Apollo Reef LED SolarBlast Dimable Review

[Dustin1300]

In planning for my 600 gallon tank build (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2075733), I’ve been looking at several LED fixtures out on the market because having MHs/T5s and a chiller were not feasible in building a tank of this size. After searching high and low, and taking away many of the features I find to be pointless, I believe I’ve settled on the Apollo Reef LED SolarBlast Dimable fixture (http://apolloreefled.com/shop/solarblast-dimable/). This is my first review but believe that on RC this fixture has not had a lot of exposure. I’m in no way affiliated with Apollo Reef LED and just a fellow Reefaholic looking to share a review on a fixture I find to be a great choice in the current LED market.

First off, the unboxing. The fixture is made up of 55 X 3 Watt BridgeLux LEDs with 90 degree optics and 2 blue LEDs on ON/OFF switch for moonlights and power consumption comes out to ~120 Watts as the LEDs are driven at ~2 watts each. LEDs are made up of a blend of Royal Blues (453 NM), UVs (405 NM), and “high noon whites” at 6500K. The fixture has three power cords and two dimable ports that you use a straight through network cable to tie into the controller of your choice. Channel one covers the whites and channel two covers the RBs/UVs and separate power and toggle switch for the moonlights.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with the fixture and the control I have. While it does not have 8 channels and a full software integration, many of the features such as lightning, sunrise/sunset, and cloud movement can all be easily configured with your controller. With the option to control the RBs/UV and Whites on separate channels I’m able to get the color I desire with the appropriate spectrum that the coral enjoy. Red/Green LEDs are not of concern and if I ever wanted them, I could easily supplement them with some DIY LEDs.

Toggle switches are built in to turn the lights ON/OFF when needed. Power cords need to be on controller/timer to turn off RBs/UVs and Whites so the fan does not constantly run and a third controllable outlet for the moonlights also help to kick them on once the main lights dim down. The fans are quiet and would be happy with the sound level in a living area. Should one fail later down the road, 60mm fans are readily available and could be easily swapped out with the molex connectors under the hood.

With all that being said, below I’ve quickly outlined the Pros/Cons of the fixture. In following posts I also include PAR readings I performed in my frag tank over a 36”X24” area at three depths and 25 different locations totaling 75 readings. I’ve also taken the 75 sample PAR readings at four different heights based on Apollo Reef LEDs recommended mounting heights above the water surface; 1) 8”, 2) 10”, 3) 12”, and 4) 14”.

Pros:

Price/Performance Factor
Spread and PAR on Deeper Tanks
Dimable Options (Sunrise/Sunset, Cloud Simulation, and Lightning)
Great Customer Service from Apollo (Joe is owner and very responsive to each question I had)
2 Year Warranty


Cons:

3 Power Cords
Controller Required for Dimable Fixture (Apex, ReefAngel, and Profilux supported)


Package includes light fixture, hanging kit, 3 power cords, straight through network cable, and instructions.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/IMG_0749.jpg

5 Rows of 11 BridgeLux LEDs with 90 degree optics.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/IMG_0753.jpg

29 Royal Blues, 22 Whites, and 4 UVs.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/IMG_0834.jpg

Case opened up and shows MeanWell 60-48D Drivers and three 60mm fans. Everything is well organized and has molex connectors should a part fail and need replacement.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/IMG_0750.jpg

Aluminum heatsink and fully aluminum housing.
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/IMG_0751.jpg

“Network Port” where RJ45 goes and three power cords.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/IMG_0837.jpg


And now to the PAR readings…They were all done using a Apogee QMSW-SS Quantum Meter and I used the Electric setting on all. Many will say LED PAR numbers don’t mean everything because PAR meters don’t measure the PAR spectrum very well and the light is actually brighter than represented by PAR readings alone. This is just a common measurement I find to be a good representation of how big of a PAR monster these things are!

Meter Used.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/photobucket-13291-1338505857885.jpg


Fixture mounted at 8” above water surface with measurements at surface, 6” down, and 13” down.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/0D8AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/6D8AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/13D8AWS.jpg

[Dustin1300]

Fixture mounted at 10” above water surface with measurements at surface, 6” down, and 13” down.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/0D10AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/6D10AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/13D10AWS.jpg

Fixture mounted at 12” above water surface with measurements at surface, 6” down, and 13” down.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/0D12AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/6D12AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/13D12AWS.jpg

Fixture mounted at 14” above water surface with measurements at surface, 6” down, and 13” down.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/0D14AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/6D14AWS.jpg

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/13D14AWS.jpg

[bhazard451]

Awesome, AWESOME review with Par numbers. I've tried many fixtures and this is the best option for reefers with Apex controllers that I've found. It even has moonlights. Knowing that it uses Meanwells in parallel strings, aluminum heatsink, and with quick connects is nice. Soldering in different color leds would be tricky since it is in parallel.

One question I have though... are the moonlights on a separate dimmable driver? I don't think it is. Apex can follow the moon cycle, and it turns on and dims moonlights according to the cycle on its lunar sim unit. I don't think it would be possible to program these moonlights to turn on/off at different times like that with this. Am I wrong? If it could do this, that's an extra $80 saved in not needing the moonlight module.

[Dustin1300]

Awesome, AWESOME review with Par numbers. I've tried many fixtures and this is the best option for reefers with Apex controllers that I've found. It even has moonlights. Knowing that it uses Meanwells in parallel strings, aluminum heatsink, and with quick connects is nice. Soldering in different color leds would be tricky since it is in parallel.

One question I have though... are the moonlights on a separate dimmable driver? I don't think it is. Apex can follow the moon cycle, and it turns on and dims moonlights according to the cycle on its lunar sim unit. I don't think it would be possible to program these moonlights to turn on/off at different times like that with this. Am I wrong? If it could do this, that's an extra $80 saved in not needing the moonlight module.

Agreed, the negative is having to have a controller but was nothing I had to add. I still have two more channels available on my Apex and can add a VDM module to add more for more fixtures if I don't want them sharing the same channels.

As far as the moonlights, they do not dim currently but are on separate power. I have the moonlights kick on right after my blues dim down for two hours so I really am not sure having the moonlights on a dimmer is really needed. Should the moonlights be moved to a dimmer, the three cords could be consolidated to one and would help take away some of the unneeded power cords. That answer your question?

[biecacka]

Dustin can I ask how much for these fixtures?
Corey

[Dustin1300]

Dustin can I ask how much for these fixtures?
Corey

I paid $399 but the past two weeks they've been running them on special for $359. I've been told 6 will cover my 600 gallon (96"X48"X30") which is better than the Radions I was originally considering which would I was told I'd need 12-16 fixtures.

$2154 compared to $8988-$11984. I know the two fixtures are not in the same league but I find a GUI and some of the other LEDs pretty useless to the spectrum. (Not really wanting to debate that here but fixture does not have red/greens) With LEDs in reefing still developing, I'm not willing to make such a large investment because I think lots of things will come out in the next 2-3 years.

[Mike S]

Good review Dustin. Ive had a pair of these over my 120 for about 5 months now and am very happy with them. I may have missed it but what % were you running you lights at when you did the PAR readings? The only two things that I would change about them is the number of power cords and dimmable moonlights. Those moonlights are so bright a lot of my fish dont settle down for sleep if I leave them on.

[Dustin1300]

Good review Dustin. Ive had a pair of these over my 120 for about 5 months now and am very happy with them. I may have missed it but what % were you running you lights at when you did the PAR readings? The only two things that I would change about them is the number of power cords and dimmable moonlights. Those moonlights are so bright a lot of my fish dont settle down for sleep if I leave them on.

Lights were 100% on both channels for testing.

Yesterday before I posted review I was awaiting a reply from ApolloReef on the 90 degree optics and Joe let me know that they are trying to currently incorporate the three cords into one. I'd love that as it's a lot of cords to manage.

[Mike S]

I did some quick testing early on with my lights about 14 inches above the water and was generally seeing about 400 to 500 about 6 inches down and 100 on my sand. Ive been meaning to borrow my clubs par meter to find a good hanging height.

The three cords isnt that big of a deal. A few black cable ties cleaned them up. Its also nice that they are removable in case you didn't like to run longer cords.

[jdander2]

Great review, and the PAR number charts are really nice to have in addition to information from Apollo directly.

I have two over my 75 (48x18x20), and the only real negative is the power cord issue. I have two units, which means I'm running 6 power cords. I am able to tie them off and tuck them away in my canopy, but the cords do start piling up. Good to know they're looking at consolidating.

Re: moonlights, I also wish they were on a dimmer. I ended up only using one light fixture (with 2 moonlights) and kept the second fixture dark. It actually looks kind of cool without being as bright as the four moonlights. I can still use the "If Moon" programming with them so their on/off is tied to the seasonal table, but I don't get the intensity levels.

I used to use the Lunar Sim module with 4 LEDs, which put out much less light and gave me the correct intensities for the seasonal lunar table. Haven't made up my mind which I like better lol.

One thing to note is that the fixtures don't dim lower than 10%, then they go dark. I think this is common for some LEDs though as that small of a voltage isn't enough to power them from the 0-9% range.

[Dustin1300]

Thanks for sharing guys. I meant to mention the dimming and seems to be a common theme that I've seen. Looking at Reef LED Lights site, they show the ELN60-48D having the capability of going down to 5% at 1Volt. That could be due to our controllers not putting out 1V or the LED not lighting at that low of current from the driver, either or....
http://reefledlights.com/how-to-diy-led/driver-faqs/

I'd love to see the moonlights on a dimmer as you've said, but I'm not going to be petty. If anyone has pictures of your Apollo fixtures and FTS please share. If you have growth shots even better. I'm currently battling some phosphates on frag tank I have the Apollo over so algae got out of control and my Hanna Meter was reading 0.00 ppm. Now that I got a new meter, seems I was actually at about 0.08 ppm so that explained why I was losing my colors and getting algae growth. About to change out 2 pounds of GFO today and that should drive the last 10 ppb phosphorous reading down to 0 in a short time.

[Chicago]

How do connect the driver to what to connect to the apex to control the led. Guess I should look in the DIY forums

[Dustin1300]

How do connect the driver to what to connect to the apex to control the led. Guess I should look in the DIY forums

Not sure I understand your question? Programming is quite simple on the Apex if that is what your asking. My program can be found at the following link:

Reeftronics Dustin1300 Program (http://www.reeftronics.net/dustin1300/apex-program)

I don't have anything complicated...Just slowly ramping up and down the blues/whites. Channel 1 (Pins 1/2) and channel 2 (Pins 5/6) control the whites and blues and you can see my ramp programs and my current intensities. If you have any questions about the programming let me know and I might be able to help.

[Crkbaby]

Good review I am using 4 of these fixtures for my 240 4'X4' setup I am building now. I love that if a driver or fan fails it's a simple fix. Apollo also offers a simple card that can be used to dim the lights instead of a very expensive controller.
The light also has moonlights they are power on and off but I think it will look nice for night time.

[Dustin1300]

Good review I am using 4 of these fixtures for my 240 4'X4' setup I am building now. I love that if a driver or fan fails it's a simple fix. Apollo also offers a simple card that can be used to dim the lights instead of a very expensive controller.
The light also has moonlights they are power on and off but I think it will look nice for night time.

That's a good point and I don't think I even saw those on the site when I purchased mine. If you want a different point of administration for the light, this is a great option and I'd think the RJ-45 connection unit would be the best option so you can easily link multiple systems.

http://apolloreefled.com/shop/apollo-reef-led-dim4-card-with-ethernet-jacks/ (Dimmer card with "Ethernet" Jack)

For me, I'd like to have the flexibility in the future and add a couple VDM modules so I can simulate sunrise/sunset from left to right or right to left on the tank. Not something I need but something I would not mind playing with:)

[aandfsoccr04]

I don't think I ever read a graph as difficult as that 3d graph above in 4 years of college lol. So I assume that the graphs say it has very good par values? Anotherwords, you'd recommend the fixture?

[Dustin1300]

I don't think I ever read a graph as difficult as that 3d graph above in 4 years of college lol. So I assume that the graphs say it has very good par values? Anotherwords, you'd recommend the fixture?

The graphs are rather simple and same as you'd see from some of the top LED researchers, Sanjay who does these graphs quite often. Horizontal axis are the grid for the tank...A through E covers a 36 inch area so each segment is 9 inches. 1 through 5 is 24 inches so each segment is 6 inches. Vertical axis represents the PAR readings...Does that make sense?

[aandfsoccr04]

Yeah that makes a little more sense. So you are showing that they put out an insane amount of PAR running at 100% on both channels? I think I may go with one of these over a frag tank as opposed to a kessil.

[Dustin1300]

Yeah that makes a little more sense. So you are showing that they put out an insane amount of PAR running at 100% on both channels? I think I may go with one of these over a frag tank as opposed to a kessil.

I'd say you'll have just as much PAR from one of these compared to a Kessil. What are the full dimensions of frag tank? If it's shallow your not going to have any problems with sufficient spread and PAR. My 36 inch stretch is a bit of a stretch but I can put low light corals on the skirts of where the light starts dropping off.

[aandfsoccr04]

I'm looking at the reef ready deep blue 80 gallon rimless tank.

[Dustin1300]

That's a 48X24X16 tank so it'd need two fixtures to sufficiently cover but at 16" depth and likely frag racks, you'd just need to dial them back some depending on if you have any lower light coral. My tank is 18" high and racks are ~3 inches high and I have the fixture mounted at about 12 inches and seems to be working great.

[xcorallusx]

I have 4 units + 1 400 watt metal halide on my 350 gallon. I plan to replace the metal halide soon, and 5 units will be enough to grow sps anywhere. I would say 6 is the minimum for your tank and if youre trying to grow sps, get 8-10 units. I think making the moonlights dimmable would be a great idea, I think they are a little bright already and to be able to control that would be cool. Maybe in future models throw in a few greens and reds and upgrade to crees.

[vbsaltydog]

I think making the moonlights dimmable would be a great idea, I think they are a little bright already and to be able to control that would be cool.

I have two of the Apollo dimmables and I get great growth/color. My encrusting montis are larger by the day. I agree that the moonlights are a little too bright and should be reduced or made dimmable.

Maybe in future models throw in a few greens and reds and upgrade to crees.

There are reasons why they did not add greens/reds. Upgrading to Crees will double the cost of the fixture and change it's target market. At $700.00+ they would be competing with the Radion which blows their "mission statement".

Great fixtures. Good job Joe.

[Dustin1300]

I have 4 units + 1 400 watt metal halide on my 350 gallon. I plan to replace the metal halide soon, and 5 units will be enough to grow sps anywhere. I would say 6 is the minimum for your tank and if youre trying to grow sps, get 8-10 units. I think making the moonlights dimmable would be a great idea, I think they are a little bright already and to be able to control that would be cool. Maybe in future models throw in a few greens and reds and upgrade to crees.

Thanks on the recommendation. Tank will be mixed and I have my doubts on 6 units and think 8 is probably going to be more realistic on a 96"X48" tank but the recommendation for Radions was 12-14...A bit too high for something I'm really not going to see much more benefit than I would with something such as the Apollos!

