Since the beginning or (reefing) time, coral growers have been brought up to use powerful main lights with accessory lighting to introduce actinic blue light – think a metal halide with VHO actinics on the sides. This notion has changed and morphed over the last couple decades but the idea has stuck and reefers are looking to ‘fill in’ their tank with accessory LED striplights.
With this idea in mind MaxSpect has gone ahead and designed a light which has everything built-in, the MaxSpect Recurve LED. The centrally mounted bright and powerful LEDs provide the bulk of the ‘nutritious’ lighting while a pair of multicolor LED strips attached to cooling wings help to fill in the light field and fine tune the overall color.
Maxspect Recurve LED Light, Full Details and Pricing (VIDEO)
After co-reviewing this light with Chris Capp of Aquatic Art we both agree that the MaxSpect Recurve is a worthy and efficient alternative to a high quality T5 fixture like the ATI Powermodule it replaced. Of course you’ll get easy access to controlling the intensity and color of the fixture at a granular level throughout the day that you don’t get with T5 fixtures.
On paper this light appears to be a do-it-all kind of reef aquarium LED setup and for the price attached to it it better deliver, and we believe it does warrant the premium. $1000 may seem like a lot for a single fixture but you’d easily spend that much for powerful controllable clusters and two controllable LED striplights added later. The Recurve is really designed to be a replacement for T5 fixtures and the blanket of light they provide but if this is too rich for your budget there’s always the new MaxSpect RSX.