Best budget lighting for 10 gallon nano?

[Odobenus rosmarus]

lol I'm in Canada and I had to order the light from the states. There was also a dollar conversion so it was originally $95 US and like 110$ CA.

[VW_TDI_02]

Oh, gotcha. That makes a lot more sense. haha.

[mheat13]

If your budget allows, AI Prime ($200) hands down.

[Recci]

A cheap mini-T5 setup would be best. LED's are a con.

[Lula_Mae]

On 6/4/2018 at 7:10 AM, Recci said:

A cheap mini-T5 setup would be best. LED's are a con.

This post is three years old.  It's likely the OP figured out a solution by now. And if by mini-T5 you are referring to the 9" Coralife unit, well all I can say is save your money. Any $25 PAR led beats that, hands down  (I was not impressed by it.  Can you tell?).

[coryscritch]

On 3/22/2015 at 1:49 AM, bntv said:

Do you keep sps and how are they doing?

i have a birds nest under this light. which is a very entry/easy level sps, its growing like crazy.

[RustyRocket]

On 6/6/2018 at 8:22 AM, coryscritch said:

i have a birds nest under this light. which is a very entry/easy level sps, its growing like crazy.

Interesting...hows the coloration on the corals? Not that I dont believe you, but my leathers gets a bit dull with that light. Most of the yellows in my leather corals turn brown and greens, which is a bit disappointing. 

[ReefGoat]

On 6/6/2018 at 8:57 AM, Lula_Mae said:

This post is three years old.  It's likely the OP figured out a solution by now. And if by mini-T5 you are referring to the 9" Coralife unit, well all I can say is save your money. Any $25 PAR led beats that, hands down  (I was not impressed by it.  Can you tell?).

 

[mndfreeze]

On 3/26/2015 at 11:14 AM, porkchop-rob said:

Ai prime. 200 bucks...done. LOL

 

This.  I have one over my 24G aquapod and have SPS growing just fine.  I picked up a second to help with shadowing but haven't set it up yet.  Definitely worth the 200 bucks, no question.  The built in controller is amazing as well.  IMO the best bang for the buck out there.

[jdmcbuilt]

42 minutes ago, mndfreeze said:

 

This.  I have one over my 24G aquapod and have SPS growing just fine.  I picked up a second to help with shadowing but haven't set it up yet.  Definitely worth the 200 bucks, no question.  The built in controller is amazing as well.  IMO the best bang for the buck out there.

Micmol mini gen 3 best bang for your buck. Even the pro is better. Everypme likes to follow trends. Ive used the gen 1 on my first fusion with great success. 

[mndfreeze]

IMO I don't think the AI prime HD is so popular just because of "trends", though trend tend to form for reasons, like a product is good.  The build quality is great, the integrated controller and wireless options are amazing and work well.  It has a lot of user power for its cost.  There are of course other lights out there that have more wattage or cost less, but you pay for it in other ways somewhere.  I doubt the small difference in wattage between the micmol and the AI will matter on a tank of this size when both are more then capable of growing high light corals.  

 

I live in Tempe btw.  

[Stoops718]

29 minutes ago, jdmcbuilt said:

Micmol mini gen 3 best bang for your buck. Even the pro is better. Everypme likes to follow trends. Ive used the gen 1 on my first fusion with great success. 

Just got the mini g3 a couple of weeks ago. IMO it's a great light. @jdmcbuilt can you share your settings?

[jdmcbuilt]

6 hours ago, mndfreeze said:

IMO I don't think the AI prime HD is so popular just because of "trends", though trend tend to form for reasons, like a product is good.  The build quality is great, the integrated controller and wireless options are amazing and work well.  It has a lot of user power for its cost.  There are of course other lights out there that have more wattage or cost less, but you pay for it in other ways somewhere.  I doubt the small difference in wattage between the micmol and the AI will matter on a tank of this size when both are more then capable of growing high light corals.  

 

I live in Tempe btw.  

Not doubting the product. But you do see Primes for re sale more so than you would assume considering how "good" the product is. 

 

I have 2 hydra 52s hd on my tank. 

 

But for a small fusion 10 to 30 gallon we don't always have to use what is considered the best on the market. Trying other products is key in this hobby and ive tried the micmol and for some reason people don't talk about it or havent tried it. 

 

I'll be restarting my fusion soon with a micmol gen 3. It fits the tank so well with the square body design. I'll post the build on here. 

[jdmcbuilt]

6 hours ago, Stoops718 said:

Just got the mini g3 a couple of weeks ago. IMO it's a great light. @jdmcbuilt can you share your settings?

I couldnt remeber what setting I had on it. Its been 2 years since I had my fusion running. I have a 75 right now. 

 

I burnt some sps up top trying full power with the light. Its a pretty strong light.

 

I'll be starting a fusion 10 build soon with the micmol. Post your build with the light on here. 

 

 

[coryscritch]

On 6/8/2018 at 11:38 AM, RustyRocket said:

Interesting...hows the coloration on the corals? Not that I dont believe you, but my leathers gets a bit dull with that light. Most of the yellows in my leather corals turn brown and greens, which is a bit disappointing. 