Too many "features" exist in LEDs that are pointless and could really be harmful to our reefs because of all the spectrum changes. Having 8 channels, lightning mode, control from Android, and every color imagenable is really just a sales gimick in my eyes. I may be a little biased but just don't see the value in many of these "features". Are they cool, hell yeah! Are they needed? No.

I'm back and forth on the reds/greens. They don't add any benefit to the spectrum but can help bring out some of the colors in coral/fish.

[Dustin1300]

I have two of the Apollo dimmables and I get great growth/color. My encrusting montis are larger by the day. I agree that the moonlights are a little too bright and should be reduced or made dimmable.


Glad to hear some more positives from other owners. From what I've e-mailed back and forth to Joe, the dimmable LEDs for moonlights is in the future of the fixtures.

There are reasons why they did not add greens/reds. Upgrading to Crees will double the cost of the fixture and change it's target market. At $700.00+ they would be competing with the Radion which blows their "mission statement".

Great fixtures. Good job Joe.

Not 100% sure on the additions of the greens/reds but could not agree more with the Crees. While they provide more lumens per watt, the additional Crees needed to not have spotlighting in addition to the higher price of Crees...The fixtures would not be as affordable.

If anyone has any pictures of there setups with the fixture please share. I'm still trying to figure out my DSLR and can't quite seem to figure out how to take good pictures and can't quite find the free time to learn:spin2:

[bhazard451]

[QUOTE=Dustin1300;20410980
Not 100% sure on the additions of the greens/reds but could not agree more with the Crees. While they provide more lumens per watt, the additional Crees needed to not have spotlighting in addition to the higher price of Crees...The fixtures would not be as affordable.
[/QUOTE]

The problem I have with fixtures right now, is that Cree XT-E's and Luxeon's are inexpensive at certain places. They aren't much more than Bridgelux leds now, and they offer 3x the intensity. A $399 controllable Cree fixture can easily be made by a light company if they wanted to. The Maxspect Razor comes the closest so far.

I priced out my own DIY 36 led Cree XT-E/Luxeon fixture, and it would only cost around $250 in parts to make. This is with the Crees running at nearly 4.5 watts on standard meanwell drivers, and it would be close to 2x-3x more intense than the Apollo or other similar chinese unit. $399 would be very reasonable as a selling price for a Cree fixture. Don't be fooled into thinking it would cost $700. The parts in these fixtures are no different than what you can put together yourself, except these leds are on a pcb board.

I feel DIY is the much better option for Apex owners right now. Maxspect is coming close, but no one is offering a non fancy, Apex dimmable, Cree/Luxeon fixture for a reasonable price yet. They won't get my money until they do.

[vbsaltydog]

Where are you getting Crees at "not much more" than Bridgelux? and why do you say Crees are 3x stronger than Bridgelux?

Your comment suggests that the Apollo fixture is similar to a cheap chinese unit. This is not true. The chinese units dont use aluminum housings/heatsinks, stainless steel hanging kits, Meanwell drivers, PCB, waterproof rocker switches, CAT5 dimming ports, etc. The chinese units are usually non-dimmable also.

Apollo has plans to change their housing design from the "standardized" design to something proprietary to avoid people making such assumptions.

When you take the time to add up the components of the Apollo vs the cost of the fixture, you will realize that you are getting a good deal on a quality fixture.

You can save a few bucks and DIY something that is visually unappealing. I will spend a few bucks and have Apollo R&D and build me something that is plug-n-play and isn't an eye sore.

[Tater11]

we have three on our tank getting ready to order the 4th and final one.the tank is 375 gallons 96-30-30 so far i love these lights they are the non dimmable ones.joe at apollo is a great guy to deal with here's a few pics
fts with only three over the tank so far
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P5123255.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6033297.jpg
the lights very well packaged
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P3093131.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P3093132.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P3093134.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P3093135.jpg
over the tank i have turned them long ways as joe suggested and angled the end one up a little they look much better this way.

[Tater11]

here's some coral shots sorry pics are kind of crappy
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6153299.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6173301.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6173301.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6173305.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6173309.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P4273217.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P4273213.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6173311.jpg

[vbsaltydog]

How high off the water do you have them? They look to be pretty close to the water. One of the nice things about the high par is that you can put the lights high and get some good spread, especially if you dont need to grow SPS in the sand bed.

[bhazard451]

Where are you getting Crees at "not much more" than Bridgelux? and why do you say Crees are 3x stronger than Bridgelux?

Your comment suggests that the Apollo fixture is similar to a cheap chinese unit. This is not true. The chinese units dont use aluminum housings/heatsinks, stainless steel hanging kits, Meanwell drivers, PCB, waterproof rocker switches, CAT5 dimming ports, etc. The chinese units are usually non-dimmable also.

Apollo has plans to change their housing design from the "standardized" design to something proprietary to avoid people making such assumptions.

When you take the time to add up the components of the Apollo vs the cost of the fixture, you will realize that you are getting a good deal on a quality fixture.

You can save a few bucks and DIY something that is visually unappealing. I will spend a few bucks and have Apollo R&D and build me something that is plug-n-play and isn't an eye sore.

They are in fact very similar. I own and have opened and dissected two types of Chinese fixtures. A D120 black box (which is exactly what the Apollo is, only made with a few better parts which I'll point out later, and a 48 led circular, modular model called the Nova (or Apollo 4, from Cidly)

- The chinese units dont use aluminum housings/heatsinks
Both chinese units use aluminum housings. The d120 does not use aluminum heatsinks, but my Nova model does. I have pics in the chinese thread to prove it. Apollo added heatsinks to the d120, which does make it better and adds a bit of cost. They even use the same aluminum housing as the chinese one.

- stainless steel hanging kits
Chinese use cheaper hanging kits, yes. Nothing $10 at home depot can't fix.

- Meanwell drivers
d120/Nova use proprietary drivers running at 580 mah. They are dimmable, but only by resistance. The models I have have leds wired in series, so they are high voltage drivers. The leds are protected by voltage regulating ICs within each led to prevent a whole string going out if one led broke.

The Meanwell's are wired in parallel in the Apollo, and offer 0-10v dimming... which chinese drivers don't atm. I replaced the chinese drivers in my Nova with high voltage 0-10v custom chinese drivers and they are now Apex dimmable. The meanwell's cost slightly more, but not much, so there isn't substantial cost added here by using meanwells instead.

-PCB
The chinese fixtures all use PCB boards for the leds

-waterproof rocker switches
Same.

-Cat5 dimming port
easily added with 0-10v drivers. I just cut one end of an ethernet cable and connected the correct wires to the dimmable part of the driver on mine. Cost $5 for an ethernet cable.

-The chinese units are usually non-dimmable also
Many, like mine, are resistance dimmable via a Pot.

Cree's easily put out 3x more lumens per watt than Bridgelux. You can see for yourself via their published spec sheet here.

http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cree/LED%20Components%20and%20Modules/XLamp/Data%20and%20Binning/XLampXTE.pdf (http://www.cree.com/%7E/media/Files/Cree/LED%20Components%20and%20Modules/XLamp/Data%20and%20Binning/XLampXTE.pdf)

Cree XT-E from Steve's Led - $2.50 each
http://shop.stevesleds.com/Cree-XT-E-Royal-Blue-3-watt-LEDs-CreeXTERB.htm

URL is blocked from this site for some reason.

EDIT:If it is blocked that should be a good indication that the company is one not welcome here, so don't post it.

Unmodified, my chinese Nova fixture includes everything the Apollo has except for 0-10v Apex dimming and internal moonlights for $230, which I've shown in detail. This is with overnight shipping from Hong Kong included in the price as well. Tell me again why Apollo couldn't make the light a Cree light for $399, when a very similar light to the Apollo costs $170 without shipping fees? It is very much possible. It is just better for them to profit more from less informed buyers who have no other choice. The commercial fixtures are even higher and crazier in price, so the Apollo seems like a great buy.

I'm not saying the Apollo fixture is a bad light, I'm saying they can easily make a profitable Cree one at $399 at only a slight cost increase to them. If I can make a really nice one at $250, then they certainly can at $399. Led companies just have no desire to right now, as long as you are paying premium prices for cheaper parts.

The real kicker here... the pcb board used here in the Apollo and most of the other parts.... very likely are also from China. Should I go on?

[SKAREEF]

Bhazard451... Soungs like a good debate. Do you make lights for others.

[vbsaltydog]

- stainless steel hanging kits
Chinese use cheaper hanging kits, yes. Nothing $10 at home depot can't fix.


Add it to the cost of your chinese fixture.


- Meanwell drivers
d120/Nova use proprietary drivers running at 580 mah. They are dimmable, but only by resistance. The models I have have leds wired in series, so they are high voltage drivers. The leds are protected by voltage regulating ICs within each led to prevent a whole string going out if one led broke.

The Meanwell's are wired in parallel in the Apollo, and offer 0-10v dimming... which chinese drivers don't atm. I replaced the chinese drivers in my Nova with high voltage 0-10v custom chinese drivers and they are now Apex dimmable. The meanwell's cost slightly more, but not much, so there isn't substantial cost added here by using meanwells instead.


So your point is that the chinese fixtures use inferior drivers and if you want a controllable fixture, replace them with more expensive drivers. Add that to the cost of your fixture.


-Cat5 dimming port
easily added with 0-10v drivers. I just cut one end of an ethernet cable and connected the correct wires to the dimmable part of the driver on mine. Cost $5 for an ethernet cable.


So the chinese fixture doesnt have it. Add that to the cost of your fixture.


-The chinese units are usually non-dimmable also
Many, like mine, are resistance dimmable via a Pot.


Non controllable.


Cree's easily put out 3x more lumens per watt than Bridgelux. You can see for yourself via their published spec sheet here.

http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cree/LED%20Components%20and%20Modules/XLamp/Data%20and%20Binning/XLampXTE.pdf (http://www.cree.com/%7E/media/Files/Cree/LED%20Components%20and%20Modules/XLamp/Data%20and%20Binning/XLampXTE.pdf)


The spec sheet lists 148 lumens per watt.

Bridgelux are 135 lumens per watt:

http://bridgelux.com/media-center/press-releases/bridgelux-demonstrates-dramatic-advancements-in-gan-on-silicon-technology-for-solid-state-lighting/

Hardly 3x more efficient.


Cree XT-E from Steve's Led - $2.50 each
http://shop.stevesleds.com/Cree-XT-E-Royal-Blue-3-watt-LEDs-CreeXTERB.htm


This is only for royal blue. Whats the price for the cool whites? Cree XT-E cool whites are $4.00/each at clay-boa. That's nearly double your quoted price.





Unmodified, my chinese Nova fixture includes everything the Apollo has except for 0-10v Apex dimming and internal moonlights for $230, which I've shown in detail. This is with overnight shipping from Hong Kong included in the price as well.


You also failed to mention the 2 year warrantee on the Apollos. What warrantee comes on the Chinese Nova?

I have clearly outlined that your chinese Nova fixture DOES NOT include everything that the Apollo fixture does and would need heavy modification to meet the Apollo's features.
I have also clearly proven that Crees ARE NOT 3x more efficient than Bridgelux and that they are not close in price either. You will pay significantly more money for marginally more efficient LEDs.

You also keep quoting the Apollo fixture at $399.00 but then you quote items at sale prices when trying to make your point. If we are going to use sale prices then you should quote the Apollo non-dimmable at $299.00 and the Apollo dimmable at $359.00

Shall I go on?

The fact of the matter is that the Apollo uses high grade materials (aluminum housing/heatsink,meanwell drivers,etc.) to power the considerably less expensive (while being marginally less efficient) Bridgelux LEDs vs. the much more expensive, and only marginally more efficient, Cree LEDs in an attempt to provide a rock solid fixture for a reasonable price.

If you think you can build a better fixture for much less, the market is yours for the taking. We look forward to seeing your fixtures for sale soon.

[xcorallusx]

Apollos are great fixtures for the price right now, but as new fixtures are introduced and led prices go down they are going to have to come out with a fixture that has more colors and has a more of a custom design. I think they are off to a great start but they will have to step it up with the new ais coming out. I think ais and apollos have the most competition because of the similar pricing, but you can get a lot more par vs. the ai's. My recommendation is if you have a nano tank and want something sleek that looks good go with ai, if you have a big tank and have a canopy go with the apollos.

[Tater11]

How high off the water do you have them? They look to be pretty close to the water. One of the nice things about the high par is that you can put the lights high and get some good spread, especially if you dont need to grow SPS in the sand bed.in the pics they were 8in. Off the water 2 weeks ago I raised them too 12in. Because some of the higher coral was starting to look bleached

[Dustin1300]

Guys, quite the debate going on here but let's just agree to disagree here and not start a huge debate. I personally don't want to dismantle a fixture to bring it up to an equivalent to that of an Apollo and after you consider your original purchase price of the chinese fixtures, and then add all the additional costs of having the better built Apollo you quickly find that the price has hiked considerably. My time is worth more than buying 8 chinese fixtures, dismantling with better components and putting them all back together.

Crees vs Bridgelux....I'd say the 3Xs statement was way off! You could say they are 20-30% more efficient but when you compare the initial investment, you quickly find that the lumens/watt is not as important.

As far as colors of LEDs, I think that's something that's not going to come to light but time will tell. I would not mind seeing a few reds/greens mixed in to make some colors pop with fish/coral.

@Tator, thanks for posting the pics up and they look great! How long have you had them on the tank and do you have any growth shots before/after?

[Tater11]

Thanks dustin I've had them on for about 3 months I had my coral on a frag rack for awhile to adjust them to the lights.they've been permanently mounted on the rock for about 3 weeks and are already encrusting on the rock.ill post some before and after pics when i get home later.

[Tater11]

Thanks dustin I've had them on for about 3 months I had my coral on a frag rack for awhile to adjust them to the lights.they've been permanently mounted on the rock for about 3 weeks and are already encrusting on the rock.ill post some before and after pics when i get home later.

[Dustin1300]

Thanks dustin I've had them on for about 3 months I had my coral on a frag rack for awhile to adjust them to the lights.they've been permanently mounted on the rock for about 3 weeks and are already encrusting on the rock.ill post some before and after pics when i get home later.

Greatly appreciate the growth shots. Like I said earlier, I'm still learning how to use a DSLR....Hoping to get better now that I have a descent camera, just need a macro lens!

[Dustin1300]

To further elaborate on the earlier debates, while I would agree looking at LEDs lumens per watt is something that matters it shouldn't be the deciding factor in any lighting decisions IMHO. The spectral plot of the LED diodes and the plot of the final fixture matters more. This is where things start to get a lot more complicated as very few people can get a true spectral plot of their DIY fixtures. Only a handful of companies even offer plots of their fixtures. Many of them just reuse the plots from the diode maker. This means that they aren't accurate any longer because voltage, current, drivers and even lens quality can all affect the spectral plot of the fixture.

Add to that the debate about the actual needs of corals and then we have a whole new can of worms to sort out. Adding in a lot of unproven and unnecessary features and colors can only muddy the waters further. With that being said, let's just keep this thread on track! :beer:

[Dustin1300]

I wanted to also make a correction to my initial post regarding weather conditions being programmed and having the ability to program clouds/lightning.

