Vertex Illumina Club

Ok, so update all pads withe the latest firmware, that's what I was thinking but wanted to be sure since the instructions seem to be scarce. Found a few videos but didn't really elaborate other than calling out you can select specific pads, etc.
 
Hey all vertex owners - got a few questions on this fixture. I haven't yet purchased it and am probably a month or two out from getting the 4 foot 260 for my 120 gallon 4ft tank.

How do you all hang these lights? I realize it comes with a hanging kit - but I'm interested in how you move it out of the way for feeding and maintenance and such. YoYo kits concern me because if your moving it twice a day for feedings - wear and tear may cause failure of the yoyo - causing the led to fall into the aquarium...

I have 1/2" steel conduit - already bent - ready for attachment to the back of my stand (instead of going to the ceiling). How large of a hole is required in the conduit for the supplied hanging kit?

Thanks much!
 
Hello everyone, I just joined the club with a 12” 260 with a UV pad. I have a 50 gallon cadlights cube with a mix of SPS, LPS, a bubble tip and multiple maxi-minis. Most of my SPS are middle to top, LPS in the middle and anemones near the bottom. I currently have a radion running on a custom program that ramps up to 100% for a few hours in the middle of the day. The radion is about 7” off the water surface.

I plan to use the bracket system, so the vertex will be about 3” off the water surface. I am looking for advice regarding what peak % to start my lights on. Do I dial them down at first? I will probably somewhat mimic the program I have now with my radion. Also, any recommendations regarding the UV pad in terms of duration and % to peak at?

I would appreciate any advice!
 
I don't think they have a 300 model only 360.
According to their FB page they use 148 lm/w White XTE and the strongest RB from the XTE platform! about 40% more light than 260 they say!
Honestly The 260 is an overkill, but If you really want a super blue output might be a good fixture since you can dim down the whites to almost nothing and if in fact all the LEDs are 40% brighter then you get enough light only from the blues!!! Or just dim it down to a 260 level and use less power!
Cheers,
Dave
 
Luxo said:
I don't think they have a 300 model only 360.
According to their FB page they use 148 lm/w White XTE and the strongest RB from the XTE platform! about 40% more light than 260 they say!
Honestly The 260 is an overkill, but If you really want a super blue output might be a good fixture since you can dim down the whites to almost nothing and if in fact all the LEDs are 40% brighter then you get enough light only from the blues!!! Or just dim it down to a 260 level and use less power!
Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...

thanks Dave
 
Hopefully not a thread hijack. I think I posted on this thread when I purchased my Vertex setup. Wondering others results so far with LED's in general and Vertex.

I converted over to LED - Vertex Illumina 24" on a 60g cube about 9 months ago from T5's. Originally upfront I was very pleased, but noticed over time that both my SPS and LPS lost color and turned more pale. I changed absolutely nothing on the tank during this time and all params in check. 2 months ago I started adding my T5's back in to supplement for UV and within a few weeks I started to get colors back.

Any others experience this and if so suggestions? Are others supplementing with lighting other than LED?

I've also ordered Vertex Red and UV modules and we'll get them setup when they arrive.
 
jkhuskies99 said:
Hello everyone, I just joined the club with a 12" 260 with a UV pad. I have a 50 gallon cadlights cube with a mix of SPS, LPS, a bubble tip and multiple maxi-minis. Most of my SPS are middle to top, LPS in the middle and anemones near the bottom. I currently have a radion running on a custom program that ramps up to 100% for a few hours in the middle of the day. The radion is about 7" off the water surface.

I plan to use the bracket system, so the vertex will be about 3" off the water surface. I am looking for advice regarding what peak % to start my lights on. Do I dial them down at first? I will probably somewhat mimic the program I have now with my radion. Also, any recommendations regarding the UV pad in terms of duration and % to peak at?

I would appreciate any advice!
Click to expand...

So welcome to the clube. I"ve heard good stuff about the radion but would start out on the low side with the vertex. I've read more corals are destroyed because of using to strong of a setting. It's better to start off at a lower setting and advance it over a period of time. Also you may be able to tell from your corals themselves. Would love to see what results you get as compared to what you have currently. I run my UV lights trough the day then also when everything is ramping down at night I still leave them on about 3-5%. It really lets the green pop. I was running T5s. Also they were around 1 yr old. Currently I've got them at less than half power.They start at 0500 and ramp up to 40% over two hours then start ramping down at 1700. I keep a little lighting on till 10pm then them moon till around 2am.
 
Rxfoote said:
Hopefully not a thread hijack. I think I posted on this thread when I purchased my Vertex setup. Wondering others results so far with LED's in general and Vertex.

