Solaris Led lighting systems
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jnb
Premium Member
Biggie - may we see a picture of your tank - please?
plunge and bought one of these only my own expierience.
I switched from 400 W MH 14k Hamilton to the Solaris 48 in 20k and havent seen anything negative about it but all positive. groth is great, color is nice, heat is no longer an issue with my tank.
I have noticed new color in everything that wasnt present before and to be honest its plug and play.
You can scroll thru this thread and see on going debate over light perameters and alike but for the average joe reefer you wont be disappointed.
I will buy another one soon. My investment is in gaining as close to a maintance free sustainable reef as I can get not convulting my hobby with wiring diagrams and plumbing.
To each is his own. I can enjoy the lower elec. bill thats not debatable. I dont miss the MH at all. Im still trying to understand what is missing when everything is thriving at lower energy consumpton.
Some have I.M.'d me telling me I dont know what Im talkng about this has more of this kind of light and less of that kind, Passing jargon and judgment at the same time. I say whatever, Results dont lie. [/B][/QUOTE]
plunge and bought one of these only my own expierience.
I switched from 400 W MH 14k Hamilton to the Solaris 48 in 20k and havent seen anything negative about it but all positive. groth is great, color is nice, heat is no longer an issue with my tank.
I have noticed new color in everything that wasnt present before and to be honest its plug and play.
You can scroll thru this thread and see on going debate over light perameters and alike but for the average joe reefer you wont be disappointed.
I will buy another one soon. My investment is in gaining as close to a maintance free sustainable reef as I can get not convulting my hobby with wiring diagrams and plumbing.
To each is his own. I can enjoy the lower elec. bill thats not debatable. I dont miss the MH at all. Im still trying to understand what is missing when everything is thriving at lower energy consumpton.
Some have I.M.'d me telling me I dont know what Im talkng about this has more of this kind of light and less of that kind, Passing jargon and judgment at the same time. I say whatever, Results dont lie. [/B][/QUOTE]
Same here, house is at summer temp now (78) tank at 79, no chiller. AC hardly cycles compared to when I was running MH. SPS doing great, ready to get clams as soon as I find some I like. Solaris was a smart move for me, heat and energy wise but I bought it mainley for what you could do with the controler, time and color wise. The cooler living room and lower electric bill are a great side benefit. Our Electric company is going to ask for a 28% rate increase in 2008, so that will be a bigger benefit then.
I've been trying to read all 40 pages but it's tiring with all the bickering. I still would like to know if a chiller is still needed? The room has a split air conditioner that runs almost 24/7 and the room is around 77-80 degrees. I live in Hawaii so there is no real fluctuation in cold/heat all year round. I plan to have a 55g sump/refugium.
Thanks. Will two 48" units end to end fit in the 96" canopy? I think the fans will be too close to each other if it does fit.
I think I will go this route so I can take out the chiller. I can't see nothing wrong with this. Less heat, noise, and electricity. We just have to see the long term results when it's time to change bulbs.
I think I will go this route so I can take out the chiller. I can't see nothing wrong with this. Less heat, noise, and electricity. We just have to see the long term results when it's time to change bulbs.
heuerfan
Active member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9465346#post9465346 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Amphibious
ppht,
I think I've posted way back that my Crocea clams are doing great under the Solaris lights. Here are two pictures of three Crocea clams I've had under the lights since Sept '06.
Dick
I don't own a solaris fixture and i am no clam expert, but just an observation on your croceas. I've kept croceas under power compacts and they extend their mantles just like yours in the pictures. Once i added metal halides the same crocea clams stopped doing this. From what i was told by the clam experts is the clams are not getting enough light. I had my croceas under power compacts for 6 months before i did the upgrade.
Just my 2 cents...
[/B][/QUOTE]
I am in the process of piecing together my own 300 gal build thread and I would love to post some pics for everyone.
My story is one of budget minded RC buys thats helped out in more ways than I can express in words alone. Ive been looking for ways to contribute smething back to this forum and the best way I think is honest expierences and lots of pics to help explanations.
My tanks was bouhgt from an RC member as well as my Skimmer, Chiller (which I no longer need), and even my stand design was from an RC memeber. Pretty much everything I know and use today was learned from RC.
I had intentions of using 2 possible 3 400W pendants on this 300 gal which would most definately require a chiller. I found a guy on here that had a 1 hp Aquanetics chiller with controller with a blown compressor for sale for $160. I have a good friend who is an AC man and he got me the compressor installed it and ran it for me. So far so good. Well the shoruding on the chiller was orig. plastic and it was cracked up pretty bad so Me being a Mechanical Engineer I designed up some Stainless steel shrouding out of some nice 3B and custome made some nice shrouding for it and now its a one of a kind. All said I might have $500 into this chiller. I run a MRC-6 which was previously used on a 1500 commercial fish farm operation out of Syracuse NY.
