Asta 120 by Lumini

[maroun.c]

I ordered an Asta 120 last week to utilize on my 26 G nano cube which was due for a light change...
So to start with, few pictures of the packaging of the lights.
Well packaged items are always a pain to open very impressed by how protected the lights were.
outside cartoon box

and inside it the original package for the light

and inside it another foam protection

so finally three packages later here comes the light

Impressed by build quality of the lights and how neat the whole package looks.
it came with the goose neck, suspension kit and the wireless adapter, and I will experiment with the different setups (manual and Wifi controlled ) as well as with goose neck and suspended... but as my cube has a canopy it will be suspended. I am tempted though to take out the canopy and go for an open look as the nano cube is rimless anyway!!!
will follow up in coming days with some updates on trying the lights, installing on the nano cube, and different lighting modes.

 

[maroun.c]

Few info about the tank its going on, its a 26 G nano cube that's been running for years, but which I recently restarted as I was struggling with some hair alga and also because I wanted to have a better scape and a nice coral collection in it.

here's a few pictures from 3 months back when I restarted it.
Tank is visible from 3 sides
front

Rt less visible side

Left Side

I have lost a few of the frags since then and added a few more so will post updated shots of how the tank looks before having the Asta 120 on it.
More detailed info about the tank can be found on the build thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2581699

 

[maroun.c]

Installed the Asta120 over the Nano cube and tried both options as in pics below, first with the gooseneck and then suspended in a DIY metalic frame I had added to my canopy to suspend previous lights.
The gooseneck is of course a much nicer option and a very nice touch especially on rimless tanks.

In my case tank is in the basement and very few people see it so aesthetics are not really a major factor. preferred to keep the hood on for the time being (ok too lazy to have a screen and frame made to avoid fish jumping out )
so I placed the hood back and suspended the Asta from an old metalic support I previously used.

A rectangular hole was drilled before for my previous lights, a circular opening would have looked nicer but its fine for the time being.

Experimented a bit with the lights and different settings but will keep that review till when I have more time to play with different settings... so far what I can say is that the light colors look really nice, love the idea of having different channels so I can cut down on red a bit as that caused some of the alga that you see in some pictures.
shimmer is there much more than I saw on the Q tank and most probably because of surface agitation. I will post a video to show that but seems that video exaggerates the shimmer effect unfortunately. light spread is visibly nicer than other lights I've tried as you can see lights on the sides much better. I'm very happy with the light so far but still have to see how it performs. so basically will post initial pictures of how corals look under it and will compare how corals look weeks later. will also review the basic setup and how to set the lights...

 

[drummerboyevil]

Am I seeing discoballing in the whiter pictures? If so they must've failed miserably at copying kessils lense

 

[Confuse]

The manufacturer says they use 3 watt LEDs and the fixture runs on 120 watts max, but these do not look like 3 watt LEDs.

 

[maroun.c]

Am I seeing discoballing in the whiter pictures? If so they must've failed miserably at copying kessils lense

Not really discoballing but yes a different shimmer that what I'm used to. not sure if it has to do with the multichip design... I notice that the shimmer is more dependant on the surface agitation than what I'm used to. Still it looks worse in pics and much worse in videos than it really is.

 

[maroun.c]

The manufacturer says they use 3 watt LEDs and the fixture runs on 120 watts max, but these do not look like 3 watt LEDs.

They do state that they use multi chip LEDs. Not sure how to check on the intensity of those but will have a Par meter soon and will post the readings...
they're quite strong lights. they do have two channels of blue which kind of decreases the perceived intensity.
I had the same feeling when I compared couple of razors to orpheks and was told that the razors are preceived to be brighter because they have more white LEDS (only white and blue) where as other lights with 2 blue channels and also some red green and blue will appear to be less intense to the eye but par levels would still be higher.

 

[maroun.c]

Some pictures of few corals in the cube. I will follow up with pictures of those evey month or so maybe to see how they do under the ASTA.
these were taken with the ASTA light on first day it was added to have less difference caused by the different lights. when pictured again every month or so I take the pictures while lights are under similar setting to better reflect changes in teh coral colors and not different spectrum out of the light...

Setosa

Strawberry shortcake and bonsai.
these two corals colored up very nicely under previous lights which made me wonder if I should switch lights guess these will be a good measure...

ORA Green Birdnest

Green and Red Monti as well as a green tabling accro frag in the back.

Couple of chalices

 

[OllieNZ]

The manufacturer says they use 3 watt LEDs and the fixture runs on 120 watts max, but these do not look like 3 watt LEDs.

If you look at the actual chip inside a single led package they are very small. I knocked the lens assy off a 3w cree XR-E and was surprised by the fact that the chip was around 1mm square. The XR-E is an old chip now.

 

[Confuse]

If you look at the actual chip inside a single led package they are very small. I knocked the lens assy off a 3w cree XR-E and was surprised by the fact that the chip was around 1mm square. The XR-E is an old chip now.

Even without a primary optic and the bare chip exposed, it does not look like anything that cree offers. These look like SMD/SMD maybe an edison chip, but not a Cree LED.

 

[OllieNZ]

Even without a primary optic and the bare chip exposed, it does not look like anything that cree offers. These look like SMD/SMD maybe an edison chip, but not a Cree LED.

