Lighting for a 10 gallon cube

[Oldfishwife]

Hi all - after 18 years out of the hobby, I’m dipping a toe back in with a 10 gallon Waterbox Cube! I want to keep some softies, lps, some shrimp and maybe a colorful goby. I may get brave in a year or so and add a BTW and Percula, but that’s down the road. 

 

Anyhoo, as in the past, lighting seems to be the most difficult decision. Our old tanks: a 200, a 75 and 2 or 3 other smaller ones, were heavily lighted. I’m sure our house glowed brighter than the whole of North Korea when seen from space. LOTS of wattage, mostly halides. 

 

Soooo, now we are looking at LEDs in such teeny tiny wattages, it blows my mind. 🤪 at least our electric bill won’t double. I’m considering A80 blue tuna, Sbox Sprite, Reefpro 50/50 and a few others.  I would prefer a bar, but there don’t seem to be many shorter than 18-24”. I’d like to prevent light spill into the room as much as possible. I’d also like to avoid the noise of a fan. I know, it’s looking more and more like the A80, but I want to be sure that’s enough light to support LPS. Another consideration is that I’m not keen on having a super bright light that I have to ramp back. I don’t want to spend $$$$$ because I realize I may change things up eventually. 

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

[SURVEYMAN46123]

I had the A80 over my tank for 2 years.   Recently switched it out to a AI Prime HD.   The kessil was great, but I felt it was lacking in power.   Corals tended to stretch a bit more than I wanted. 

 

 

[Oldfishwife]

Thanks! Are you seeing a difference with the AI Prime?

[Clown79]

AI Prime is an excellent light.

 

Unfortunately with any puck led, you will get light spillage.

 

I even had spillage with the aquamaxx and that sits closer to the tank.

[SURVEYMAN46123]

1 hour ago, Oldfishwife said:

Thanks! Are you seeing a difference with the AI Prime?

I've only had it running since last Thursday.   Other than corals no longer stretching, nothing yet.

 

 

[billygoat]

One other thing to consider is that the A80 is not programmable on its own; in order to set it to cycle up and down automatically you must also purchase the Kessil Spectral Controller. The AI Prime, on the other hand, is controllable from your phone right out of the box with no other equipment needed.

 

That being said, I have been using an A80 on my 18 gallon system for the past 8 months (with the controller) and have so far been pleased with it. It's simple to set up, uses very little power, and is completely silent since it has no fan. The Kessil Logic color tuning system greatly simplifies setup, since all you have to do color-wise is turn a dial to figure out how blue you want your light to be. At 15 watts max output the A80 is certainly not very strong, but it seems to provide plenty of light for my soft corals, gorgonians, and macroalgae.

[Oldfishwife]

Thanks everyone!

[Oldfishwife]

I just changed things up and ordered a Lifeguard 9.8 Crystal tank along with the Current USA Orbit 18” light. It’s got great reviews and is exactly what I wanted. My tank won’t quite be a cube, but it will probably be easier to scape. 😍