From reefbreeders to hydra 26s

I have been happy with my reefbreeder value units, ran 2 over my 65 and now 3 over my 120, but I noticed a while back the blue LEDs were burnt in 1 fixture and now 2 of them. So I was deciding between replecing the burnt LEDs, either 2 or 3 new value fixtures or getting a new lighting setup. I really like the idea of t5/led, but after checking around I saw the price drop on hydra 26s from 400 to 300.


So I pulled the trigeer on 3 hydra 26 plus the director. I went with the 26 over the 52 because I want better coverage and don't want hot spots. IMO it is better unless you have a really deep tank, to split the LEDs over the tank. They drive the 26s higher, so 2 hydra26 have more power than 1 52 - that is what AI told me.


I got them yesterday, no problem setting up the director or the lights. I am impressed. Granted the reefbreeders had burnt blues, but the colors really are better. I do think I am going to add a 4th 26 for even more coverage, but the front/back coverage is good and that was my main concern with the 26 vs the 52. I did think it was silly, but after playing around with it I really like the cloud function.


I also sometimes like to look at my tank at 10k colors but most veiwing at 20k, I set it so that the whites ramp down faster and before the other channels so when I get home I can enjoy the lower k look, and then in a few hours enjoy higher k. That is really nice!


One issue, I don't know how to check PAR. It was easy before as I ran everything with timers and it was all 100%. Just look at PAR x photoperiod and done. Now with the exeption of 1.5 hours where everthing is constant the values are always changing. Not sure how to approach that.

 

Nice, is that a 6' long, 3' wide 2' tall? How are you going to arrange them?

I was looking at other fixtures but seems like most of the fancy total tank coverage LED systems are well over 2k, even the german LED/T5 fixture was over 2k. With the price drop I feel like I got a really nice fixture that should last several years for under 1k.