GNC BluRay M Pro finally arrived - (photos intense)

[Haacheew]

So excited to try out the panel style LED lighting over my Waterbox 20. Installed the GNC BlueRay M Pro two days ago. What a beautiful, high qualify fixture. Don't have PAR meter, can't tell PAR value. Put my hand near the water level (7 inch from the lighting), still feel the intense heat even set W@25%, R@10%, B60%. The unit has no acclimation mode, need to let coral adapt gradually.

My very rough and initial impression with the unit is that built quality, lighting spectrum, color are extraordinary. However, lighting control software is very primitive (ease of use and primitive are 2 different things) for me. I like to be able to tweak and play with settings, saving profiles. etc., -- like what Radion and AI provide. Unfortunately, the M-Pro quite disappoints me in this regard. Hope GNC will improve this aspect through future firmware updates. I will require sometime to familiar with M-Pro before giving a bit in-depth evaluation. Don't get me wrong, I love the new GNC M Pro thus far; regardless it's shortcomings with which I can cope. Can't take my sight off this eye-candy.

Apologize the poor photo quality, don't know how to use iphone 12SE camera. My photos can't do its justice. The esthetics of the real unit, even Air Link Wi-Fi unit, will earn all the WOWs.

Part 1 ends

 

[Haacheew]

Part 2 (more photos)

 

[Haacheew]

GNC Pro series are on HUGE sales. For $800 the Bluray Pro is an absolute steal. Wish I had delayed my purchase of the M Pro so I could buy the "full size" Bluray Pro for $800. Nonetheless, after a month-and-half use, I love my M Pro very much, so do my corals.

https://www.aquariumpartners.com/product-page/gnc-blue-ray-pro

 

[oreo54]

It's different from the last one l "saw" as to the plug and the "osmotic" port. Whatever that is.
M pro and pro??

GNC BluRay Pro Goes Even Deeper Into the Blue | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

The BluRay Pro is a new high performance LED light from Italian aquarium light manufacturer GNC. This is their newest light model that we would have seen had InterZoo taken place which is a shame…

reefbuilders.com

Just an observation

 

[Haacheew]

It's different from the last one l "saw" as to the plug and the "osmotic" port. Whatever that is.
M pro and pro??

GNC BluRay Pro Goes Even Deeper Into the Blue | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

The BluRay Pro is a new high performance LED light from Italian aquarium light manufacturer GNC. This is their newest light model that we would have seen had InterZoo taken place which is a shame…

reefbuilders.com

Just an observation

Your link shows GNC BluRay Pro that is double the size of M Pro. In addition, BluRay Pro comes with a detachable power cord versus M Pro's fixed cord.

I wish AquariumPartners would let me exchange/upgrade my M Pro to the $800 Pro. I only owned M Pro for a month and half then they have this huge sales. From $1200 to $800, it's 33% Off sales. Bummer!

 

[oreo54]

Still want to know what an "osmotic port" is.

 

[Haacheew]

Sorry, I do not know. Intriging, I never noticed that port until you mentioned.

 

[Hydrored]

Still want to know what an "osmotic port" is.

There is a port on the bottom like a pelican case since it's a sealed unit, no idea if it does anything at all

 

[Haacheew]

I would share a bit of personal experience after a month a half use of BluRay M Pro. This is not an in-depth review because of the short period of usage. So far I am very pleased with it and so do my corals.

- "... eliminating shadows." Panel LED may help with lessening shadowing. That's the main reason I switched from Radion xr15 G5 Pro to GNC BluRay M Pro.

- "... low powered LEDs prolong LEDs life span." My BluRay M Pro employs 194 low powered LEDs, each diode only uses 0.22 watts.

However, GNC BluRay Pro's software provides rudimental light setting functions.
-You can control 3 lighting channels - White, Blue and (UV+Royal Blue+Deep Red) - with 5% increment;
-up to 4 settings;
-sunrise, sunset ramping time can be up to 2 hours long each,
-moonlighting pre-set at fixed 1% of Blue channel and it's NOT sync with the real life lunar cycle
*** (I am using wireless Wi-Fi connection to control the unit. Please someone correct me if I am wrong. I think GNC BluRay Pro lacks the online ability to sync with lunar cycle or firmware update. Hence, updating firmware is a concern.);
-only one profile (no multiple profiles like AI or Radion that let you save profiles for SPS, LFS and mixed. etc.)
-lighting intensity change between settings can be so abrupt because the process will be finished in a fixed 1 minute time. For instant, a change of 30% Blue at 1pm setting to a 80% at 3pm setting will be finished in the first minute of 3pm. Meaning it will change 30% to 80% starting at 3:00pm and ending at 3:01pm - 1 minute time.
It's not gradually (or evenly) spread over a period of 2 hours. So, the bigger the % spread the more shock to marine life due to the 1 minute limitation. Note, Sunrise and Sunset ramping use different and much more evenly and agreeable method.

