium Fish Tank Heater amzn.to/3ArAegY
NICREW Single Channel LED Ramp Timer amzn.to/3P7phoQ
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Stanley Glass Scraper amzn.to/3Pdovaz
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MACROALGAE PRODUCTS
TNC Lite - Aquarium plant food/Aquatic fertiliser amzn.to/3ReGjmQ
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REEF AQUARIUM PRODUCTS
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A lot of things are way overpriced when it comes to fishkeeping, especially the saltwater side of it. I'm grateful there are channels like this which suggest alternatives or hacks that can save hobbyists a small fortune.
Thanks for watching
“What is cheap for you might not be cheap for everyone else” well said. Finally someone understands! Not everyone can afford expensive! ❤
Grow some sps with those lights and make another video
Love to see an SPS reef aquarium set up with your lighting.
I completely agree with you in my experience.
Great advice 👍
I agree with you .
I as considering those led lights (Orphek) , I am glad I saw your video. I like you man, your tanks are simple and awesome 😎
Thanks! 👍
Nice video and refreshing take! Thanks for the post. I totally agree. I'm on a very tight budget but led appeals to me because of the efficiency, so i make my own 'reef spec' lights on my pico and previously on a 120L. Cost is no more than £20 and i get the colours and spectrum i want. It doesn't have to be expensive and I've actually found I enjoy the 'whiter' spectrum and the corals actually seemed to enjoy it too.
Doesn't need to be pricey!
I may even buy one of the nicrew next (through your link) for the automation.
Awesome, I wish I had the brains to build my own lights 😂
The lighting I used to back in the day where vho high outfits and I would pick up a ballast just about anywhere wired up myself and had awesome lighting which was way cheaper than LED started a yes LEDs are a big rip-off in my opinion and they do not last as long as they say I totally agree with you
That was what I thought, so Ibsearched for it. And thx for showing your generic led lighting examples.
Currently what using is popbloom light, and going from full spectrum cheap light to this made a bigg diffrence for me, growth is alot better, and much more stable. I do run mainly macroalgea, but atm for my issue is hair algea. Though I do have 110 liter just wondering if should just kill my lights for a few days to get rid of it, or upgrade from fluval canister filter 320 or something to a fx filter. or if should change my flow in the tank
I agree on this subject I have better results with full spectrum grow lamps for macro Algae I also use full spectrum freshwater with outstanding results the blue spectrum in my opinion is for display purposes
Hi, it is the same in carp fishing put the word carp in front and it cost 50% more.
This is so true. Pack of 50 size 6 hooks: $5
Pack of 5 size 6 Super active garuanteed mega Carp hooks: $50
They are just like vehicles. They could be either a daihatsu or a tesla, both will take u from current location to destination. But the features that makes people buy it. Some for brand, some for wifi, some for colouring, in the end, its just personal preference. Its the water chemistry that matter the most. Ive used china blackbox led, everything is great, then i changed to maxpect due to my laziness to turn on and off, plus i like the sunrise and sunset feature on the maxpect. Still the coral still the same
Black box LEDs- inexpensive and grow all types of corals.
Oh gosh the light hunt gave me so much anxiety. All the forums were like "YOU HAVE TO BUY $$$ LIGHTS!!" and it was so stressful. I wish that I had had this video during my hunt; it took so much mental kicking to just buy the Fluval nano sea light (which was still too expensive for me BUT I am happy with my purchase in the end because of the programmability with the app which hacks my ADHD. I DON'T have to remember to turn it off and on and it looks very pretty.) Next time I buy a light though I'm following this advice! Thank you!!!❤❤❤
I'm just about to jump into a reef setup and this was my go to light choice after looking around for ages! How do you find it after a few months use?
Ohh sorry for such an ancient reply - I find it weak, too weak for all but corals at the very top of my rockwork. The programmability was super nice though!
So glad again for this video because my tank suffered a catastrophic leak and I bought a 30 gallon. I'm unimpressed with the strength of the Fluval lighting so I may try something different!
The greedy corp gets under my skin so much I've taken to building my own 🙂There are some good solo upgrade boards that can be hacked w/o purchasing the full on brand name. Nice vid.
Awesome stuff 👍
And you are not going to share that with us???
I bought smatfarm g5s on Amazon, $140 each and they’re more then enough and great lights
Can I just use my fresh water tank white lights? I have two clowns currently, but they don’t like the light on
I agree with what your saying for the most part. But I think you would struggle to have a wall to wall sps tank under most of those lights. I much prefer reef T5 lights myself. Get a 6 to 8 tuber and you can grow anything in the hobby.