After playing with the lightning mode, it seems that this feature does not work. I contacted Joe from Apollo last night and guess this feature only works when the Apex is tied into an AI light. The MeanWell drivers do not support the rapid charge and discharge of the capacitors. Not really something I much cared about but just wanted to make sure I clarified this on the thread so no one points a finger at me later. :sad2:

Cloud movement works as it just changes the voltage from time to time to dim your lights but I really don't see much value in either one of the features, was just curious as to what they'd look like. I guess now I don't have to worry about any of my fish being epileptic!

[bhazard451]

I personally don't want to dismantle a fixture to bring it up to an equivalent to that of an Apollo and after you consider your original purchase price of the chinese fixtures, and then add all the additional costs of having the better built Apollo you quickly find that the price has hiked considerably.

I'm not saying to dismantle a fixture. I'm saying it wouldn't cost any extra for the Chinese fixtures or Apollo to have meanwells in the first place. They also have a 3 year warranty, but the US warranty is definitely better if you had to ship the unit back to China to fix. No disagreement there. If they were Apex dimmable and $200, would you have thought about going with the chinese one with the same specs?

salty.. you haven't taken into account wholesale pricing for buying large quantities of leds and drivers. I showed what it would cost ME retail to build my DIY fixture with. This is including my cost I paid for $4 crees, $2.50 crees, and $2.99 luxeons.. retail. A reel of 1,000 of them would cost $1.55 each going into a pcb board

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Cree-Inc/XTEARY-02-0000-000000N04/?qs=ygRr%2ftkhtesIvBXlkzV5JDHY09dWgO6T

Asian "Bridgelux" leds only put out 60lm/watt. If they are using true Bridgelux, yes it does come much closer... BUT, the Cree's can be run at the Meanwell's natural 1300mah without adjusting the meanwells down to 700mah. This puts out around 4.5 watts instead of 3. Instead of using 55 leds, you only need 24-36, which yes does amount to more savings and efficiency.

Taking all that into account, and adding the extras mentioned, would be UNDER $250 cost wholesale. Add costs like warranty coverage, contracting for pcb boards, etc.. and $399 can def be done.

Like I said, the Apollos are a great option "right now" for Apex users at $350. I wish I didn't have to DIY to get an affordable Apex Cree XT-E fixture though, even though it is possible. If the Maxspect Razor didn't have a controller, I think it could be sold for $399. If I didn't have an Apex, I would have pre-ordered it.

If no company does make an affordable Cree/Luxeon fixture in the near future, I may actually invest in making this happen. Reef controller users have little choice for affordable led fixtures. I feel like the AIs are handily beaten by the Apollo, and the Chinese fixtures. A Cree apollo w more leds and power at $399 would make AI look silly.

[Dustin1300]

I ask again, let's keep this thread on track. If you want to debate chinese/AI/Apollo/etc fixtures please create a separate thread for your agenda....Thanks again!

[blackgate]

I just pulled the trigger last week and got 2 for my 120. Will be setting them up this weekend. All I can add to the discussion at this point is that they are packaged extremely well and they are very nice looking fixtures.

[Tater11]

Thanks dustin I've had them on for about 3 months I had my coral on a frag rack for awhile to adjust them to the lights.they've been permanently mounted on the rock for about 3 weeks and are already encrusting on the rock.ill post some before and after pics when i get home later.http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P4073182.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6293332.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P4073185.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6293333.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6173310.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6293316.jpg

[bhazard451]

I knew something was fishy about these lights.

"These lights are not available elsewhere except through us directly or one of our U.S., France, Philippines, Guadolupe or Belgium authorized distributors."

Except that's a lie. These lights were made by the same Chinese company that I ordered my recent Chinese Led fixture from, Twilight Group, in China. Here's proof.

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/107126704.html

The lot of 20 they bought, came out to $167 a fixture. Exact same light, resold to you at $399. Apollo "R&D" didn't design or do a damn thing.

You can email Jason at Twilight directly on that alibaba page, and they can ship you the light direct from China for much less if you wanted, except they might not be able to use the logo. I might just go ahead and order it. Do yourselves a favor and order this light direct for much less money.

Here is my light I ordered, with LCD controller, shipped from China for $250. Notice the similarities? Same company. They're actually very nice and helpful.

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/545851661-Dimmable-led-aquarium-moon-light-reef-and-coral-fish-bank-wholesalers.html

[Dustin1300]

From what I can see the lights are laid out in a different manner and does not specify whether they are using MeanWell drivers. Shell is definitely the same but I'd say be cautious with placing blame until you know the facts. All roads lead to china though! Tell me when you find the AI Vega/Radion;)

Do you have fixture already so you can comment on the internals?

[Chicago]

i do not think the insides are the same drivers. we will know shortly after the chinese made units are posted..

[bhazard451]

From what I can see the lights are laid out in a different manner and does not specify whether they are using MeanWell drivers. Shell is definitely the same but I'd say be cautious with placing blame until you know the facts. All roads lead to china though! Tell me when you find the AI Vega/Radion;)

Do you have fixture already so you can comment on the internals?

I'll let you know once I get it. I also requested the same configuration (Meanwell's and all) minus the Apollo logo and am waiting on pricing.

The LCD light I ordered they say uses a Rubycon 0-10v dimmable driver, possibly high amp like 5A in parallel strings (Maxspect Razor does this). They confirmed it would work on the Apex if I disconnected the driver from the LCD controller.

Yeah I don't think I'll find AI's or Ecotech's supplier, that would be a little much. lol

[Chicago]

what leds did they use on that unit.. it says bridglx.. but they told me epistar.. they also told me they were not sure if worked with apex.. interesting hmm. the appollo unit has the rj45 on the back instead of a lcd included in the unit.. and i know for sure as they sent me pics that units does not use meanwell drivers.. they sent me pics of inside.. the lcd timmer and dimmmer that comes in the unit allows for six points ... so increase light by 3 points and decrease light by 6 points in time..

[bhazard451]

what leds did they use on that unit.. it says bridglx.. but they told me epistar.. they also told me they were not sure if worked with apex.. interesting hmm. the appollo unit has the rj45 on the back instead of a lcd included in the unit.. and i know for sure as they sent me pics that units does not use meanwell drivers.. they sent me pics of inside.. the lcd timmer and dimmmer that comes in the unit allows for six points ... so increase light by 3 points and decrease light by 6 points in time..

The units are made custom according to what you want them to add in. If you want bridgelux, 90 degree optics, colors, etc.. just tell them the specs and they'll add it for you. Apollo just had these guys make their light with specific options, like "heat shield for wires", optics, etc.

What I'm saying is, if you want the same internals as the Apollo fixture, you can just ask for it and they'll make it for you. The LCD one is just based on a different setup.

They also have many reps. I talked to Simon for the LCD light, but Jason seems to be the one to contact for the Apollo light.

[Dustin1300]

I ask again that if you have an agenda or want to go off topic that you take it elsewhere. The above information is speculation and in my opinion could be taken as defamation or slander. I'd say we all know that the Chinese are not known for being trustworthy on patents/ideas, just look and see things like the Apple stores that pop up and are in no way affiliated with Apple but have the nerve to infringe on every copyright/patent possible. I don't take calling someone a liar lightly and think you should check your facts before you try to take someone's credibility away by saying that they've not put any R&D into a product.

After seeing this posts today I shot an e-mail to Apollo to shed a little more light on the situation. Apollo fixtures are assembled in the United States and components such as the housing are from China, as this helps to keep costs down and is something that they are looking to move away from so you can better disseminate a 'Chinese Fixture' from the Apollo so look forward to this in the near future.

Secondly the pictures posted on aliexpress are actually pictures that Joe took and were stolen and posted on the site. No way affiliated so who's the copy cat? Just please try to have a better sense of pride and just use better judgment as I'd rather first back the US based company and question the Chinese company. I just wanted to keep this short and to the point and end this topic.

[vbsaltydog]

I ask again that if you have an agenda or want to go off topic that you take it elsewhere. The above information is speculation and in my opinion could be taken as defamation or slander. I'd say we all know that the Chinese are not known for being trustworthy on patents/ideas, just look and see things like the Apple stores that pop up and are in no way affiliated with Apple but have the nerve to infringe on every copyright/patent possible. I don't take calling someone a liar lightly and think you should check your facts before you try to take someone's credibility away by saying that they've not put any R&D into a product.

After seeing this posts today I shot an e-mail to Apollo to shed a little more light on the situation. Apollo fixtures are assembled in the United States and components such as the housing are from China, as this helps to keep costs down and is something that they are looking to move away from so you can better disseminate a 'Chinese Fixture' from the Apollo so look forward to this in the near future.

Secondly the pictures posted on aliexpress are actually pictures that Joe took and were stolen and posted on the site. No way affiliated so who's the copy cat? Just please try to have a better sense of pride and just use better judgment as I'd rather first back the US based company and question the Chinese company. I just wanted to keep this short and to the point and end this topic.

+1

I hope Joe is able to refute the claim and prove that his design was copied. If you saw a Radion lookalike for half the price of the Radion on Alibaba, would you assume that Ecotech used offshore design/manufacturing and slapped their logo on it or would you assume that the Chinese created a Radion knockoff to capitalize on Ecotech's success?

I look forward to Joe's response.

[bhazard451]

I'm just going by what I saw. It caught my eye while I was ordering my other light. This is very much on topic considering it is the same light.

Maybe it isn't Apollo purchasing, but I highly doubt it, especially with all the customized specs similar to Apollo's on the order. I find it strange that the factory would "steal" and produce the boxes with the Apollo Reef Led logo printed on them, when they make similar boxes of their own in much larger quantities.

There is no agenda, people just seem to have too much pride with their purchases. The light is a fantastic purchase at $250 or less. Why pay $399 when you can just buy it direct from the factory like Apollo supposedly did? I'm about to order one myself.

When I talk to Jason and Simon in China from the factory, and he says he made the lights for them... or when I receive the light myself from them and the internals are the exact same, who are you going to believe? If they aren't, I'd stand corrected.

Just got a reply from Simon actually:

"Hi, Vincent

Yes, we are customizing this light to one US company now. but I am not sure if we can make it for you, I need to confirm with our company"

Right from the source. Jason is the director so I'll confirm with him.

[Dustin1300]

+1
I look forward to Joe's response.

That's the problem...Joe is not able to post about the fixture in the forum as he's not a sponsor on RC and it is against RC forum rules. Considering they stole a picture he took of the Apollo fixture, that's quick enough evidence to show they don't seem to be up for doing any of the legwork:spin2:

[Chicago]

I'm not really it's off topic. The post was a review of a product. Over the years many have posted components of certain products.and others have asked what components make up the product. when it comes to led units many are asking what the components are. Especially what led and drivers just my 2cents

[Dustin1300]

Here’s a quick conversation initiated with Twilight Group on an inquiry for the light this morning:

Customer(2012-07-11 06:44:44)
Hello

Customer(2012-07-11 06:45:18)
is there anyone there?

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:45:39)
hello

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:45:43)
:)

Customer(2012-07-11 06:45:54)
Hi there

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:45:54)
what can I do for you？

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:46:04)
this is Simon

Customer(2012-07-11 06:46:08)
I am inquiring about some lighting

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:46:23)
OK, what lighting?

Customer(2012-07-11 06:46:26)
I want to buy this one

Customer(2012-07-11 06:46:31)
http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/107126704.html

Customer(2012-07-11 06:46:50)
maybe 20 pc

Customer(2012-07-11 06:47:21)
but this look like a light from USA seller, is it the Apollo Reef LED light? I see the logo on the case.

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:48:05)
wait a moment, let me check it

***** (2012-07-11 06:48:06)
Hello?

Customer(2012-07-11 06:48:40)
OK

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:49:26)
It was not our light nor our photos and infringed on US Patent Trademark for Apollo Reef LED, the company contacted us and demanded it be removed. We complied. We are not affilated with Apollo, so we can not provide this light to you, hope to get your understanding

Customer(2012-07-11 06:49:39)
oh

Customer(2012-07-11 06:49:47)
so sorry to hear that

simon liu(2012-07-11 06:49:52)
I am so sorry

With that being said let's put this Chinese light(s) to rest...They have infringed on US Patents and are pulling the light from sale. That's about as cut and dry as this gets.

[bhazard451]

Here’s a quick conversation initiated with Twilight Group on an inquiry for the light this morning:



With that being said let's put this Chinese light(s) to rest...They have infringed on US Patents and are pulling the light from sale. That's about as cut and dry as this gets.

I stand corrected. That's actually good to hear.

[Dustin1300]

I stand corrected. That's actually good to hear.

Just a good idea to do fact checking before sharing something of this nature in a public place.

Ok, now that we've set that one aside, let's see some pictures of those tanks!

[bhazard451]

I've asked RC to remove my posts from the thread, as it won't let me do it myself. I apologize for jumping the gun on that and all the misinformation.

I actually would like to hear more reviews of the light and what everyone thinks of the color, growth, experience with Apex and other controllers, etc.

There are very few Apex compatible fixtures in the marketplace, and outside of creating a fixture yourself, this is one of the better options available.

[Dustin1300]

We've dismissed it and laid out the facts so let's just see pictures of everyone's tanks:)

I'm going to try to learn some more about picture taking so I can finally post some better pictures of the state of my corals. I put lights on tank on 5/23 and have been slowly ramping my lighting up and am currently at 80% on whites and 90% on blues/UVs. I like a little more of a blue look on the lights and in the halide world liked a Pheonix 14k look with T5 supplementation. With having the two channels, I'm able to get the color I want with keeping PAR numbers high.

[bhazard451]

We've dismissed it and laid out the facts so let's just see pictures of everyone's tanks:)

I'm going to try to learn some more about picture taking so I can finally post some better pictures of the state of my corals. I put lights on tank on 5/23 and have been slowly ramping my lighting up and am currently at 80% on whites and 90% on blues/UVs. I like a little more of a blue look on the lights and in the halide world liked a Pheonix 14k look with T5 supplementation. With having the two channels, I'm able to get the color I want with keeping PAR numbers high.

I just bought the Apollo fixture myself. I was debating about purchasing it for awhile, especially during the sale, and I'd like to do an actual comparison over a few other fixtures I've tried. I apologized to Joe and would like to make up for it with actual experience with the light. He was very knowledgeable, and spot on about a lot of things. You'll be getting plenty of tank shots once I install it.

How has the growth been so far? Your PAR measurements and updates on your experience with the light are very helpful.

I believe that having UVs holds the key in keeping some colors like Red in Acans vivid compared to a fixture with just Blue and White leds. What do you think of them?

[Dustin1300]

How has the growth been so far? I'm considering picking up an Apollo myself to try out for my tank with the Apex. Your PAR measurements and updates on your experience with the light are very helpful.

I believe that having UVs holds the key in keeping some colors like Red in Acans vivid compared to a fixture with just Blue and White leds. What do you think of them?

Growth has been good but I had some new rock that was leaching phosphates so my phosphate crept up to about 9 ppm and I'd guess growth was a little stunned and coloration went down a bit. Since I've now got phosphate down below 3 ppm seems I'm getting better growth and coloration coming back around:dance:

As far as the UVs, that's part of the spectrum that the blue/white LEDs don't really cover well but the Apollo has the 403 NM UV which is to help bring out some of the purple/violets. If you go below 400 NM on a UV your getting into dangerous territory IMO. Since I cannot control the UVs separately, I cannot honestly say that they bring out the purples more...

