marinland reef led lighting progress

Mikefight. I've had a rose bubble tip Anemone in my tank for a few months now and it seems to be doing great. No wandering, fully expended all the time. Good color. Here's a picture. I have the marineland reef capable leds on my tank.



Samhain, again your tank looks great. Glad to see the marineland fixture penetrates to the bottom for you. I think I remember you being concerned that its a deeper tank.

Also here is a fts from me. Taken today.

That's great, I'm getting my lights on Friday and I cant wait to have them up and running

Make sure you post a pic on here of your tank!

will do!

Thanks Brittany! I really was concerned about their performance on a deeper tank. If I do try a nem, it will be placed higher up, and I'm interested to try some SPS in there now that I see how others' SPS are doing under the lights. I'm still thinking about some fluorescent supplementation, but I may just stick with these as my main fixture! It sure beats buying a whole new one!

I had the bobo one not the reef ready one and it sucked pretty bad. Glad your tank is doing good under them!

AmberSunrise said:

I had the bobo one not the reef ready one and it sucked pretty bad. Glad your tank is doing good under them!

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Bobo one? I never heard of that...

Samhain, my nems are doing great. That's a good idea to place it at the top. That's where I placed mine and that's where it stayed so far. My green birdsnest is doing well and growing pretty fast but the purple tipped Acro is Browning out. It's still extending polyps and all but its just not a pleasing color. I've been thinking about adding a couple led strips like the stunner strips but they are 80 bucks a peice. Maybe ill look for some cheaper ones. I really like the marineland leds but my stupid glass cover has a black strip directly in the middle so I have the light further back than I should so the light isn't spread as evenly. So annoying but oh well I guess.

that is an awesome looking tank
some inspiration for me to try and get mine to look something like that in a few years

active said:

that is an awesome looking tank
some inspiration for me to try and get mine to look something like that in a few years

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My tank isn't even a year old...I started it up last march. Once you have the tank cycled it really doesnt take too long to fill it up with corals. If I had more money I only can imagine how jam packed my tank would be Haha. Oh and thanks! I love my tank

I just update my tank showcase thread wit these but for those looking for Marineland Reef capable LED tank information here is mine.

18 inch fixture. Supporting all LPS-Mushrooms, candy cane, torch, favia, duncan, hammers, kenya, star polyps, zoas, and one SPS at
this time but recent additional so dont know yet. Guess we will have to wait and see.

just got my lights in :D

Here's my sps update! Both the green birdsnest and the purple Acro have been doing great. The birdsnest branches are getting longer and the Acro has encrusted a lot more to the rock it is attached to.

So this thread hasn't been updated in quite a while. Here are a few pictures from me. Still running the marineland reef capable lights on my 29g. Everything is doing wonderful. I have recieved a monti that a friend gave to me bc it started to bleach. It is doing great now and the polyps are extended all the time. The birdsnest has gotten hugee! And the acro is doing great as well!

I had Marineland totally replace my 72" Pro Series light after a ton of issues like their tech dropping my first replacement in the tank and a large blue flame shoot out after he left.

He came back with a brand new box that said new or updated system on it and replcae my light with a total new light.

Well Marineland also agreed to send my 4 Units of the 24"-36" Reef Ready LEDs.

I just added them to my tank along with the Pro Lights that are already on it. They are on a time that goes on and off with my MH. Well the MH is on the Pro Series built in timer but I just set them for the same time.

As long as any corals you have that need strong lighting are within 12" of the LEDs they are just fine. Once you get beyond that down to 24" any Low Light corals will be ok still but after that it is just visual to our eyes.

I am very happy with the extra light I am getting and if you turn them off, what I used to think was a lot now looks far less bright. I basically supplement with them and they do a fine job. I mean who has all their corals at the bottom anyway and anything I do the MH get.

That is another thing. I have the cheap Marineland Bulbs and they are 150x3 MH and I have corals at 27" that are growing very well. EVEN AT 150watts corals that are sitting within 18" are getting plenty of light. I can put any coral in there. I would rather have 250Watts each but they work great.

Ok about the LED's I have this pic here and you can see them on top. FREE LED's for me. $1000 at the store.


Full-Old-Layout by Phastroh1, on Flickr

That's the thing though, on these larger (and deeper) tanks they aren't as viable as a fixture. I realize you got them for free, but at $1k to cover a six foot tank, you might as well spend $1300 and get 3 of the AI units and call it a day...

On shallower tanks I think they're definitely an option to consider

Oh you are 100% right on that.

I was not trying to make an argument for buying them and yeah they are not a good choice for a deep tank.

Actually I would not count on them past 12" to do great. Up to 24" or in my opinion after maybe 18" they are useless for any coral that need light. Low light corals should be okay up to 24" but even that is a stretching them to the limit.

Just a note though. Those 4 units do not cover the 6 foot tank as well as 3 AI's would. The lense covers are decent at spreading light but not like the AI do.

I would use 6 units of the Marinelands to feel safe.

Oh and yeah I would never spend $1000 on them over AI's but I just wanted to show I had them and they were good or not a crappy as people say. Not the best but not the worst.

Anyone have updates on these ML lights? I'm thinking about getting them to start off with for my 75g. I saw Samhain had some on a 90g which is a little taller than mine. I'm wondering how it's going and if these will be enough for me to start getting into corals.

Any coral in my tank 12" or closer to the top has in my opinion improved since I added these.(Reef Ready ML)

I also think a lot even further down look better but testing shows they are not that great beyond that but neither are 150MH bulbs but I have corals at 28" down that are growing with them. Maybe they would be better with 250Watts but whatever.

I am actually going to install new Phoenix 150Watt MH next Friday so I am excited to see what difference they make over these stock junkers.

Oh yeah you should really look around because you can probably find a better LED for the same price.

Palimow said:

Anyone have updates on these ML lights? I'm thinking about getting them to start off with for my 75g. I saw Samhain had some on a 90g which is a little taller than mine. I'm wondering how it's going and if these will be enough for me to start getting into corals.

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Beeguiles has them on her 29g and is super happy with them. Take a look at her tank showcase thread to see for yourself. Also the company is coming out with an updated version of the reef ready's (due to hit shelves in June I believe), that has better optics, and integrated timers so that you can turn the blue and white led's off and on separately. I think the new model sounds great!