I wasn't claiming they are Cree, just pointing out that the actual chips themselves can be very small.

 

[maroun.c]

They mention a mix of bridgelux epistar semilED and Edison at 3W each on their website.

 

[Confuse]

They mention a mix of bridgelux epistar semilED and Edison at 3W each on their website.

Given all the LEDs look the same, I doubt it.

 

[maroun.c]

Given all the LEDs look the same, I doubt it.

I contacted them and asked about the LEDs used and they did confirm that white chip is Bridgelux, blue is SemiLED Red is Epistar and UV is Edison.

 

[Confuse]

I contacted them and asked about the LEDs used and they did confirm that white chip is Bridgelux, blue is SemiLED Red is Epistar and UV is Edison.

Did they give you any part numbers to look up? Highly unlikely.

 

[maroun.c]

Did they give you any part numbers to look up? Highly unlikely.

I didn't really ask for those but would you think a manufacturer would lie about parts in their specs sheet?
Any idea if those are expensive parts for companies to lie about? I can always open the light and check them and post some pics if anyone can tell the difference between
Different leds. I'll try to see if there's any labels but they're just too tiny to see .
I recontacted them again to see if I can get the part numbers. and will post if I get those.

 

[Confuse]

I didn't really ask for those but would you think a manufacturer would lie about parts in their specs sheet?
Any idea if those are expensive parts for companies to lie about? I can always open the light and check them and post some pics if anyone can tell the difference between
Different leds. I'll try to see if there's any labels but they're just too tiny to see .
I recontacted them again to see if I can get the part numbers. and will post if I get those.

Well, they're a Chinese company, many Chinese companies make unsubstantiated claims. For example, a lot of black box LED manufacturers advertise that they use Bridgelux chips, but in reality, they are all cheaper Epistar LEDs. Bridgelux doesn't make 3 watt chips. They manufacture high power white led chips. I believe they used to make 3 watt royal blues, but not anymore.

If you can take a closer picture of the LEDs, I can send the picture to someone for identification.

 

[brownsps]

They do state that they use multi chip LEDs. Not sure how to check on the intensity of those but will have a Par meter soon and will post the readings...
they're quite strong lights. they do have two channels of blue which kind of decreases the perceived intensity.
I had the same feeling when I compared couple of razors to orpheks and was told that the razors are preceived to be brighter because they have more white LEDS (only white and blue) where as other lights with 2 blue channels and also some red green and blue will appear to be less intense to the eye but par levels would still be higher.

Tank looks good. Hopefully you continue to see no bleaching. What scares me a bit is they say the light has par readings of 120 dead center down to 42 12" away at 16" depth. Thats pretty miserable imo as most will have the light 6-8" above the water surface. But compared to a kessill i'm sure its pretty similar :clown:

 

[maroun.c]

Well, they're a Chinese company, many Chinese companies make unsubstantiated claims. For example, a lot of black box LED manufacturers advertise that they use Bridgelux chips, but in reality, they are all cheaper Epistar LEDs. Bridgelux doesn't make 3 watt chips. They manufacture high power white led chips. I believe they used to make 3 watt royal blues, but not anymore.

If you can take a closer picture of the LEDs, I can send the picture to someone for identification.

Could be, lets wait for their reply and see. I'll also take a close up picture and post when I fly back Saturday....
To be fair I have purchased the light directly from them and since purchase have had a couple of issues and both were my mistakes (connected a cable used to daisy chain multiple lights by mistake from light to controller... ) and got a prompt response when I contacted them. Also communication with them while getting the light was very straightforward and they were fast in shipping...
Now for the light intensity I was running Reef Radiance on this tank and struggled a bit with algae growth in the cube which I attribute to excessive red greeen and orange LEDs on the same channel as white which caused me to run the lights 100% blue and dimming the white excessively. The Asta offered me 4 independant channels with limited red which was just what I wanted. add to that gooseneck and wireless control and mobile app...
I'm peronally a MH person and still run 3 halides on my main tank supplemented previously by 8T5 and only shifted the T5 to LEDs recently cause we don't get T5s anymore here and shipping is a pain.
I run a couple of frag tanks with Razor From Maxspect and Orphek units. Razor is the lower end in the maxspect lineup but I can show you breathtaking coral colors and reasonable growth under it so my take is that over value lighting in tanks to some extent. I have ordered a Par meter and will be soon able to take some readings, but again my Cube has been running since 2-3 months and under blue light at max and white at 10% and it was fine. The asta light looks to be strong visually but I'll wait for a PAr meter reading.
Eventually the real test is how corals will do long term under it especially that the tank is linked to 3 other tanks running different LEDs and Halides so it's a fun project with only a few frags at stake.

 

[maroun.c]

Tank looks good. Hopefully you continue to see no bleaching. What scares me a bit is they say the light has par readings of 120 dead center down to 42 12" away at 16" depth. Thats pretty miserable imo as most will have the light 6-8" above the water surface. But compared to a kessill i'm sure its pretty similar :clown:

I wouldn't be able to tell as I don't have a Par meter on hand still but I doubt they only produce a par of 120 dead center at 16" depth. I am getting a PAr meter soon and will be able to check but visually I can clearly say they're bright enough on my 20x20x16 inch and they're around 12" high from water surface.