Pacific Sun Pandora hyperion hybrid Fanclub

[calistyle]

My only grip (and mine hasn't arrived yet) is the one channel for 4 T5s. 2 channels for T5 would seem like a standard, and I would much rather have 6 hrs of 1 T5 channel on, then 4 hours of a 2nd T5 channel on.

Dimming T5s (like ATI unit) I don't really care about, but was shocked to see only 1 channel for 4 bulbs.

This alone almost had me go w/ the ATI, however ATI lacks way too much in LED and I fill that's more important than the 2nd T5 channel.

[jschultzbass]

Originally Posted by calistyle

My only grip (and mine hasn't arrived yet) is the one channel for 4 T5s. 2 channels for T5 would seem like a standard, and I would much rather have 6 hrs of 1 T5 channel on, then 4 hours of a 2nd T5 channel on.

Dimming T5s (like ATI unit) I don't really care about, but was shocked to see only 1 channel for 4 bulbs.

This alone almost had me go w/ the ATI, however ATI lacks way too much in LED and I fill that's more important than the 2nd T5 channel.

I agree. I was in the same boat with ATI as well. To bad it isn't a simple software update to change the T5 to 2-channel.

[ssdawood]

Originally Posted by JPMagyar

Aside from Pacific Sun I have owned AI and Orphek and I borrowed Radions for about 2 months. I also work with a very wealthy gentleman in Bedford, NY who has a 4000 gallon system that uses more than a dozen Mitras. He previously ran about a dozen Pacific Sun fixtures.

Thats alot of leds fixtures on a TOTM. Any specific reason why so many fixtures. I know you dont like leds. Were you trying to see if one of them will work. Not nit picking, but trying to achieve same results as you.

What about the wealthy gentlemen from Bedford. Does he like his Mitras ?

I think Pac Sun can use some white leds. Green Red and Yellow can be replaced with warm whites. Also optics will help with increasing par. I am using halides now but part of me still wants to goto leds/ t5.

Maybe its the dawn dusk effect or the control. Halides seem so primitive, just on or off.

It is such a tough decision.

[Rudimenta]

Quote: I think Pac Sun can use some white leds. Green Red and Yellow can be replaced with warm whites. Also optics will help with increasing par. ...

If you want white lets the R model has! As for optics thanks but no thanks, please don't PS..

I experimented (which you can do yourself cheap) with rapid LEDs DIY, is very easy and even have solder-less options, I suggest buy a package make a small setup. You can experiment with optics and led combinations to your liking.

[calistyle]

I would NOT want more white. So far I'm very happy with the lights.

[JonasW]

No, I'm also happy the way the unit is delivered. But I have lowered red to 60% so that my dward angel doesn't glow
UV, amber and cyan to 70%.

First two pictures are with the settings above and the unit at 55%.
The last picture, from the side is with the same settings and the 4 T5:s on too. 2 ATI Blue+ and 2 Coral+.

[Jaredcube]

Wonderfull

[Pacific Sun RD]

Originally Posted by JonasW

No, I'm also happy the way the unit is delivered. But I have lowered red to 60% so that my dward angel doesn't glow
UV, amber and cyan to 70%.

First two pictures are with the settings above and the unit at 55%.
The last picture, from the side is with the same settings and the 4 T5:s on too. 2 ATI Blue+ and 2 Coral+.

Your lamp perfectly fit to your aquarium stand :-) VERY VERY nice! :-)
Your lamp is placed not far away from water surface - so I would never set more than 50-55% of LED panels power.. Remember - that panels working on 50% of total power(electric power) emit about 60-65% energy(in compare to 100% setting).
It's caused by LED efficiency - on smaller currents they have better performance..
PS. As I saw you still have protection foil on your LCD

[JonasW]

Thanks!

The lamp is about 10cm from the surface (4"). I lowered the power from 60% to 55% afraid of bleaching the corals. I will run it at this % for a month or so to see how the corals like it.
Yep, the foil is still there. It's hard to peel of. I will give it another try

[jdamon]

Ok, so I have had the light going for almost 3 months now, and I thought it would be nice to share my experiences thus far.

