ReefRockerLive,
Would you be willing to share your lighting schedule with the rest of us? Your corals look amazing and currently there aren't a lot of schedules out there designed for full sps tanks.
**The GHL Mitras LX7 LED**
- Thread starter d2mini
- Start date
ReefRockerLive,
Would you be willing to share your lighting schedule with the rest of us? Your corals look amazing and currently there aren't a lot of schedules out there designed for full sps tanks.
slief
RC Sponsor
His schedule can be downloaded from the GHL Composer project website. Here is a link to his project.
https://www.aquariumcomputer.com/10hr-sps-17k-schedule-for-mitras-lx7206/
Wow I can't believe I missed this. Thanks Slief!
slief
RC Sponsor
:beer:
Matthias Gross
.Registered Member
Hi,
there is no newer or older version, both are actual versions.
We ensure availability we have 2 sources for power supplies.
Usually it doesn't happen that a customer gets 2 different versions, because the "switch" is only made every several hundred produced lights.
Although the 2 different power supplies won't cause any technical problems we understand that you prefer 2 equal ones. If you want to replace one of them please contact GHL directly, see contact information on the GHL web page.
Thanks.
slief
RC Sponsor
Why not just get yourself a cheap windows laptop like a chrome book? I know GHL is working on a web based interface that will eventually replace GHL Control Center (GCC) and allow users on any platform to setup, program and control all current GHL products including the MItras but as far as I am aware, a release date has not been mentioned. That said, GCC is a very good program for these lights. In fact, having used virtually every current LED light out there, it's probably one of the most powerful and feature rich control interfaces of any lighting product on the market. As such, it's worth the trouble having to deal with Windows until they release the web interface.
networkcrasher
Member
Don't use parallels, it doesn't work well at all. Just buy windows and install bootcamp (boot camp assistant is the app already on your mac)
kjonulak
New member
I find it frustrating that these manufacturers don't deliver a complete product. In order to make the product work, I have to purchase something else. I have a Mac computer, an iPhone and and iPad. You would think one of those would be sufficient to use. It's not just this product, EcoTech makes you purchase their reeflink product, but at least the reeflink product can connect to my Mac to make it function.
networkcrasher
Member
That's not true on the Ecotech stuff. I have pumps and lights from Ecotech, a mac only household, and have never owned a reeflink.
slief
RC Sponsor
You can use the cloud or your iphone or android device but initial setup (connecting it to the Wifi Network and firmware updates do currently require a windows based PC. It's been that way since the very first Mitras light and even GHL Profilux were released many many years back. Keep in mind that for many years, MAC's were dying breeds. There has been a resurgence in recent years but even today, the Apple market share among consumers pales in comparison to Windows. As a developer, it's hard to please everybody and developing programs for vairous operating systems and maintaining the code for every update to said OS can be costly. Granted, had they gone web based from the get go, that would have solved it but who knows how easy or difficult that would have been with such a diverse product range. Anyhow, I understand your frustration and I do know GHL is working towards a solution for that. If you had Radions, you would likely buy a $100 reef link. You can get a cheap used Windows system with Win 10 for around $100 too or borrow a computer from a friend, neighbor or whatever so you can set your lights up. Once you get them dialed in, they are set it and forget it. You can then use the cloud or apps to do basic stuff to them if you need to.
mako61
New member
I only owe Mac laptops also. ( I write linux code for a living) When I decided on LX7s I asked around my group of friends and family for a used laptop. I got an old (5+ years) laptop for basically nothing. It runs GHL fine and I have used it 3-4 times to setup the lights. I worried about this a lot more than was needed. You do this so rarely that any old junker laptop will be fine. ( I just back my files to google drive )
d2mini
Premium Member
This.
I have a little netbook i picked up on amazon for $120.
Has usb ports and it came with a full version of Windows.
Can be used with the included keyboard or in tablet mode.
Works great for all my ghl programming needs.
gcarroll
Active member
I think it is important that a business understand just who their customer is. When if comes to reefkeepers in the US, you will fine that the Windows to Mac ratio is not that of the general population. For some a Mac is not an option for financial reasons. That said neither is a saltwater reef aquarium. When you then break that down to the hardcores that have the money to shop for high end LED lights and that ratio goes up even higher. Not making the product Mac compatible is definitely a turn off for some and reading through the last couple pages makes that point! As exciting as the new products are that GHL has been developing recently, IMO this should have been a much higher priority the strengthen the pool of users of the GHL product offerings.
slief
RC Sponsor
Friggen IOS!!! I HATE it LOL. I am typing on my ipad and safari just refreshed itself and lost everything I had typed. :lmao:
First, I am not discounting Mac users. I know many and with decades of experience catering to the film and post production industry (probably one of the largest Mac based user groups you will find), I know how passionate Mac users are. Heck, my brother is a Mac guy and hates Windows. While I do agree with some of your points and without a doubt, the lack of MAC support is a turn off for some, I am going to play devils advocate here.
You mentioned the importance of MAC support after reading the last two pages of this thread. I just searched the entire thread and the subject of Mac support only came up with 6 individual members who are solely MAC users in a 250 post thread. All but two either invested in a cheap Windows system or ran Windows on their MAC as a work around. That tells me the issue of not having MAC support and more importantly, the loss of business as a result is less than one might think. In fact, if you read and or search through the original GHL Mitras Club thread that was started in 2012 and still going strong here today with over 2200 posts, the subject of Mac was only discussed 49 times of which around half were replies and most of those who discussed Mac were running Boot Camp or something else to run Windows on their Mac as a work around. Yea, a few have expressed disappointment but not many to be certain. Again, even in that thread, there is very little indication of even a remotely significant loss in sales among Mac users as a result of the lack of Mac support. I think it’s an inconvenience more than anything else but not a deal breaker for most.
