Solaris Led lighting systems

[Biggie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9197239#post9197239 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Amphibious
Great, Biggie! I was confident it was something minor.

Yea super happy. I had a stressful night.

Tonight Ill have to have some solitude just enjoying the new look of my tank. Sheesh I can tell ya I been burned before but the feeling of dong a 2 hour tear down and installing the new light, modifying my canopy to except it and then,
After its all done Im drum rolling the power switch in my head and the grand finale and then the big let down.

I was menally drained. Had to pull out of the mental nose dive and reverse the whole tear down process to re-install my old lights.
I got online and e-mailed the seller back with steam pouring off my head in anger. I calmly explained the situation and he replied back almost immediately and had me check that cable and I went right to it and it was loose.

It was like a ton of bricks was just lifted. Thank God!
Tonight Ill install it agian and enjoy. I think it will be with a cold one in one hand as well, after all its Fri. I just have smiles to look forward to now...

 

[mdenigris]

I received my 48" 20k unit last night from Premium Aquatics.

The box was is horrible shape; it was ripped open and the fixture was exposed. I agree with whoever said that the power supply(s) should be shipped seperatly.

After unpacking, I could see a loose screw through the acrylic splash guard sitting on one of the LEDs, which was easily replaced into the heat sink from which it came by removing one of the fan housings and sliding off the splash guard.

The 48" unit comes with two large, external power supplies, which I hadn't planned for, but managed to find some room for them behind the tank.

As soon as I placed the fixture on the tank, the aformentioned screw once again came loose. I gave up on trying to replace it, and just removed it from the housing altogether.

I powered up the fixture, and everything worked except for three day blues in the middle row of one of the arrays. I have no doubt that PFO will remidy that somehow - I'll call them on Monday.

My first impression was that the fixture was too dim. My previous lighting was 4 110w VHOs (2x Daylight, 2X Atinic). Looking at it this morning however, I find it very appealing - as does the family. The moonlight is uber cool.

I will probably use the timed auto mode instead of full auto because I want to have a few hours to view the tank when I come home from work. It's a bummer that the sunrise / sunset features only work in full auto mode, which provides no control of when the lights come on and off. The full auto mode is also inadequatly documented IMHO. The observed moonrise / moonset times dont match my reference sources. There's also no evidence that the fixture varies moonlight intensity based on the moonphase - but again, I don't know because it's not documented.

As far as the corals go, I'm very lightly stocked. I have a tree leather a finger leather, a hammer coral with three heads and two small SPS frags (cats paw and a digi). The finger is dramitically differnet this morning. It's more open than I've never seen it before. The tree leather and hammer have good extension and seem to be reacting well as do the SPS frags.

There's something about this light that they like, despite the fact that it appears visually dimmer.

The fish are a little freaked. They dont realize it's day time yet, but they're starting to come around.

The unit is quieter than my VHO fixture, which had two fans in the hood. This one has four, plus the two on the power supplies which are always running, however, the computer controlled fan speed are keeping things reasonably quiet. My pumps are noiseir.

It MUCH cooler in the room, even over VHO's so that's a big plus, because it's my office.

Overall - I'm satisfied. I'll be happier when that bad row of lights gets replaced. It's a new unit, and there are some bugs. The shipping clearly needs to be fixed. If PFO didn't have such a good reputation for customer service, I'd be worried.

The build quality is what you would expect for a $2,500 unit.

 

[owsi]

You can also change hemisheres or adjust the day lengths, the simplest would be to set the clock to your viewing time. Right now Southern Hemi starts to come on about 6:10AM and starts to go down about 8:20PM. So if you want later viewing set the clock back(Solaris Daylight Savings Time)

 

[ppht]

OWSI - Does your unit every power completely off or are your fanning running all night? I do see my moons are on alot so maybe thats why. Anyone else notice that?

 

[Biggie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9206516#post9206516 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ppht
OWSI - Does your unit every power completely off or are your fanning running all night? I do see my moons are on alot so maybe thats why. Anyone else notice that?

Roger that.. I noticed moons on alot. I cant understand the loose screw issue myself when they put these mongo connectors on and made everything else under what I would deem high quality.

I found 2 screws loose so far. Yet the thing works fine. I just think something like "loose screws could bring down the buyers perception when the price is so high for these things.

Seems its across the board with these lights. Someone wasnt doing there job.

Overall my corals have never looked better. I hope PFO get this feedback and repremands the last guy on the line for not catching these small issues.

Now when they come out with this 400 watt unit, I suspect the price will reflect the upgrade but I cant see a need for higher wattage when Im at 30 inches deep and getting great results with SPS. The LPS owners may find it valuable for the Acros and Monti's. I just dont see the need for it so far.

Softies are doing great with this light. Granted Ive had mine only for 2 days now and had the loose screw thing but its really cool to just have a hands off light that is smart with the adjustments. Besides that I shaved off 300+ watts of used electrical usage and my tank hasnt changed temp one degree in 48 hours.
I also do a manual top off every day of about 5 gal. of RO/DI which is a pain but necessary becaue of the high heat and evap. I havent seen the water drop yet.
That tells me the MH lighting I was running was putiing 5 gal of water vapor into my house everyday.
That cant be good! Benefits are still popping up that I havent come to realize yet.

 

[bboats]

What is everyone using auto mode setting their daylengths too? Shortest to longest?

Sunrise, sunset lenght?

Just want to compare becuase I think I may have had mine set way to high. Thanks

 

[underpar]

Hmmmm....

I wonder if Mr. Bean is still watching?

 

[skydancer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9208001#post9208001 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by underpar
Hmmmm....

I wonder if Mr. Bean is still watching?

Oh no...

...why did you have to ask?...

