Actually I missed the ability to have any control whatsoever on the T5s. If the MH lights aren't on the T5s also won't be on. So you can't take a picture of your tank under T5s if you wanted to. Nor could you reduce the amount of MH lighting in any way. I know that's sort of what you're saying as well, but the issue is really the lack of control. I think that's being addressed with later versions but it doesn't help those with older models.
Big Tank Owners! Who Has Had Problems With Sfiligoi Lights Or Who Has Not?
- Thread starter Kaiden
- Start date
Actually I missed the ability to have any control whatsoever on the T5s. If the MH lights aren't on the T5s also won't be on. So you can't take a picture of your tank under T5s if you wanted to. Nor could you reduce the amount of MH lighting in any way. I know that's sort of what you're saying as well, but the issue is really the lack of control. I think that's being addressed with later versions but it doesn't help those with older models.
Nuuze
New member
I'm guessing the magnetic ones will be a lot heavier and you should see more hardware inside.
Nope, not with the current software I have. Supposedly with the new software you can manually override the T5's but not sure if it can be timed or not. I guess that would defeat the purpose of dimmable halides. The new software also lowers the minimun dim time of the halides from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. As of now updates have to be done by Sfiligoi in Italy.
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hawaiianwargod
Active member
Thanks Nuuze!
Nuuze
New member
I don't know when the new software came out but if your lights are coming from Italy then they should have the new software. Not sure how many units AO has with the old software...
NP hawaiianwargod. To give you an idea, my unit wieghs about 40 pounds without any mh ballasts inside. So I'm guessing magnetics will wiegh 10-20 more pounds.
NP hawaiianwargod. To give you an idea, my unit wieghs about 40 pounds without any mh ballasts inside. So I'm guessing magnetics will wiegh 10-20 more pounds.
hawaiianwargod
Active member
Nuuze...I guess I have the magnetic version. The unit is at least 60 lbs. Hope this light will not give me some disappointents because I like the look of it. Elos is going to have their 250w fixtures...might get that. I want to stick with the "E" brands though...pure quality! you know what I mean.
invincible569
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10224375#post10224375 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by naka
I had no problems w/ my 2 x 250 infinity w/ ACLS, but I agree w/ Dave that sunrise/sunset is overrated. My next lights will be either Elos or Photon just to try something different from invincible
Ever since I saw your light system I fell in love with it. You have no reason to change out anytime soon that's for sure. Dont forget that some of the best tanks (matured), have basic lighting systems and has proved that being consistent is the way to go.
Nuuze
New member
I think I'll be keeping my fixture for a while if not a long time. Just the fact that it's dual 250w DE with lumenarc like recflectors and 4-54w T5's. Nothing is wrong with the fixture what so ever. If my ACLS ever craps out on me or I get sick of it for whatever reason, I can always upgrade to my ballasts of choice whether its magnetic or electronic and rewire it all internally.
Nuuze
New member
I just spoke to Alessandro tonight about my lighting system and ACLS. Very friendly guy.
Again he mentions he sent fuses to Greg at Reef Geek for those who pruchased light from Greg. You can also contact him directly at sfiligoi@sfiligoi.it and give him your name/address and he will send them. I think he was saying how it's difficult for them to mimic our AC current in Europe with their power generators so they may have underated the fuses therefor they are blowing on some of you. (Very thick Italian accent) For those of you that aren't having any problems maybe have a spare on hand of the right ones?
I spoke to him on how most of us reefers time our lights with actinics on first then halides, reverse order turning off. He says that Sfiligoi tries to mimic natural sunlight therefor ALCS dims halides on first then suppliments T5's then reverse order. I asked him if there's a possiblity to incorporate both options into the units. I gave him some reasons why most of us do this:
1) Longer viewing times with and extra hour or two before and after halides so we don't over light our coral photoperiod with halides.
2) Less halide time to prolong halide bulbs.
3) Heat and energy costs if you normally run actinics 2 hours then halides 8 hours then actinics 2 more. With ACLS currently you would have 12 total for halide, I had to bump it down to 10 hours a day now. May have to go less...
He mentions that he has had some requests but for the most part most of the requests he's had are the natural way in Europe. I told him most of us in the US do it the other way or run halides only. He said he'll think it over with his company. Maybe some of you who have ACLS or planning on getting in the near future can send these request to him maybe they'll reconsider if the market demands it?
Thoughts?
Again he mentions he sent fuses to Greg at Reef Geek for those who pruchased light from Greg. You can also contact him directly at sfiligoi@sfiligoi.it and give him your name/address and he will send them. I think he was saying how it's difficult for them to mimic our AC current in Europe with their power generators so they may have underated the fuses therefor they are blowing on some of you. (Very thick Italian accent)
For those of you that aren't having any problems maybe have a spare on hand of the right ones?I spoke to him on how most of us reefers time our lights with actinics on first then halides, reverse order turning off. He says that Sfiligoi tries to mimic natural sunlight therefor ALCS dims halides on first then suppliments T5's then reverse order. I asked him if there's a possiblity to incorporate both options into the units. I gave him some reasons why most of us do this:
1) Longer viewing times with and extra hour or two before and after halides so we don't over light our coral photoperiod with halides.
