ATI Straton LED Light - Comments, Review, PAR, Coverage, Discuss...

[juiceguy]

My tank dimensions are 24"x 20"x 20" I am currently using an xr30 g4 pro I am thinking of changing it because of the fan noise I am thinking of an ati straton pro 102 model and I am planning to make the tank full acro but I am not sure if the lighting will be enough

The 102 will be much more light than need. I run 3 -102's over my 82x30x28 tank and they put out plenty of light and par

 

[ryshark]

It's a 120 gallon, 48" x 24" x 24".

It has a glass center brace which gives the Straton's an edge over the light bars from that perspective. .

Hardly any heat coming off the Pro. Her is when I switched from T5 to Straton Pro.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hardly any heat coming off the Pro. Her is when I switched from T5 to Straton Pro.

Thanks. :)

 

[ryshark]

My tank dimensions are 24"x 20"x 20" I am currently using an xr30 g4 pro I am thinking of changing it because of the fan noise I am thinking of an ati straton pro 102 model and I am planning to make the tank full acro but I am not sure if the lighting will be enough

You’ll get good coverage with 1x 102 pro over 24”x20”x20”.

 

[buruskeee]

Dang that’s the closest I’ve seen a yellow tang look in an aquarium compared to pics from the wild. So vibrant!

Thank you! I got back into the hobby after over a decade because I wanted to have a little school of Yellow Tangs - just to buy a tank first and then look for them and find out they’re banned

These are directly from Biota. They came very small and slightly transparent but after a couple weeks their color came in as they grew and couldn’t be happier with them.

The fish definitely pop more in whiter light. I find about 12-14k (slightly whiter than AB+ spectrum) is a nice balance between fish pop and color pop.

 

[LiquidSpace]

I just placed an order for two 204’s. I can’t wait to see these in person.

 

[buruskeee]

I just placed an order for two 204’s. I can’t wait to see these in person.

The big boys! What dimensions is the tank?

 

[LiquidSpace]

The big boys! What dimensions is the tank?

71x30x22

It’s gonna be SPS dominated. Tank has been dark for six months so this is exciting. How high do you run your lights over the water?

 

[buruskeee]

71x30x22

It’s gonna be SPS dominated. Tank has been dark for six months so this is exciting. How high do you run your lights over the water?

Ahh, so basically two of the 204s instead of three of the 153s. Should be similar output and spread but one less power brick and module to hang lol.

I’d raise them until the light starts to spill over. I have mine 10” above the water line, and can raise them a bit more but I like having 400 par 9” deep.

Make sure to post pics!

 

[LiquidSpace]

Ahh, so basically two of the 204s instead of three of the 153s. Should be similar output and spread but one less power brick and module to hang lol.

I’d raise them until the light starts to spill over. I have mine 10” above the water line, and can raise them a bit more but I like having 400 par 9” deep.

Make sure to post pics!

I definitely will take pics.

I reached out to ATI and he suggested two of the 204’s specifically for ease of hanging. That made my decision right away.

 

[LiquidSpace]

This is going to be a really dumb question, but this is the first time I’m mounting lights directly from the ceiling so I don’t want to mess it up. How do you really determine the placement of the lights? In this past I have only had to put a single light over my aquariums! I figure this probably isn’t too hard to figure out once I have them but some expectations before I go in would be really helpful.

I believe your aquarium is 6’, same as mine. Would you be willing to tell me how far from the edges are your lights and how much space is in between them in the middle? Just so I have an idea of where to place them?

 

[ryshark]

This is going to be a really dumb question, but this is the first time I’m mounting lights directly from the ceiling so I don’t want to mess it up. How do you really determine the placement of the lights? In this past I have only had to put a single light over my aquariums! I figure this probably isn’t too hard to figure out once I have them but some expectations before I go in would be really helpful.

I believe your aquarium is 6’, same as mine. Would you be willing to tell me how far from the edges are your lights and how much space is in between them in the middle? Just so I have an idea of where to place them?

