Biocube 16 and Kessil A80 (enough light)

[Tedyfinger71]

Thinking about upgrading the lighting on my stock Biocube 16, getting rid of cover and run a chaeto reactor on the back, looking at led options now, the passive cooling of the Kessil really caught my eye, no fan noise!!! Do you guys think the A80 will be enough for this tank, according to the website this light has a coverage of 24"?

[KyleAwesome]

I run 2x A80's w/ controller over an IM lagoon 25. Started out just softies and easy LPS, worked great. Tank is 12" tall by 24" wide 20" deep so the two A80's did a pretty good job of covering the entirety. Never had to run them past 30-40%, however now that I've been adding some SPS and higher demand corals I've noticed their shortcomings. Right now I'm up to 70% intensity and still going to need more. If you want to keep shrooms, zoas and hammers you'll more than likely be fine. If you want to keep acros and milli's you'll need something bigger. Hope that helps.

[Tedyfinger71]

Thanks, I have only softies right now, the dimensions for coverage in the Bio16 are only 11"*14", and 14" tall. I see a few cases of people running the Kessil 160 in this tank but not going above 40% intensity, that kind of defeats the purpose of getting a stronger light, I think!

[Cpl_Wiggles]

Check out BioCube Resource thread. I went Steve's LED on my 16 gal. So far, so good.

 

I kept hood to help with the enclosed look and help with evaporation, etc. I figured if I bought the AIO with a hood why get rid of it when there are options to have both?

[TheNanoReefer303]

Yeah i think you would be fine depending on the coral you are looking at.