Im plumbed that to a Barracuda for max. output.
Using Sidewinder as my mentor I copied his stand and canopy design, coated it all in Rhino liner and ran a OM-4way thru the bottom.
I run BB as well so my flow is very erratic (fish love it too). Onc I got this far and had this much time and money invested It only seemd the right thing to do not to scrimp on the lighting.
In order fo rme to light this thing up correctly I would have had to do a power upgrade run several outlets on GFI's and a seperate box to hold the breakers ect ect..
When I first laid into my bag of options the Solaris was at the bottom. I was looking at alot of money to do what I wanted with the power upgrade and alike. Im hear to tell you that none of this was necesasry with the Solaris lgihting system.
I am not using the chiller which I wiull most likely sell and get more than i paid for it becaus eits better than factory new. I didnt need a power upgrade becasue the Solaris uses less juice overall that one MH did let alone 3 of them.
I have outlets to spare I dont need the canopy really because I have nothing to hang in it anyhow, If I decide to add it its bolt n removable by design so It would be strictly for storage and or furniture qualtiy cabinetry.
When you take out th chiller the extra lighting and the work involved with wiring and cost of the above mentioned and then subtract the savings of electricty to run those. Its a no brainer your almost foolish to not buy the Solaris.
Frget all the light geeks who expell out the charts and graphs and think in terms hardware alone and what it involves to have a safe, properl wired setup in an existing structure that can handle the load. Then you have to agree that the Solaris is the way to go.
For me to do a power upgrade from 150 amp service to 200 amp service was over $400 alone. I got a deal on the chiller it was $500 thereabouts, the MH easily $300 each x2 or x3. Wiring is at an all time high lets say I got a 50 ft roll for $100 Add another $100 for the juice its all gonna suck/month every month plus bulbs plus GFI plugs ( I have anyhow but new install would still require). Then whats your time worth to install it all?
Seemed a no brainer to me.....I spent the saved time on watching it grow instead of manual labor.
hyperfocal
Active member
Worse than the mantles, their siphons are 'gaping.' They aren't getting enough light so are trying to compensate by increasing the amount of water they filter. Basically, they're starving to death.
Zoom
Premium Member
The clams are definitely not looking is good as if they was under MH lights , but they are nice and they will live long time just keep some pyto in the water everyday.
I had some croceas under VHO lights, they live almost five years with there mantel over expended , just like the ones on the picture above. So nothing to worry about.
I had some croceas under VHO lights, they live almost five years with there mantel over expended , just like the ones on the picture above. So nothing to worry about.
Amphibious
New member
Very few people, heuerfan, would post that they were not a clam expert and then make a claim about the health of clams in a picture. But since you did I'll give you some insight from James Fatherree, an expert in my opinion and author of the new clam book, "Giant Clams in the Sea and the Aquarium".
On page 66, in the chapter on Tridacna crocea, under the heading of "Mantle and Siphons", James makes this statement, "Croceas typically extend their mantles well beyond the upper margin of the shell, often so much that the shell is completely hidden from sight when looked at from the front or above."
And about gaping, James states that gaping is the ubiquitous lack of mantle extension. Which if my clams were truly gaping, as you claim, the mantles would not be extended at all. Gaping has little to do with the size of the inhalant opening. James offers a picture of a clam that is gaping on page 187, in Chapter 6: Tridacnid Troubles.
If you don't have the book in your library of reefing books, I highly recommend it. If anyone is interested on where to get the lowest price on the book, PM me and I'll send you a link.
Amphibious
New member
owsi, couldn't agree with you more. I've been theis hobby for 60 years, I've been strictly salt for 34 years and reefing for the last 17 years. This hobby is changing so fast it's easy to learn something new every day. I'm certainly not an expert but I think I've learned a few things along the way.
Amphibious
New member
Well let's see, I bought two of the clams in May and the third in July. The picture above was taken 11/7/06 (simply right click and click properties, you'll see I date my pics.) Now it's 3/24/07. The clams are healthy and growing nicely. One has doubled in size in that time. I wonder how big they will get before they starve to death. :rollface:
You arm chair reefers make me laugh!
Amphibious
New member
No, I don't think it's any different.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9560650#post9560650 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zoom
Here is my 5"crocea under 250W XM 10k light can see the way it mantel extend it is a little different don't you think Amphibious
This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1080494
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