I was having a problem initially where the T5 portion of my lamp was tripping my GFCI outlet, and had to run only 2 of 4 T5's while PS was figuring out the issue. I talked with support for a bit, who asked about the voltage threshold of my outlets, then had me work with Yorgos locally. Yorgos took the lamp apart, and told me I needed new T5 ballasts from Poland, and that might take a while. 1 month later, T5 ballasts arrived, were swapped out, problem still persisted. I was a bit upset at that point, and informed Yorgos of the failure to solve the issue. I received an email the next day from support poland/ Yorgos that stated the T5 ballasts will always trip the GFCI if the outlets are rated to trip at less than 1 mA (mine are 0.5mA, which was relayed way back). They said this is normal, and that the T5 ballasts have their own internal protection, and to just plug them into a non GFCI protected outlet. They also sent me a manual from a competitor that mentioned these same facts. So, I plugged the T5 (via extension cord) into a non GFCI outlet and it hasn't acted up since then. I am pretty sure PS Poland was trying to figure out how to handle this situation, but I brought the problem to their attention more than 2 months prior. And if the fix was to just not use a GFCI, that info would have been handy, but as I said, I think they were trying to see what the best way to deal with the situation was. In the end the lamp works fine, but I would not have installed one of the GFCI outlets, as they are behind my tank now, and difficult to swap out.

So, now that the lamp is functioning as intended, I am fiddling with the settings a bit. I started running all LED channels at 100% with max lamp power of 25%, with the intention to ramp up slowly to 50% or so, as the majority of my frags came from MH tanks. It was suggested to increase 5% every 2 weeks, so that's the plan. I have a bunch of SPS frags, a few LPS and Zoas. They are all doing great, growing, colors mostly good. Only had one green birds nest that is now brown, but I think it was just too low in the tank, and the lamps are on pretty low setting still. The corals more near the top are fine with color. I am up to 35% max power, with next increase this weekend. I recently turned down the red channel to 25% and it looks a lot better to me. And its a lot less "disco-y" during the sunset phase. Other folks have cut the cyan also, but I am good for now. I think it would be fun to fool around with the PAR table, but I don't have the time at the moment. I have been intending to download Bali, so I can see what that table looks like, hopefully I will have some time soon.

To summarize, The light is good, growth is happening on all my corals. Only time will tell if the colors will be maintained. The whole ~3 months of running 2 out of 4 T5's was annoying, but hopefully PS has their strategy now on how to handle this from here out. I would suggest putting this T5 outlet restriction in the manual. I also gave up on Mac software and got a blue tooth transmitter for my PC, waaaaaaaay better.

I will try to post a picture, but addmittedly I have not mastered the white balance setting on my camera... I should have a minute to try to get it corrected tomorrow morning.

[jschultzbass]

Calistyle, JonasW, and jdamon - Thank you very much for posting your experience. I have my light but am still working on setting up my new tank (had to tear down the existing 180 first...not fun). Your experience will no doubt save me some headaches and get me to the end result I want faster.

What T5 tubes has everyone found to work best? PacSun, do you have any comments on what you have found as well?

[jdamon]

Originally Posted by jschultzbass

Calistyle, JonasW, and jdamon - Thank you very much for posting your experience. I have my light but am still working on setting up my new tank (had to tear down the existing 180 first...not fun). Your experience will no doubt save me some headaches and get me to the end result I want faster.

What T5 tubes has everyone found to work best? PacSun, do you have any comments on what you have found as well?

No problem!

I have back to front:

Blue plus
Coral plus

Led

Blue plus
Coral plus

All ATI bulbs


I would agree with some of the other threads on this subject that the LEDs are pretty blue already, so you could swap out one of the blue plus's for a coral plus. But, after saying that, I turned down the red channel on the LEDs (more blue over all) and I like how it looks with my current T5 selection.

On a separate note, I am having a hard time still with getting pictures to look good. I got the white balance sort of close, but then things are out of focus, or just a little off... I need to fiddle around a bit more with camera, and a tripod would probably help tremendously...

Good luck with the tear down/ set up!

[JonasW]

I'm using the same T5:s as jdamon. 2 Coral+ and 2 Blue+ from ATI.

Coral+
Blue +
LED
Blue+
Coral+

I also thought the LED:s where blue at first, but that was because I used the Bali-program.
With the Bali-program turned off and the majority of the channels at 100% (red turned down to 65% now, UV and Cyan to 70%) it's not so blue. Very neutral but with good "pop" in the colours.

It's still a little bit blue with the T5:s off, but when the combination above is turned on the Coral+ makes it more neutral.