[rudyr03]

Can't wait to see the FTS.. Building a 72x30x30.. And I might go with these but still doing a little research.. How many do u think I will need to cover the 6ft

[Dustin1300]

Can't wait to see the FTS.. Building a 72x30x30.. And I might go with these but still doing a little research.. How many do u think I will need to cover the 6ft

I'd say 3. I think two would be giving you some low light in some areas. The spread I tested on the graphs was 24"X36" so that gives you a better idea of what type of PAR you could expect on your footprint. I did lots of research and this was the best when it comes to price/performance factor. The AIs is a comparable fixture and you'd need 2 AIs to one Apollo IMO due to the tighter spread the AIs provide.

[rudyr03]

So it would be 3 and one apex module if I go with the dimmable version correct

[Dustin1300]

So it would be 3 and one apex module if I go with the dimmable version correct

If you already have an Apex the base unit has two spots for control up to 4 channels out of the box. The VDM module is just to add additional channel control if needed. According to Apex, they can control up to 6 lights/dimmers on one port. It's a win/win if you don't already have a controller as it's one of the nicest additions to a tank!

If you don't have a controller or the money to invest into one, Apollo offers a dimming card with and without an RJ-45 connection to connect to controller. Dimming card (http://apolloreefled.com/shop/apollo-reef-led-dim4-card-with-ethernet-jacks/) and the details from Apollo:

There are four separate dimming channels on the card that can be individually programmed. We have tested each channel to control up to 3 lights with no issues blues and whites independently!

Dimming is also not mandatory so if you don't want or need that....SolarBlast non-dim (http://apolloreefled.com/shop/solarblast-ultra/) on sale for $299.00.

[vbsaltydog]

I have two dimmable units over a 72x18x24 and there is good coverage. There are lower light areas on the ends but thats a great place to put lower light corals like zoas and LPS. These lights are very strong with the 90 degree optics so three fixtures over 72" will be great for even spread and SPS but you will not have many areas for low light corals unless you create shade with rock shelves or plating SPS.

There is also the matter of the center brace. If you use three fixtures, one will have to go over the center brace so there will still be a shaded area in the center from the brace shadow.

Three fixtures are ideal over 72" for end-to-end coverage for high light demand SPS.
Two fixtures are good for mixed reef where some low light areas are needed.

There is also the matter of how high you hang the light over the water.

[rudyr03]

Good info thanks .. I want to see someone post a FTS !!! With these bad boys on them

[Tater11]

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/tater1270/P6033297.jpg
this is only 3 of the non dimmables the 4th will be here monday 8ft. tank

[rudyr03]

Nice .. How are the corals reacting and how high do you have it off the water.. Watts the wattage on those again

[Tater11]

Nice .. How are the corals reacting and how high do you have it off the water.. Watts the wattage on those again
thanks,the corals are doing well i should mention its very important to acclimate the corals to these lights slowly.they are more intense than you think they are 120watts each.i started with them 8 inches above the water line thought the corals were getting too much light so i raised them too 12in. that was to high moved them to 10in today.i posted coral pics in this thread check em out.:thumbsup:

[bhazard451]

My Apollo light shipped today. I should have it by Wednesday. I'll post pics and thoughts as soon as I can.

I would like to take PAR measurements to compare the true Bridgelux leds in these compared to the generic chinese ones, to show how much more light the Apollo puts out in comparison. Does anyone know where I can rent or buy a PAR meter at a decent price for a week or so?

[octopus737]

I got mine the day that they came out. I have it over a 60 cube. It fills the tank nicely with light. Great for sps and lps. Does anyone else have notice that the light never fully turns off unless power is cut to them?

[rudyr03]

Nice.. Feel free to post up FTS!! .. And I'll be waiting for your pic hazard..

[Dustin1300]

My Apollo light shipped today. I should have it by Wednesday. I'll post pics and thoughts as soon as I can.

I would like to take PAR measurements to compare the true Bridgelux leds in these compared to the generic chinese ones, to show how much more light the Apollo puts out in comparison. Does anyone know where I can rent or buy a PAR meter at a decent price for a week or so?

I would check with your local club? Not sure on your location but my club has a meter that I've had for about a month's time. I'd love to have a PAR meter but can't justify it right now as I've got other things to spend my money on.:hmm5:

[Dustin1300]

I got mine the day that they came out. I have it over a 60 cube. It fills the tank nicely with light. Great for sps and lps. Does anyone else have notice that the light never fully turns off unless power is cut to them?

Can you further elaborate? The power plugs need to be on an controllable outlet/timer as the fans are ran when one of the two channels is powered on. Dimming only controls a blue/uv channel and the other is whites.

[bhazard451]

Nice.. Feel free to post up FTS!! .. And I'll be waiting for your pic hazard..

My light will be a little "unique" compared to the other SolarBlasts. That's all I can say right now. I promised not to reveal why until I get it and post pics, or until it is announced officially.

[bhazard451]

Light came today. I'll have some pics and first impressions up later tonight.

[Dustin1300]

Light came today. I'll have some pics and first impressions up later tonight.

Looking forward to the new revision of the fixture:)

I think you might have gotten the new one that Joe's taken into consideration our feedback and added in the Reds!

http://apolloreefled.com/shop/acti-red/

[rudyr03]

Ok cool .. I'm waiting for the pics my top 2 choices are radion or Apollo so lets see if u can sway me in one direction ..quick question with the Apex controllers are u able to do the sunset sunrise and simulate thunderstorms

[bhazard451]

Looking forward to the new revision of the fixture:)

I think you might have gotten the new one that Joe's taken into consideration our feedback and added in the Reds!

http://apolloreefled.com/shop/acti-red/

Yep. I held back from mentioning it until i posted pics or until it was posted on the site. I'm one of the first, if not the first customer to have ordered it, and I'll be the first to share it with you guys.

First impressions:

I absolutely LOVE the outer aluminum casing. It is quite a bit bigger height-wise than the chinese boxes that I've also tried, and there is more open area of clear shielding on the bottom, maximizing spread. It's solid, and I wished I had a case like this in the making of my DIY Cree light. Plenty of room for Meanwells in there. I didn't bother opening it because Dustin did a great job showing off the internals.

The Meanwell drivers powered up the leds nicely, and I ran each channel through a 1 minute ramp up/ramp down test to see sunrise/sunset through the Apex. The light and the Apex handled this with no problems. The only minor limitation with using the Meanwell's/Apex combo, is that the light will cut off completely at under 10% intensity, which means you won't get a completely smooth on/off curve. Its not really noticeable during normal dimming anyway.

The addition of the 4 reds and 6? 420nm violets are a very nice touch. Through comparing fixtures with and without these colors, I won't build or buy a led light without them now. They provide that extra little bit of color and photosynthetic benefits (violet actinic) that seems lacking in a regular Royal Blue/White fixture. These new leds are not overpowering, and still maintain a very nice 14k look. Clownfish now give off a striking orange color. My Maroon clown nearly glows with color. My red sponge is RED. The leds themselves give off a great, nicely blended color, and seem to be stronger than the generic chinese binned "bridgelux" I'm used to seeing. It's not a striking visual difference though, and I would need a PAR meter to truly show how much more light and proper coloring the Solarblast puts out.

Overall, the leds blend very well together on the sand bed, with no obvious disco effect or spotlighting. The 90 degree optics work perfectly in focusing the light into my tank where I want it, compared to fixtures without them that shoot the light all over the room and nearly blind me in the process.

There is one little downside to the reds in some cases however. While you won't see blotches of red on the sand bed, you can see focused red areas if you have live rock close to the surface. It can sometimes be distracting, but the coloring benefits to the rest of the tank outweigh the negatives of the red spotlighting.

The moonlights are nice to have. Just a standard on/off here, and I like having them instead of not having them and saving an outlet. It's too bad these couldn't mimic the function of the Apex Lunar Sim modules, with different light intensities and following the lunar cycle. It could technically be done, but a small dimmable driver and another ethernet port would need to be added in. I'm undecided if I'd want to plug up all of the vdm ports on my apex for just one light. It would ruin the ability of running two lights via the vdm ports without voiding your warranty by modifying the driver wires to the ethernet port. Its fine as-is.

Overall I'm very happy with the fixture. It's nice to have an Apex option on the market, with much better light output compared to an AI Sol module. Building a DIY fixture comparable in quality to this would be a major pain in the *** to most people. $379-399 is a good price for what you get, but when it was $359 on sale, that was an excellent price... a no brainer buy if you want leds and have an Apex.

Some pics of it running:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a124/bhazard/IMG_20120717_195840.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a124/bhazard/IMG_20120717_200450.jpg

[bhazard451]

Ok cool .. I'm waiting for the pics my top 2 choices are radion or Apollo so lets see if u can sway me in one direction ..quick question with the Apex controllers are u able to do the sunset sunrise and simulate thunderstorms

Radions are nice fixtures, just absurdly overpriced. Output wise, I would take this light over the Radion anyday. The Radion has some nice software options, but I find "thunderstorms" to be overhyped. They don't even look that great or natural on the Radion.

The Apex can do sunrise/sunset pretty well.

[Mpfaff77]

I am still on the fence about AI sol blue or this light. I would say solarblast has better optics and power but sol seems to have better control. The Sol can control each color individually. Solarblast has how many channels? Are the red blue whites uv all controlled individually????

Edit : another few quick ? Can I plug into full apex without a VDM??? Same variable speed port right? It also uses 2 of the ports?

[Dustin1300]

@bhazard, thanks for the review! From what I understand a future revision will have dimming options for the moonlights so you could easily tie into the Apex lunar cycle settings with the dimming.

@rudy, I earlier outlined that you cannot use lightning. Not really a feature I care about and think it just is going stress out fish more than anything. You can do sunrise/sunset/cloud simulation but the lightning is not possible (see earlier update):

I wanted to also make a correction to my initial post regarding weather conditions being programmed and having the ability to program clouds/lightning.

After playing with the lightning mode, it seems that this feature does not work. I contacted Joe from Apollo last night and guess this feature only works when the Apex is tied into an AI light. The MeanWell drivers do not support the rapid charge and discharge of the capacitors. Not really something I much cared about but just wanted to make sure I clarified this on the thread so no one points a finger at me later.

Cloud movement works as it just changes the voltage from time to time to dim your lights but I really don't see much value in either one of the features, was just curious as to what they'd look like. I guess now I don't have to worry about any of my fish being epileptic!

@Mpfaff, the light currently has two dimable drivers and two channels. One channel controls the whites/reds and the second channel controls the blues/uvs. While the SOL can control each light individually that scares me. It might sound really nice on the surface as the granularity of control sounds nice, but you start playing with the spectrum a lot and not know what spectral output is coming out....You could easily find yourself with not so happy coral dying off.

Each port can control two different channels on the stock Apex base module so you can control up to four separate channels. According to Apex, they can control up to 6 lights/dimmers on one port. ReefLEDLights does a good explanation of the dimming and what's possible: http://reefledlights.com/neptun-apex-setup-programing/

[Mpfaff77]

@bhazard, thanks for the review! From what I understand a future revision will have dimming options for the moonlights so you could easily tie into the Apex lunar cycle settings with the dimming.

@rudy, I earlier outlined that you cannot use lightning. Not really a feature I care about and think it just is going stress out fish more than anything. You can do sunrise/sunset/cloud simulation but the lightning is not possible (see earlier update):



@Mpfaff, the light currently has two dimable drivers and two channels. One channel controls the whites/reds and the second channel controls the blues/uvs. While the SOL can control each light individually that scares me. It might sound really nice on the surface as the granularity of control sounds nice, but you start playing with the spectrum a lot and not know what spectral output is coming out....You could easily find yourself with not so happy coral dying off.

Each port can control two different channels on the stock Apex base module so you can control up to four separate channels. According to Apex, they can control up to 6 lights/dimmers on one port. ReefLEDLights does a good explanation of the dimming and what's possible: http://reefledlights.com/neptun-apex-setup-programing/

This all makes sense. Thanx for the link. I will read that tonight after work. I think leaning towards solarblast now. Another plus is better coverage and I also don't have to buy a vdm or a serial cable like I would with the SOL.

[OrrG]

Well after weeks of research it seems the Apollo is going to offer the best value/performance for me especially with the new model just announced. I have an Apex with VDM so the direct integration is definately a huge selling point, along with quality parts.

My one question is, how hard is it to fine tune the color spectrum with the Apex? Is it just a matter of running the blues at a higher intensity than the whites or is there more involved? I run two 250W radiums and two 54W ATI blue plus T5s so I do like my tank on the blue side.

[Dustin1300]

Well after weeks of research it seems the Apollo is going to offer the best value/performance for me especially with the new model just announced. I have an Apex with VDM so the direct integration is definately a huge selling point, along with quality parts.

My one question is, how hard is it to fine tune the color spectrum with the Apex? Is it just a matter of running the blues at a higher intensity than the whites or is there more involved? I run two 250W radiums and two 54W ATI blue plus T5s so I do like my tank on the blue side.

I like to run mine a little stronger on the blues and tone back the whites some. I've been ramping lights up slowly over the past couple months and just changed my whites to 90% and blues/uv to 100% tonight. I likely will stick with that color as it's a little blue and not really bright white like I don't desire. I'm really happy with this and I don't have any doubt you'll find the right colors you want by going with the new fixture and calibrating to your tastes:)

[mrbncal]

Well I have been a metal halide and T-5 guy for a long time and just recently went all t5 to combat heat issues and chiller costs. After a long research and wait period I am happy to say that I am getting my two new Apollo dimmable units this week! The shop I work at got some of the first models when these came out. They have not disappointed. For the cost vs features and output...I just dont think you can beat these lights. Looking forward to getting them over my reef.

[Dustin1300]

Well I have been a metal halide and T-5 guy for a long time and just recently went all t5 to combat heat issues and chiller costs. After a long research and wait period I am happy to say that I am getting my two new Apollo dimmable units this week! The shop I work at got some of the first models when these came out. They have not disappointed. For the cost vs features and output...I just dont think you can beat these lights. Looking forward to getting them over my reef.

Sounds like you've seen that they work already. Please share pics of the shop tank and yours once you get the lights!

[jdm1114]

I have two of the non-dimmable solarblasts over my 90 gallon sps reef. They have been on my tank since its inception, seven months ago. The lights are great, I will be following this thread and hope to upload some pictures soon.

[vbsaltydog]

I have two dimmables over my 135g and my corals like them. I am not done with my canopy build but once that is complete, I will upload some pics.

[Dustin1300]

Does everyone have bad camera "skills" like me? ;)

Can't wait to see some of the tanks that have had them for quite some time.

[bhazard451]

Does everyone have bad camera "skills" like me? ;)

Can't wait to see some of the tanks that have had them for quite some time.

Yep. I have no camera budget, because it all goes into the tanks instead. lol

[Dustin1300]

I've got the camera, now just need the macro lens and have not wanted to send $600-$1000 that way...

[Tank2379]

Bump- anymore reviews on the Artic-Reds?

[bhazard451]

Bump- anymore reviews on the Artic-Reds?

RC member jwoyshnar just picked them up and loves them. She was debating chinese fixtures or these. She lives like 10 min away from Apollo headquarters, so it was a no brainer. She posted a review in a separate post.