T5s are best but expensive for me with energy and replacement tubes
@@EverydayAquarist yeah I'm shutting down my sps tank because it's no longer viable to have 400w of t5s running
Price aside, does macro algae grow better under a cheap reef spectrum light or freshwater spectrum lighting? I have the fluval evo marine and I think the macros would look better / more natural in freshwater lighting - would they be ok though?
In my experience freshwater spectrum is better and is what my lights are primarily
has anyone tried that Aqueon Clip-On LED Aquarium Fish Tank Light on corals?
I agree they don't use special leds there just standard leds that any one can buy. same with the drivers they still have meanwell drivers that anyone can buy for cheap. There charging you all that money for the look and the app and the name I bought some cheap Chinese lights took most of the white leds out replaced with blue and my corals grow perfectly fine I did the swap after 2 years to ai hydras and my coral is no where near as colourfull or grow as fast MY Chinese lights cost 150 for a pair my hydras cost 650 for a pair. But normal white aquarium light is not ideal for coral
Grow lights are priced at a fraction of the cost of reef lights. Around 1/5-1/10 depending on name brand.
Absolutely, you can get some great results from those grow lights as well!
I remember you mentioned this about a year ago and it's very true! Anything reef related is just hit with added salwater tax. The problem is mostly PAR as cheap freswater lights have very little and also the blue/U.V spectrums aren't strong enough, it does require more watts to provide the needed light amount too. If you have loads of coral you want to see it glow after all that money you've spent😂. I know there is some budget type options but I still don't think any of the cheaper brands have cracked it yet for price to performance. I hope they do soon as I'm sick of people just thinking it's a must to spend £1000 lighting a 300 litre tank.. it should cost £100-300 really!!!
There's xr30s copys called a8se no difference in output or spectrum but instead of £800 per light there £160 a light because the don't say ecotec on them
I had a couple questions if you dont mind... i was just wondering if the hyyger 978 will be good for my 29 gallon reef/planted tank im setting up. I plan to keep softies and macroalgae and i was just wondering if this light will be good for that? Also due to its kelvin rating im guessing 6500k or so, will it be good for corals? Im trying to find a balance between having nice and healthy macro algae but also having pretty corals! Thank you and i appreciate your videos! Been watching fir years!
Yes but would probably want 2 for light spread
@@EverydayAquarist Thank you for getting back to me, I appreciate it! Ok that makes sense, I was also looking at the niecrew hyper reef but I'm not sure which model for my standard dimension 29 gallon. They have a 30w, 50w, 100w and 150w. If you could let me know what you think would be a amazing! Thank you again.
@@EverydayAquarist the tank is 30 inches long, 12 inch wide and 18 3/4 high. Not sure what that is using the metric system since for whatever us Americans have to use a different system lol
Can the budget lights grow SPS?
YOU ARE RIGHT,
BUT NOW THERE ARE MANY ALTERNATIVES TO EXPENSIVE LAMPS..... THE CHINESE OFFER MANY OPTIONS... FOR EXAMPLE POPBLOOM......4 ARCADIA lamps will cost around £200...plus you need to connect them somewhere.....not a cheap alternative(and here we are talking about the shortest model)
I don't need reef lights as you know. But I'm a sucker for a good rant. 😉
Haha, you should have seen the first version 🤣
Yeah for me, its less stressful when i spend less on a hobby
I have a 40oz tank and it came with what seems to be one of the worst lights imaginable. Super cheap feeling, 4 brightness settings(yes, only brightness settings), and the PCB inside is very simplistic. That being said, my corals love the light and are really happy.
Any products with the words reef or saltwater aquarium in the title or description seem to be expensive, the same can be said for the fish. It's the same with water additives too, many of which are actually cheap chemicals but branded in such a way that they are able to charge seemingly whatever they want. With regards to LED lights, I have grow light for which I grow ornamental plants under and I have a nano reef tank for which I have a reef LED light fitting. Watt for watt, the LED reef light is many times more expensive than the growlight; however, I have tied a growlight above my reef aquarium and whilst the corals grew OK, i just didn't like the look of it and much prefer the traditional blue colouration associated with reef lighting.
Quite poor advice in my opinion, all the lights you show minus the orphek would struggle to keep any coral alive long term. There’s literally no chance it would support a sps system. Your successful because you keep algae and fish which if anything will do better with freshwater lighting….
