Ecoxotic Stunner LED strips w/reflectors on nano

[SRT80]

I have been doin' a little research on the stunner strips and it seems everyone says the lights are not for corals, not even soft corals. That they are only for supplemental. I wrote ecoxotic and got this reply...

"For a small 10 gallon nano-aquarium with LPS corals, two Stunner LED strips with reflectors will work just fine. As a suggestion, we would recommend using one of our 8K/453nm Blue strips and one straight 453nm blue strip. This combination is extremely popular in NanoCubes and other small nano-tanks under 12 gallons and will provide a stunning look for your aquarium."

I only plan on keeping mushrooms, gsp's, and maybe a few zoas in a simple 10 gal. setup.

So, has anyone else used the stunners only on a nano setup?

Steve

[kayaking2]

I have not used 'stunner" strips on a nano but I bought the full light fixtures and added some stunner strips for my 90 gallon.

I have a tank fill of softcorals, lots of LPS and some sps(mostly montipora's and chalice frags. Everything in my tank is thriving.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1888575

[heyyoitsnicky]

stunner are only 6 wats for the entire fixture. i have a bc8 and i had 4 of them in there. while providing excelent color and shimmer. i saw little or no growth.

so i upgraded to a panorama. they are reeeeaaaal nice. suoper bright tooo.

[SRT80]

That's cool, thanks for the reply. I have decided I'm gonna order a couple of the new BoostLED Par30 bulbs. Will probably just use the 1 over the 10, but want to have a extra incase I decide to do a 15 (24x12x12).

Steve

[Soymilk]

Why not just get a nanotuners par38. It'll I've more than enough to grow pretty much anything you want.

[bronkanus]

on my 5 gal I have 2 ecoxotic 8k/453, 2 453's and i uv and my sps grow better in there than in my 240 with 3 x 400 mh also im trying the panorama's over a 22 inch tall hex tank to see how they grow stuff and so far my orange monti is doing awesome

[SRT80]

Yea Soy, I could, but I don't really want corals in this tank. I just need a small setup for my evil clown fish. They attack any fish. They are in a 20 gal right now that is infested with razor caulerpa. I'm done fooling with it. So I'm settin' up a 10 gal. with all new rock and sand to move the clowns to. They host hairy mushrooms so I will move those to the new tank. No caulerpa near the mushrooms. I guess the clowns keep their area clean.

So, no need to go with the more expensive bulb on this setup. I might throw in some mushrooms and gsp's for color. But that's it.

Bronk, are you using the stunners on your 5 gal. or the panorama's?

Steve

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

I'm swapping out my CurrentUSA Powerbrites for these new STUNNERS next week. It cost almost as much to buy the whole new set than replace one broken Powerbrite. I did pass on the "reflector". I think that's not gonna do anything. The fixture is so small, and there's no light coming from the LED"s themselves that aren't going towards the water. I didn't know what it was really going to reflect.

[SRT80]

Cool, please keep me updated how the stunners go and what color combo and how many use. Also, what size tank are you putting them on?

Steve

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

Any "blue" LED setup has amazing results. Since they are for supplemental asthetics only I just get the "blue" ones. There's an ultraviolet one but I read it's so dark and purple that it makes your water look cloudy. I have a 4' foot 90 gal so I got 3 lights. I'm not sure how wide of a beam they will emit. I planned on putting them in one long strip. Pretty close to the water too. But I plan on redoing all my lights and they will be screwed to the top canopy and may have a wider coverage then... but I still may need to get 3 more. LED's make colors pop and glow. I had the Powerbrites for 2 years and I dropped my piece of dowel wood they were on to the floor and broke one. And it was a better buy to get a whole new setup. They had 4 led's per bar.. these STunners have 12.

[SRT80]

Oh ok, so you're not just running stunners only, you are using them with another light?

My original plan was to just use 2 or 3 stunner strips only over a 10 gal. But I think I'm sold on the BoostLED par30 bulbs.

Steve

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

yea... they're accent lights only.

[wickedfish]

Bronkanus, You have no other lights with the stunners and you sps are growing?

[bronkanus]

I originally started with a panorama and two 8k/blue and two blues but my spongodes started to bleach so I moved the panorama to the 22" tank and got the reflectors for the 8k/blues ( they do make quite a difference by the way) and added the uv which is dull colored to our eyes but my tri color has never looked better and my hot pink milli is truly hot pink. And surprisingly everything grows rather well with no skimmer just regular water changes and a AQ 50 modded as a refugium on it

[Thrashie]

the light in the tank from the stunner strips got noticeably brighter with the reflectors on them.....light being directed down vs light blasting all over the sides, and they give good wide coverage

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

Oh yea?? SO you did a before-and-after and the reflectors did make a big diff?

[kayaking2]

So your corals like the UV light. Hmmmm. I may have to order 2 for my 90g. I ordered 2 a while back and when I added then to my stunner strip they did seem very dull. So I sent them back and ordered 2 more actinic stunners.

Now you have me thinking I should buy 2 UV stunners to add to my 4 actinic stunners. I was also think about trying the reflectors.

All in all my corals seem quite happy with my Ecoxotic lights and I lover them too. They are nice and quite and my tank doesn't heat up like it use to.

Well worth the money....at least for me.

[Thrashie]

Oh yea?? SO you did a before-and-after and the reflectors did make a big diff?

yeah, had the stunners themselves for a while, but noticed a lot of radiating light, put the reflectors on and now it's all directed, really does make a difference, even with one on and one off it is noticeable.

[KafudaFish]

I am interested as well for a 5.5 I have been building for the last 2 month. So far the lights have been the biggest issue I have been trying to solve.

Please keep posting results.