I sold mine to another member as well. I finished up a DIY 180w Cree/Luxeon fixture with 4 channels of leds and no longer needed it. I'll see what his thoughts were on it.

Honestly speaking, I spent around $300 to build the 180w Cree/Luxeon fixture, and although it is more flexible in color control, and a bit brighter, the Apollo looks nearly just as bright, and you don't need to spend hours building it. The Acti-red is a solid light, especially for Apex users.

[Dustin1300]

Bump- anymore reviews on the Artic-Reds?

Agreed, I saw someone over on r 2 r was just getting one in yesterday so would love to see some pictures:D

[Dustin1300]

I just posted in the small thread jwoyshnar started and ask that some pics be posted of the new fixture! Hopefully we get some additional shots and keep this thread going.

[saltyjarhead]

WTH as soon as you get a new light setup its outdated and you have to get a new one. I just bought a new LED from my LFS and looks pretty close to these but doesn't have the option to run the controller.

[mrbncal]

I just got mine in yesterday and as soon as I figure out how I am going to hang them I will post a review.

[Tank2379]

Dustin what is your Apex Program?

[gcfiend]

I bought one from Apollo and the other from bhazard451. Love em so far.. Really bright. I have mine set at 100%blue and 70% White and its still on the white side. I'm battling GHA and new tank syndrome so lights aren't really a factor yet for me besides photoperiod to help the GHA issue.

Love em so far! Curious to see what others have their lights programmed to and at what percentage mix and what they are keeping (LPS, SPS, Mixed (what ratio) )

I'm on reeftronics in case you want to see my current programming.

[bhazard451]

I bought one from Apollo and the other from bhazard451. Love em so far.. Really bright. I have mine set at 100%blue and 70% White and its still on the white side. I'm battling GHA and new tank syndrome so lights aren't really a factor yet for me besides photoperiod to help the GHA issue.

Love em so far! Curious to see what others have their lights programmed to and at what percentage mix and what they are keeping (LPS, SPS, Mixed (what ratio) )

I'm on reeftronics in case you want to see my current programming.

Set OFF
If Time 09:45 to 11:45 Then Ramp_Up
If Time 11:46 to 14:00 Then ON
If Time 14:01 to 18:05 Then Weather <- fun to try, I created a weather profile to dim the lights at random for clouds
If Time 18:06 to 22:45 Then Ramp_Dn
If Time 22:46 to 01:00 Then MoonLGT

You could try an oscillating pump profile and sync the clouds to go across fixtures if you get really creative.

[Tank2379]

Ok Guys, today I received my New Artic-Red Fixture... Thanks to Joe at Apollo for helping me out... :)

Here it is open box
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/66877e93.jpg
Fixture with the power cords hanging kit and Ethernet cable
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/ff15ca2d.jpg
Can't remember if these are 90 or 60 degree optics
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/09629145.jpg
Making sure it's leveled
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/20a3bb11.jpg
Fired it up
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/1b59ff6d.jpg
Don't mind the take. I had a huge Algae opuitbreak so all my rock is cocking and being re-cycled as we speak sorry for the bare tank but my Frags are doing great
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/3b0d20b8.jpg

All in all I really like it. I have a fully Dimmable Fixture Via Apex. The photo of FTS was ok in color still looked a little on yellow side I guess cause it's at 20% whites, I am still playing around with the intensity of the leds to get the full Sunrise and Sunset effect..

[96p993]

So I take it they are still using multiple power cords for the unit. I really hope they go to one power wire for the entire unit sometime soon...

[Tank2379]

So I take it they are still using multiple power cords for the unit. I really hope they go to one power wire for the entire unit sometime soon...

Yes one for Whites, one for Blues and the other is for Moonlights only.

[Tank2379]

I bought one from Apollo and the other from bhazard451. Love em so far.. Really bright. I have mine set at 100%blue and 70% White and its still on the white side. I'm battling GHA and new tank syndrome so lights aren't really a factor yet for me besides photoperiod to help the GHA issue.

Love em so far! Curious to see what others have their lights programmed to and at what percentage mix and what they are keeping (LPS, SPS, Mixed (what ratio) )

I'm on reeftronics in case you want to see my current programming.

What percetage did you do your Midday at? Or how did you set your times?

[gcfiend]

Mid Day was set at 70 Max/Min, but toned it down recently because of GHA.

[ LED-White ] ( base_Var3 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Light A
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 08:00 to 12:00 Then SunriseW
If Time 12:00 to 18:00 Then MidDayW
If Time 18:00 to 20:00 Then SunsetW
If Temp > 82.0 Then OFF

[ LED-Blue ] ( base_Var4 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Light B
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 06:00 to 12:00 Then SunriseB
If Time 12:00 to 18:00 Then MidDayB
If Time 18:00 to 22:00 Then SunsetB
If Temp > 82.0 Then OFF

[ SunriseW ] ( PF13 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 240
Start Intensity: 10
End Intensity: 60

[ SunsetW ] ( PF14 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 120
Start Intensity: 60
End Intensity: 0

[ MidDayW ] ( PF15 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 0
Start Intensity: 60
End Intensity: 60

[ SunsetB ] ( PF16 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 240
Start Intensity: 100
End Intensity: 20

[ SunriseB ] ( PF17 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 60
Start Intensity: 20
End Intensity: 100

[ MidDayB ] ( PF18 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 0
Start Intensity: 100
End Intensity: 100

[saltyjarhead]

I just got mine in yesterday and as soon as I figure out how I am going to hang them I will post a review.

Yeah I had the same problem I was thinking about getting the haniging kit from rapid led.

[bhazard451]

Yeah I had the same problem I was thinking about getting the haniging kit from rapid led.

Would you be willing to anchor into your drywall/studs with rubbermaid twin-track shelf brackets? I posted a how-to on this that worked well for me.

Someone else used a pipe bender to make something nice too. There are a few options out there.

[gcfiend]

I got mine directly in my Canopy. When to ACE hardware and found a coupler and correct size bolt (6 mm). Sturdy and secure.

[Dustin1300]

Sorry for the delay in responses but have been busy lately. Thanks so much for sharing the acti-red fixture and the unboxing. As far as my apex program, mine is as follows. You can check it out on http://www.reeftronics.net/dustin1300/apex-program.

Here's just snippets of what I currently use.

Blue and White Profiles to control the built-in VDM:

[ Apollo_Blues ] ( base_Var1 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Up/Down Arrows
Program:
Set OFF
If Time 11:30 to 21:00 Then RampUB
If Time 21:00 to 23:00 Then RampDB

[ Apollo_White ] ( base_Var2 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Left/Right Arrows
Program:
Set OFF
If Time 12:00 to 20:00 Then RampUW
If Time 20:00 to 22:00 Then RampDW

Power Outlet to turn power on to the three cords. If you have constant power then you will have fan going full time:

[ ApolloWs ] ( 4_2 )
Program Type: Light
Display Icon: Light B
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 12:00 to 22:00 Then ON
If TempDT > 82.0 Then OFF
Min Time 000:01 Then OFF

[ ApolloBs ] ( 4_3 )
Program Type: Light
Display Icon: Up/Down Arrows
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 11:30 to 23:00 Then ON
If TempDT > 82.0 Then OFF
Min Time 000:01 Then OFF

[ ApolloMoons ] ( 4_4 )
Program Type: Light
Display Icon: Up/Down Arrows
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 21:00 to 13:00 Then ON
If TempDT > 82.0 Then OFF
Min Time 000:01 Then OFF

Profiles. You can see my intensity for white is 85 and my intensity for blue is 100. I like a bit more blue in the fixture so this is what works for me:)

[ RampUW ] ( PF1 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 120
Start Intensity: 0
End Intensity: 85

[ RampDW ] ( PF2 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 120
Start Intensity: 85
End Intensity: 0

[ RampUB ] ( PF3 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 120
Start Intensity: 0
End Intensity: 100

[ RampDB ] ( PF4 )
Type: Ramp
Ramp Time: 120
Start Intensity: 100
End Intensity: 0

Right half of this tank is lit by Apollo unit I reviewed at top. I've got things in better control and nutrients were too low due to low fish bioload. I've since starting dosing AquaVitro Fuel to help make the water dirtier twice a week and colors are nice. Right now my phosphates are .0245 ppm and nitrate always stays at 0.

http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/20120731_195841.jpg

[mrbncal]

Yeah I had the same problem I was thinking about getting the haniging kit from rapid led.

Well I didnt want to hang them if possible . . . so I been lookin around and found these ideas:

Got this idea

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R9HQLI/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

from this guys thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2120959

and then I saw this which is more like what I wanted

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20553624&postcount=3


then build a light weight floating canopy(that lifts off) around that frame.

[Tank2379]

I like the second look... I am also looking to mount these differently than I have them now... But trying to figure out how to, might just create some type of leg mounts to keep the big wooden box off the top adding extra weight the tank does not need

[Tank2379]

This was at 70% Blue and 40% White yesterday at around 12:00 noon
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/c7cd898a.jpg

Really loven this fixture and the color spectrum it's providing...

BTW Sorry about the tank it's not in it glory just yet, I am currently re-cycling the rocks I have a hugh Byropsis outbreak and it took over my whole rock work and it started to over run everything in my tank.... So I decided to cook it and re-cycle it, which is currently cycling at the moment.

[Dustin1300]

Many different options on mounting and like the one as pictured above. 80/20 aluminum and EZ-Tube are both common light rack components. When I get my big tank up and going I'd like to use 80/20 and make the lights so I can angle them how I want and use pivots as listed below:
80/20 Pivots (http://www.ebay.com/itm/80-20-T-Slot-Aluminum-3-Hole-Pivot-Plate-15-S-4372-N-/370351780442?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563aafb25a#ht_1458wt_1163)

I like the idea of being able to angle the fixtures as I don't want light bleeding out of the aquarium glass/acrylic. I want it to catch the sand bed and shed the rest of the light on coral, rock, and back wall which will be foam back wall. This helps to discourage algae growth on the front glass/acrylic and is the nice thing about optics on LEDs:thumbsup: Also would like an electronic lift so I can lift the light rack up and out of the way when not in use.

***Earlier it was referenced that you were not sure on optics. The Apollo has 90 degree optics.

[Tank2379]

Cool.. I am glad they are 90 degrees that's a huge spread and I think I might even go high with my lighting currently it's about 8" above the water line I would like to get it at 10" to 12" off the water line

[Waddleboy]

Many different options on mounting and like the one as pictured above. 80/20 aluminum and EZ-Tube are both common light rack components. When I get my big tank up and going I'd like to use 80/20 and make the lights so I can angle them how I want and use pivots as listed below:
80/20 Pivots (http://www.ebay.com/itm/80-20-T-Slot-Aluminum-3-Hole-Pivot-Plate-15-S-4372-N-/370351780442?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563aafb25a#ht_1458wt_1163)

I like the idea of being able to angle the fixtures as I don't want light bleeding out of the aquarium glass/acrylic. I want it to catch the sand bed and shed the rest of the light on coral, rock, and back wall which will be foam back wall. This helps to discourage algae growth on the front glass/acrylic and is the nice thing about optics on LEDs:thumbsup: Also would like an electronic lift so I can lift the light rack up and out of the way when not in use.

***Earlier it was referenced that you were not sure on optics. The Apollo has 90 degree optics.

I picked up three of these about a month before he switched over to the new ones :headwally: but it it was what it is. I am trying to mount them in a canopy and so far have had no luck doing it. I looked at 80/20 and originally all of there stuff was no hanging loads? Did i look at this wrong? Other than that, anyone have any cool ways to hang these LEDs? Also Im nervous about the hanging kit cause i got one from rapidled and I came home one day to one of my LEDs on my 90 about an 1" off the water with a broken hanging kit overhead.

[Tank2379]

So far I have had this up and running for about 4 1/2 days now, and all I got to say is I am really impressed with the quality and design of this fixture. The color intensity is pretty sick and with the Blues and UV Purples that are dim together really gives a nice Pop to all corals and colors.

The white are super cool and dim together with the reds. Right now my intensity for blues are at 80% and white are at 40%... I have the 20K look that I always like and with the addition to the reds coming on with the whites it really pops out the red and orange colors greatly.

But as a fan of T-5, I still feel T-5 are a better match for LED's the only downside for T-5 are the bulb purchases every year. The fact that I have a system that I don't have to buy lighitng for anymore for another 7-10 years thats got to be a great deal in itself. I am happy with the purchase and can say that LED's are the future of reefing.

Happy Reefing everyone :wavehand:

[Dustin1300]

Tank, cannot tease us like that without pictures!

[mrbncal]

Tank, cannot tease us like that without pictures!

I second that !!!

[Tank2379]

Tank, cannot tease us like that without pictures!

Yeah I've posted picture above... I don't have a par meter, which I wish I did it would be nice to post some PAR reading for this fixture... :)

[Dustin1300]

Sorry but I failed looking at this last night:) I got my meter from local club, maybe you can do the same? I would not expect the PAR measurements will be much more different honestly considering we just lost 4 of the whites to red LEDs.

[chadfarmer]

i own a par meter and set mine up close to what i was running my AI sol and mh

well growth was slower than expected, comes to be way more light than par meter showed turned mine down on my 200dd
was set at 85% whites and blue
to 75% whites and blues with noticable growth


frag tank was runnign at 75% down to 60%

and mine are 12 inches off the water

[gcfiend]

i own a par meter and set mine up close to what i was running my AI sol and mh

well growth was slower than expected, comes to be way more light than par meter showed turned mine down on my 200dd
was set at 85% whites and blue
to 75% whites and blues with noticable growth


frag tank was runnign at 75% down to 60%

and mine are 12 inches off the water

Just for clarification as I'm playing with my numbers as well..

The percentage values are for White only, correct? Meaning, do you have Blues set at 100% in your aforementioned mixture?

[Dustin1300]

+1 on clarifications. Can you also include your tank sizes/depths as the depth matters a lot when your talking about height of the fixture! My frag tank is 18" deep but yours might be 12", etc...

[Dustin1300]

Pics anyone?

Here's some with my phone from last night...

Yuma:
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/20120822_215610.jpg

Zoas:
http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp32/Dustin_1300_Reef/20120822_215640.jpg

Hard to get any shots of the SPS/LPS as they are not on the skirts of the tank where I can snap good shots.

[gcfiend]

Dustin,
First off, thanks for starting this thread. Great to go back and re-read the specs you posted.

After all your modifications, what are you finding to be the best ratio of Blue to White for aesthetics. Would you recommend this same value for growth as well?

I'm running a fairly mixed tank, still quite new (only 2 months in) but I can't seem to get the colors I'm looking for. Other variables are always a factor when it comes to this, but I'm noticing a little more "faded" look on my reds and blues (War coral, Watermellon Chalice, Miami Chalice..)

Looking to see how your doing with your lights so far.

[bhazard451]

100% full blast puts out nice color.

The reds should have taken care of the warmer tones, and the violets should have helped as well.

Give it more time and see if things pick up.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[mrbncal]

Got mine up and running this weekend . . . First, as an LED noob and never having had them before, the moonlights are freakin awesome!

