What's the Next Step up for lighting?

[RemoGaggi]

I've got a IM 20 with 2 Orbit Marine IC Loop 24" strips.  When I started my tank, I had 1 strip than added the second strip.  My corals appear to be happy and I'm seeing good, if not very slow, growth on all of them.  

 

There are a few things I don't like about this light setup.  The cords come out one side and there's no way to hide them.  The light bracket is garbage.  It doesn't work well and the lights are always a little tilted with the left side (cord side) a little lower than the right side.  No matter how much I tighten them to the holder, they still want to lean left.  Also, each time work on the tank, I have to loosen the lights and slide them back, but the bracket still hangs nearly all the way to the front of the tank.  This doesn't leave much room to work with.

 

 

With that said, what is my next step up in lighting?  Are two AI Primes the next step up or is there something else out there?  Will the performance of 2 Primes will blow my Orbits out of the water - make my corals happier and also make the tank look better?

 

Thanks.

[Clown79]

Lighting isn't the only factor to coral happiness. It could be the settings, too much/too little photo period. Too much/ too little light for each individual coral.

 

Flow, placement, and lack of nutrients are other factors.

 

On a 20g, 1 Prime HD can be enough on the tank. I currently have 1 Prime and 1 Prime HD on my 25g but both had to be lowered because my corals simply weren't happy with them higher.

 

I originally had 1 Prime on the tank and not all colours at 100%. If it wasn't for my aquascape, I would have been fine with only 1.

 

Each tank is different, so are its needs.

 

So before considering if it's the light that's the issue, it's best to evaluate other things like nutrients. 

 

I thought I didn't have enough light because my corals weren't growing and they weren't fully expanded with very light colouration.

it turned out to be a lack of nutrients and too much light.

[mcarroll]

Add a second bracket so there's one on each end.  You can zip-tie all the cables to the end bracket.  

 

Maybe even better: ditch the arm mount and make both lights invisible by laying them flat on the tank.  Better intensity that way too.  There are 3M sticky zip-tie mounts that will let you zip-tie your cables to anything, btw.

 

I think you'll find other lights to be just as obtrusive or more...can't avoid cables.  Kessil, for one example, may have the slickest mounting system where cables get routed through the arm mount...but there's still a "cable mess" on top of each light.

 

Another consideration is light spill.  If you drop your lights to the tank rim you can get spill as close to zero as reasonably possible.

 

If you use a single Kessil, Prime, etc (spotlights) you'll be forced to waste a lot of light over the front and back of the tank when you raise the light high enough to light up the ends of the tank adequately.  Two+ fixtures is a much better spotlight strategy on a rectangular tank.

 

Seems to me like fixing your current 2-strip setup is a pretty sensible option vs replacing it.

[mcarroll]

 

 

Looks like they recommend 2 for all the bigger setups like yours if you wanna keep the mounting system.  IMO go flat on the tank instead.

 

Use these to mount your cables better:

avail in black too

"3M zip-tie mount" is the actual name

[xthunt]

“Will the performance of 2 Primes will blow my Orbits out of the water” Don’t know the answer to the other questions, but definitely yes to this one.

 

I noticed the same “leaning” light when I was using the Orbit with the mount. The problem was the cabled end of the lights making them unbalanced.

 

What I did was, turn the cable a sharp 180 and run them back over the top of the light, then run them down the center of the bracket behind the tank using the adjustment knobs above the lights to hold the cable in place.

 

Also, theres a retainer ring on the threaded screw that keeps the plastic light holder from sitting flush and solid to the metal arm, and allowed the light to rock. I removed it. 

 

So normally its layered like:

-Adjustment knob

-plastic washer

-aluminum “arm”

-screw retainer ring <— I removed this

-plastic light holder

-screw (going through all above into adjustment knob)

 

Setting the lights flush on the tank would work best, but I know how much of a PITA they are to work around especially with a screen top that you need to take off sometimes. 

 

As far as working on the tank (like water changes), I always just took the entire thing off and set it on the floor.