You’re not growing Coral you’re growing algae which you can do with cheap lights but your not setting the path to success for people with corals that are above the beginner grade
I use Nicrew and love them but FINNEX is the best reef light I have ever used.
all the Kessils whatever are very expensive the reason its because of the power leds and materials used, these things are very expensive.
if not on SPS you should try some cheap leds because these things are very expensive
Great video, i run alot of cheap LEDs in my fishroom, which is freshwater mostly, but im running nicrew on my softie tank and it not only looks good, but it grows corals very well.
Now i also have aqua Illumination lights on my other reef, i do really enjoy the simple control from an app. Totally dont need it, but i was able to fit them in my budget.
Budget lights are great though, even those black box LEDs. my local reefer friend uses viparseptra over his grow system, full of sps and other cool corals.
Oye oye mate controversial video. I love that you dare speak on it. New hobbyist here and I am afraid the hobby will lose a lot of aquarist due to ridiculously high prices for all the equipment the 3 online retailers tell us we need
I just say what's on my mind 👍
Fresh take 👍. (Or should I say salt take?)
10000k
1290 lumens
Is this enough for a 20gal reef tank,
Im a newbie to the hobby.
Thank you. Watching this helps me decide what to buy.
It's a bit dim. Although lumens don't show par I'd hope for between 2-3k lumens tbh. Hygger do some bright cheap leds I have reviews on
@@EverydayAquarist will definitely check on that, thank you
I own Orphek bars. Such shit lights and badly assembled. I've had four bars blow on me within 9 months. Upon opening them the screws to tighten the heat sinks were loose, thermal putty was not equally distributed and the soldering work is of low quality hence why lights begin to flicker. Couldn't agree with you more.
People are definitely being ripped off no question but you can't use growing Macro Algae, Duncans and pretry much all
Very easy growing low light requiring species to say grow lights are just as effective😂. Test those same cheap grow lights with some Acros and other Coral species that need mid-high par with deep blue spectrum and they will start falling short. Even fluval Reef Nano lights struggle with high light loving corals. Nicrew are promising but still have to test more.
lol so many reasons you're wrong, great for a refugium or macro algae tank. you use the palest Duncanopsammia I've ever seen which doesn't really change much between daylight and actinic light. you really just dribbled a lot of crap on this one. though you seem to really be lacking in the marine side. but totally different lights totally different spectrum totally different benefits and applications. I take it you've never been diving or seen a reef outside your greenhouse. idk if the point of this was just to cause a stir or if you genuinely believe that.
And those duncans as an example was terrible advise as there non photosynthetic and require feeding not lighting
Someone can grow duncans under their basement lighting alone. u got no clue what ur talking about. Show me some actual corals instead of macro algae and some anemones. Apart from the fact they grow corals a lot better, the colours are much much more intensive and nicer to look at in actual reef tank equipment. Im not saying spend thousands on ecotech. Look at some actual data like telegraham on yt does.
😂 🐠 🪸
Screw the upset people. Why would someone be mad if we can make them ourselves for 1/4 of the cost!!!
The cover of this video is actually: " Are reef LEDs a scam".
The answer is: generally speaking, YES, the majority of LEDs made for aquariums is a scam! Many have actually said that! Not only for the prices, but for the lies preached in regards to coverage and actual qualities of light emitted. Not to mention the stupid comparison to results when using metal halides and/ or T5s. I'm referring to the "top of the line" LEDs. The one you have there is a joke!
Are you saying that metal halides + actinic blue Florencant bulbs are still better than the led's ???
@@nikhook1114 Depends on what you are looking for and the application. Are you looking for the actual quality of light? Are you looking for the optimal/best reproduction of sunlight in all aspects? Are you trying to resemble the natural environment and avoiding the negative artificial effects of light over your system?
What have I learnt about cheap marine Chinese crap, its not long term reliable. Buy cheap buy twice! My adivce is buy quality second hand. I have 1 Ecotech Radion gen 1 and two gen 2 pro all working perfectly fine and have had them 10+ years.
Well in my experience the cheap Chinese crap is no longer crap and mine have been going for 2+ years now reliably and supporting my reef system. Times are changing
@@EverydayAquarist every piece I e bought has broken, but that was years back tho. I do however bought a hypercrew whatever its called light to test the Chinese leds, they are a year old doing well so obviously the quality had improved. 10+ years tho for a set of leds it's just unbeatable for value.