Lomine Pixie 30 Led Light

[shawnc722]

The Pixie 30 is a 30w full-spectrum reef light I got from Amazon on sale for about $80 (currently about $100, which I think is still a fair price). I chose it for my 10gal softies tank because it was by far the cheapest LED option I could find anywhere, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well it works over the last few months. I was intimidated by the price of lighting when I was first getting into the hobby, so I wanted to put this review out there for anyone else in the same situation I was.

The light seems to work well (to my inexperienced eyes) for the softies in my tank, with most of them growing pretty rapidly. I doubt it would provide enough PAR for many SPS/LPS corals, but at 100% on all settings the zoas even near the bottom of my standard 10gal tank are growing well. Positioning the light is a bit of a pain, because there’s a very limited range of tanks that the standard mounting arm will work well for. At the shortest setting, the light extends about a foot over the tank, so your tank will need to be 20” or so minimum (in at least one dimension) to have the light even remotely centred. To extend the light further than the minimum, you have to raise it, so if your tank is much larger than about 28” you’ll have to choose between centring the light and having it at the lowest height. If your tank doesn’t have at least one dimension between these sizes, you’ll probably need to use an aftermarket mounting solution. The light should be very easy to attach to anything, so that should be easy enough to buy or DIY, but it’s not ideal if you have to. Mounting arm aside, I’ve been really happy with this light.

To summarize, I’d recommend this light if you:

• Are looking for the most budget friendly light you can find
• Are willing to give up on SPS and LPS corals with high light requirements
• Have a tank that’s at least 20” in the longest dimension OR are willing to make/buy a new mounting setup

Footnote: for anyone who likes to know the exact specs, here’s a stat sheet I got from the manufacturer when I was trying to determine the exact spectrum it provides. With my (admittedly limited) knowledge of biology, it looks like the chlorophyll production would probably benefit from another red light at about 675nm, but the light otherwise performs pretty well. If anyone knows more I’d love to hear it.

 

[shawnc722]

Update: I bought a $25 red grow light off amazon to augment this one and I saw a pretty immediate difference. One of my mushroom corals, which had been growing well under only the Pixie 30, split the day after I added the red light. My leathers and macro algae have also been looking significantly better under the new light, so for anyone else looking at the Pixie 30 I’d recommend adding an additional red light. For a total cost of about $130 at full prices it’s still a very budget setup, but it seems to perform really well.