16 months ago?
New product reveal!
- Thread starter Vhuang168
- Start date
Beautiful tank Rich. I like how these lights appear to soften the shadows compared to some other LEDs. Looks like their diffuser intentionally lets some white LEDs shine through without diffusion to add back some shimmer. Is that your experience?
Thales
Past President
Nope. But I do think there was particulate in the water that I didn't notice. I unblocked some plumbing yesterday. This morning the tank looks crystal clear
Thales
Past President
7 or 10 years. I have one clam. I have seen the CBB peck at it a couple times.
Thales
Past President
I don't notice much shimmer. One of my units has the clear lenses, the other two dont.
Each requires its own power brick.
rygh
Guest
Question on the power brick:
Is the power supply very hot to the touch?
Does the power supply look sealed?
Metal or plastic?
Certain other vendors are notorious for having a fancy expensive LED, tied to a very crappy cheap power supply.
I have yet to see a vendor use a good MeanWell HEP series one.
Just wondering what was done here.
RandyC
Supporting Member
BRS site says “219w Meanwell Power Supply”
Vhuang168
Guest
It is a Meanwell power supply. Don't have the specs on hand.
max_nano
Supporting Member
So do these lights make it easier to enable location based lighting like you used in the breeding experiments? Or is it similar to using the radions and the apex dongle thingy
It would be cool if it was really simple to implement so hobbyists could run seasonal lighting and just see if it does anything without having the extra steps like blacking out the tank from ambient light
Thales
Past President
They are easier to set up than lights with the wxm. Really simple to set up. I am not sure about location based - we enter info directly into the season table through local.
You can do that now if you have lights that can be programmed through apex. Check out the issue of CORAL from Jan/Feb
TurboReef
Guest
I will wait to see in 2 years how the sky holds up vs. the kessil lights. There is something to be said about a company that only makes lights and has been doing it for 50 years. They actually make the LED themselves to their tolerances. Everyone else just buys from CREE.
I think they know what they are doing by now or they would be out of buissness.
I think they know what they are doing by now or they would be out of buissness.
Ibn
Guest
Philips actually uses their own LEDs in their Coral Care fixture, which is now in gen2.
The SKY is similar to the Radion G5 and the Coral Care with the wide spread of a ton of LEDs, with both fixtures producing more than acceptable results.
I'm interested in seeing the SKY in actual operation with my own eyes to see how they hold up to the crisp white look of MHs as well as the features that's integrated within the Apex ecosystem. Everyone has their own preference for lights and what they're looking for in them so to each their own.
The SKY is similar to the Radion G5 and the Coral Care with the wide spread of a ton of LEDs, with both fixtures producing more than acceptable results.
I'm interested in seeing the SKY in actual operation with my own eyes to see how they hold up to the crisp white look of MHs as well as the features that's integrated within the Apex ecosystem. Everyone has their own preference for lights and what they're looking for in them so to each their own.
TurboReef
Guest
Ive heard this debated over and over... a lot LED's vs a concentrated cluster and optics. IMHO I personally can't say one is better than the other. Then people talk about the disco ball shimmer affect. I don't think that's a brand specific issue. That's a water turbulence issue and can easily be corrected.
- Randy
Disco ball effect and shimmer effect are 2 different things. There are big differences between brands for these because the different brands make different design choices for their lights.
Disco effect- When you can see a bunch of different spotlights of colors dancing around individually on surfaces, most noticeable on white sand. Caused by having a bunch of vividly different colors of LEDs spread out in the light fixture. When the light from each LED passes through the ripples in the water surface it gets diffracted slightly differently than its neighbors so that instead of blending they separate but only for a fraction of a second with each ripple. People use diffusers to reduce this since each light blends more before exiting the fixture. Lights that have the colors coming from one point source like the Kessil avoid this entirely. I think everyone considers this a negative if they notice it, but a lot of people don’t really notice it for some reason.
Shimmer effect- This is when light from an individual dominant point source like a Kessil light (or the sun on a cloudless day) goes through the ripples in the water surface. Instead of separating the colors, it concentrates the light in rapidly moving visible bands that dance around. Visible on all surfaces. Some people like this because it is what you see when you snorkel or dive on a shallow reef. You don’t get it with spread out light sources, especially with a diffuser (or clouds), because all the shimmer lines blend together if all the point sources are blended together.
Vhuang168
Guest
I had Hydra 32s for a little bit and didn't notice it. Until someone pointed it out to me and then I couldn't unsee it. That was all I saw every time I looked at the tank.
So those came off and I got Radions (g2 or g3 at that time, can't remember). Definitely less, but still there. Went to Kessils and that went away, plus side is I also got nice shimmer lines which I love and the color was excellent. Been using Kessils ever since.
Coral reefer
Past President
You mean cadillacs.
It is design specific and has nothing to do with "turbulence. "
Mike Yasin
Guest
I get excellent shimmer with diffused Radion G4 XR30s