[Pacific Sun RD]

Originally Posted by jschultzbass

Calistyle, JonasW, and jdamon - Thank you very much for posting your experience. I have my light but am still working on setting up my new tank (had to tear down the existing 180 first...not fun). Your experience will no doubt save me some headaches and get me to the end result I want faster.

What T5 tubes has everyone found to work best? PacSun, do you have any comments on what you have found as well?

As you know we created our own T5 tubes - with spectrum dedicated for hard corals (SPS mostly). They are look and work perfect adn are available thru our USA Partner(www.PacificSunUsa.com)
For Pandora Hyperion S/R2+ we suggest following combos:
1) For more blueish/pop look
2x Crystal Blue
1x Pigment INT+
1x Spectra+

2) For more white/daylight:

2x Crystal Blue
2x Shallow Water

or
2x Crystal Blue
1x Pigment INT+
1x Shallow Water

Regards

[JonasW]

If you would compare your own T5:s to ATI:s.
Which T5:s from ATI would you say your Crystal Blue and so on compares to?

[Pacific Sun RD]

ATI Blue Plus is little similar to our Crystal Blue, but our tube offer "deeper" blue and more in UV region:

Less visible light in 450-500nm are make corals much more pop..

The same with Spectra+ - ATI Coral Plus bulb is much closer to our T5 tubes but there are also small diffrence visible by naked eye:

[calistyle]

updated pics! All is well in Pandora land!

[Wolfgang]

Originally Posted by Pacific Sun RD

ATI Blue Plus is little similar to our Crystal Blue, but our tube offer "deeper" blue and more in UV region:

Less visible light in 450-500nm are make corals much more pop..

The same with Spectra+ - ATI Coral Plus bulb is much closer to our T5 tubes but there are also small diffrence visible by naked eye:

How does the Par levels of these T5's compare to ATI?
Ready for a bulb exchange on my 4 Bulb ATI Sunpower fixture and having great results with 2 Blue Plus and 2 Coral Plus tubes. SPS Tank.
Thanks!
-Wolfgang

[Pacific Sun RD]

PAR reading depend from many factors - one of most important is spectrum.
For tubes very similar together(like Coral Plus/Spectra+) PAR will be very similar.
For other tubes it also very close(some our have higher, some other little lower - depending from spectrum chart) but you can be sure that under them you will get also similar PAR readings.




But in our offer you will be able also to find some tubes not existing in other brands - like Ultra UV Wide - first daylight tube with real deep UV radiation:

[DiscusHeckel]

I would like to try your new T5 tubes. Where can I get them in the UK? Do you have a proper retail network in the UK? I would like to go and view your products in the flesh (I do not mean places where you visit by appointment only!).

regards

[ccuk]

hi discusheckl
we are uk resellers for pacific sun ,, we are just down the road in doncaster . we are moving into shop front premises ,,, but these are under construction as i type..we will have all pacific sun products on display ... they will even be lighting are coral bays ...and demos of lights and there new doser ... if i can be of more help please let me know
stewart

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by ccuk

hi discusheckl
we are uk resellers for pacific sun ,, we are just down the road in doncaster . we are moving into shop front premises ,,, but these are under construction as i type..we will have all pacific sun products on display ... they will even be lighting are coral bays ...and demos of lights and there new doser ... if i can be of more help please let me know
stewart

Thanks Stewart. I phoned you earlier (0844 ...) but there was no reply. I also left a message for you in salty box UK sub-forum.

Do you stock the new tubes (39W)? If so, would you please pm me their prices?

Many thanks.

[ccuk]

hi discusheckei

sorry about the missed call things are hectic here with trying to get the new store open ..
we have just placed a big order for lights and dosers and tubes but afraid these have all been snapped up , your 39w tubes will be £10.99p each
stew

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by ccuk

hi discusheckei

sorry about the missed call things are hectic here with trying to get the new store open ..
we have just placed a big order for lights and dosers and tubes but afraid these have all been snapped up , your 39w tubes will be £10.99p each
stew

OK. Thanks. My tube change is due in July-August. I will contact you again nearer the time.

[jschultzbass]

I ordered some of the new PacSun bulbs for mine. I'm going to try a couple different combos and let you guys know what I think!

Normally I'm an ATI fan using ATI fixtures and bulbs but am excited to try the PacSun combo.