I spaced mine a bit more than that pic, because where they overlap the par can get higher than on the opposite / far sides of the 2 lights.

 

[oreo54]

This is going to be a really dumb question, but this is the first time I’m mounting lights directly from the ceiling so I don’t want to mess it up. How do you really determine the placement of the lights? In this past I have only had to put a single light over my aquariums! I figure this probably isn’t too hard to figure out once I have them but some expectations before I go in would be really helpful.

I believe your aquarium is 6’, same as mine. Would you be willing to tell me how far from the edges are your lights and how much space is in between them in the middle? Just so I have an idea of where to place them?

Panel width is 24". Tank is 72".
Symmetrically it would be 8..24"..8"..24"..8"
Light is 24" x 18.5"

But as mentioned above that will generally form a hot spot in the center.

Best to widen the gap in the middle.
This gets tricky because height, front to back distance and the panels effective beam angle all come into play.
At a effective angle of 100 degrees and hanging height of approx 7" light face to water line the symetrical spacing has little spill on the sides, more on the front/ back " if" the tank is less than 30" wide.
7"...24"...10"...24"..7"...
Should somewhat even out the par difference along the entire 6ft with a bit of spill on the sides..
Note the higher the hanging height the more spill. The more narrow the led lensing the less spill.

You can determine best height using a phone lux meter app and a sketch of your tanks surface area by 1/2 in your case with 2 lights.
So a 36x24 outline.
Setting up a 6x2 area and hanging 2 lights is ideal though a bit cumbersome
It would allow you to judge the effects of the gap size as well as front/ back left/ right effects.


You just want relative numbers like at 7" the lux changes from x to 1/10x 12" from the center. Gives an idea of possible spill
Retaining photons in the tank as much as possible is the goal


All based on math and a few assumptions not on real life.
The 100 degrees is a compromise between the usual 90 to 120 degree angles generally used. Diffusers complicate things. I believe the pro version did away w/ the diffuser(?).

The height is below ati recommendations but that is a generic assumption.

I don't believe you gave your full tank dimensions.

 

[LiquidSpace]

Panel width is 24". Tank is 72".
Symmetrically it would be 8..24"..8"..24"..8"
Light is 24" x 18.5"

But as mentioned above that will generally form a hot spot in the center.

Best to widen the gap in the middle.
This gets tricky because height, front to back distance and the panels effective beam angle all come into play.
At a effective angle of 100 degrees and hanging height of approx 7" light face to water line the symetrical spacing has little spill on the sides, more on the front/ back " if" the tank is less than 30" wide.
7"...24"...10"...24"..7"...
Should somewhat even out the par difference along the entire 6ft with a bit of spill on the sides..
Note the higher the hanging height the more spill. The more narrow the led lensing the less spill.

You can determine best height using a phone lux meter app and a sketch of your tanks surface area by 1/2 in your case with 2 lights.
So a 36x24 outline.
Setting up a 6x2 area and hanging 2 lights is ideal though a bit cumbersome
It would allow you to judge the effects of the gap size as well as front/ back left/ right effects.


You just want relative numbers like at 7" the lux changes from x to 1/10x 12" from the center. Gives an idea of possible spill
Retaining photons in the tank as much as possible is the goal


All based on math and a few assumptions not on real life.
The 100 degrees is a compromise between the usual 90 to 120 degree angles generally used. Diffusers complicate things. I believe the pro version did away w/ the diffuser(?).

The height is below ati recommendations but that is a generic assumption.

I don't believe you gave your full tank dimensions.

Wow, this is really helpful. Thank you!

Full dimensions are 71 x 30 x 22.

 

[buruskeee]

Wow, this is really helpful. Thank you!

Full dimensions are 71 x 30 x 22.

