Philips Coral Care Gen 2 – Let’s take a look at the new LED lights from Philips.

Hi everyone! It's so lovely to get back to writing after a break. I'm delighted that my new reef tank from Giesemann arrives in a few days from Germany. I'm very excited about it and can't wait to share more photos when it's delivered. So, stay tuned to hear more about that soon! Should cross the ocean and be here in around 10 days.

It was a tough choice to pick a light for my new tank as I'm a big fan of the T5 and LED lights. The reef light market is definitely full of great options. However, based on my previous experiences, I think that T5 and LED make the best combo. I will share more information about my T5 pick in the next article, but for now, let’s focus on what I've decided to use for this new build and, especially, the LED lights.

What are the best LED lights for a reef tank?

As I've said, I trust several LED light brands, and I've had great success with Ecotech Radion lights before. In fact, Shaun is using them on his new Waterbox FRAG 145.5 build this year. Still, I wanted to try something new so that I can share my results with you, and also learn something new. Coral Care Gen 2 was introduced on the marker just recently and I must say, I definitely have higher hopes for it than for the Gen 1. You might know that the Gen 1 was very bulky, but the updated version has a much better look already.

One other positive aspect is that you can easily trust a large company with many years of experience in lighting. As many people worldwide get their lighting equipment from Philips, you can be sure that the newly released Coral Care Gen 2 has the best features in it.

I will be using HYDROS Controller for this tank, and as you know, HYDROS has already integrated Coral Care Gen 2. I haven't had time to try it yet. Moreover, I will share more on this subject later! For now you can also check my article about Hydros WaveEngine and my flow solution here.

So why I've decided to go with Philips CoraleCare Gen2 for this build?

My journey on searching the best reef tank lighting.

I have spent hours and hours again, trying to find the perfect lighting for my tank. There are so many options available now. I was actually quite impressed to see how much more effort even the smallest companies are putting on LED lighting nowadays. When I previously had to choose lighting equipment, there were not so many options available. I value the experience that Philips has, and I wouldn’t go for anything which is not the best. After all, lighting plays such an essential role in the overall healthiness and well-being of the inhabitants in my tank.

Philips have a dedicated and highly professional team working behind it. What I like about Philips is that they are able to follow the constant development of reef tank equipment and design their LED lights according to those improvements. They really consider not only the light spectrum but also several other factors and the way other equipment in the tank is shaped nowadays. Philips does not only work on the basics of lighting but goes much deeper and knows exactly the kind of light intensity, distribution and spectral distribution that the different type of corals and reef inhabitants require.

Gen 2 vs Gen 1

I took the time to compare the new version to the older one and discovered that it has definitely improved a lot. There were many factors, although some considered quite minor, but still important, that were not that good in the first version. The goodness about CoralCare Gen2 is also that it being so popular, enables them to receive a lot of feedback, which will be then used to improve the products. I see their representatives all over the social media and reef forums and it's fantastic to see them ready to answer your question and help.

At first, I was a bit worried about the size of the Coral Care Gen 2. It is much bigger and heavier than the other options on the market. I was trying to figure out why it was like that, but then I took a deeper look in the materials and technical aspects of it. After that, I came to the conclusion that the size and weight are all connected to the passive cooling of the fixture. It has no fans at all, the fixture is dead silent!

It's fantastic isn't it?

LED + T5's

I am going to mount it on top of my Giesemann T5 hybrid fixture. That is well strong enough to hold the weight and make it sit nicely on top of the tank. It seems to be very easy to set up and use. Of course, you know how I like to play around and know my equipment from head to toes, so I will probably take my time with this one too. My engineering background is always with me, and that is what we do, dig deeper into the mysterious life of our equipment. However, you will not have to do that, because overall, this one doesn’t need high tech skills to set up and you will have it up and running in no time. The fact that it can be controlled through WiFi is something that I am sure we all agree is the kind of modern technology that makes operating our tank so much easier. Can you imagine if we talked about WiFi operated settings in our tanks ten years ago? I think even with the huge tech fans as I am, it would have made my head spin. Luckily, we have been given a chance to slowly adapt to all these technologies, and now it would be even difficult to imagine a tank without them.

Setting up the new equipment.

Since I am going to be using 4 bulbs T5 hybrid Giesemann Stellar fixture, I was hoping that two fixtures in combo with the 4 T5 bulbs will be enough. Of course, I can always add more later if it looks like it is needed, but I was not planning to have a massive aquascape. I was rather working on an aquascape which is more centered and low profile. This is going to be one of those testing bits that I will just need to try and see how it covers the tank.

I am always ready to discuss more and share ideas on how to make it work in the best possible way in your tank. I love to hear opinions from other reefer friends!

Actually, talking to my friends was something that encouraged me to go for Coral Care Gen 2 too. I have heard many times that Coral Care is the most T5 looking LED fixture. You know how I am such a big fan of T5’s, so it really pushed me ahead to choose this reef tank light. I like the look of T5’s as I think it gives a nice touch to the reef tank. Sometimes my friends laugh at me saying, I am making the tank more like a piece of art as I spend so much time on little details and making sure everything matches together.

So, we have gone through the looks, the improvements, the mounting, the overall set-up and lighting benefits. I will not bore you too much with the technical part, although I could make a whole post about it. After all, there is no need to know too much about it as Philips has worked out that part on our behalf. This is a very good lighting option also for those who do not wish to spend much time on set-up and maintenance. It takes little effort to control it, after all.

Coral Care Gen2 Shimmer?

I almost forgot to mention about the shimmer! It is there, but it is not very strong. I personally don’t consider this as a major issue. Of course, it is not something that you would see with, for example, Kessil shimmer, which is known to be very strong. I think it is more important that the light is not flat and it still does have that good touch of shimmer in it. I know for some this is more important and I must say that I also first thought about it, but then I never was a huge fan of strong shimmer, I prefer the T5's look.

I decided to get mine from CoralVue which is the certified distributor of Coral Care Gen 2 in the USA. I also know that they will handle it with care, and I will not be expecting any problems with receiving it. There are other places to get it from too, but make sure that you always use a reliable and certified dealer when purchasing any equipment for your reef tank.

Final Thoughts.

So, what could I say as a conclusion? It has been another great adventure discovering the lighting options available. I see a certain growing trend towards the LED lighting which is great. I like the approach of Philips because they really work hard on bringing the quality to us. That is why this lighting is best for those who are looking for a T5's look but want benefit from LED technologies on the same time, and it is also perfect for mixed tanks with a variety of inhabitants in it. I also love the dead silence of the fixture; there is really zero mechanical sounds coming from it. I am sure you’ve noticed that this has been another growing trend. The equipment noise pollution has been brought down enormously when before it could be so loud that you wondered how does the life inside the tank handle all that noise.

What is also great about Philips is that they have more than 100 years of experience in lighting. Now, when you combine that experience with the reef tank expertise they have brought along, it is not surprising that maybe the best available solutions can come from them. Also, as such a well-known reputable company, it will be easy to handle any future issue you may come across when using the lighting.

I am excited and happy to get closer to my dream reef tank. This is going to be awesome! I hope you find all this information helpful too. I have spent so much time working on it, and that is why I want to share all this with you as well. Hopefully this article has given you some new ideas and please do share your experiences with me. Together we can find the best equipment and solutions for our tanks. I would love to explore many new options and have a look at your tanks too!

by Yuliya Ivanova for ReefHacks.