BrianKC
New member
I just received my 20000k MC and 14000k 36" fixtures and wanted to share my experience.
They were a bit back ordered but they shipped out about 12 business days after my order. Wow, worth the wait I think.
The Lights (as of day one, 5/5 stars. Would buy again):
These things are crazy bright and the color combo of the two is fantastic. I currently have them running at 70%, which is already way brighter than my old cheap LEDs (one Marine Orbit and one Marineland) and will ramp them up over a couple weeks. The light fixtures themselves look great. I got the silver models, and my wife said "wow, aquarium lights that actually look nice!" We tried the Chinese black boxes a while ago and they got vetoed. Too early to say how the corals like these lights but my bet is they'll vote +1 on them.
The Service (A+):
After initially ordering I had some questions and Cara was nice enough to give me a call and talk me through a few things and adjusted my order over the phone. After waiting patiently for the expected 10 days I emailed their support team asking for an ETA. I got a very quick, accurate, and professional response from a person named Erin that they'd be shipped the next day (they were). I had to email her back today (read below) so more to come.
The Setup Process (B-):
I probably should have expected it but I didn't; man, these have a lot of wires and connectors! I should have taken a pic before installing but I didn't. Three headphone cables, one splitter, two power bricks, two other interim adapters, the controller, and the lights. There weren't really much in the way of instructions but everything can only connect one way so it wasn't that hard to set up. The end mounts for my rimless tank are great. There's also a mount groove the length of the top of the light so people have lots of options.
The Solunar Controller (2/5 stars):
The controller does what it says. It can ramp the lights up and down and let you set different percentages for up to three channels. That said, the interface is not user friendly at all. I should note that I am a degreed computer scientist with 16 years of experience in the field and I find it really hard to use.
It also only controls lights and, for $100, that's not impressive. That part is my fault because I knew that; just made an impulse decision when I learned that the MC model has to have a controller. What I didn't realize until later is that the controller can't actually turn the lights on and off; just ramp them between 10% and 100%.
If that was all, I'd probably give 3/5 stars. But, my unit came with some issues. The down button on the controller doesn't work. Fortunately, you can up-arrow past the top of every menu so I can still navigate but...annoying. Also the channel 1 port isn't tight so when you move the controller the light on channel 1 blinks a little. The controller also has some scuffs on it that make me wonder if it was used/refurbished. I've emailed Erin back and we will see what happens. If I had to to it over, I would have bought a different controller altogether.
Summary:
So far, these seem like amazing lights with great housings and mounts. but I'd definitely look somewhere else for a controller. Which is fine; BML is a lighting company, not a controller company.
I'll post a pic or two later; the lights arrived mid-water change and the tank's settling itself down right now.
They were a bit back ordered but they shipped out about 12 business days after my order. Wow, worth the wait I think.
The Lights (as of day one, 5/5 stars. Would buy again):
These things are crazy bright and the color combo of the two is fantastic. I currently have them running at 70%, which is already way brighter than my old cheap LEDs (one Marine Orbit and one Marineland) and will ramp them up over a couple weeks. The light fixtures themselves look great. I got the silver models, and my wife said "wow, aquarium lights that actually look nice!" We tried the Chinese black boxes a while ago and they got vetoed. Too early to say how the corals like these lights but my bet is they'll vote +1 on them.
The Service (A+):
After initially ordering I had some questions and Cara was nice enough to give me a call and talk me through a few things and adjusted my order over the phone. After waiting patiently for the expected 10 days I emailed their support team asking for an ETA. I got a very quick, accurate, and professional response from a person named Erin that they'd be shipped the next day (they were). I had to email her back today (read below) so more to come.
The Setup Process (B-):
I probably should have expected it but I didn't; man, these have a lot of wires and connectors! I should have taken a pic before installing but I didn't. Three headphone cables, one splitter, two power bricks, two other interim adapters, the controller, and the lights. There weren't really much in the way of instructions but everything can only connect one way so it wasn't that hard to set up. The end mounts for my rimless tank are great. There's also a mount groove the length of the top of the light so people have lots of options.
The Solunar Controller (2/5 stars):
The controller does what it says. It can ramp the lights up and down and let you set different percentages for up to three channels. That said, the interface is not user friendly at all. I should note that I am a degreed computer scientist with 16 years of experience in the field and I find it really hard to use.
It also only controls lights and, for $100, that's not impressive. That part is my fault because I knew that; just made an impulse decision when I learned that the MC model has to have a controller. What I didn't realize until later is that the controller can't actually turn the lights on and off; just ramp them between 10% and 100%.
If that was all, I'd probably give 3/5 stars. But, my unit came with some issues. The down button on the controller doesn't work. Fortunately, you can up-arrow past the top of every menu so I can still navigate but...annoying. Also the channel 1 port isn't tight so when you move the controller the light on channel 1 blinks a little. The controller also has some scuffs on it that make me wonder if it was used/refurbished. I've emailed Erin back and we will see what happens. If I had to to it over, I would have bought a different controller altogether.
Summary:
So far, these seem like amazing lights with great housings and mounts. but I'd definitely look somewhere else for a controller. Which is fine; BML is a lighting company, not a controller company.
I'll post a pic or two later; the lights arrived mid-water change and the tank's settling itself down right now.