For spacing between units, I just double the space between the units compared to the edge units to the glass. No science behind it - just using my thought process that 2 lights crossing is double the output of 1 with no neighbor so I have the distance between the gaps twice what the units to glass would be.

 

[oreo54]

:)

 

[buruskeee]

:)

Yep … looks like it’s pretty close to the 2:1 butt pulled rule of thumb I use lol

 

[Reef-Engineer]

I currently have about 8" between them but plan to move them further apart which will be closer to Buruskee's rule of thumb

 

[AmateurAlchemist]

I picked up 2x g2 pro 204s a few days ago for an upcoming build. For context I've been through Red Sea ReefLEDs, Kessil A360Xs and currently run GHL Mitras 7204s.

Initial impressions-

The quality of the fixtures is second to none. Very solid feeling, flawless paint job and clear sheath cables are nice to see. Packaging was clearly sufficient as they arrived in one piece. Instructions were supplied in German only but whatever. Packages included the light fixture, hanging kit, control unit, C13 power cable with correct plug, Meanwell power supply (nice to see, don't reinvent the wheel) and Gebrauchsanweisung.

You have to wire the fixture to the control unit. Instructions are clear enough and wires have crimped terminals but the markings on the wires aren't particularly clear. I setup to test then removed cables again for storage, which was harder than it should have been due to tight tolerances on the connectors. An SP21 connector or similar would have been a better shout here IMO, but no biggie.

I've seen shimmer compared to T5s so was concerned the tank would look flat but it's actually pretty decent. Certainly not Kessil levels of shimmer but it's adequate.

I run lights on the whiter side but wowzers, the pre-canned presets are very white. Even the LPS+ profile is a whitewash. I'll probably start with LPS+ but take whites back to 10, and that's still whiter than I normally run.

They are immensely, insanely, overwhelmingly powerful. At 15% overall intensity and whites knocked back to 10 I was still seeing 100 PAR at 60cm depth with the light (very approximately) 25cm above the water surface. Coverage is, obviously, bananas. If properly sized I can't imagine any scenario where supplemental lights would be required.

And now, unfortunately, the not so good bits. I've seen people mention how bad the software is but a) I work in IT infrastructure. I'm used to clunky, enterprise software and b) I use GHL and for all of it's flaws, really don't find it to be that bad, despite having seen claims that it's unusable; so figured it would be fine. Good gravy, I was in for a shock... The annoying thing is that all of these niggles could be solved in firmware.

It took multiple attempts to flip wifi to client mode. I could see them connected to the (UniFi, FWIW) network but the web portal just wouldn't respond. It took multiple retries (at doing exactly the same thing) to get past that. Once connected they're reliable.

The ethernet port does nothing, apparently. I'm running DHCP and see the MAC but it just never picks up an IP.

The lights came with a firmware dated 2024 but the latest version on ATI's site is from 2023.

As far as I can tell, you have to choose between connecting to a common wifi network and controlling each light individually or controlling both through a single light (master/slave mode) but through the master's wifi network. If I set them up master/slave then move the master to my normal SSID, the slave doesn't follow. If I do janky things and force the slave onto the normal SSID they don't group up again. Logging into each shows them in a group but with one member offline and no way to manually intervene. Come on....

No NTP. So if the power goes out, despite them having wifi, you have to log in to (potentially multiple) lights and set the time again. What a glaringly obvious omission...

No moon cycles. Many lights at a fraction of the cost can account for moon phase.

No acclimatisation mode. I must just be missing this, surely...

The UI is generally, well, Germanic. It works, but it's unintuitive and harder than it should be.

Most of these things are annoyances more than dealbreakers but the sheer quantity of annoyances has me questioning whether they'll be staying. It's easily the most underwhelming experience I've had after dropping over £3k.

If I'm wrong on any of the above, please, please correct me. I want to love these.

 

[spsick]

@AmateurAlchemist tha is for your comments. Very little first hand talk about these.

If they’re beautiful and well built, that seems totally negated by not saving time through power interruptions.