Second the overall look from the Arctic reds is about what I had with my 150DE Reeflux 15K by themselves without actinics, as is out of the box. So I need to play with the controller to work on color. Would like to blue it up some.

Third the "apollo made" controller is pretty nice considering its bare bones style. Wasn't ready for how well it worked out of the box. Need to put it in an enclosure of some kind and mount the ethernet connectors somehow, cuz while I was setting things up I got a little rough and pulled one connector off the board. (anyone have experience mounting stuff like this and want to send me some ideas?)

The room temp not getting outta hand is priceless! So nice to not depend on a chiller. I will get some roughed in pics Monday. Still have some work to do on the stands but all in all the project was simple and is looking good. . . I think.

[mrbncal]

Here are some very rough pics of what I am trying to do . . .

Remember I never claimed to be a photographer:


Used the screws from the fixture with 1/8 inch aluminum angle
<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/?action=view&amp;current=0825122344-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0825122344-00.jpg" border="0" alt="Aluminum angle"></a>

angles mounted on both sides
<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/?action=view&amp;current=0825122343-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0825122343-00.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

built two of these to hold the 1" conduit braces
<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/?action=view&amp;current=0826122100-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0826122100-00.jpg" border="0" alt="one of the stands"></a>

The light rack resting on the bent tubes
<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/?action=view&amp;current=Rack1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/Rack1.jpg" border="0" alt="Side view"></a>

<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/?action=view&amp;current=0826122043-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0826122043-00.jpg" border="0" alt="Apollo LED"></a>

And the controller I need to build a box for. . .
<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/?action=view&amp;current=0826122053-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0826122053-00.jpg" border="0" alt="Apollo controller"></a>

[Dustin1300]

Dustin,
First off, thanks for starting this thread. Great to go back and re-read the specs you posted.

After all your modifications, what are you finding to be the best ratio of Blue to White for aesthetics. Would you recommend this same value for growth as well?

I'm running a fairly mixed tank, still quite new (only 2 months in) but I can't seem to get the colors I'm looking for. Other variables are always a factor when it comes to this, but I'm noticing a little more "faded" look on my reds and blues (War coral, Watermellon Chalice, Miami Chalice..)

Looking to see how your doing with your lights so far.

I think giving a ratio on color is really all determined based on what is aesthetically pleasing to you. For me I've cranked back the intensity due to the shallow depth of the frag tank but like the ~14k look of 85% Blues and 70% Whites. I'd also say that your fading is likely due to too much light. Having a PAR meter really helps to give an idea of the intensity of the light.

Most of us come from keeping Metal Halides and the spectrum provided by the bulbs has lots of yellows/greens which in our eyes we perceive as brighter. I'd say move the corals that are faded to a location of less light and give them some time to acclimate. How slow did you ramp things up? I started low and raised a few percent each week.

[Dustin1300]

Mike, thanks for sharing your experience with the controller and how you mounted. Looks good, do you happen to have pics of the full tank shot?

[gcfiend]

I think giving a ratio on color is really all determined based on what is aesthetically pleasing to you. For me I've cranked back the intensity due to the shallow depth of the frag tank but like the ~14k look of 85% Blues and 70% Whites. I'd also say that your fading is likely due to too much light. Having a PAR meter really helps to give an idea of the intensity of the light.

Most of us come from keeping Metal Halides and the spectrum provided by the bulbs has lots of yellows/greens which in our eyes we perceive as brighter. I'd say move the corals that are faded to a location of less light and give them some time to acclimate. How slow did you ramp things up? I started low and raised a few percent each week.

I came from a 14K spectrum so I like the bluer side in terms of aesthetics. I'll have to borrow a PAR meter for sure just to see what my true reading are. I was gauging based on yours.

I'm actually at 65% whites and 100% Blues.. In your opinion, do you think excessive blue can cause lightening? Of course, water parameters, etc, all play a role so not ruling that out but just curious on the Blue spectrum.. Why at 85% and not 100%?

[mrbncal]

Mike, thanks for sharing your experience with the controller and how you mounted. Looks good, do you happen to have pics of the full tank shot?

I will get one soon I wanted to get the canopy built and mounted before I do this but I am working on cords right now and I might have to snap one to put up:bounce2:

[Dustin1300]

I came from a 14K spectrum so I like the bluer side in terms of aesthetics. I'll have to borrow a PAR meter for sure just to see what my true reading are. I was gauging based on yours.

I'm actually at 65% whites and 100% Blues.. In your opinion, do you think excessive blue can cause lightening? Of course, water parameters, etc, all play a role so not ruling that out but just curious on the Blue spectrum.. Why at 85% and not 100%?

Based on the depth and PAR readings, I've dialed back the lighting as it was too intense for an 18" deep tank even with the fixture mounted 12-14" above the water:)

[Dustin1300]

I will get one soon I wanted to get the canopy built and mounted before I do this but I am working on cords right now and I might have to snap one to put up:bounce2:

Looking forward to it!

[Tank2379]

Based on the depth and PAR readings, I've dialed back the lighting as it was too intense for an 18" deep tank even with the fixture mounted 12-14" above the water:)

Interesting- Now I should think about dialing back my fixture. I have mine about 6" above the water line for a 24" depth my blues are at 100% and my whites are at 60%... Should I dial back more on my Blues? Right now everything seems to be fine it been like this for a couple weeks now... It sucks not having a par meter

[Dustin1300]

Interesting- Now I should think about dialing back my fixture. I have mine about 6" above the water line for a 24" depth my blues are at 100% and my whites are at 60%... Should I dial back more on my Blues? Right now everything seems to be fine it been like this for a couple weeks now... It sucks not having a par meter

Use your coral as your PAR meter. I no longer am in possession of a PAR meter but based on the coloration of coral it gives me a good idea. Quick rule of thumb for me....
If coral is bleaching or losing color = too much light/low nutrients.
If coral is brown = too little light/high nutrients.

This is very subjective but if it's not bleached/white or losing color, you should be good:thumbsup: Our eyes don't always perceive LEDs as bright as they actually are due to the way in which we interpret brightness (Especially in the yellow/green spectrum) so use your corals as the cue.

[milonedp]

How many of these would you add for a 96 by 36 by 30?

I've sent a note to Apollo but wanted real world thoughts too...

Do you think I could go high off the water line by adding a few extra? 2 ft above, 3 ft above?

I'm starting to lean toward finding a solution that I can put up out of the way so I don't need to raise and lower the lights like I've been doing on my 180 and was starting to look at cannons until I got back to this thread (thanks spotter for putting me back onto this thread)...

[mrbncal]

After having my lights up for a week or so now, I am not unhappy, but I am a little bummed that the "orange" color that used to "pop" from the pavona and frogspawn I have are just a dull brown now. I am holdong out judgement until I am at full power but right now not 100% happy.

Anyone else encounter this issue here?

[mrbncal]

I should clarify that the brown color is during daylight hours. the moon lights make things "pop" and so do the blue only for that matter. But when its mid-day . . . .not so much.

Did not have this issue withthe t-5's i was running. Not a deal breaker yet. Just bummed.

[gcfiend]

I should clarify that the brown color is during daylight hours. the moon lights make things "pop" and so do the blue only for that matter. But when its mid-day . . . .not so much.

Did not have this issue withthe t-5's i was running. Not a deal breaker yet. Just bummed.

Interesting..I just got back in after a 2 year hiatus so I have nothing to compare previous coloring to on my corals.

What % of Blue and White are you currently running? Wouldn't bumping the whites up cause the colors to wash out even more?

I'm at 100% Blue and 65% white right now. I know things take a while to change so I'm holding at this setting for a couple months to see if things color up.

I agree though, when the Blues\Moonlight are on, it's awesome!!

[Dustin1300]

I can't say I have a lot of orange but the orange that I do have looks good in some zoanthids and Orange Digitata.

[Dustin1300]

Color in orange Lyretail Anthias looks good too:)

[mrbncal]

Interesting..I just got back in after a 2 year hiatus so I have nothing to compare previous coloring to on my corals.

What % of Blue and White are you currently running? Wouldn't bumping the whites up cause the colors to wash out even more?

I'm at 100% Blue and 65% white right now. I know things take a while to change so I'm holding at this setting for a couple months to see if things color up.

I agree though, when the Blues\Moonlight are on, it's awesome!!


Yeah I'm still in the ramping up phase. The lights have only been running 10 days or so. I just need to wait until everything is at full speed so I can adjust the channel percentages to taste. Right now the lights are at 65% blue and 45 white.

[mrbncal]

... do you happen to have pics of the full tank shot?

Here are a few pics, they are not good. Camera phone. But you get the idea.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121820-00.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121819-00.jpg

Here is the problem I have not solved yet. When light cycle is at mid day greens show up well in fact color redition is pretty good all around. Everything except, Orange doesn't show up well. I have an orange/copper colored frogspawn that should pop like a new copper penny. It did with T-5's.

Frogspawn is in the lower left corner, this is actually pretty close to what it looks like in person.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121820-01.jpg

There is a psammacora in this pic (the little lumpy thing almost in the center of this pic) that GLOWS orange under t-5s but is dirt brown under this light until whites go off. THEN it glows with just the blues.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121821-00.jpg


So my solution is going to be adding back 2 t-5 blue plus bulbs in hopes of getting that color back. Will let you all know how it works.

In the mean time I am very happy with the lights. I am seeing good reaction from all coral in my tank. Good new growth tips on sps and the "little brown lumpy thing". So I have no complaints about growth and coral health. The room stays cooler and the evaporation rate has gone down, which is nice.

Really like the ramping up and down effect from the controller card. oh ...gotta go the whites just turned off and the oranges are out in full force...:celeb1:

[gcfiend]

Here are a few pics, they are not good. Camera phone. But you get the idea.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121820-00.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121819-00.jpg

Here is the problem I have not solved yet. When light cycle is at mid day greens show up well in fact color redition is pretty good all around. Everything except, Orange doesn't show up well. I have an orange/copper colored frogspawn that should pop like a new copper penny. It did with T-5's.

Frogspawn is in the lower left corner, this is actually pretty close to what it looks like in person.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121820-01.jpg

There is a psammacora in this pic (the little lumpy thing almost in the center of this pic) that GLOWS orange under t-5s but is dirt brown under this light until whites go off. THEN it glows with just the blues.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/mrbncal/0913121821-00.jpg


So my solution is going to be adding back 2 t-5 blue plus bulbs in hopes of getting that color back. Will let you all know how it works.

In the mean time I am very happy with the lights. I am seeing good reaction from all coral in my tank. Good new growth tips on sps and the "little brown lumpy thing". So I have no complaints about growth and coral health. The room stays cooler and the evaporation rate has gone down, which is nice.

Really like the ramping up and down effect from the controller card. oh ...gotta go the whites just turned off and the oranges are out in full force...:celeb1:

Keep us posted Mike on the T-5 Supplement for color. I'm interested to know if it will pop out the remaining colors.

[mrbncal]

Forgot to mention that I am not done with the install. Still need to build the canopy that will hide all the equipment and also run the cords down the pipe out of sight. I have increased the blues intensity to 70 % also.

[chadfarmer]

+1 on clarifications. Can you also include your tank sizes/depths as the depth matters a lot when your talking about height of the fixture! My frag tank is 18" deep but yours might be 12", etc...

tank is 200 DD lights run at 70% blue 50% white all sps

27 inches deep 17 inches over water

frag tank cut down 120 to 12 inches tall

55% blue and 40% white lights 20 inches over water

seems less lights is bringing out more color in corals


I have the first dimmable unit with no red

[gcfiend]

tank is 200 DD lights run at 70% blue 50% white all sps

27 inches deep 17 inches over water

frag tank cut down 120 to 12 inches tall

55% blue and 40% white lights 20 inches over water

seems less lights is bringing out more color in corals


I have the first dimmable unit with no red

Wow.. A lot lower % than expected and way less than my settings at 100% blue and 65% white on a 24 inch deep tank. How long has it been running at the 70\50 ratio?

[jwoyshnar]

Wow.. A lot lower % than expected and way less than my settings at 100% blue and 65% white on a 24 inch deep tank. How long has it been running at the 70\50 ratio?

I run mine at the same ratio 70/50. Any higher and the corals seem to bleach a bit.

[vbsaltydog]

The fixtures come as 2/3 blue so 100% on both is ~15k , running them at 70% blue and 50% white takes that well above 20k

I know everyone likes the "pop" but I find the tank more natural looking with the blues running lower than the whites, closer to ~12k

I run them more blue in the morning/evening and much more white mid day.
My high noon is 100% white and 35% blue.

[gcfiend]

Good info guys!
I've got the new one with the Red in it, hanging 12 inches above the water. Only about two months in with mostly Frags so it's hard to tell right now if I have too much light. I noticed things coloring up nice at 100B\65White but some just started to go from good color to pale. 70/50 seems like the consensus so I'll try those setting for a while to see if things color up better.

[gcfiend]

Good info guys!
I've got the new one with the Red in it, hanging 12 inches above the water. Only about two months in with mostly Frags so it's hard to tell right now if I have too much light. I noticed things coloring up nice at 100B\65White but some just started to go from good color to pale. 70/50 seems like the consensus so I'll try those setting for a while to see if things color up better.

Oops. When I say "guys" I'm being gender neutral :)

[chadfarmer]

i have been running apollo dimmables since feb

running at 70 for about 2 months and that seems to be just right for a lot of corals

i started at 90% because 2 apollos replaced 4 AI units

[gcfiend]

I've read that at 100 percent blue and white it produces 15,000 K. What would be the ratio for 20,000 K?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Dustin1300]

3 RBs to 1 Cool White. Below is good reference:

http://reefledlights.com/ledmytank/

[gcfiend]

3 RBs to 1 Cool White. Below is good reference:

http://reefledlights.com/ledmytank/

Thanks Dustin,
So my math really sucks.. If I wanted to play with percentages on our lights to get a 20K (or closest to it) , what would I have to dim my whites to get 20K.

If Blue is at 100%:

Would Whites dimmed to about 67% give me the closest to 20K?

[Dustin1300]

I guess I could have read into that a bit more...I spoke before I thought through that one!

With 29 RBs and 22 Whites, if you go by the formula on ReefLED then you'd say you only want 1 white to every 3 RBs so take the 29 times .25. That only equates to 7.25 whites at 100%. Take 7.25 and divide by 22 and that comes out to .3295 or ~33 % whites.

That's very blue IMO but everyone has different tastes:)

[tripntx]

Do a google search for "515P to C13 splitter", "C13 Y cord", "C13 dual cord" for options to help satisfy those of you wanting to use less than one power cord to control a fixture.

I'm going to spring for two of Joe's fixture's in the near future to light my 140 gl Oceanic 48 x 24 x 29. My T5's are ready to be replaced again, and I'm sick of throwing bulbs away every year. Hope to go LED with Apollo LED and never look back...

,

[jwoyshnar]

The fixtures come as 2/3 blue so 100% on both is ~15k , running them at 70% blue and 50% white takes that well above 20k

I know everyone likes the "pop" but I find the tank more natural looking with the blues running lower than the whites, closer to ~12k

I run them more blue in the morning/evening and much more white mid day.
My high noon is 100% white and 35% blue.

Well mine at that ratio looks to be around 14k. I don't like the real blue.

