My Giesemann Spectra Reef brite retrofit project.

[five.five-six]

Father’s Day project

My Reef Brites showed up the other day, I was playing with them last nite and my wife took interest in how great the looked on the tank. At one point she asked: how much were those? I responded with: you don’t want to know. To which she said: OK……and went back about her business ....(she is wonderful)


I love the way my Geismann spectra looks over the tank. The tank is in our foyer it’s the first thing you see when you enter our house and it needs to look spot on, which it does. I really like that fixture but wanted LED POP. I had been using E5 LED t5 retrofits from the now defunct Euroquatics. A few weeks ago one of those lamps just about caught fire and melted the lens (photos forthcoming)

I decided in leu of just going back to MH/T5 to yank the T5 reflectors and ballasts and install T5 strip lights, which turned out to be Reef Brite. I will be installing them this weekend


First impressions:

Those lites are bright AF, I’m glad I bought the APEX dimming module. (I’ll need a PAR meter)

Overall design is nice and the finish is nice

Not real happy with the final assembly, a few of the screws look like they had been cammed over. The sheathing on the power wire wasn’t quite gripped in the strain relief, I’ll fix these things when I do my retrofit but I shouldn’t have to for that much money.

My APEX classic is out of 0-10V ports but I do have an old AquaSurf that I can derive my 0-10V APEX control from.

 

[minus9]

Nice! Can't wait to see the pics.

 

[KWoo008]

At one point she asked: how much were those? I responded with: you don't want to know. To which she said: OK"¦"¦and went back about her business ....(she is wonderful)

She's a keeper! Can't wait to see the pics!

 

[pga7602]

Pics or it didn't happen.



















Of your wife not mad that is

 

[wishntoboutside]

Pics or it didn't happen.

Yes I agree. this thread is useless without pictures.

















Of your wife not mad that is

 

[moondoggy4]

Hobo Kelly: I can clearly see that Marky has a great little light,

 

[BeanMachine]

Less reading more pitchers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[five.five-six]

I wonder what happened to my pictures

Well, let me write some more about it.

I couldn’t get the lights to dim, and I know that it’s not a big deal for the fish n stuff but I like it to dim in the evening and I leave before sunrise in the morning so I like just enough to see inside. I figured it was my aquasurf was old and didn’t work and ordered a VDM which did the same thing.

I got my meter on the cables and turns out the Neptune adapter supplied by reefbrites was defective. I took apart the $150 dimming control module and found 2 X $18 dimming control modules and about $8 worth of extruded aluminum. I rewired it and made my own APEX adapter the setup and it works great now. I’m not super impressed with the lights. They do their job but seem to only have one or two good peaks … in a lot of ways I liked T5 better but these dim and use little electricity and do have 1-2 good pop peaks.







Ok, OK, photos.








I had the world’s best Father’s Day helper. It was freaking hot some I decided to do the work in the living room. Father’s Day, my wife can deal with it!

It was melted pretty bad, my apologies to anyone who I recommended the Euroquatics E5X to

Had to cut the lens from the light with a dermal to get it apart.

Look at the damage

Taking the 15 year oldGeismann apart, and having to fix a few things on the brand new chi-com lights the quality contrast is strikeing from designe, too materials to workmanship. I’m sure that long after the reefbrites are worn out and need to be discarded, the Geismann fixture will be ready for a new powder coat and another 20 years of service. They are just that much better.

It was a little tricky getting the ballasts out as they were silicone in place.

Almost done, just need the paint to dry on the wireing covers I fashioned from the melted lens

All done and ready to hang

Time to kick my feet up and enjoy the fruit of my work

 

[wishntoboutside]

looking good Mark. nice how you put them inside instead of mounting them on the outside. repairing the t-5 looked like a lot of work and hard to source the pieces. Those Euroquatics bulbs were a great concept but I have seen to many that failed. not good an could have burned the home down.

 

[rorroreef]

Nice work Mark..now can i have that powder blue tang? Thanks ur the best ; p

 

[moondoggy4]

Are those XHO Leds?

 

[five.five-six]

Nice work Mark..now can i have that powder blue tang? Thanks ur the best ; p

How about NO.

 

[five.five-six]

Are those XHO Leds?

Yea, XHO reefbrites.

 

[five.five-six]

looking good Mark. nice how you put them inside instead of mounting them on the outside. repairing the t-5 looked like a lot of work and hard to source the pieces. Those Euroquatics bulbs were a great concept but I have seen to many that failed. not good an could have burned the home down.

Thanks Richard, You've seen my tank and like your's it's in the foyer so the way it looks when someone walks into the house is important to me. I've had more than a few neighbors asking about how to get a fish tank upgrade like that LOL. I gues to someone who's never had a tank, mine looks built in.