I converted over to LED - Vertex Illumina 24" on a 60g cube about 9 months ago from T5's. Originally upfront I was very pleased, but noticed over time that both my SPS and LPS lost color and turned more pale. I changed absolutely nothing on the tank during this time and all params in check. 2 months ago I started adding my T5's back in to supplement for UV and within a few weeks I started to get colors back.

Any others experience this and if so suggestions? Are others supplementing with lighting other than LED?

I've also ordered Vertex Red and UV modules and we'll get them setup when they arrive.
Click to expand...
You get the same kind of comments from many LED users irrelevant of what brand of fixture they use. Personally I think the issue is that with MH we had no controllability and just had a choice between 10K, 20K...... but with the LED what I notice is most people ramp the blues and ignore the white, personally I like the 10K look and never cared for anything higher! I never experienced any loss of color and if anything better colors and growth!
What are your settings and tank depth and which type of corals have you experienced this with!?
I think the key would be to shift slowly from the super white of the MH to the bluer that you might like and can have with LEDs! Further to that changing your light settings often would probably not be beneficial. Not saying this is the case with you but since nothing else besides the lighting has changed kinda make sense to have something to do with illumination factors.
Another thing is the UV I have installed them as well as the reds. The reds did make a difference but more than anything I would say it’s a visual effect but according to others the UV has long term effects and after sometimes you should see the changes! I installed the UV a few weeks ago and will be away on the road for work for the next 6 weeks, looking forward to see if any changes were made to the colorations or not.
I cannot say for certain if this is the reason but being in this hobby for 20+ years it just sounds logical to be the reason.
As you said the initial change is very pleasing since the Coral pigments do get highlighted differently under the RB LEDs but the changed spectral output also does effect the saturation of different pigments in time, this is a fact that all of us have experienced with MH as well.
Cheers,
Dave
 
alanbates12, thanks for your response, very helpful. I am ramping up the UV to 25%, and will slowly increase that over time. I am considering an upgrade to the 24" at some point so I can have both UV and Red pads. The downside to having the 12" is 1 pad only. So far, love the illumina 260. I think it is easier to program than the radion and love that it is wireless, and the brackets are great. Now, we'll see if my corals love it as well.
 
Under expert when you finish a program I hit the start program down on the middle right side of the screen. Just to the left of that there is a button that says start day and moon program ( not sure if that is exactly what it says ). What is the difference in these settings?
 
Start-up setting: Stores all fixture settings into its flash memory so the
settings are saved against power failure.

Start Prg Day & Moon: I believe it just starts the day or moon program right away, the display will depend the time you click on it.
 
Luxo said:
You get the same kind of comments from many LED users irrelevant of what brand of fixture they use. Personally I think the issue is that with MH we had no controllability and just had a choice between 10K, 20K...... but with the LED what I notice is most people ramp the blues and ignore the white, personally I like the 10K look and never cared for anything higher! I never experienced any loss of color and if anything better colors and growth!
What are your settings and tank depth and which type of corals have you experienced this with!?
I think the key would be to shift slowly from the super white of the MH to the bluer that you might like and can have with LEDs! Further to that changing your light settings often would probably not be beneficial. Not saying this is the case with you but since nothing else besides the lighting has changed kinda make sense to have something to do with illumination factors.
Another thing is the UV I have installed them as well as the reds. The reds did make a difference but more than anything I would say it's a visual effect but according to others the UV has long term effects and after sometimes you should see the changes! I installed the UV a few weeks ago and will be away on the road for work for the next 6 weeks, looking forward to see if any changes were made to the colorations or not.
I cannot say for certain if this is the reason but being in this hobby for 20+ years it just sounds logical to be the reason.
As you said the initial change is very pleasing since the Coral pigments do get highlighted differently under the RB LEDs but the changed spectral output also does effect the saturation of different pigments in time, this is a fact that all of us have experienced with MH as well.
Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...

Hi Dave, interesting points you have there mate. What % are your different colours on during mid day? Whites vs the blues? Cheers.:fish1:
 
hagarthefish said:
Hi Dave, interesting points you have there mate. What % are your different colours on during mid day? Whites vs the blues? Cheers.:fish1:
Click to expand...