[vbsaltydog]

If you have a controller, I highly recommend:

~20k early morning/late evening
~14k mid morning /mid evening
~12k late morning/mid afternoon
~10k high noon

I do this in conjunction with natural tidal currents that offset by an hour every day
so high tide is at 9am one day and 10am the next day.

This ensures that the flow rate:light intensity is ever changing but is the same as what occurs in nature. My corals are very happy.

Of course, keeping with the thread, I am running Apollos.

[milonedp]

If you have a controller, I highly recommend:

~20k early morning/late evening
~14k mid morning /mid evening
~12k late morning/mid afternoon
~10k high noon

I do this in conjunction with natural tidal currents that offset by an hour every day
so high tide is at 9am one day and 10am the next day.

This ensures that the flow rate:light intensity is ever changing but is the same as what occurs in nature. My corals are very happy.

Of course, keeping with the thread, I am running Apollos.

I like this. What controller are you using? Do you run moonlights at night too?

[vbsaltydog]

I have an Apex but it was severely lacking in functionality so I built my own custom controller that extends and controls the Apex. You can do the lighting schedule that I described with the stock Apex but the tidal schedule is a feature of my custom controller.

I am running the Apollo moonlights when the daylights are off but I am not running lunar schedules because I do not breed fish that use the lunar cycles and the Apollo moonlights are not dimmable anyway.

[milonedp]

Custom controller extension for an Apex anywhere you have some info on that I could read more on? Its own thread maybe?

[vbsaltydog]

I haven't mentioned it publicly before. If you are interested in one we could discuss it privately.

[madean]

So how long have people had their apollo lights? How many many do you have over what sized tank? And do you still like them? Any issues that you have experienced mainly bad is what I'm looking for? I am just trying to figure out what will work for me. I am lighting a 36"L x 30"W x 24"T high light anemone tank. Any info is greatly apprecited. It would be nice to see if anyone is currently housing a ritteri or carpet with these lights.

[Tank2379]

2 months on my Artic Reds and its been the best investment so far...

[Dustin1300]

I've had really good luck and only issue I had was with my controller (Apex) going out while I was at MACNA. Since the light was not getting any voltage....It was not lighting but luckily a local club member helped me out and got me temporarily up and running when I was out of town for a few days more. I'd say you'll have more than enough light with two fixtures. Remember that overlapping light doubles the PAR numbers so if you have something that is overlapping with 75 par from each light you'll have PAR of 150. You'll likely have to dial back the fixtures for your setup but you'll be happy.

I've been keeping LPS, SPS, Zoas, etc and have had good growth since getting params in check in past 1.5 months but cannot speak about nems.

[madean]

So can you effectively get a 12k look out of these lights with good par?

[Dustin1300]

So can you effectively get a 12k look out of these lights with good par?

My PAR tests were at blues/whites @ 100% but I believe you should not have any problem.

[mrbncal]

5 week update - I have not added t-5 yet as I am trying to be patient and let the led light work its magic. I dont mind the look at mid day as its very close to what my old bank of 3 - 150DE MH looked like running Reeflux 12K bulbs. I just got sploiled when I was running all t-5 's with the constant "pop" that t-5' give. So still no bright orange 'pop' at mid-day but its ok. I got to 90% blue and 45% white and a millie started to bleach. It has very little color now and minimal pe. So today I backed off the blues to 80% and upped the whites to 55%.

light cycle is now:

BLUES -
on at 1030
full on at 230
full off at 530
off at 1030

WHITES -
on at 1100
full on at 300
full off at 500
off at 1000

So from about 8:00pm on things start to come alive with glow as the blues take over. This is fine as this is when I am usually looking at it. Growth is great and I have not found anything that does not like the new light.

[milonedp]

For those that are using these I'm thinking about the 55 pc Acti-Red, my tank will be 96 long, 36 wide and 30 tall. Apollo recommended 3 units I'm thinking 4 so I can go a little higher but I want some real world comments. I'd like to mount these as high above the tank as possible so I don't need to move them for maintenance but I can pretty much go with whatever is required.

So any thoughts on how you'd set this up? Will this really cover SPS in a 30 by 30 area 42" from the lights like the website says? If I didn't care about SPS right on the bottom could I raise the lights further?

Thanks for any input.

[Tank2379]

Here is Apolloe Reed LED Vidoe on Par Spec of the Artic Red, from what is show and what his detail are is that the 44PC can light penitrate 48" below the water line and you will still have great growth. Unless I am hearing wrong... Check it out

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NQ11KlJU1wE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[milonedp]

Thanks Tank, I've seen those videos they are helpful I just wanted some real world comments / thoughts, so I take it you are happy with these, both the growth and the visible color?

[Tank2379]

Thanks Tank, I've seen those videos they are helpful I just wanted some real world comments / thoughts, so I take it you are happy with these, both the growth and the visible color?

If you have an Apex Controller this fixture won't let you down at all. It takes some time to light acclimate as it did Bleach out my Clam but once it settle it started coming back with better POP in color. My Montis are growing like nothing and everything in my Tank is just popping.

I am extremly happy with Joe and his Fixture, the best thing is he's not on the forums gloating and telling everyone to buy his fixtures becasue they are better than the Radion and Maxspec and other Fixture. The vidoes he's posted just show proof that they work and they are actually alot stronger than what the Radion alone puts out. I even think with the upgrade that Ecotech put out on the lens is still even stronger. Not sure.

Put this is just my own 2 cents... :fun4:

[bhazard451]

If you have an Apex Controller this fixture won't let you down at all. It takes some time to light acclimate as it did Bleach out my Clam but once it settle it started coming back with better POP in color. My Montis are growing like nothing and everything in my Tank is just popping.

I am extremly happy with Joe and his Fixture, the best thing is he's not on the forums gloating and telling everyone to buy his fixtures becasue they are better than the Radion and Maxspec and other Fixture. The vidoes he's posted just show proof that they work and they are actually alot stronger than what the Radion alone puts out. I even think with the upgrade that Ecotech put out on the lens is still even stronger. Not sure.

Put this is just my own 2 cents... :fun4:

Just to clear things up.. this fixture is stronger than the old Radion, but it is not stronger than a Razor 160w version. It is similar to the 120w version.

If you have an Apex already, then it is worth it. If not, a 120w razor is similarly priced with a built in controller.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[Tank2379]

Just to clear things up.. this fixture is stronger than the old Radion, but it is not stronger than a Razor 160w version. It is similar to the 120w version.

If you have an Apex already, then it is worth it. If not, a 120w razor is similarly priced with a built in controller.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks.... I forgot it was a 160W.. Yeah not stronger.... :fun2:

[milonedp]

Thanks guys, I'm thinking I'd need 4 of each would that sway you guys one way or the other? Or does it come down to if I have the Apex already or not?

[Tank2379]

Thanks guys, I'm thinking I'd need 4 of each would that sway you guys one way or the other? Or does it come down to if I have the Apex already or not?

For me this fit the bill perfect, I didn't want to spend Radion money and it was within my budget. I already had an Apex so I just needed the VDM module which didn't cost much. Since this was a great price with great reviews and a proven fixture, this is what swayed me to buy. Allot of other folks have different views becasue it's not high tech but it's high tech enough for me that it's built to run off the Apex and Sunrise/Sunset works great as long as you build your own program, but if not we can all help

[Dustin1300]

Thanks guys, I'm thinking I'd need 4 of each would that sway you guys one way or the other? Or does it come down to if I have the Apex already or not?

Doug, I personally think 3 is pushing it on a 30 inch deep tank and I'd go with 4. My tests I performed seemed to show a good 24X36" area on the previous generation to the Acti-red. If you had a 24" deep tank I'd say 3 might fit the bill...Just my thought and opinion but I'd go with 4.

As tank outlined you'll need the Apex but you need that anyways. The programming is simple and the light is a PAR monster for the price. It may not be a Radion with all the bells and whistles but it does have control for dimming on both channels, single point of administration (Apex), and moonlights. I try to compare a few years back when you just had the option to turn MHs on or off. Now I have blues and whites on different channels and I can control the intensity but can't do lightning mode (Stress the fish...) and some other "features".

In addition, the way in which the fixtures are built it'd be easy to replace a driver, fan, switch should they burn out (Nothings perfect so I expect drivers just like ballasts to burn out from time to time). I'd recommend the fixture as the best out when you look at price/performance factor.

[milonedp]

Thanks so much guys this is great input, I really just wish I could see one locally. Dustin you still feel that way after seeing the Orphek Atlantik at MACNA?

[milonedp]

Anyone familiar with the SolarBlast UV5000 looks like they've added the red spectrum without using red LEDs. After emailing with Joe, I'm thinking about 4 of these over the Acti-Reds now.

[bhazard451]

Anyone familiar with the SolarBlast UV5000 looks like they've added the red spectrum without using red LEDs. After emailing with Joe, I'm thinking about 4 of these over the Acti-Reds now.

Be careful in thinking warm whites can provide the same visuals as a red led. I have tested warm whites alone, and warm whites with a red 660nm led alongside, and visually the red led still provides a little more color in coral or fish. The overall spectrum benefits are still there in using neutral and warm whites however. The reason being, is that the warm whites don't hit a peak at 660nm, it is just there in a smaller amount.

The spectrum bump better represents sunlight, while sacrificing a bit of 450nm. Since you have so many royal blues already, the 450nm in cool whites are somewhat redundant. I use a mix of cool/neutral/and warm whites in my builds. Overall it would probably be better than the acti-red.

[Vipercraz]

Looking for everyone reviews on keeping sps? Having a bit of trouble dialing in the lights. Lps are fine but sps are struggling. Not sure if its me or the lights are not adjusted correctly.

[Vipercraz]

Lights are set at 70/40 %.Blue/white

[Dustin1300]

Looking for everyone reviews on keeping sps? Having a bit of trouble dialing in the lights. Lps are fine but sps are struggling. Not sure if its me or the lights are not adjusted correctly.

Lots of different variables make up a successful SPS tank so don't place blame on lights first.

What are your parameters? Are they stable? Light cycle and percentages (Acclimation in tank)? Depth of tank? Age of tank? Water flow? Coral placement and types of coral that are "struggling"?

I have several LPS, SPS, and Zoas that are doing well under the light and like any SPS, it takes some acclimation before things take off and coloration is right. Since I have a new tank once I got things acclimated I'm getting good growth and color from my pieces. After my crazy 6 week frag qt with 7 dippings I lose quite a bit of color before they make it to my system but I realize patience is part of this hobby:hmm4:

[milonedp]

Thank bhazard, I think that the issue was that the reds were spotlighting? so they went with this, I'm not SUPER critical about the visuals as I actually like what I've seen with most LEDs, I'm most concerned about the health of the animals, the depth penetration (I want to go a little higher above the water if I can) and the spread so there aren't any shade areas. I'm pretty sure these are what I'm going with but its so hard when you can't physically see it.

Viper what depth are the corals at and how high above the water are the lights? and what do you mean by struggling, STN? RTN? Bleaching? I don't have those lights (yet?) but before others can answer I'm guessing they'll need to know some of that.

[Vipercraz]

Have the lights adjusted to 70 blue/40 white.

Ca-420
Alk-8.5
Ph-8.25
Temp- 77.9

Lights set 8 " off water. Depth of tank is 18"

[Dustin1300]

Answer all the other questions posted earlier and add Phosphates to the list of parameters...

[Vipercraz]

Will get all the info tonight. Btw- love the lights, not making complaints, just looking for suggestions.

[bhazard451]

Thank bhazard, I think that the issue was that the reds were spotlighting?

The red shadows are apparent in cave like areas and on rocks.

I tried the same thing in my last light. I used warm whites to try to remove the red shadows... and guess what, you now get yellow shadows instead of red. lol

Its all based on personal preference. The best option is to have red/green/blue/white etc on their own channels that you can adjust to your liking, but you have to compromise with only 2 channels.

[Dustin1300]

Will get all the info tonight. Btw- love the lights, not making complaints, just looking for suggestions.

No problem and I'm not the light police, just always want to make it clear that lights are one variable (Important variable I agree) in the picture but many components are involved that can take play with some of the more critical coral.

[Dustin1300]

The red shadows are apparent in cave like areas and on rocks.

I tried the same thing in my last light. I used warm whites to try to remove the red shadows... and guess what, you now get yellow shadows instead of red. lol

Its all based on personal preference. The best option is to have red/green/blue/white etc on their own channels that you can adjust to your liking, but you have to compromise with only 2 channels.

How high were the lights mounted off the water surface and how deep was the tank again?

[bhazard451]

Oh yeah, I can share some apex programming that will make the light go into a "thunderstorm" through one of the feed modes if you guys would like it.

[Dustin1300]

I wanted to also make a correction to my initial post regarding weather conditions being programmed and having the ability to program clouds/lightning.

After playing with the lightning mode, it seems that this feature does not work. I contacted Joe from Apollo last night and guess this feature only works when the Apex is tied into an AI light. The MeanWell drivers do not support the rapid charge and discharge of the capacitors. Not really something I much cared about but just wanted to make sure I clarified this on the thread so no one points a finger at me later. :sad2:

Cloud movement works as it just changes the voltage from time to time to dim your lights but I really don't see much value in either one of the features, was just curious as to what they'd look like. I guess now I don't have to worry about any of my fish being epileptic!

bhazard, here's my post from earlier....I don't think the capacitors can handle it suddenly charging/dis-charging but maybe you have additional Apex knowledge on getting it to work?

[bhazard451]

bhazard, here's my post from earlier....I don't think the capacitors can handle it suddenly charging/dis-charging but maybe you have additional Apex knowledge on getting it to work?

It can. It's not fast twitch, but still resembles it. It could probably use a tweak or two if there is too much blue, but it works.

Try this:

[ Storm1 ] ( PF7 )
Type: Pump
Synchronize: Enable
Divide By 10: Enable
Initial Off Time: 45
On Time: 1
Off Time: 19
Minimum Intensity: 20
Maximum Intensity: 100

[ Storm2 ] ( PF8 )
Type: Pump
Synchronize: Enable
Divide By 10: Enable
Initial Off Time: 35
On Time: 1
Off Time: 12
Minimum Intensity: 22
Maximum Intensity: 100

Add the following lines to your Var channels. Use a different feed mode if B is taken.

[ BlueLED ] ( base_Var1 )
If FeedB 000 Then Storm1


[ WhiteLED ] ( base_Var2 )
If FeedB 000 Then Storm2

Turn on FeedB manually whenever you want to start the storm :)

[Dustin1300]

Turn on FeedB manually whenever you want to see if your fish are epileptic:)

Fixed that for you^^^ :fun4:

***I'll have to try it out when I have some spare time this week to play around in fish room.

[Tank2379]

It's funny that you posted this because my lights when off and I turn them on manually they light up to the max 100, then when I cut them off they dim down turn off then make a flash... I always wondered if we can do a storm mode I will try this and see how t goes...

[Tank2379]

Well it works just tried it. It does come close to it... Pretty cool.. and it doesn't freak out the fish. like I've seen with other storm modes

[chadfarmer]

ive ben able to do lighting for over 4 years and its cool for about a month than sit next to it when u have a head ache

[Tank2379]

Here it is Storm Mode this is with my iPhone
http://youtu.be/ME5nA8mkvS0

[bhazard451]

Well it works just tried it. It does come close to it... Pretty cool.. and it doesn't freak out the fish. like I've seen with other storm modes

It's a nice little novelty which really serves no purpose other than to show off. Now at least you can say your leds can do it too.