I wish GNC would put more effort to improve it's software in order to compete with the modern high-end competitors. I have nothing but praise about it's hardware. The aesthetic appearance of fan-less, combined aluminum and thick acrylic is the most beautiful, gracious and elegant LED unit on market. In addition, professional craftsmanship and high quality material is simply unbeatable. Pleasant light spectrum to my eyes and equally important is that my corals love it.

Now its on a HUGE sale, for $800 the GNC Bluray Pro becomes a very tough competitor among the hi-end LED market if you would forgive the shortcomings from it's software design.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Awesome to see that quantum board technology is making it's way to coral grow gear now

 

[Haacheew]

Awesome to see that is making it's way to coral grow gear now

Would you enlighten me what's "quantum board technology"? TY

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Would you enlighten me what's "quantum board technology"? TY

Multiple individual led diodes, mounted to aluminum backers normally with passive or active heat sinks.

We have been using that tech in plant grow operations for a decade. Unmatched coverage and spread. Reduced shadowing and coolish running temps.

 

[oreo54]

Sorry, I do not know. Intriging, I never noticed that port until you mentioned.

Osmotic pressure leveling valve: included

Funny ... Glad it' s included.

 

[Haacheew]

Funny ... Glad it' s included.

Is that osmotic port used to "one-way" release vaporized water content or air pressure?

 

[Haacheew]

Respond to a few pms regarding the updates on the GNC M Pro and my lighting settings.

First of all, correction about the ramping time period. It is 200 minutes. My apology.

Here we go:

I have been using the GNC BluRay M Pro since October 2021. After countless tweakings on my SPS focused reef tank, this is my current settlement.

- My current lighting schedule and settings on GNC M Pro program:
Set#1: Sunrise Ramp Up (the Daylight icon) starts at 10:00am with 35%W, 100%R (note that Red Channel consists of UV, Royal Blue and High Red), 100%B, with 120minutes ramp up time.
***Also, read my previous post about how the ramping or changing from one setting to the next setting works.
Set#2 starts at 18:00 (6pm) with 10%W, 100R, 100%B
Set#3 and #4 - not set
Sunset Ramp Down (the Moon icon) starts at 20:00 (8pm) with 120 minutes ramp down all the way to the night time. No need to set light settings, the Sunset Ramp Down does it automatically and smoothly starting with the Set#2 setting.
***Note: I have a little algae problem, I cut 4 small enough black duct tape patches covering over the 4 red leds, there are total of 8 red leds on GNC M Pro. This way, it only reduces the red spectrum/output within the Red Channel, without effecting the UV and Royal Blue output.


This is a full picture of the lighting schedule:
10:00 to 12:00 mainly Blue spectrum, Ramp Up to the Daytime
12:00 to 18:00 Daytime - peak of the light 35%W, 100%R, 100%B
18:00 to 20:00 mainly Blue spectrum with only 10%W, 100%R, 100%B (this is the Set#2 duration)
20:00 to 22:00 Ramp Down to the night.

Since I don't have a genuine PAR meter, I can't give you any "real" readings in that regards. However, I use Photone, an Apple app for measuring PAR, to relatively measure PAR; just to get an rough idea where the PAR stands between different intensity.

I hang my GNC 9 inches from the water surface. So, near the water surface and at the center of the tank, I get about 420 PAR (with Photone app) at the peak of the day that is between 12:00 to 18:00 hour.

As I mentioned in the October 21 post, there insn't much you can tweak with the light settings. It is simple although not very straight forward like the Radion or AI, quality of the light is great in my opinion. Each diode uses only 0.22 watt out of the 5 watts specifications, this light should last for LONG time. In terms of growing coral, I can say they are growing very well, I am happy with it so far. Well, I didn't see mine double or triple growth like other reefers claim with their favorite brands of lights in the same period of time (5 months). I cann't compare to other lights, since I re-started and re-scaped the whole tank with almost all new sps frags in October 2021.

Conclusion, I still love the GNC M Pro, I wish I had gotten the full size Pro. If I had the money, I would try out ATI Straton. I like playing new toys. I have tried 3 lights for the past 3 year.

 

[Hydrored]

Respond to a few pms regarding the updates on the GNC M Pro and my lighting settings.

