- Hey it's Thomas here,
And today we're going to be diving into
the brand new Reef Brite X series LED hybrid kits.
I've actually been running a quad kit
on my reef tank right behind me there
for a couple of months now,
and I've been really impressed with
what these XHO based hybrid kits can do.
They are most certainly capable of replacing
T5 Hybrid fixtures
and provide an absolute ton of color pop.
I'll also share some part numbers with you
so you can see how well the X series performed
in our testing when paired with a primary LED light,
so let's get into it.
There are several different ways
to approach supplemental fill light
for a reef tank.
One way is to use many smaller led fixtures
spread out over the entire aquarium,
but that tends to get pretty spendy,
especially when we're using flagship LED fixtures.
Another way is using T5 Hybrid fixtures,
harnessing that super diffused
and even spread of T5 light to even out
the coverage over the entire tank and reduce any shadowing,
but a T5 lights requires bulb replacements,
they don't have the same color pop as LEDs do,
and the fixtures themselves
don't exactly play nice with common LED mounting arms,
and instead require a hanging kit
that attaches to your ceiling or wall hangers.
On the other hand, Reef Brite's X series
takes it to a whole other level
using two or four of their phenomenal
XHO light strips to provide a beautiful,
even blanket of fill light
across your entire aquarium.
They are surprisingly lightweight,
they're dimmable
and have a great spectrum for Coral growth
and color pop.
Plus the reflectors optical properties
are unmatched when it comes to achieving a super wide
and even spread of light from an LED bar
at real world mounting heights,
plus they are intentionally designed
to play perfectly with your current LED fixtures
mounting hardware,
whether it be mounting arms, rails,
or a hanging kit.
They also give you their own hanging kit in the box,
just in case you need it.
And speaking of the box,
when you open it up
you'll find the XHO actinic LED strips,
the Inline Dimmers, the End Plates,
the LED Brackets,
the hardware kit,
the wire hanging kit for X series models,
as well as the power supply and instructions.
Like I mentioned earlier,
you can get the X series kits
in either a dual
or quad XHO configuration.
And they're available in 24 inch,
36 inch and 48 inch lengths,
as well as a compact X360 version
to add a dual kit to your Kessil A360X light.
Based on our previous tasks,
a single XHO strip outperforms
a single T5 bulb when it comes to spread
and par output,
meaning you can expect the dual and quad X series
to perform as well
or better in those areas than
a two or four bulb T5 fixture.
Plus you know, all the color pop
and you can actually dim them with
or without zero to 10 volt,
but I'll touch more on that in just a bit.
The X series are designed to be
directly compatible with the most
popular LED lights out there,
like Radion XR15 and XR30 fixtures,
AI Prime and hydro fixtures
and Kessil's line of LED fixtures,
along with their respective mounting options
which is phenomenal.
For example, I've got a pair of XR15 G5 pros
here on an Ecotech rail system,
and my 24 inch X series fits right in,
depending on the length of the X series kits
you'll get enough light brackets
to fit between one
or two fully supported rectangular pendants
like Radion's or Hydra's,
or between two to four puck style lights
like Kessil A360X lights
or AI primes.
Reef Brite has also done the homework for you
and provides a selection of screws and hardware
along with detailed instructions
on which you need to use depending on what
LED light fixtures and mounting solution
you're going to be using with your X series hybrid kit.
The XHO's actinic spectrum
is one of, if not the most impressive
when it comes to achieving color pop in corals
and has been an absolute favorite add-on
for T5 and metal halide users
for many, many years now,
helping to achieve that crazy
coral fluorescence LEDs are known for
that is traditionally missing from those
other light sources.
The wide blue band it produces stretches
from around the 420 nanometer mark,
up to 500 nanometers
and provides lots of usable light
for corals and other light loving organisms
to utilize for photosynthesis.
To evenly distribute to all of those lovely photons,
the XHOs spread out the LEDs along
a large single reflector that optimizes the spread
and sends the light into the tank at varying angles,
reducing shadowing while creating a subtle
but noticeable shimmer.
The reflector design is really the key
to what makes the XHO strips so good at what they do,
and allows you to mount the fixtures
at the same heights as our primary LED fixtures
without adding hotspots and instead smoothing out
the entire light field in the tank,
very similarly to how T5 fixtures do.
And again, comparing a single T5
to a single XHO strip,
it's easy to see how similar they really are
and that the XHO fixtures actually provide
just a bit better spread with a slight lift
in par over the T5s.
But where it really starts to become super obvious
is when you look at how they improve the spread
of a primary LED light source,
like this A360X over a 60 gallon cube.
You can see by itself the A360X has a pretty wide
circular spread that falls a tad short
of making those SPS numbers across the entire tank
but toss on even the dual X series
and right away, even at six inches under the water,
you can see a huge improvement
on spread from side to side
and front to back that really shows off
what those XHO reflectors are capable of.
When you bump it up to the Quad X series,
you get a huge improvement
top to bottom of the tank with
SPS appropriate part numbers
and just shy of 80% of the entire tank,
which is excellent.
And that is with the Kessil set
to BRS recommended settings,
and turn down to 85% intensity
which really showcases just how much light
the X series are providing.
The quad X series also has an extra trick
up its sleeve with the ability to tilt
or angle the two outermost strips,
so that you can customize the distribution
of the light to better suit your aqua-scape
or perhaps create higher par areas,
as well as lower para areas
if your goal is a mixed reef
while still having that fill light
that will prevent shadowing between your SPS call-ins.
And like I was alluding to earlier,
you can also control the intensity
of your X series fixture
with the included inline dimmers.
The simple inline dimmers are going to allow you
to adjust the intensity of the XHO strips
in six stages,
or just turn them off completely.
The intensity setting that you set
on that little inline dimmer is gonna be stored
so you can easily put your X series on a timer,
and when they turn back on,
they will stay at your desired intensity setting.
The dual fixtures have a single inline dimmer
to control both of the fixtures,
while the quads have two
so you can control each pair of XHO strips individually.
If you'd rather have your third-party,
aquarium controller like an Apex
do all of that dimming for you,
they are also compatible with Reef Brite's
LED control interfaces,
as well as the Reef Brite Bluetooth interface
for app control.
So if you're ready to dish the bulb swaps,
get all the color pop
and add some phenomenal fill light
to your led setup,
you can go ahead and pick up an X series fixture
for yourself by clicking right here.