2) Less halide time to prolong halide bulbs.
3) Heat and energy costs if you normally run actinics 2 hours then halides 8 hours then actinics 2 more. With ACLS currently you would have 12 total for halide, I had to bump it down to 10 hours a day now. May have to go less...
He mentions that he has had some requests but for the most part most of the requests he's had are the natural way in Europe. I told him most of us in the US do it the other way or run halides only. He said he'll think it over with his company. Maybe some of you who have ACLS or planning on getting in the near future can send these request to him maybe they'll reconsider if the market demands it?
Thoughts?
ReefBum
Active member
I think a big point here is that the ACLS is an option (pricey) with the fixture. I opted to not buy the ACLS with my Sfiligoi unit and it is an awesome fixture that does a fantastic job spreading light. I know there is a belief out there that lights should dim and fire up gradually to match mother nature but I have been seeing great results without this feature. Just my 2 cents.
Nonetheless, I hope there is an easy fix for those of you who made the investment.
Nonetheless, I hope there is an easy fix for those of you who made the investment.
Nuuze - Hey, I just noticed you live quite close to me. I agree on the fact that there should be an option to split the two. I did not know until now that I could not run the T5's before the Halides. I am going to email the link that you provided and we an see how things go from there.
Maybe one day you might want to trade some frags, we live quite close. Just a thought...
John
Maybe one day you might want to trade some frags, we live quite close. Just a thought...
John
Nuuze
New member
Hi John,
Yes, I live in Fairfield, about an hour west of Sac. Barb (Auntbeez) lives near you in Ione. She's been by my place to pick up some Blue Zoo's recently. But yeah, I sell/trade frags from time to time. I usually post them on they local reef club forums BARS in the bay area and MARS in the Sacramento area since I'm caught dead smack in the middle of both.
Yes, I live in Fairfield, about an hour west of Sac. Barb (Auntbeez) lives near you in Ione. She's been by my place to pick up some Blue Zoo's recently. But yeah, I sell/trade frags from time to time. I usually post them on they local reef club forums BARS in the bay area and MARS in the Sacramento area since I'm caught dead smack in the middle of both.
Nuuze
New member
DaveWC,
Do you have the Photoperiod option enabled? If not here is what I posted on my lighting thread:
Latitude/Longitude:
Default sunrise time is 6:45 AM it seems. At first I just staggered my time by -6 hours so my sunrise 12:45 AM so tanks lights were still on when I got home from work. I didn't like the fact that the time was different from actual time on the display panel. But I just figured out if adjust the latitude and longitude, you can accomplish the the same staggered sunrise without altering the clock. Default latitude is 45 and longitude is 0. The first time I adjusted the wrong one (latitude, first option of the globe) so my lights came on at actual 6:45 AM. Once I adjusted the correct one (longitude, the second option of the globe) to 90, it staggered my lights by 6 hours. (15 = 1 hour) To know that it is on/enabled you will see the globe light up on the display and the sunrise on time will show 12:45 instead of 6:45.
Course of the sun during the day:
If you leave this option off then your halides lights will "sunrise" the same time which is 6:45 default. On 1 makes it a master so far seems to leave the sunrise time the same. On 2 makes the unit a slave that seems to stagger sunrise and sunset times by 7 minutes. To correctly get the east to west sunset effect you should mount your fixture with the wires coming out of the unit on the right side or else your sunset/sunrise will be west to east.
HTH.
Do you have the Photoperiod option enabled? If not here is what I posted on my lighting thread:
Latitude/Longitude:
Default sunrise time is 6:45 AM it seems. At first I just staggered my time by -6 hours so my sunrise 12:45 AM so tanks lights were still on when I got home from work. I didn't like the fact that the time was different from actual time on the display panel. But I just figured out if adjust the latitude and longitude, you can accomplish the the same staggered sunrise without altering the clock. Default latitude is 45 and longitude is 0. The first time I adjusted the wrong one (latitude, first option of the globe) so my lights came on at actual 6:45 AM. Once I adjusted the correct one (longitude, the second option of the globe) to 90, it staggered my lights by 6 hours. (15 = 1 hour) To know that it is on/enabled you will see the globe light up on the display and the sunrise on time will show 12:45 instead of 6:45.
Course of the sun during the day:
If you leave this option off then your halides lights will "sunrise" the same time which is 6:45 default. On 1 makes it a master so far seems to leave the sunrise time the same. On 2 makes the unit a slave that seems to stagger sunrise and sunset times by 7 minutes. To correctly get the east to west sunset effect you should mount your fixture with the wires coming out of the unit on the right side or else your sunset/sunrise will be west to east.
HTH.
Yeah, I went through all of that on the 1st link I gave...
