- Today on BRStv Investigates.
These ReefBreaders Photon V2 Pluses
have a pretty slim profile and pretty slim price point,
but how close to our LPS and SPS dominated tank holds
will the Photon 24 and Photon 48 perform
over a 24 and 48 inch tank respectively.
Coming up we show you
what these ReefBreaders Photon V2 Pluses is made of
in a series of performance tests
that you should consider not just for this light,
but for any light fixture
you're thinking of putting over your tank.
(upbeat music)
Hi, I'm Randy with this Friday's BRStv Investigates,
where we experiment on our own tanks
so you don't have to experiment on yours.
And today we're using the ReefBreaders Photon 24
and Photon 48
to light our 24 and 48 inch tanks respectively.
To give those of you considering the Photon V2 Pluses
some data backed recommendations
for how to set them up ideally,
and get the best performance possible over your own tank.
To do that we run a series of light tests
that cover three main components
to mastering any reef lighting option over your tank.
And those are mastering the light spread,
light spectrum and ideal PAR goals.
Each light we test is uniquely different
in how they perform within these three components,
which is why it's important to test two Photon V2 Pluses
and understand what type of performance
you can expect from them
if you choose to light your own tank with one.
So what benefits do the ReefBreaders Photons offer
beyond their slick and slim design,
variety of tank coverage size options
using one single light
that scales upwards of 50 plus inches.
Solid track record of happy reefers with amazing tanks
and relatively low cost price point.
Well if you stick around will not only show you
how to put these V2 Pluses to work
at creating your own stunning tank
full of rainbow colored LPS
and fields of Zoanthids,
but with the right mounting, height and setup,
I'm going to show you how the photon 24 at 400 bucks
winds up being one of the lowest cost ways
to light an SPS filled 24 inch cube that we've tested yet.
As I mentioned that
first main components of mastering your reef light
is to understand how well the Photon V2 Pluses
spread the light across our tanks.
And to help us determine that
there are three areas of light spread to consider.
One, how many fixtures or modules would you need
to adequately cover areas like our 24 square inches
or common rectangle tanks like 48 by 24?
Two, how high do we need to mount the lights
to overcome hotspots directly under the light
and evenly cover the most area possible?
And three, if you need more than one light fixture
to cover your tank area,
how do you space them optimally
to maintain an even spread across the tank
while also lessening PAR hotspots
where the lights intersect?
There's one thing I personally like about lighting options
like the ReefBreaders Photon
is that they already are designed
to eliminate two of those consideration points
to mastering light spread,
meaning because the V2 Pluses
are available in a different size option,
you got coverage from 16 inches upwards of 50 inches.
That first question of how many I need
is already been answered
by choosing the photon that fits my tank size.
While at the same time that third question
of how to optimally space multiple lights is also answered,
for even coverage.
These are just two less things I need to worry about
when dialing in my light fixture
leaving us with only one light spread question
needing answered.
And that's how high do we mount the Photon V2s
for ideal light spread and distribution
without too much light spilling into the surrounding room?
To answer that question, we mounted a photon 24 V2 plus
at a super low six inches above the water surface
in our 24 cube detest area.
Then we set all channels to 100%,
took a grid of PAR measurements
at six inches deep in the tank,
then raise the light inch by inch
until we saw a reasonable reduction
to the hotspot directly under the light
along with more PAR distributed to the outer edges.
We stopped the test when we lost 15% or more
of light efficiency due to light escaping
outside of the tank and into the room.
Let's take a look at that first six inch mounting height
where we see a substantial hotspot directly under the light
at 888 average PAR,
yet the average PAR in the outer edges is only 231.
Thinking about how we would use this light
in a real world tank environment,
it's pretty obvious that a difference of 657 PAR,
20 inches away in either direction
is not the most ideal spread and even distribution.
And because of that, it's easy to understand
why we would wanna mount the photon 24 higher
in order to optimize its performance.
As I said, we tested the same grid of 36 PAR Points
while raising the light inch by inch
and at four inches higher than our starting point,
with the photon now mounted at 10 inches off the water,
we see a better performance already
where we've evened out that hotspot center
to an average of 687
while picking up some PAR in the outer edges to 253.
Although this is a major improvement from where we started,
there's only a 7% loss of efficiency
in the total average PAR between six inches and 10 inches,
so we continue to test and improve the spread even further.
After continuing this test we stopped when we reached
a mounting height of 13 inches off the top of the water
where we've improved the center hotspot to 594
and increase the outer PAR ring to 258.
And because our goal is to stay under 15% threshold
for lights spill,
we're calling a 13 inch mounting height
for the Photon 24 V2 plus,
our BRS recommended mounting height for this 24 inch area.
However, the next question is
will that same 13 inch recommendation hold true
for a photon LED at double the size.
Let's find out using the photon 48 V2 over our 48 inch tank.