From a development standpoint, I’ve run my computer company since 1987. My company has written all kinds of software for Windows and MAC for professional video/film & post production workflows as well as web based interfaces for our in house developed NAS OS. At one point I had a number of full time programmers in house. We even did web based programming for a home developed e-commerce solution back in the early 90’s with a point of sale and inventory interface as well. Based on first hand experience, programmers are about the most expensive employees an electronic related company can hire. They are also not always the most loyal employees often leaving one job for another because of pay or other things. Writing and maintaining code for multiple platforms is VERY costly and MAC in particular can be very challenging. Given the relatively small ratio of MAC users for these particular products and the cost of writing a MAC specific program for the Mitras, Profilux and Dosers would make little to no sense. It would be very costly and there isn’t enough loss of business to warrant that approach and the additional overhead would ultimately be reflected in the end price of the product.
The best approach for heterogeneous support obviously is the web based approach. While it’s easy to imply that is something they should have done long ago, one has to realize that GHL has been building controllers, dosers and lights for decades if I am not mistaken and these are essentially computers or at least they all have computers in them running some sort of an OS. To date, they have used the same software interface (GCC) for all products including products discontinued long ago. I’d venture to guess that in order to support full web based control that allows 100% of the functionality of GCC while maintaining compatibility with all their products, their OS within their hardware would likely need to be re-written from the ground up for each individual product and essentially be based on the same core OS to minimize development costs. They would also need to develop the web based GUI/interface.
Again, it’s a very big and costly undertaking and inevitably, some customers would be dissapointed because supporting everything including some legacy stuff would be an issue which would mean they would likely need to continue support for GCC for certain legacy products. Having said that, I’d be inclined to guess that in the long run, the web based approach would have likely been much less expensive from a developmental standpoint. Still, having used GCC for over a year now, I can say that it’s very powerful and works very well despite being Windows based. I am however encouraged by the fact that they recognize the importance of support MAC users and even Linux users and are working on the web based approach. It’s a shame they didn’t go that route sooner but again, the loss of business is probably much smaller than one would think since many if not most GHL users with MAC have invested in Windows (either on their MAC or a cheap laptop) or borrowed a friends computer if they didn’t already have Windows.
Either way, they are working on a solution that will satisfy the needs of MAC users and hopefully it will come out sooner rather than later. I know they just released their new iOS and Android app and are working on other updates so there is light at the end of the rainbow.
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jonasroman
New member
Is it more with me that need to run these lamps on 100% "high output mode" and still not extremely much light? I have some corals (stylopora pistillate, pink) standing exact below a cluster with this 100% running effect, but still quite dark coral, and my N o P values are not high. I have no PAR meter, so I can not measure, so I wonder if there is some who have measured the PAR? I am not interested in PAR when all channels are in 100% as that is almost never the reality, but the PAR when you run a reasonable ordinary program like 100% on blue, maybe 30% white, not so much green, and maybe 100% on the others, thus a program which looks good and is mimic natural condition for most of us. My believe from start, as I added one unit more than recommended, was that my investment should give me some margins upwards. Maybe I am too critical, and all LED have these limits?, or something else in my tank cause these some dark corals despite so near the cluster? That is the reason why I am seeking PAR measure from some private aquarium so we can compare and learn the best settings. In other aspects I like the light.
/Jonas Roman
/Jonas Roman
slief
RC Sponsor
You should not ever have to run these lights at 100% in high power mode unless you have your lights way far above the water and or don't have enough lights for your display. On my frag tank, I run the LX7 around 65% and on my main display, I run around 75%. That said, these lights are very strong in the blue spectrum which is very hard to distinguish intensity. It's the white light that makes things look brightter but our corals get most of their usable photosynthetic radiation from 420nm to 460nm which is the blue spectrum. As such, using your eyes to judge intensity won't do you much good. Heck, even a par meter has some trouble in that spectrum. The only I use my PAR meters for is acclimating tanks to new lights.
I suspect your issue is low nutrients and in fact, low nutrient systems typically prefer less PAR than a high nutrient system.If I were you, I'd back the intensity way off. You could bleach your corals.
ReefRockerLive
GHL Mitras LX7 Club
I'm with Sleif on this one. There's no need to run it at 100% all out. On my tank, I do have the LX7 set to 100% HO for the Energy Settings, but on the schedule itself, I don't push the intensity beyond 80%.
I think PAR numbers are grossly overrated and don't really tell us whether a coral is getting "enough" light or not. There are so many other variables to consider such as nutrient levels, flow, bacteria content, organic deposits, etc. I measured my PAR just for the heck of it and was getting between 170-210 on the sandbed with 2x LX7s over a 3ft long tank. If I were to test a single fixture, I'm sure it would have fallen to the mid 100s. PAR numbers used to heavily influence my LED color adjustments, but not anymore, especially after seeing how much my colors have improved under this light compared to my previous ATI Hybrid which threw out lots of PAR by the way, 300 at the sand!
My schedule is primarily on the bluer-end of the spectrum:
UV 385nm - 60%
HV 425nm - 100%
RB 455nm - 100%
BW - 100%
B 475nm - 80%
White 7500k - 40%
White 6500k - 18%
Green 528nm - 12%
Red 656nm - 12%
I run this spectrum for about 7 hours and have the PB feature set to 130% with HV, RB, B, BW.
It's been working well for me. I posted a few photos a couple pages back.
networkcrasher
Member
Did you share your project on their site?
slief
RC Sponsor