First of all, correction about the ramping time period. It is 200 minutes. My apology.

Here we go:

I have been using the GNC BluRay M Pro since October 2021. After countless tweakings on my SPS focused reef tank, this is my current settlement.

- My current lighting schedule and settings on GNC M Pro program:
Set#1: Sunrise Ramp Up (the Daylight icon) starts at 10:00am with 35%W, 100%R (note that Red Channel consists of UV, Royal Blue and High Red), 100%B, with 120minutes ramp up time.
***Also, read my previous post about how the ramping or changing from one setting to the next setting works.
Set#2 starts at 18:00 (6pm) with 10%W, 100R, 100%B
Set#3 and #4 - not set
Sunset Ramp Down (the Moon icon) starts at 20:00 (8pm) with 120 minutes ramp down all the way to the nightime. No need to set light settings, the Sunset Ramp Down does it automatically and smoothly starting with the Set#2 setting.
***Note: I have a little algae problem, I cut 4 small enough black duct tape patches covering over the 4 red leds, there are total of 8 red leds on GNC M Pro. This way, it only reduces the red spectrum/output within the Red Channel, without effecting the UV and Royal Blue output.


This is a full picture of the lighting schedule:
10:00 to 12:00 mainly Blue spectrum, Ramp Up to the Daytime
12:00 to 18:00 Daytime - peak of the light
18:00 to 20:00 mainly Blue spectrum with only 10%W (this is the Set#2 duration)
20:00 to 22:00 Ramp Down to the night.

Since I don't have a genuine PAR meter, I cann't give you any "real" readings in that regards. However, I use Photone, an Apple app for measuring PAR, to relatively measure PAR; just to get an rough idea where the PAR stands between different intensity.

I hang my GNC 9 inches from the water surface. So, near the water surface and at the center of the tank, I get about 420 PAR (with Photone app) at the peak of the day that is between 12:00 to 18:00 hour.

As I mentioned in the October 21 post, there insn't much you can tweak with the light settings. It is simple although not very straight forward like the Radion or AI, quality of the light is great in my opinion. Each diode uses only 0.22 watt out of the 5 watts specifications, this light should last for LONG time. In terms of growing coral, I can say they are growing very well, I am happy with it so far. Well, I didn't see mine double or tripple growth like other reefers claim with their favorite brands of lights in the same period of time (5 months). I cann't compare to other lights, since I re-started and re-scaped the whole tank with almost all new sps frags in October 2021.

Conclusion, I still love the GNC M Pro, I wish I had gotten the full size Pro. If I had the money, I would try out ATI Straton. I like playing new toys. I have tried 3 lights for the past 3 year.

I have 5 of the Pro sitting around if you decide to upgrade…. ;-)

 

[lancesmith1]

Hydrored - Curious as to you had yours set as to mounting height and intensity when you ran these? And why did you go away from them?

 

[Hydrored]

Hydrored - Curious as to you had yours set as to mounting height and intensity when you ran these? And why did you go away from them?

12” 100B 80R 45W

Too blue for me, other than that I liked the lights and coral was fine under them for the month in use.

Setup is in my build thread.

 

[Haacheew]

Growth comparison between 09-22-2021 right before installation of the new GNC M Pro and today's. Sorry for the poor photo color and quality.

I re-established the tank with the new negative-aqua-scaping (NAS) on 09-14-2021. Installed GNC on 10-01-2021 and added Nero-3 Jan.2022 . It took about a month to stablize the water condition. Later, I added 2 pieces live-rock to the NAS.

I just want to illustrate the growth of that neon green disc-like coral (don't know the name) under the GNC. It's about 6 months. During this time I had made numerous lighting tweakings.

09-22-2021 vs. 03-22-2022; comparing the neon green disc-like coral

vs. Today:

09-22-2021 vs. 03-22-2022 from Top View
Couple of sps died during the 1 month "water recycling" due to the new NAS.
I added 6 pieces of new coral including BR Walt Disney, Mercury Rising, Homewrecker, Cherry Bomb, Diablo Milli, and Bubble Yum. Purchased these sps from Dan Fulks of https://defugiumsreef.com/ . I got 90% of my sps from him in several Silicon Coral Farmer Market events. Highly recommend him. Great Price! Great Guy!


09-22-2021 under Radion xr15 G5 Pro

vs. Today: GNC M Pro

 

[lancesmith1]

Just received my PRO today. Got it programmed quickly. I really like the simplicity of the programming. Just 3 channels and ramp up and down. Its pretty much like the SKY program ... set and forget.