Hipargero LED -vs- Lominie Pixie 30 LED

[C Jerome]

A few weeks ago I picked up a good deal on a three gallon MarineLand Contour Glass Aquarium.  Plan to use it as a quarantine or frag tank depending on what I need at the time.  Could be keeping soft, hard or LPS in it.  For lighting I have been looking at two sub $70 units on Amazon.  Have seen a few mentions on NR.com about them but not a lot of feedback.  There are quite a few reviews of both on amazon.  Hoping to collect additional thoughts or personal experience which will help me and others who might be looking at these.  

 

Welcome your thoughts.  

 

Lominie LED Aquarium Light Pixie 30

Central light source could be better for my squarish tank

no fan

customize the spectrum

can adjust intensity 

 

 

HIPARGERO LED

Has a fan

only blue/white adjustment 

can adjust intensity 

 

 

 

Lomine on left Hipargero on right.  

[mcarroll]

Tank appears to be a 12" cube.  On a tank that small just about anything with 450nm Blue LED's will work.

 

 

Get a light meter while you're ordering to use during the setup so you can measure the light output and know how much you're giving the tank.

 

I have a meter like this one which I paid about $12 for: CityFarmer Light Meter, Digital Luxmeter, with LCD Display – Range up to 50,000 Lux, with Price Reduction, Great for Gardening, Farming, hydroponics, Indoor, Outdoor, one Year Limited Warranty

 

You can find LOTS of options from $3-$300 on this search....I bet even the $3 ones are decent....you want to be able to read at least up to 50,000 lux, but up to 200,000 might be handy:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=light+meter&s=price-asc-rank

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

I have a pair of the Pixie 30, that I used for a little at home blue vs white testing (surprise - they both grew coral) and was really surprised by the light. The build quality seemed solid, the light output was surprising high. You can adjust the channels independently, but you’re only clicking the intensity up or down (if I remember correctly, I think it has 4 Options per channel). For the money, I was pretty impressed with this little light. They’re just sitting boxed up in the closet now(I could probably be talked in to letting them go if you decided to go this route.) but at your budget I think this light would be a solid choice. 

[devaji108]

seems like more ppl have used the hippargreo there are a few YT vids of ppl using them on some pretty nice tanks. 

I am trying to see if there is a way to mount them on a peninsula tank on the back wall.

 

 

[legomaniac]

I have a pixie 30 on my 15 gallon column tank(13"×13"×20"deep).  I love this light.  I played around with it until I got the color just right, then put it on a smart plug for a timer and it works perfect.  Cant beat it for the price.

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Ok. I found my par ratings for this Pixie 30. It was taken on an ADA 60P, which has a height of 14”. 
 

I mounted the light 4” above the water line, and it 7” depth in the water (middle of the tank, directly under the light) with all channels at 100%  it had a par of 467. The front of the tank at the water line, it was 240 par, and at the back of the tank at the water line it was 156. The outsides of the tank ranged anywhere from 15-100 par, but I think you’d want to mount the light higher for a better spread. 
 

With two lights mounted, all channels at 100%, it was 150-200 par at all corners of the tank, and 7” down, middle of the tank the par was 602. 
 

I have no doubts that this light is capable of growing most corals in a nano, and two of them really smooths out the coverage if you want to keep them close to the water line.