Everything seems to like it in my tank. 

[RustyRocket]

On 6/8/2018 at 11:24 PM, mndfreeze said:

IMO I don't think the AI prime HD is so popular just because of "trends", though trend tend to form for reasons, like a product is good.  The build quality is great, the integrated controller and wireless options are amazing and work well.  It has a lot of user power for its cost.  There are of course other lights out there that have more wattage or cost less, but you pay for it in other ways somewhere.  I doubt the small difference in wattage between the micmol and the AI will matter on a tank of this size when both are more then capable of growing high light corals.  

 

I live in Tempe btw.  

I'm literally thinking about this the AI prime and the kessil. People say that the disco ball and the build quality is pretty shocking with the wifi dropping all the time and sealant is lacking so salt spray or creep would damage the unit and the customer service is bad. Can you comment on this @mndfreeze?

 

Having the AI prime and the akamai powerhead and my phone as the controller would be pretty awesome!

[Euphylin me]

I have the hipegero 30 watt aqua knight led. this light was 62 bucks on amazon and my torch and hammer coral are completely opened up and sitting on the sandbed at the bottom of the tank. I would highly recommend this light!

[jdmcbuilt]

2 hours ago, RustyRocket said:

I'm literally thinking about this the AI prime and the kessil. People say that the disco ball and the build quality is pretty shocking with the wifi dropping all the time and sealant is lacking so salt spray or creep would damage the unit and the customer service is bad. Can you comment on this @mndfreeze?

 

Having the AI prime and the akamai powerhead and my phone as the controller would be pretty awesome!

Its nice to have the wifi option for sure. But honestly once you set your settings. You shouldnt be tinkering with it. Ive had my hydras 52hd and i found my sweet spot and havent touched it over a year now. You pay a premium for Wi-Fi capabilities. My micmol gen 1 didnt have a disco ball effect. I'm sure with the gen 3 it doesnt havent that effect either. Try it out. 

[mndfreeze]

9 hours ago, RustyRocket said:

I'm literally thinking about this the AI prime and the kessil. People say that the disco ball and the build quality is pretty shocking with the wifi dropping all the time and sealant is lacking so salt spray or creep would damage the unit and the customer service is bad. Can you comment on this @mndfreeze?

 

Having the AI prime and the akamai powerhead and my phone as the controller would be pretty awesome!

 

Having the built in controller was what sold me when tossing up between the Kessil and the AI.  The Kessil required an additional 100 bucks to be thrown down on an external controller.  I don't have bad disco ball effect and the build quality looks good to me.  It has a decent weight to it for how small the actual light is, the gooseneck you buy seperately is built nicely and attaches firmly to the light.  The clamp on it to the tank works as well as that type of clamp can be expected to work since its just a direct pad over glass type clamp.  

I do have a custom cut glass top for my tank so I never have to worry about salt spray on the light itself.  I do of course get a little bit of salt creep where the gooseneck attaches to the tank because its partially in the water.  My lid also baaarreeelllyy acts like a diffuser, so I get shimmer but nothing crazy by any means.  I haven't noticed it being bad with the top off either.

 

 

Once you set it up how you want it you won't be messing with the settings very much, but its really nice to have all that control for when you are trying to dial it in how you want, and having a complex lighting schedule available to you without tossing in extra money.  Mine never drops off my wireless network, but I'm guessing its more the people networks then the device itself.  It doesn't have a super strong wireless antenna inside it because it's only meant to connect to your network to be configured so if your router is super far away or you have bad wireles signal in your house then you might have issues putting it on your network, but in this case you can just direct connect via your phone and skip hooking it into your local area network altogether. 

 

One of the other things I liked about it was the fact that there are well known presets run by successful tanks up on the AI website that you can download then upload directly into your light, so you KNOW you're starting with a color and timing configuration that works well.  I went with the David Saxby clone then slightly modified it a bit to have a longer ramp up and ramp down time, and up'd the blues and lowered the green just a tiny tiny bit, like a few percent.

 

I've only had it a few months now and I've never had a reason to call customer service so I can't speak to that.  IMO you need to maintain your equipment though and lightning is one of those things that is especially susceptible to water and salt damage inherently by its nature.  It has a heatsink and fan in it that you do need to make sure you clean it every now and then, etc.  The bottom of the light is sealed up so I'm not sure how people are getting water and salt up in there unless its going in the sides or top.

 

Hope that helps!

 

[mndfreeze]

I just wanted to add that with the AI prime and the way its controller is, you can control each color seperately at different power levels at different points in time.  So for my tank when it ramps up its a deep blue and slowly moves towards a brighter full color, then per the david saxby preset I run, it spikes up and down on intensity in waves to give coral a little bit of a 'break' from the intensity every hour or so.  You could in theory have your light change its spectrum throughout the entire cycle if you wanted.  No simple mechanical or electrical timer will do something like that for you.  Its not a REQUIRED feature but damn does it make it nice, especially once you have it configured how you like.