msderganc
New member
I bought this light, used, about six months ago after reading numerous great reviews. I planned to use it over a frag tank (4'x2'x1') to grow SPS corals. I've held off writing this because I thought it must be something I did, but
Well, in short, I wouldn't recommend this light to anyone. On paper, it looks amazing, but the execution is just so poor it eliminates any benefit. I have personally lost ~$500 in frags due to this light malfunctioning.
Pros
1. Spectrum seems to be nice.
2. Bali Sun program is (in theory) awesome.
3. Quiet - I rarely heard the fans.
4. Customer support - I hesitate putting this into pros, but they were relatively responsive, even though the answer was almost always "Erase and flash the firmware again". I don't consider that a viable option with something as critical as a light on a reef tank.
Cons
1. Build quality - the cheap plastic light shield came loose on one side when picking up the light. Additionally, the light shield has burned on both sides under some of the LEDs. The power connections to the light itself are metal, and are rusting. The button on the back which flips it into manual mode is cheap, and it is hard to tell when it's actually engaged. One of my power supplies died immediately (could have been rough shipping or the previous owner), but it was only used for ~6 months before me. No sign of salt intrusion.
2. Software - I thought the Vertex light software was the worst I'd ever used until I used this. It looks great on the website, but in reality, it's unreliable, poorly translated and a pain to use. Yes, I even bought a specific bluetooth USB adapter because they caution you not to use your internal bluetooth. The connection is horrible, even when standing right next to the light, and I can't count the number of errors I've gotten. It has crashed on nearly every tab it has in different ways. Who knows if the changes actually even took?
And it's horribly unintuitive. The Bali Sun program is a separate module, which is cool - but how do I adjust the strength of it? Maybe I want to run it at 50%? I'm sure (hoping) there is some way to do it, but I've never been able to figure out how. Each tab is seemingly independent, but actually not. There's a tab for a par table where you can adjust spectrum, a tab with just a spectrum chart to adjust, and then in the simple programming, a selection for the color temperature. Which one is actually used? It's impossible to know. And then how does the acclimation protocol work? What does it change? Who knows?
3. And this is the biggest one: Stability. This is where I lost corals. For the first three months or so, I was using the Bali Sun program. During that period I had numerous occasions where I'd find that the light timing had shifted (but the clock on the unit was correct), it had reset itself to 100% power and killed corals (this is a shallow tank), or it simply wouldn't turn on at all. I contacted Customer Support a couple of times, and the advice was to remove and flash firmware. Almost invariably, it ended up being a half-day ordeal to get this thing working again. A short power outage (<1 minute) sometimes would reset the light (it is plugged into a surge protector) and caused all types of weird behavior.
After I switched to the basic program (which is a little too simple, btw) out of frustration, the problems continued. I went out there at midnight one night and found the lights at full blast. Or, this morning, which is what prompted me to finally write this, I noticed that the red LEDs, which I'd turned off, were on bright at 7am (The whole light was supposed to be off). I soft reset the unit, and it seemed to be ok. Then, at 8am I went out to feed the one fish in the system, and noticed that the spectrum looked a lot whiter than normal. So...I pulled out my laptop, and all of the settings looked correct. I set the spectrum again where I wanted it, no change. I turned off all white light entirely, no change. I reset it, no change. I reset it three more times, and finally, it behaved.
I'm shifting back to MH/T5 for this tank, but do not buy this light (the software I believe is similar across the whole Pacific Sun product line, however). I realize that I might have got a lemon, and I get that. But the issues were too widespread and too varied to be one bad unit. Just my opinion, and I know a lot of people will disagree. I have owned many LED units (Radions, Vertex Illumina, DIY, Chinese, ATI) and I've seen the worst performance with regard to corals out of this light.
Well, in short, I wouldn't recommend this light to anyone. On paper, it looks amazing, but the execution is just so poor it eliminates any benefit. I have personally lost ~$500 in frags due to this light malfunctioning.
Pros
1. Spectrum seems to be nice.
2. Bali Sun program is (in theory) awesome.
3. Quiet - I rarely heard the fans.
4. Customer support - I hesitate putting this into pros, but they were relatively responsive, even though the answer was almost always "Erase and flash the firmware again". I don't consider that a viable option with something as critical as a light on a reef tank.
Cons
1. Build quality - the cheap plastic light shield came loose on one side when picking up the light. Additionally, the light shield has burned on both sides under some of the LEDs. The power connections to the light itself are metal, and are rusting. The button on the back which flips it into manual mode is cheap, and it is hard to tell when it's actually engaged. One of my power supplies died immediately (could have been rough shipping or the previous owner), but it was only used for ~6 months before me. No sign of salt intrusion.
2. Software - I thought the Vertex light software was the worst I'd ever used until I used this. It looks great on the website, but in reality, it's unreliable, poorly translated and a pain to use. Yes, I even bought a specific bluetooth USB adapter because they caution you not to use your internal bluetooth. The connection is horrible, even when standing right next to the light, and I can't count the number of errors I've gotten. It has crashed on nearly every tab it has in different ways. Who knows if the changes actually even took?
And it's horribly unintuitive. The Bali Sun program is a separate module, which is cool - but how do I adjust the strength of it? Maybe I want to run it at 50%? I'm sure (hoping) there is some way to do it, but I've never been able to figure out how. Each tab is seemingly independent, but actually not. There's a tab for a par table where you can adjust spectrum, a tab with just a spectrum chart to adjust, and then in the simple programming, a selection for the color temperature. Which one is actually used? It's impossible to know. And then how does the acclimation protocol work? What does it change? Who knows?
3. And this is the biggest one: Stability. This is where I lost corals. For the first three months or so, I was using the Bali Sun program. During that period I had numerous occasions where I'd find that the light timing had shifted (but the clock on the unit was correct), it had reset itself to 100% power and killed corals (this is a shallow tank), or it simply wouldn't turn on at all. I contacted Customer Support a couple of times, and the advice was to remove and flash firmware. Almost invariably, it ended up being a half-day ordeal to get this thing working again. A short power outage (<1 minute) sometimes would reset the light (it is plugged into a surge protector) and caused all types of weird behavior.
After I switched to the basic program (which is a little too simple, btw) out of frustration, the problems continued. I went out there at midnight one night and found the lights at full blast. Or, this morning, which is what prompted me to finally write this, I noticed that the red LEDs, which I'd turned off, were on bright at 7am (The whole light was supposed to be off). I soft reset the unit, and it seemed to be ok. Then, at 8am I went out to feed the one fish in the system, and noticed that the spectrum looked a lot whiter than normal. So...I pulled out my laptop, and all of the settings looked correct. I set the spectrum again where I wanted it, no change. I turned off all white light entirely, no change. I reset it, no change. I reset it three more times, and finally, it behaved.
I'm shifting back to MH/T5 for this tank, but do not buy this light (the software I believe is similar across the whole Pacific Sun product line, however). I realize that I might have got a lemon, and I get that. But the issues were too widespread and too varied to be one bad unit. Just my opinion, and I know a lot of people will disagree. I have owned many LED units (Radions, Vertex Illumina, DIY, Chinese, ATI) and I've seen the worst performance with regard to corals out of this light.
How long have you given the corals time to adjust? It may take months for them to acclimate to LEDs.
