ReefLED 90: Red Sea’s first dive into LED Reef Lighting

mdshop.us/ReefLED Today we are exploring the Reef LED 90 lights from Red Sea.

Red Sea has been making reefing easy for a long time now. We have had a fully established Reefer 525 XL running for quite a while and it was about time we fit it with the Reef LED 90s. Out of the box you’ll notice that the Reef LED 90s have a very simple design. Their rectangle design has comparable dimensions to other lights of its class. The top portion of the light is all ventilation for the cooling fan which will help prevent it from overheating. Having these vents on the side also means that it is better suited for a canopy mounted setup where top ventilation can be a problem,

The ReefLED 90 uses very small LED chips organized in a dense configuration. They are arranged with a combination of blue, violet, and ultraviolet chips amounting to a 23,000 Kelvin channel, with a line of white chips in the center amounting to an 8,000 Kelvin channel. The LEDs are housed under a large semi sphere lense that further assists blending light from the small chips. This combination of tiny chips and dense lenses do a lot to minimize the disco effect that many LEDs can have. The Disco Effect is the result of insufficient light blending coming from different colored diodes and can mainly be seen as different colors of light dancing across the surfaces and substrate of your tank. Thankfully, with the ReefLED, these patterns are nowhere to be seen and all we are left with is a beautiful shimmer.

The LEDs on the light are separated into two channels: white and blue. The lack of additional colors on the light does eliminate some of the spectrum customization that other lights offer, but it adds greatly to the simplicity of its control.

To get started with your new light just download Red Sea’s Reef Beat App, hold the light’s single button for 5 seconds, and then connect it to your network via the app. Once connected you will have full control over your light via WiFi.

As is standard now days, the Reef Beat App comes preloaded with a number of preset modes to get you up and running in no time. Some of these modes include acclimation and lunar cycles. Of course for the more advanced reefers out there, you can always manually set your preferred spectrum and intensity across the day as you see fit. Multiple lights will synchronize in the order that they are added to the app, but you can always adjust them individually by ungrouping them if need be.

Red Sea offers two different mounting options for the REEF LED 90 that will accommodate most tanks. The first is the new mounting arms that come in three different sizes. These sizes match the different Red Sea tanks but can of course be used on the plethora of other tanks on the market. Once assembled, the arms will mount to the back wall of your tank and are capable of bending from 90 degrees to 180 degrees vertically, giving you plenty of space to access the top of your tank for maintenance. Your second option is going to be a classic style hanging kit which is always a great choice for ceiling installments.

Just by observing the lights on and over the tank it's pretty easy to tell how powerful they are. The spectrum of the light can be adjusted from a deep 23,000 Kelvin blue to a much more crisp 8000 Kelvin white. Per Red Sea, the PAR readings for it give you about 500 PAR at the surface while at 50cm down you are still getting 100 PAR, giving them great penetration.

We haven’t had these lights over our tank for too long now but we are really looking forward to seeing what they can do. If you have any questions about the Red Sea Reef LED 90 feel free to let our technical experts know and they’d be happy to help you out. Don’t forget to like the video and subscribe for more informative content. Thanks for tuning in and lets build a better aquarium together.