Giesemann Aurora Hybrid review

kenpau said:
That Moonlight fixture is $7000 here in Australia for the 1.5m, I read up about it expecting something amazingly different from any other light....why is it so expensive??
Click to expand...

WOW!

The fixture is 15 years old and still working, the lamps get changed every two years. Everything is built into the fixture, so mounting it was very simple and clean. The incandescent lamp used for the moonlight is perfect, versus the LED counter parts. The fact in 2000 it had all controls in the fixture including the moonlight schedule was state of the art. I am guessing it is so expensive is because they don't make that many and retooling just for that fixture is expensive?
 
Helfish said:
Does the fixture contain any fans? Did you peek inside and see how the cooling is constructed with the LED panels?.
Click to expand...

It has fans hidden inside the unit, it actually runs really cool, you can put your hand on it with no problems after running T5s all day and I've never actually heard the fans running, the fixture itself runs really quietly.
 
Thanks for the review. This is one of the light fixture that I'm currently looking at if I'm going to LED. Nice looking light and looks to be very capable.
When I was looking at the picture of the tank with just the LED, it seems to me there's spots of different color on the sand or the disco light effect. Now looking back at the picture with the LED and T5, there's still the disco effect but less apparent. Is it just the picture?
 
this is me said:
Thanks for the review. This is one of the light fixture that I'm currently looking at if I'm going to LED. Nice looking light and looks to be very capable.
When I was looking at the picture of the tank with just the LED, it seems to me there's spots of different color on the sand or the disco light effect. Now looking back at the picture with the LED and T5, there's still the disco effect but less apparent. Is it just the picture?
Click to expand...

I hadn't noticed that before but you're right. It's definitely not noticeable in person though, especially with T5s on. I'll see if I can upload a video if I can work out how to do it!
 
Nice lights,

to see if it fits with my tank and bracing may I ask?

what are the dimensions of each led board?

what are the dimension from the end of the unit to the center of each led board?

Can the position of the LED panels be changed ( if aluminum spacers are removed)?

On a side note the disco effect may just be a sync issue with camera shutter speed and led drive profiles. Chances are the leds are not being driven by a pure DC feed, but by a square wave etc, so the camera may take a picture when all leds are not on. Just a thought.
 
Hi mate, just wondering how could you opened both side of plastic cover and fit the t5 tulbs in? i forced open one side and couldnt seal it anymore...:facepalm:
thanks
 
kenpau said:
Here you go, PAR readings with LEDs at 100% and no T5s...

IMAG0366 by kenpau01, on Flickr

This show pretty much exactly the same issue as I had with the Hydra52s, the PAR readings are a little lower, which is understandable as each Aurora LED board has 85 watts of power against the 135 watts the Hydra52 has.
The issue I had with the Hydra52s was light spread, I was getting exactly the same PAR at the glass as I did with just LEDs here, about 60 PAR at mid tank level, there is a massive drop off in PAR as you move away from the centre line of the tank which could lead to acropora especially not branching as well as they could because the light simply isn't there.

So I could have possibly got the same kind of results as the Giesemann with LEDs and T5 on by buying 1 or 2 more Hydra52s and mounting them in Parallel to achieve total light spread. The advantage with the Giesemann being that it has 2 types of lighting to aid coral growth and especially that in my case it has proven actinic growth and colouration qualities (depending on the T5 tubes you install).
Click to expand...


Hi, thank you very much for taking the time to review this light! Surprisingly there are not a lot of reviews online for this fixture. I am considering buying one of these for my next tank, mainly for the same reasons you mention: light spread. I have actually owned two Teszla S models from Giesemann in the past but now I am running ecotech radions. I love them, but the spread is suboptimal, especially Italy at the top as you mention. Another thing I do not like with LEDs is the fact that whenever your fish come up to the front glass they inevitably show you the shaded part of their body, so you actually do not see them in all their beauty.

One question though: on their website, giesemann claims that the Aurora comes standard with the same led layout of the Futura series (which has additional red and green LEDs), or as an option with the Teszla S board. Can you tell which yours came with?

