10 gallon soft coral light?

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

Hey everyone! I'm looking to upgrade my light on my 10 gallon and @Seadragon showed me one that I'm really considering. I just wanted to get a second opinion/if anyone has experience with this light. I really just want some GSP and xenia.

 

If anyone has any other suggestions, I have to stay under $100 and be able to have a cover on the tank. 

 

It's the: Current USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light -- https://www.amazon.com/Current-USA-Marine-Aquarium-24-Inch/dp/B00GFTK7CQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

Thank you so much!

[Kayman]

If all you're really looking to grow is softies then than light will work and comes with nice functions that probably can't be beat for the price. I had one over a 29 for awhile and my xenia and gsp grew pretty good.

 

Depending on where you put them you could probably also have frogspawn and a duncan as well in a 10gallon.

[Timaaa]

I have not tried that light and not sure the dimensions of your 10 gallon, but I do like the kessil A80 Tuna Blue, i know its a little more than your budget.

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

1 hour ago, Timaaa said:

I have not tried that light and not sure the dimensions of your 10 gallon, but I do like the kessil A80 Tuna Blue, i know its a little more than your budget.

Thank you! But i really do want to stay under 100

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

Just bought it! 🙂 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

It’s a good light for softies, and will sustain lps and sps, but I saw very little if any growth on them.  For the needs you described, I think you made a good choice. 

[Seadragon]

59 minutes ago, IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut said:

Just bought it! 🙂 

 

Grats!  Personally, I noticed it made a HUGE difference for the GSP in the School Nano Reef with these new lights compared to the crap lights it had before.  It went from brown GSP to Green Star Polyps. 🙂

[Clown79]

Many ppl use current orbits and keep lps & softies

 

Lps don't need high light.

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

Thanks everyone ! 🙂 very excited to take this step forward with this tank. Now just another question--does anyone have any suggestions for good frags online??

[Tired]

Saltcritters.com has a nice assortment of things at low prices, and frequent sales. Saltyunderground has higher-end and therefore more expensive things, but their stuff is also good. It's also worth checking the sponsor forums on here, or seeing if someone in your area is selling things.

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

Before:

Be

After:

 

It's incredible!! I have it at 100% white, 50% blue, 10% green, and 10% red. I'm new to being able to control the spectrum, so is that a pretty average setting?

 

I also have NO idea how you did the top @Seadragon. I spent probably 40 minutes with the glass and a butter knife. I can get the knife between the plastic and the glass, but it just won't budge. I'll try again in a few hours once my fingers gain some feeling again. 

 

--I didn't truly notice the big difference before I put these photos side by side--

[Seadragon]

On 12/12/2019 at 11:45 AM, IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut said:

Before:

Be

After:

 

It's incredible!! I have it at 100% white, 50% blue, 10% green, and 10% red. I'm new to being able to control the spectrum, so is that a pretty average setting?

 

I also have NO idea how you did the top @Seadragon. I spent probably 40 minutes with the glass and a butter knife. I can get the knife between the plastic and the glass, but it just won't budge. I'll try again in a few hours once my fingers gain some feeling again. 

 

--I didn't truly notice the big difference before I put these photos side by side--

 

I think it's starting to look much better!  Here's what I use for the Color Spectrum...  I came up with these %'s based off their recommended Color Spectrum for Reef tanks on both their advertising material and on the LOOP app.  So with the LED light you purchased, I use the following:

• Daylight: Blue 100%, White 65%, Red 45%, Green 10%
• Sunrise/Sunset: Blue 75%, White 25%, Red 65%, Green 10%
• Moonlight: Blue 30%, White 0%, Red 15%, Green 0% Blue 5%, White 0%, Red 0%, Green 0%

 

As for the black rubber piece, mine was not glued on or anything, it's just tightly grabbing onto the glass.  I guess if it's giving you a hard time, you could cut the black rubber piece down the center, and then remove each piece individually that's stuck onto the panes of glass.

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by Seadragon
Changed Color Spectrum %'s for the Moonlight.

[Seadragon]

I wanted to give an important update...

 

I will be changing the Moonlight setting on the School NR to 5% Blue and the rest to 0% instead of what I was using.  I found out with the Office NR, due to the increased blue light spectrum that I was using for the Moonlight settings along with the long photoperiod (+ 6 hours of that bright Moonlight), I gave the perfect conditions for an algae bloom from hell.  Because of this hellish nightmare, I will now turn off the Moonlight on the Office NR until I'm able to clear up the water.  And then only use the Moonlight when I'm actually viewing the tank.  I also reduced the photoperiod.

 

And for anyone that either went through a bad algae bloom (or is reading this from the future and is currently experiencing a bad algae bloom), I just spent hours reading everything I can and got to learn all about UV Sterilizers...  I've never had to use one ever in my life until now.  But, I also never had a powerful LED light my whole life that was capable of producing the horror that I am seeing now.  So anyways, once my tank clears up in a week or so, you'll get to read all about this experience on my Office NR Journal. 😉

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

8 hours ago, Seadragon said:

I wanted to give an important update...

 

I will be changing the Moonlight setting on the School NR to 5% Blue and the rest to 0% instead of what I was using.  I found out with the Office NR, due to the increased blue light spectrum that I was using for the Moonlight settings along with the long photoperiod (+ 6 hours of that bright Moonlight), I gave the perfect conditions for an algae bloom from hell.  Because of this hellish nightmare, I will now turn off the Moonlight on the Office NR until I'm able to clear up the water.  And then only use the Moonlight when I'm actually viewing the tank.  I also reduced the photoperiod.

 

And for anyone that either went through a bad algae bloom (or is reading this from the future and is currently experiencing a bad algae bloom), I just spent hours reading everything I can and got to learn all about UV Sterilizers...  I've never had to use one ever in my life until now.  But, I also never had a powerful LED light my whole life that was capable of producing the horror that I am seeing now.  So anyways, once my tank clears up in a week or so, you'll get to read all about this experience on my Office NR Journal. 😉

I've been playing around with the hours, too. I also lessened the blues at night because of what I said with my fish being silly and also to help avoid some algae. Right now, I think I have the lights on full power for ~8 hours. I may cut it down another hour. I've noticed algae growth, but nothing I couldn't tackle with some cleaning. I'm also thinking to get more snails because my clean up crew is a little scarce. I know that urchins are supposed to have voracious appetites, but I don't know how much mine actually regulates the algae growth.