I actually started @ 40-40-40 when I got the fixture about a year ago.
It went on a new tank so I guess the corals only got used to the spectrum I provided to them from Illumina.
Now I'm at W85%-RB-75%-B60%-UV35%, Reds Ramp from 0-25% till Mid day and I have a sunset simulation with 65% red in the evening.
The fixture is about 3.5" from the water surface! tank is 27" deep and 1" sand bed!
started the UV @ 20% and increase by 1% daily, I plan to Increase the UV to 100% slowly over the next 4 weeks.
But again You might not like this mix. Back in 90s I run AB 6500K on my tank!
My daughter & I care for the tank and she doesn't like the Blueish output either so I guess we are both happy with this setting.
As I said I never cared for the Blue! Before the LEDs I run XM 10K-400W with Fiji Purple and Blue plus! But again if you read this whole thread I doubt anyone else has such settings everyone is more on the blueish side!
What are your settings?
Cheers,
Dave
 
Luxo said:
I actually started @ 40-40-40 when I got the fixture about a year ago.
It went on a new tank so I guess the corals only got used to the spectrum I provided to them from Illumina.
Now I'm at W85%-RB-75%-B60%-UV35%, Reds Ramp from 0-25% till Mid day and I have a sunset simulation with 65% red in the evening.
The fixture is about 3.5" from the water surface! tank is 27" deep and 1" sand bed!
started the UV @ 20% and increase by 1% daily, I plan to Increase the UV to 100% slowly over the next 4 weeks.
But again You might not like this mix. Back in 90s I run AB 6500K on my tank!
My daughter & I care for the tank and she doesn't like the Blueish output either so I guess we are both happy with this setting.
As I said I never cared for the Blue! Before the LEDs I run XM 10K-400W with Fiji Purple and Blue plus! But again if you read this whole thread I doubt anyone else has such settings everyone is more on the blueish side!
What are your settings?
Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...

Hi Dave,
I have my settings at 40% for each of the blues and 27% for the white. The uv are only on 8% and the reds 5%.
I don't really like the blue colour and also some corals are less colourfull than they used to be on halides.
I think perhaps an increase on the whites is in order :hmm2:
 
I'm getting really frustrated with this light!

I'm getting really frustrated with this light!

I bought a SR260 from Bulk Reef Supply a few weeks ago. I purchased extra red modules for it and right off the bat couldn't get it to follow any of the programs. I finally got it working after 2 days of tinkering an after they emailed me a different program, but a $2,500 fixture shouldn't be so buggy.

It worked for a while, then on friday night one of the ballasts went out. I tried to get an advanced replacement (give Bulk Reef my credit card to ship me out a replacement, then send the broken one back, and they credit me) but they wouldn't do it, saying that warranty claims have to go through the manufacturer. I just bought the thing! Now I have to wait 2 more days just to get an answer as to when I'll get a new ballast. I have a ton of new SPS's & can't got a week without light.

I know a lot of people have had good experiences with this light, but I def haven't. I'll probably sell it & go back to my Sfigoly MH fixture. The energy savings & cool features aren't worth this headache!
 
strendo said:
I bought a SR260 from Bulk Reef Supply a few weeks ago. I purchased extra red modules for it and right off the bat couldn't get it to follow any of the programs. I finally got it working after 2 days of tinkering an after they emailed me a different program, but a $2,500 fixture shouldn't be so buggy.

It worked for a while, then on friday night one of the ballasts went out. I tried to get an advanced replacement (give Bulk Reef my credit card to ship me out a replacement, then send the broken one back, and they credit me) but they wouldn't do it, saying that warranty claims have to go through the manufacturer. I just bought the thing! Now I have to wait 2 more days just to get an answer as to when I'll get a new ballast. I have a ton of new SPS's & can't got a week without light.

I know a lot of people have had good experiences with this light, but I def haven't. I'll probably sell it & go back to my Sfigoly MH fixture. The energy savings & cool features aren't worth this headache!
Click to expand...

I know where your coming from, the firmware is buggy for the price!
I keep mainly soft and lps and my lights started playing up 3 weeks ago, some pads went out and others look to be brighter than others. Normally when this happens I can reset firmware with the vlink.
But the vlink has broke and nowhere in the UK has stock and even Vertex have none!! If I could deal with the heat issues of halides then I would change back. But my tank is built into the wall and the water gets too hot. If I use a chiller its on far too much.
The lights do grow corals, but can not in my experience be fully trusted for stability (holidays are a no no):headwally:
 
hagarthefish said:
Hi Dave,
I have my settings at 40% for each of the blues and 27% for the white. The uv are only on 8% and the reds 5%.
I don't really like the blue colour and also some corals are less colourfull than they used to be on halides.
I think perhaps an increase on the whites is in order :hmm2:
Click to expand...

I have just changed the colours to white and both blues to 35% and I like what I see :celeb1:
I just followed the blue saturation idea that everyone else had for the past year. I don't know why "Baaaah!":fish2::fish2:
 
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