"Ok, I've figured out why it's doing it but not how to fix it. The Master ballast shows that the lighting sequence begins at 5:45am while the other two say that it begins at 6:22am. So they are just behind by 37 minutes. There's nowhere in the manual where it tells you how to change this start time. As a result I've set the clock back one hour so the lights start coming on at 6:45am instead of 5:45am but there must be a better way. I can set the clocks on the two slave ballasts to different current time of day I guess and this will go away but again, that seems lame. How do you change the start time for these units?"
And then I discovered the latitude adjustment...
Hmmm, you can change the time that the sequence begins in the morning by changing the latitude. But you can only change the latitude by 15º at a time and each 15º equals one hour. So I can change the 5:45am to 6:45am but I've got no idea how the 6:22am got set or how to change it, other then to 7:22am. Must be dip switches somewhere.
It didn't resolve the issue with the lights starting at different times. And the ACLS never did fire them properly if I allowed it to do it on its own. In the end this was the advice I was given...
My only suggestion would be to set the Latitude all the same. Then set the times to the times you want the lights to come on. Thats all I did with the shop tank.
"Ok, I've figured out why it's doing it but not how to fix it. The Master ballast shows that the lighting sequence begins at 5:45am while the other two say that it begins at 6:22am. So they are just behind by 37 minutes. There's nowhere in the manual where it tells you how to change this start time. As a result I've set the clock back one hour so the lights start coming on at 6:45am instead of 5:45am but there must be a better way. I can set the clocks on the two slave ballasts to different current time of day I guess and this will go away but again, that seems lame. How do you change the start time for these units?"
And then I discovered the latitude adjustment...
Hmmm, you can change the time that the sequence begins in the morning by changing the latitude. But you can only change the latitude by 15º at a time and each 15º equals one hour. So I can change the 5:45am to 6:45am but I've got no idea how the 6:22am got set or how to change it, other then to 7:22am. Must be dip switches somewhere.
It didn't resolve the issue with the lights starting at different times. And the ACLS never did fire them properly if I allowed it to do it on its own. In the end this was the advice I was given...
My only suggestion would be to set the Latitude all the same. Then set the times to the times you want the lights to come on. Thats all I did with the shop tank.
Fliger
New member
So ... another week goes by ... still no fuses. Man I hope everyone who thinks of buying a Sfiligoi uses the search button. Good light if it works - but this is easily the worst customer service from a high end piece of equipment I've ever gotten. Pretty much a month now.
The fuses are smaller than an inch. For a very small amt of money they could have expressed these to me.
The fuses are smaller than an inch. For a very small amt of money they could have expressed these to me.
Fliger
New member
Hey Boozeman - Greg's actually doing everything he can. He has responded to all my emails and I wouldn't hesitate to buy something from Reefgeek. I'm not sure if he's clearing out all the Sfiligoi for new ones, or if he's going to bring more in. But if its the former - I can certainly understand why! :lol:
Kaidenjohn/Fliger,
Sorry to see that you guys are having a difficult time with the Sfiligoi lighting. Tagareef pointed me to your thread, since he too was interested in the Sfiligoi fixtures. Since then I have been watching this thread closely since I have been really thinking hard about buying the Infinity XR4 1x400W + T5 w/ACLS. Your thread and a few others have really slowed my thoughts on spending the money only to regret it in the end.
I have done some searches and it appears that the issues are only related to the magnetic ballasts fixtures. Have you heard of any issues with the ACLS ballast controlled fixtures?
Mike
Sorry to see that you guys are having a difficult time with the Sfiligoi lighting. Tagareef pointed me to your thread, since he too was interested in the Sfiligoi fixtures. Since then I have been watching this thread closely since I have been really thinking hard about buying the Infinity XR4 1x400W + T5 w/ACLS. Your thread and a few others have really slowed my thoughts on spending the money only to regret it in the end.
I have done some searches and it appears that the issues are only related to the magnetic ballasts fixtures. Have you heard of any issues with the ACLS ballast controlled fixtures?
Mike
Fliger
New member
Well, at this point I'd have to say there are lights that are just as good, but the service is much better. Regarding the ACLS, I actually considered ditching this unit and buying the last remaining ACLS unit that Reefgeek has - because it does seem the problem is with these magnetic ballasts. But then I read that you can't run T5 alone and that just killed it for me. I run my fluorescents 12+ hours and MH only about 5-6 hours - and thats just with 150W & 250W - not 400W. And the whole sending the ballasts to Italy kinda turned me off. But it does seem really cool if they could work around that.
Dirtyreefer had a 1x250W XR4 with ACLS in the for sale forum. Might wanna check if he's sold it.
I think I might put "Don't buy Sfiligoi" in my auto sig. :lol:
Dirtyreefer had a 1x250W XR4 with ACLS in the for sale forum. Might wanna check if he's sold it.
I think I might put "Don't buy Sfiligoi" in my auto sig. :lol:
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