 

[owsi]

1 fan each side is on constant, the other is temp controlled. I have been using the Southern Hemi for a while now, it is in the shortening cycle. If your on Northern your days will get longer, June 21 should be your longest day. If you just got the light I woulds cut the daylight white and blue way back unless your corals where under very high light. The unit will go off for a minute in morn and evening during switch over in auto.

 

[ppht]

Okay that sounds about right.. Thanks.

 

[mdenigris]

According to the Naval Observatory website, in the Fiji Islands the shortest day (June 22) is 12 hrs, 6 min. The longest day (Dec 22nd) is 14 hrs, 7 minutes.

Of course that's 12-14 hours under the sun, not LEDs, but, those are the stats, for what it's worth.

 

[ReefWraith]

Lux readings for Solaris VS. MH

Lux readings for Solaris VS. MH

Ok, after all the hoopla about LED lighting and controversy regarding LEDs versus MHs by those that don't yet own such lights... I decided to take the plunge and order a 72" set for myself. I then started taking Lux readings of the two various lighting systems. Some points to consider while looking at the results below:

1) The Lux meter while in interesting tool for measurement may not be that accurate as the values jump around considerably and one has to mount the lens/probe as simply holding it results in numbers that are impossible to record. Mounted the numbers are fairly stable however. For those that may question the accuracy of the meter itself... it's listed as +/- 6% of the reading or +/- 1 digit. I used a Milwaukee SM700 at the X100 setting (a smaller setting results in 'whiteout.'

2) Regardless of the accuracy of the meter, the point of this test and the result given below show a comparison. Since the same controls were used in each reading (same meter, same distance from light), any inaccuracy is really a mute point.

3) Sunlight with this meter was measured at 58,800 Lux and this was direct sunlight at 1:00 PM EST on a bright day with no cloud cover. I found this interesting when compared to the numbers in the first row.... see below.

4) I maintain a very deep sand bed so 18" is roughly the lowest reading I could obtain without burying the lens/probe.

5) The Solaris has different colored LEDs which made it difficult to get readings... especially at 1" away from the light. Therefore I held the lens under the blue LED and then the White LED and averaged the two readings. Readings taken further away from the light were less variable.

6) PAR readings would be interesting here too. I only have a Lux meter and am uncertain just how to convert from Lux to PAR with LED lighting. This conversion is different for each type of lighting as I understand. For example, according to Gerald Deitzer (University of Maryland) one would divide the Lux value by 74.5 to obtain PAR for MH where you divide by 49.0 and 55.2 to obtain PAR from Lux values for incandescent lighting and the sun.

7) Lastly, this was done simply out of curiosity on my part and that of many others that have contributed to this thread with similar questions regarding the output of the LEDs and how they might stand up to similar MH lighting. It was not my intention to start any arguments and I refuse to answer any inflammatory posts. This is simply educational and thus the rationale for this board in the first place.

So far I have to say I'm very pleased with the lights. I keep a mixed reef with SPS (even acros) and LPS. I initially turned down the blues and whites a bit as my Monti caps were browning a bit. Thus the first Solaris readings at 80 and 70% Day and Blues respectively. Remember that this light does focus it's intensity more than MH. After turning the lights down and slowing coming up over a period of 3 weeks my corals are brighter and I can now easily observe the 'changeover' behavior in all inhabitants as the sun rises and sets. :bum:

Happy Reefing everyone!

ReefWraith

 

[MO Will]

Nice post reefwraith!

Will

 

[ReefWraith]

Thanks Will, my intention was just to shed some 'light' on this mystery that has stirred up so much controversy. Pun intended! So many people have questions about these lights and yet few have said too much regarding actual numbers. And no, I'm not affiliated with PFO in any way.

ReefWraith

 

[jmchzn]

I have the solaris too and the tank is kicking but I'm so stupid. In english please ....are the lux readings good or not?

 

[owsi]

Nice info, is that Lux meter $$$, saw one at Dr's F & S awhile back, wondering if worth the money. It had a submersible probe, if I remember right. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

 

[ReefWraith]

JMCHZN .... It depends on what you want to get from your light. Two things are immediately apparent from the Lux readings: 1) Metal halides give off far more 'light' to the eye (seen at the 1" from light reading) 2) the LED's punch through the water far better than the MH ... comparatively speaking when taking into account the readings at 1" from light versus 18" at depth (underwater). I keep my SPS fairly high in the tank anyway so they do just fine... however it's obvious that at depth the difference is negligible. This is due to the focused output of the LEDs versus the scattered output of the MH due to bulb position and reflector. The reflector used for the MH was a Reef Optix III by the way.

Owsi... my pleasure buddy! Yes, it is the meter found at Foster and Smith. I don't see a huge need for such a meter and really only bought it for this purpose... I just had to know. I can also monitor my LEDs now over time for reduced output to see what sort of life they really have. Tinkering is so much fun!

ReefWraith

 

[Obi-dad]

Keep in mind that readings from a LUX meter are much different from a PAR meter, because the LUX meters respond much more to the yellow and green wavelengths. Even PAR meters such as the Apogee underrepresent the blue wavelengths, but LUX meters much more so.

 

[ReefWraith]

Exactly why I mentioned that above in point six of my post Obi. I'm aware of how to convert from Lux to PAR when using MH but not with LED as the light spectrum is different and therefore the calculation must be different. Given that Lux tends to underrate Blue and the Solaris certainly seems to put out far more blue light than the MH (Solaris is closer to 20K versus 14K bulbs I tested), I'm wondering if the PAR values would be even closer? This would be interesting to see indeed but unfortunately I don't have a PAR meter. I'm certainly no expert in the photon department, but I still find these Lux numbers interesting. Now, does anyone at CTARS have a PAR meter Greg?

ReefWraith

 

[hans1976]

The club has one, ask Shark Bait100.