http://straylightoptical.com/

[SoulFish]

Anyone purchased a plasma light from these guys yet? If so what do you think? Can the Plasma light hit a deep blue color as well as a daylight spectrum?

Are they worth the $$. I'm basically thinking plasma mains and LED accents. Instead of the norm MH & T5 type set ups.

 

[sfsuphysics]

While I have zero experience with plasma lighting, from everything I've read you only get the blue when you crank the intensity down extremely low

 

[Gomer]

While I have zero experience with plasma lighting, from everything I've read you only get the blue when you crank the intensity down extremely low

+1

 

[jestersix]

I've been running a pair on my 150 for over a year. At 50% they are a nice 14k, and you can grow plenty - see my build thread. Not bad in heat output and a single 4 ft Reefbrite blue gives me all the blue fix I need.customer service has bee great and I love my plasmas! Nice that I can adjust the intensity on them too. At full power they put out a ton of light.

 

[jestersix]

Love my plasmas so much I posted twice!

 

[SoulFish]

Well so far what I've read I like. Found your tread. Down here energy costs are through the roof, so if these put out more light per Watt thats what I'm after.

Hows the heat output on them? Are they better or worse in heating up the tank? Thats a big problem here. Since we're normally 90+ outside 6 months of the year. Ideally I want to get around having to have a chiller cool down the tank. The lights would be about as high as yours, about 1'5" above the tank. And my tank is 28" tall. You think it'll heat up the water alot?

 

[jestersix]

I don't run a chilller and the tank stays around 80 degrees (I do use a fan over my sump, to keep air moving under the stand and it helps cool the tank I'm sure). Mine are 16 inches over the tank and I really don't see any heat issues at all - they really do not move the temp when they come on. No chiller on the 150 and it does fine.

Hear you on high energy, SCE sucks big time! Looking at solar to see if we can beat the system...

I need to update the thread, been running the lights at 50% to see how thing respond. Growth has slowed down a bit, but color is much brighter on some of the SPS. After 6 weeks at 50%, I'm going to slowly ramp up 5% at a time to see if I can find the sweet spot between growth/color. I actually prefer the full blast daylight color with the lights at 100% but decided to see what happens at the lower levels - so been tracking growth and color to see where I will end up.

 

[sfsuphysics]

You're problem is not only the heat, but also the humidity as well. Simply put evaporation doesn't work as well if there's already lots of water saturating the air.

If you're really worried about heat, you might just want to go the LED route.

 

[SoulFish]

I hear ya, on the LED. But honestly I am thinking the Plasma is just simpler solution, less bulbs to deal with and more reliable. The tank will be positioned in the center of my house, so our 3 ton AC should be removing the humidity. Our houses normally stay in the low 40% humidity wise. And I'm planing on venting the stay and sucking out the humidity and hot air and venting out the side of the house via an electric fan.

So if I can afford it I'm thinking two Plasmas and two 48" blue LED accent strips. I called Stray Light today to get more info, but Denis was out of the office and he's the only one that can talk about tanks. What was the latest price per unit?

 

[jestersix]

I think the basic units are still at $995. I wouldn't pay the extra for a manual dimmer, instead just plan on using a controller that can handle 0-10V dimming...

 

[SoulFish]

What controler would you recommend? I talked to Denis, guess the price has gone up? Said a 60x60 would be what I need and they are $1,030.00

 

[jestersix]

Guess inflation hits! Still, that is only $35 more than I paid for my Beta units over a year ago, and the finish is for sure nicer these days - especially the reflectors. I use a RKL with ALC module and am not impressed. I will be changing over to an Apex controller when I can afford it, they handle the 0-10v dimming much better.

 

[SoulFish]

Is there a good single controler that could handle:

Lights
PH
Salinity
Temp
Top Off
Dosing
Cycling for Pumps, skimmer etc
and can be controled via the internet?


I'm still trying to grasp how to get it all hooked up, I've never run one before, but from what I hear if they are set up right they give you a bit of freedom from your tank if you know what I mean.

 

[sfboarders]

Is there a good single controler that could handle:

Lights
PH
Salinity
Temp
Top Off
Dosing
Cycling for Pumps, skimmer etc
and can be controled via the internet?


I'm still trying to grasp how to get it all hooked up, I've never run one before, but from what I hear if they are set up right they give you a bit of freedom from your tank if you know what I mean.

Apex can handle all of that. As for salinity I think it's a waste of money. I had the PM2 and salinity probe which worked great for 6 months and after that the readings were off and could not get it to calibrate correctly. So I just ended up selling it and trusting my refractometer.