[milonedp]

After my crazy 6 week frag qt with 7 dippings I lose quite a bit of color before they make it to my system but I realize patience is part of this hobby:hmm4:

Really? Did you design this or pick it up from elsewhere?

[madean]

Hey guys are there any disco ball effect on the rocks or sand bed at any intensity with this light?

[Tank2379]

It's a nice little novelty which really serves no purpose other than to show off. Now at least you can say your leds can do it too.

Yeah thats the only prupose.... Nothing to see here :strooper:

[mrbncal]

Hey guys are there any disco ball effect on the rocks or sand bed at any intensity with this light?

I havent noticed any . . .

[mrbncal]

5 week update - I have not added t-5 yet as I am trying to be patient and let the led light work its magic. I dont mind the look at mid day as its very close to what my old bank of 3 - 150DE MH looked like running Reeflux 12K bulbs. I just got sploiled when I was running all t-5 's with the constant "pop" that t-5' give. So still no bright orange 'pop' at mid-day but its ok. I got to 90% blue and 45% white and a millie started to bleach. It has very little color now and minimal pe. So today I backed off the blues to 80% and upped the whites to 55%.

light cycle is now:

BLUES -
on at 1030
full on at 230
full off at 530
off at 1030

WHITES -
on at 1100
full on at 300
full off at 500
off at 1000

So from about 8:00pm on things start to come alive with glow as the blues take over. This is fine as this is when I am usually looking at it. Growth is great and I have not found anything that does not like the new light.


Week 6:
Well I have completely changed this, so much for patience, lol. I am now running the "full on" part of the cycle for 7.5 and 7 hours(Blue / white). But I have adjusted the two channels to an appearance that I like. This resulted in a percentage that is less than what most of you are running; blues - 7.5v or 62.5 %, whites - 2.5v or 21%. Gonna try this for awhile to see if this causes any gains or losses in growth or color. I may bump these percentages up as needed as long as the color is something that "looks" good to me. Which for me is kind of like a "Radium look".

Results as of today consisted of bigger LPS expansion. Much like they did when it was all T5's. I had really nice sps color with T5 but some of the blues left since changing and two-colored colonies haved darkened to just a purple. My thinking on this change is that the duration is not long enough. So I am going to replicate the T5 deal I had going on before. We'll see what happens.

[cgh38]

Hey guys I love this lights I have them connected to my Apex and I dont know if its normal when the blues dim or ramp down they go to about 5% and they turn off i have them on my settings to ramp down from 70 to 0 shouldnt they dim all the way down to nothing? thanks for your help.

[bhazard451]

Hey guys I love this lights I have them connected to my Apex and I dont know if its normal when the blues dim or ramp down they go to about 5% and they turn off i have them on my settings to ramp down from 70 to 0 shouldnt they dim all the way down to nothing? thanks for your help.

The meanwell drivers used inside these can only go down to 5%.

[cgh38]

Thanks, I thought my settings were wrong.

[Dustin1300]

bhazard, I set up the profile tonight for "storm mode" and it worked. It's just not a sudden on/off and think is likely due to what I earlier noted about the capacitors but still is kind of different.

chg38, I just dim down to 5% since that's the cut off. So go from 100 to 5, 80 to 5 etc since that's the minimal dimming you can go which is really faint. If the fixture did not have moonlights on a separate channel then I could see needing to go less than 5% but since it has moonlights 5% is low enough for our needs:)

[milonedp]

Dustin you have yours over a 36 by 24 in area correct? Which way do you have it mounted over that area, the long edge running the 36 length or the 24 length? I would have thought the long edge to the 36 but I just got some feedback to run them parallel to the tank so I wanted your thoughts.

[milonedp]

Finally pulled the trigger and have 4 of the SolarBlast UV5000 and a new Apex Unit on the way.

[jdm1114]

Finally pulled the trigger and have 4 of the SolarBlast UV5000 and a new Apex Unit on the way.

Good choice. I just gother the uv 5000 as well. But the manually dimmable version. The violets make a big difference.:cool:

[Tank2379]

Has anyone supplemented T-5 with this fixture?

[rldcpa]

Which lights are better these or the Maxspect Razor?

[o2manyfish]

Hey Guys,

I picked up a dimmable UV5000 a couple of weeks ago. It's going over what has been a dark gap in my tank between 2 400w Radiums.

I am turning the intensity up slowly to not cause any damage. At the moment I am up to 60% Blue and 35% White and the output color is quite red.

How big of a difference should there be between the blue and white channel to get the 20k look ?

Thanks

Dave B

[jwoyshnar]

Hey Guys,

I picked up a dimmable UV5000 a couple of weeks ago. It's going over what has been a dark gap in my tank between 2 400w Radiums.

I am turning the intensity up slowly to not cause any damage. At the moment I am up to 60% Blue and 35% White and the output color is quite red.

How big of a difference should there be between the blue and white channel to get the 20k look ?

Thanks

Dave B

It depends, which dimmable do you have? Controller or knobs? I know it sounds kinda wierd but there is a difference between the two. The controller version doesn't change much intensity wise after about 55%. The way tey have the LEDs seperated on the dimmable driver is three strings which each string is using 400 ma. The manual drivers have the power to change intensity all of the way up to 100%. Controller I would be around 15-20% white to 55-60% blue. The manual dimmer one I feel is much better for the bluer look.

[milonedp]

I'm messing around with these now and I can't get them to dim below 10% is that right? I saw some comments saying 5% but when I have the Apex start the intensity at 8:00 am at 5% I get nothing until about 8:09am but if I start at 10% it kicks on right at 8:00 am.

I was thinking about going with the following (unless I can get it to start lower). See any issues, should I ramp longer? Basically 2 hours to ramp up, 2 hours to ramp down and 8 hours at peek 70/50 which I'll play around with once I get some corals in the tank.

Outlets:
If Time 08:00 to 18:00 Then RUB (Ramp up Blue)
If Time 18:00 to 20:00 Then RDB (Ramp down Blue)
(same settings for white but RUW and RDW)

Profiles:
RUB
Ramp 120
Start 10
End 70

RDB
Ramp 120
Start 70
End 10

RUW
Ramp 120
Start 10
End 50

RDW
Ramp 120
Start 50
End 10

[jwoyshnar]

I'm messing around with these now and I can't get them to dim below 10% is that right? I saw some comments saying 5% but when I have the Apex start the intensity at 8:00 am at 5% I get nothing until about 8:09am but if I start at 10% it kicks on right at 8:00 am.

I was thinking about going with the following (unless I can get it to start lower). See any issues, should I ramp longer? Basically 2 hours to ramp up, 2 hours to ramp down and 8 hours at peek 70/50 which I'll play around with once I get some corals in the tank.

Outlets:
If Time 08:00 to 18:00 Then RUB (Ramp up Blue)
If Time 18:00 to 20:00 Then RDB (Ramp down Blue)
(same settings for white but RUW and RDW)

Profiles:
RUB
Ramp 120
Start 10
End 70

RDB
Ramp 120
Start 70
End 10

RUW
Ramp 120
Start 10
End 50

RDW
Ramp 120
Start 50
End 10

They won't. Mean well driver won't dim below 10%

[Dustin1300]

I'd say to fairly access whether those values are good to start with knowing the depth of the tank and type of coral could help too!

[jwoyshnar]

Between 55-100% there is no change on the blue channel in intensity. They are being so under driven that once they get to 55% there isn't enough current to make them brighter. This is one of the downfalls with these fixtures. I like a little bluer look but with this issue I can't achieve it without really turning down the white channel.

[Dustin1300]

I'd say to fairly assess whether those values are good to start with knowing the depth of the tank and type of coral could help too!

Really need edit feature for longer;)

[milonedp]

sorry dustin, 96 by 36 by 30, lights hung at 44 inches off the tank bottom, mix of soft, hammer and a SPS, but nothing is in there yet, I'm just trying to find my "starting point", I do have one of the apollos over the holding tank but its at an odd angle so its not really comparable...

jwoyshnar where are you getting that info? I swear when I was just playing with things last night I could see the blue changing when I was flipping between 80 and 70, could have just been my expectations running away with me but I'll have to check again tonight... I wasn't messing with the white channel at the same time so that wouldn't be it.

[milonedp]

I took a look tonight and had the wife just watch the tank without telling her what I was doing and she could see differences in blue from 70 to 100 and going back. Is that something from one of the older models? I have the UV5000.

[Phixer]

There is a lot to be said of quality customer service now days. Many places it's non-existent. Apollo Reef has great customer support. I had a lot of questions before ordering Joe answered all of them and has always been quick to reply. The lights are on the way and Im sure they will work great, if not Im sure the company will rectify the issue quickly.

Healty debate over new products like this is a good thing, you learn a lot and they are often entertaining.

[Sazerac81]

Seems like people really like this fixture. The extra programming through the different controllers makes it more versatile, but a little daunting for the less tech savvy.

[milonedp]

I'm still tinkering with settings now that I have corals in the tank (just about a month), how are people liking and more importantly what % mixes are folks using.

[o2manyfish]

I have had my Solar Reef UV for about 5 months. The corals under it are growing well. I was brave enough a couple of weeks ago to place a wild Austrailian Ice Fire Echinata directly under it.

Corals look good, growth seems good. But being as I have 400w radiums on either side of it the color is very red/pinkish and the colors do not pop as much as under the halide.

I have tried multiple combinations of light to try to get a more Blue/White spectrum, but haven't found any combination. At the moment I believe I am at 100 Blue and 75 white.

Dave B

[Rambomessiah]

How are these fixtures working for you all? What duration and intensity are you using and how is the growth?

[Tank2379]

Here is August of 2012
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/F1F6A6E3-EF57-4C45-8246-BCFC6CB62283-4566-0000033CCA534C97.jpg

And
May2013
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/Tank2379/null_zpsc2829d06.jpg

Enough said.. Everyone raves about all these fixtures but apollos does the exact same as all of them... If I had the money I would try others but Apollos over my Main display and I have my Razor over my Frag Tank...

[milonedp]

7am to 9am moonlights then a 2 hour ramp to
80 blue
30 white
Till 7pm then 2 hour ramp to 10 (and the blue and whites power off at 9)
Moonlights till 11

The moonlights actually overlap the ramp up and down a bit but i can't remember how much.
Overall the acros are doing great but some zoas seem to be bleaching and I've taken montgs to acclimate to these levels.

I think I'd like a little more blue so i may slowly play with that mix or even do some t5 supplementation but i have a big tank so others many not have those issues

Overall i like them but still haven't "nailed it" just yet, but I'm going very slow making changes

[mr. pluto]

[
Enough said.. Everyone raves about all these fixtures but apollos does the exact same as all of them... If I had the money I would try others but Apollos over my Main display and I have my Razor over my Frag Tank...[/QUOTE]

nice colors you have there.
DO you have just 1 fixture over your cube?

[milonedp]

Enough said.. Everyone raves about all these fixtures but apollos does the exact same as all of them... If I had the money I would try others but Apollos over my Main display and I have my Razor over my Frag Tank...

What do your dimming options look like? I'd be interested in seeing how you are running them.

[Tank2379]

[
Enough said.. Everyone raves about all these fixtures but apollos does the exact same as all of them... If I had the money I would try others but Apollos over my Main display and I have my Razor over my Frag Tank...

nice colors you have there.
DO you have just 1 fixture over your cube?[/QUOTE]

Yes 1 Fixture over my Cube ;)

[Tank2379]

What do your dimming options look like? I'd be interested in seeing how you are running them.

Sunrise B 5 to 90
Sunset B 90-5
MiddayB 100-100

SunriseW 5- 70
Sunset W 70-5
Midday W 80-80

Times
8:00 to 12:00 Sunrise W- ramp 240
12:00 to 17:00 Midday W- ramp 0
17:00 to 19.00 Sunset W ramp 120

6:00 to 12:00 Sunrise B- ramp 240
12:00 to 18:00 Midday B - ramp 0
18:00 to 20:00 Sunset B- ramp 120

I also have a storm mode programed on this one. The model I have also was a believe a Limited addition Artic Red Solar Blast.

[blossej]

I have had 2 of the dimmable 5k's over my 120, they are only about 8 inches above the water, I too have not found that sweet spot yet. I am thinkig about raising the lights, I am only running at about 50% white and 80 blue and I still have some Zoa's in the shade because they were bleaching.

[hoooop54]

Need some help. I am setting up my tank and just got 3 of these and an Apex. I have the base Apex and Energy Bar 8. I am trying to figure out how to hook everything up. Since there are 9 cords and 8 slots on the energy bar, is there a way to combine plugs? What do you think I should do with the ethernet cords? I got a splitter, but I am not sure the best way to combine them. I have just started to get the Apex going and I am a little frustrated.

[repairman68]

Very nice I will be following this as I am looking in to getting these to go on my 110 mixed reef build.

[mano1192]

Looking to buy 2 for my 150g, and this thread was great help in my decision process. Thank you all for your contributions.

Quick question, is it true that these fixtures still require 3 plugs each? 2 will equal 6 plugs off of my dc8 which basically means I have to buy and extra one. Just trying to plan out my equipment purchase, thanks!

[milonedp]

So here is what I did for wire management, I have 4 Apollos so a lot of wires.

I got 2 power strips and put them on my EB8, one labeled "Lights - Fan" and one "Lights - Moonlights". The "Fan" is for all the whites and blues and I have that turn off power 1 minute before the profile for the whites and blues finishes (for me that is at 10%). This way I don't get that flash when they discharge. The moonlights stay on for another couple hours but don't need the fan running (according to Joe).

I got a splitter for the ethernet cables and have the dimmers for the whites and blues running off of V1/V2.

This was much less expensive than getting another EB8 just for this purpose.

Let me know if that helps or if you have more questions.

[mano1192]

Thanks for the idea on power management. I'm excited to get these running on my tank. To me the prices make sense unlike with other LEDs and the value is on par when comparing against MH's. being in Vegas heat is always an issue and the savings of not buying a chiller should equal out nicely.

[gcfiend]

Sunrise B 5 to 90
Sunset B 90-5
MiddayB 100-100

SunriseW 5- 70
Sunset W 70-5
Midday W 80-80

Times
8:00 to 12:00 Sunrise W- ramp 240
12:00 to 17:00 Midday W- ramp 0
17:00 to 19.00 Sunset W ramp 120

6:00 to 12:00 Sunrise B- ramp 240
12:00 to 18:00 Midday B - ramp 0
18:00 to 20:00 Sunset B- ramp 120

I also have a storm mode programed on this one. The model I have also was a believe a Limited addition Artic Red Solar Blast.

For those happy with your colors.. How high do you have your fixtures hung from the water?

[mano1192]

I had to hang mine pretty high around 8+" to get the coverage I wanted.

[mano1192]

I checked today, mine are hung at 12" above the water surface. I have a 5' tank and 2 2' apollos. The coverage is perfect now that I raised the lights. 258427

[mano1192]

Anyone with any updates specifically with their sps colors?

[mano1192]

Has anyone seen growth and color with their apollos?