[slief]

Originally Posted by bwmalloy

I am currently researching the upgrade of my lighting from MH to LED. I have 180g mixed reef tank with standard dimensions of 72" x 24" x 24". After all the research over the last 3 weeks, I have narrowed my search down to the Hydras 52 and the Mitras LX7. For my tank I will need 3 fixtures. The Mitras will total ~$650 more than the Hydras not including hanging kits, etc.

Are the Mitras worth $650 more? What do I get for that extra money that makes it worth it? $650 is a significant amount of money for me.

The Mitras are MUCH more powerful. They also have better spread and less disco effect. There are 6 clusters (two rows of 3) of LED's on the Mitras which will do a better job of mitigating shadowing. You have 9 different channels of control with a broader range of diode spectrums which allow a better mix of colors. Out of the box, they can be controlled via a PC through the GHL Control Center program, My GHL which is a cloud program and even a smart phone via My GHL. My GHL allows you to control & the lights from anywhere if you have an internet connect. The GHL Cotrol Center program has a feature called Light Composer that tells you the anticipated wattage as well as the expected Kelvin range as you are making changes. You can preview your changes through the program as well so you can see the tank under the light as you make changes. There is also a feature where you can create, save and import light projects which essentially is a file that stores all the channel settings including ramps and intensity for all 9 channels in one single file called a project. The files are often shared within the Mitras user community. The LX7's have built in Wifi so you can connect them to your network and control them through the application or cloud without any additional wires. I don't think the Hydras have UV spectrum range diodes where as the Mitras do. While it's debatable as to what benefit the UV diodes are for coral growth, they do give the coral coloration more pop though it's something I think that should be used sparingly. Another nifty feature of the Mitras is that they have a power balancing feature. The fixture is rated at 195 watts. You can actually use all 195 watts of power even if you have some channels below 100% by driving other channels up to 130%. As an example, if you have your white channel at 70%, you can set one of the blue channels to hit 130%.

I've been running a pre-release LX7 on a frag tank of mine since shortly after MACNA and I have been extremely impressed with the fixture. I am seeing colors in my corals that I didn't even think was possible. I have been so impressed that I opted to do a major lighting upgrade on my main display. If you check my build thread, you can see I just installed 6 of the LX7's over my main display just yesterday. I've had my hands on a pretty wide range of LED fixtures since 2010 and these are by far the best fixtures I've had to date. That's no knock on the Hydras because they are very good lights and will grow corals just fine but the Mitras are really in another class IMO.