Using the photon 48 mounted over our four foot test tank
we set out to verify
that 13 inch mounting high recommendation.
We started with it mounted at six inches above the water
and then raised it up to 13 inches and tested again.
Here we see at six inches,
there is a 902 center average PAR,
with just 123 outer average PAR.
While at 13 inches, the center has smoothed to 613
and we've improved that outer ring to 184.
The difference here with the larger Photon 48
is that even at 13 inches,
we've only reached a 10% loss of efficiency,
meaning this larger panel of LEDs
we have room within our threshold to raise it higher
and improve the performance.
We found that peak performance mounting height
at 16 inches off the top of the water,
where we just reached that 15% threshold of light spill,
but with a solid improvement in the center
and outer average PAR
which tested at 536 and 202 respectively,
making 16 inches our BRS recommended mounting height
for this larger Photon V2 plus over a 48 by 24 inch area.
You heard me say the other day
that there are three main components
to mastering your reef lighting option.
And now that we've shown you
how to nail down that first component of light spread,
we move on to the second component of mastering the spectrum
for the Photon V2 plus,
which will help us make more informed adjustments
that provide both for the optimal health
and metabolic function in our corals,
as well as create a tank, that's awesome to look at.
We do that with a look at three aspects of spectrum.
First, in order to dial in the optimal spectrum output
for the health of our corals,
we needed to know what the ReefBreaders Photon
has to offer in individual controllable color channel.
Once we know the spectrum output available to us,
we can then use those individual channels and adjust them
to create a recommended spectrum mix
that we would use over a real world reef tank.
And for our third spectrum performance test,
we mount the light over our test tank,
set it to our recommended spectrum mix
and then use our spectrometer to determine
how well the individual LED lenses
and optimal mounting height
blend that chosen spectrum together
into one single uniform spectrum.
So with that,
let's cover that first aspect of mastering spectrum
using the ReefBreaders Photon V2 Plus
and see what it offers for individual spectrum ranges
where there are six controllable channels to choose from.
Channel One is a deep red channel that we can see here,
has a peak at 663.
Channel two offers a green channel that spikes at 520.
Channel three is our royal blue channel at 447,
where we typically see the most coral pop
in Coral fluorescence.
Channel Four is the white channel
that maintains a peak at 445,
but also includes some greens, yellows and reds
to make that white look to our eye.
Channel five, our cool blue LEDs
targeted at the 459 nanometer range.
And channel six is that violet spectrum range
that many call actinic.
And actually with a peak at 417,
this channel is very close to the same spectrum
from an Actinic T5 Bulb.
Now we need to use each of these individual color channels
to create a recommended spectrum mix
with the focus on achieving
as wide of a blue spectrum band as possible
between 4OO and 500,
and then compare that spectrum with the ATI Blue Plus bulb
which has been proven to successfully grow corals
across hundreds and thousands of reefers tanks in the past.
In order to achieve that super wide blue band of spectrum,
we jump straight to the Royal Blue, Cool Blue
and Violet channels,
turn them as high as they'll go.
So for here, that's the channel three, five and six
set to 100%.
Then we add in a little bit of white channel
to make the tank more pleasing to look at with the eye,
which means we set Channel Four to 50%.
And finally, we round off the spectrum mix
where we bring in a little green and red
to accent the entire thing.
Meaning we've got channel one and two set to 10%.
With these settings as our BRS recommended spectrum mix,
let's see if we were able to achieve
that wide blue band between 400 to 500.
As we overlay the ATI Blue Plus spectrum on the left
over our custom spectrum on the right,
we see that both the royal blue and cool blue channels
create a peak at 448.
And with the violet channel focused on that 420 range,
we can understand why the photon plus spectrum mix
is a bit thinner than the Blue Plus bulb
in that 420 to 440 range.
And on the other side from 460 to 500.
That's not to say that the spectrum mix
isn't going to perform well in Coral health and growth,
because it still targets that spectrum range
known for chlorophyll A, C and carotenoid production.
Next up for our spectral testing
of the ReefBreaders Photon V2
is our test of spectrum blending.
Meaning in a real world tank environment
with ripples on the surface of the water
they can cause focused beams of individual LED colors.
We test to see
how well the photon maintains that blend of channels
we just created.
There are 10 spectrum testing measurements
that we took underneath the 60 gallon cube
with the Photon 24 mounted at the recommended 13 inches.
And as we cycle through them,
we see a pretty decent blending performance
with only minimal fluctuations
across the spectrum range as a whole.
And one of the better performances
that we've seen in this test,
which I would attribute more
to the higher optimal mounting height of the photon,
which gives it more space
to blend the individual beams of color.
So now that we've seen the performance for two
of those three components to mastering reef lighting
using the ReefBreaders Photon,
there's only one question left to answer, and that is,
how do we apply what we've learned from spread and spectrum
to make smarter decisions on the right settings
and intensity needed to achieve an awesome looking tank?