Thanks

116ee1ca54e497ccc3568cf72e2c0e08.jpg
 
I am in the process of building a new tank: 300 gallons w/ dimensions 72 x 36 x 27. Right now I have a Kessil AP700 on my 150 gallon cube. My options are to either buy 2 more Kessils and run 3 of those, or else I have been toying with the idea of running a T5/LED combo. I really like the Aurora, but I'm concerned that the 60" may not be big enough. I would want to hang the light, so I am sure that raising it will help with the length, but any feedback on if coverage front-to-back would be good? It is 36" in that dimension.

I've also read that the T5's are not dimmable for the 60" fixture. Can anyone confirm this? If so, is this even an issue? I've never run anything but LEDs, so I'm used to having total programming control.

Thanks!
 
kenpau said:
So after the light was hung and didn't look like it was going to fall down I moved on to the setup. Being a German unit the build quality and level of detail is exceptional, this quility carries over into the extremely detailed instructions on how to program the lights...

IMAG0372 by kenpau01, on Flickr

Unfortunately the other thing apart from build quality that you expect from the Germans is that they speak German.....and I don't! I did a search online for Aurora Hybrid instructions and nothing, luckily the technology is taken straight from the Futura LED so I just followed the instructions from there.

Am still playing around with the lights, this was taken this morning with just LEDs at 40%

IMAG0366 by kenpau01, on Flickr

and with LED (80%) and T5 (100%) (little spot the difference between this shot and the previous one....)

IMAG0370 by kenpau01, on Flickr


Thing of beauty.......

IMAG0369 by kenpau01, on Flickr

As amazing as this light is, there are a couple of areas that it falls down

The control interface isn't as user friendly as the Apex for the Hydra52s

Screen Shot 2015-07-18 at 5.34.43 pm by kenpau01, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2015-05-16 at 10.19.49 pm by kenpau01, on Flickr

And it has real time lunar simulation which I was looking forward to, however there is a problem....

Screen Shot 2015-07-18 at 5.34.53 pm by kenpau01, on Flickr

You can adjust the intensity of the moonlighting up to 100%, well 30% and I was going blind, I regularly sit in a dark room with just the moonlights on relaxing, there is no relaxing at anything over 30% just a whole lot of blue!
I found the maximum I'd want for a full moon is 15%, the problem with this being that the LEDs aren't high enough to turn on for the first 3 days and last 3 days of the cycle. This is a bit annoying because I was happy to not have any moonlighting when it was a new moon outside but to not have it for 6 days a month would suck a bit, I'll keep playing.

That's about as far as I've got so far,

Pros of the Aurora Hybrid:-

Design is stunning
Quality of the build
At 660W its got plenty of punch
Heaps of controllability
Integrates the best of T5 and LED (yes there is shimmer!)

Cons:-

Cost (obviously!)
User interface could be better
Moonlighting needs an improvement
You need to speak German to follow the instructions provided!

The proof in the pudding will be coral growth, I'm picking up a quantum meter tomorrow and it'll be interesting to see the difference between the PAR for the Giesemann and what I had with the Hydra52s.
Click to expand...
What t5 bulbs are you using
 
Ourlittlereef said:
I am in the process of building a new tank: 300 gallons w/ dimensions 72 x 36 x 27. Right now I have a Kessil AP700 on my 150 gallon cube. My options are to either buy 2 more Kessils and run 3 of those, or else I have been toying with the idea of running a T5/LED combo. I really like the Aurora, but I'm concerned that the 60" may not be big enough. I would want to hang the light, so I am sure that raising it will help with the length, but any feedback on if coverage front-to-back would be good? It is 36" in that dimension.



I've also read that the T5's are not dimmable for the 60" fixture. Can anyone confirm this? If so, is this even an issue? I've never run anything but LEDs, so I'm used to having total programming control.



Thanks!
Click to expand...



Hi. In the US that does seem to be the case. In Europe all of the models are fully dimmable. I believe it has to do with voltage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi
i have Giesemann AURORA HYBRID 900 mm 4x39 T-5 + 2 LED Panel 75W
Front 2 x blue t5
back 1 x blue + 1 x purple t5

What is your t5 combination
1-
2-
3-
4-

...?

thank you
 
Giesemann FuturaBT not working on windows 7 - 8 - 10
i try all
teslaBT working but Futura not
Anyone help me please
thanks..
 
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