For dialing in the right PAR from the photon,
we follow two common tank type desires.
One tank type is filled with LPS, softies and polyps
that typically have lower optimal PAR ranges
between 75 to 150.
While the other tank type is for SPS dominated systems,
where the goal is to fill the tank
with PAR between 200 to 350.
Using that BRS recommended spectrum mix
we adjust the spectrum ratio equally across the channels
to increase or decrease the PAR
as needed to meet these goals
in both of our 24 cubed inch 60 gallon tank
with a Photon 24,
and our 48 by 24 inch 120 gallon tank with the Photon 48.
Let's take a look at that smaller 24 by 24 inch cube first,
and trying to achieve those 75 to 150 PAR ranges
throughout as much of the tank as possible,
where we've mounted the Photon 24
at the recommended 13 inches
and set our recommended spectrum mix to a 35% ratio of Max,
meaning greens and reds, channel one and two
set at 3%.
Royal, light blue and violet channel three, five and six
at the 35%,
and channel four whites set to 18%.
Using these settings we test 108 PAR data points
between 6, 12 and 18 inches deep in the tank
and find 77 out of 108 are within that 75 to 150 range
for a total coverage of 71% from bottom to top side to side.
Next we crank up that recommended spectrum mix
in attempt to fill the tank in PAR ranges from 200 to 350,
for those SPS dominated systems,
using a spectrum mix ratio that is 85% of Max,
which has channel one and two at 9%,
channel three, five and six at 85%.
And channel four at 43.
At this 13 inch mounting height
and our channels set to 85% of custom,
we were only able to find 68 out of 108 data points
in those PAR ranges,
which only works out to be 63%,
which is short of our 70% goal.
We tried multiple adjustments to improve those numbers
both by adjusting the spectrum intensity
and by different mounting heights,
until we found that by sacrificing
a bit more light spill into the room
by raising the Photon 24
to 18 inches off the top of the water
and setting our custom spectrum intensity to 100%.
We were finally able to reach 78 out of 108 PAR Points
in that 200 to 350 range
for a total of 72% of coverage throughout the tank.
So as you can see by adjusting the mounting height
and sacrificing a little more light spill into the room
for anyone comfortable with some efficiency loss
in order to gain PAR and spread.
This $400 light can achieve
a wall to wall SPS dominated tank
at a lower cost than any single light module
you've seen us test before.
Now let's move on to getting the most out of our Photon 48
over our 48 inch tank
and where it excels as a single lighting fixture option
for this four foot area.
Again, we mounted the light at the recommended
16 inches off the top of the water from our high test
and set the overall channel spectrum intensity
to a reduced 35% of Max
with the goal in mind of filling the tank
as much as possible in PAR numbers between 75 to 150,
for those LPS and softy tank types.
Using these settings and mounting height,
we tested 133 out of 198 points within our PAR goal,
which works out to be 67% of the entire tank optimized
for those coral types.
Although it's not the 70% we typically look for,
if you look carefully at how many data points
fell just slightly above or below that 75 to 150 range.
The remaining 3% is really a matter of nitpicking
plus or minus 10 PAR either way.
As for attempting to fill the entire four foot tank
with higher SPS dominated PAR numbers between 200 and 350,
we set our recommended spectrum mix to 100%,
with the light mounted at 16 inches off the water,
which yielded 110 out of 198 data points
or just 56% of the tank in those ranges.
Again, it might be possible
to improve those numbers slightly
by raising the light higher,
however, we're already at 100%
of our recommended spectrum mix
and raising the light higher
will start to reduce some of those data points
to PAR levels outside of our target goal.
At which point this turns into a game
of fine tuning whack a mole,
where you're just adjusting height and intensity
to gain a few percentage points either way.
So that said, I believe these ReefBreaders Photons
excel for those reefers
who are looking for one single light fixture
to cover their entire tank
and will get the job done for most tank types,
but does so in a more wallet friendly type of way.
For some reefers, a little bit
of extra lights spill in the room, is perfectly fine,
if it means we can save a few bucks
to get a slim good looking reef light
that will certainly grow corals we desire to keep,
whether it's Hammers, Torches, Blast or Zoas
or even plating atolls, Branching Green Slimers
or other cool Acropora or SPS.
If light spill isn't something
that you wanna add to your room,
but you still wanna use the photons for your own tank,
just keep in mind the data that you saw today
and use it to make smarter coral choices
and coral placement decisions
and verify that you got it right using a parameter.
The next question is that, now that you're more informed on
how to master your corals lighting needs
using the Photon V2 pluses,
what other parts of the tank can you expand on and master?
And then put it all together into a tank
that your friends and family can drool over.
I think the next best thing you can do to master your tank
is to master the water and chemistry within it.
Which Ryan shows you how to do next right over here.