Mitras Lightbar 2's

[Tristren]

All right, apparently I'm missing something...

I ran the RJ45 upstairs and plugged the Lightbar splitter into the ProfiLux (first into the second outlet on the main unit, then into the PowerBar).

And the ProfiLux thinks it is running the lights. In Myghl is see the channels there and see them shifting. But it isn't changing the lights at all. They are just running at 100%.

Lots of fiddling and trying and retrying the steps but no luck. In the end I just plugged them back into the ProfiLux Light and they started behaving as expected again right away.

I should add that when I first switched them over, and added the new Deep Actinic, they kind of freaked out.

The went on at 100% (I think ) then went off. Then started pulsing red! The faded back to full spectrum, the pulsing red again. They kept doing that until I had loaded my profile and transmitted it. Then they stopped and just stayed on at full spectrum.

Also doing the Test Spectrum had no effect either.


So.... @Marco@GHLUSA, @Lasse, @Ditto ...
Help?

Cheers, Tony

 

[Ditto]

@Tristren - Did you set the Communication to Serial for the Mitras Light Bar?

The Freaking out, I had my original blink red because the 3 of mine I accidentally plugged into and over drew on the power supply. Once I set the overall power to 80% they stopped blinking, but not 100% sure.

You have 3 Lights correct now? What size were they again and what the size of your power supply?

You plugging all 3 into the Mitras-LB-Splitter which is plugged into your power suppy for the lights, then the Mitras-LB-Cable-RJ45 j is plugged into the P4 Mitras light bar port?

 

[Tristren]

Ah... I figured that I missed something:

@Tristren - Did you set the Communication to Serial for the Mitras Light Bar?

I did do that, per @Lasse's instructions on the first page.

The Freaking out, I had my original blink red because the 3 of mine I accidentally plugged into and over drew on the power supply. Once I set the overall power to 80% they stopped blinking, but not 100% sure.

That was my thought as well. Though when I went into the Lightbar settings it had the max power set to 70%.

You have 3 Lights correct now? What size were they again and what the size of your power supply?

Correct, I have an 80 and two 140s now. But that is 50w+90w+90w and I have a 240w power supply. So in theory I have enough to run everything at 100% and not cap out. I had some channels overclocked, so that may have been the problem. I won't be running all channels at 100%, but I'll still keep the individual ones maxed out at 100%.

You plugging all 3 into the Mitras-LB-Splitter which is plugged into your power suppy for the lights, then the Mitras-LB-Cable-RJ45 j is plugged into the P4 Mitras light bar port?

Aaaand there it is. Nope, I connected it to the PAB port.

Ok, so in the morning I'll plug the Mitras Lightbar cable into the Mitras Lightbar port... which makes sense.

Thanks!

Cheers, Tony

 

[Ditto]

@Tristren - how is your lights doing?

 

[Tristren]

@Tristren - how is your lights doing?

They're doing great!

I took your program, and Lasse's, then just made my own

Essentially I just tried to kind of mimic a normal daylight arc in terms of intensity. For the spectrum I have the RGB as the main core (per @Lasse) then added the rest as seemed appropriate. I tend to prefer a whiter light but this mix of Lightbars lets me have solid blue spectrum in there but balanced out with the others.

I also have it set up to be a bit longer overall, and with longer at closer to 100%. I'm using the seasonal lighting feature to acclimate because that let's me ease into the longer period as well as the intensity.

The extra set points I have with the ProfiLux have also let me set up the moon light better. In the old setup the moonlight started right at the end of the day. Meaning around the full moon it was bright enough in the tank when the nassarius snails came out that the Filefish, who was still awake, would go and have a closer look at them. So fewer nassarius snails now...

Now I have the day ending with 0% at 7:30, then another setpoint of 0% at 9:00, then the two channels I'm using for moon light peak at 1:00am (at a 10% overall brightness and < 10% on those channels). Then back to 0% at 7:00am when the day starts.

I'm planning on putting up a proper set up post for the whole thing once everything is settled. So next week sometime.

At this point I'll say that I see where people's frustration comes from in setting it up and getting everything communicating. Some of it definitely makes me think of what it was like building a PC. Less plug and play than we are used to. Having said that, once it is set up it seems very resilient, and I am really really happy with the purchase, and the folks at GHL have been great.

Having this forum and experts like yourself and the others is a huge benefit.

I have the core system set up, monitoring with the four probes, and controlling the lights and the heat.

Next I want to look at the programming logic options properly, and then start setting up the doser. The plan is to use that for feeding and low level AWC.

The other things I want to look at are how to best get measurement data (and things like power consumption) out and into a forum that I can play with it. And Dynamic Nominal Value. I gather we should be looking forward to something on that front in early 2019.


Cheers, Tony

 

[Ditto]

@Tristren - great to hear I do love my light bars!!

I do agree some of the initial setup is like putting a PC together. I did enjoy thou taking the unit apart and sliding in modules reminded me of the old video cards swap out days hehe.

But for the few things that are old school are surpassed 10 fold in functionality and features.

Once you get through that initia hump it is really east after that. The videos they have done and the support from both the community here and from GHL itself is fantastic.

 

[Ditto]

Good Morning Light bar users

Right now I am running 2 Deep Actinic,, and 1 Actinic, they are on the tank. I am running them all at 85% power, my par reading on the sand bed is about 100-120 and on the top of the tank is running anywhere from 300-400. I want to raise them, but concerned that the par reading is going to drop to much. I have a par meter so I am going to take measurements of this but I want to raise them 8 more inches off the water. To compensate for the raise, I was going to raise the overall power to 100% and then overdrive the channels to 120% and lower whites to 80% power which would allow me to overdrive the other channels.

Do you think this will compensate enough? It more of a convenience factor raising them off the tank, so I can easily clean the tank and feeding and not have to move the lights.

My Second Option was I was going to put 2 Mitras LX7 between the light bars, and remove one (Antic one). This would allow me to raise the lights, and use the Mitras LX7 to compensate also? My third option, is I could add 4 T5 kits to the tank leave the 3 light bars also.

Thoughts?

 

[Lasse]

Because of the nature of most PAR meters - you will not get higher PAR with lower the white and overdrive the blue - opposite I think. If you instead overdrive the whites and lower the blues - you probably read a higher PAR but is it better for the Corals? - I do not know. You have to try.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Ditto]

@Lasse - thanks Lasse that is next weekends to do test with the lights higher and see the results.

I was hoping that the overdrive would allow me to make up the difference if brought up higher.

 

[Tristren]

Ok, seeing as this is my thread I felt obliged to look into it.

It seems as though the standard Apogee meters do drop off a bit from around 450 down (and 650 up). They have newer full spectrum meters that don't have that issue. However, they've also created a site where you can correct for your spectrum, which is pretty cool.

The Par sensor spectral error estimation tool is here:
https://www.apogeeinstruments.com/quantum-par-sensor-spectral-error-estimation-tool/

Their video discussing it is here:


Having said that, if you are happy with the spectrum you have, why not start by just boosting the power equally across the channels and seeing where that gets you in terms of par?

If you do want more after that you can always add another lightbar They'll be up and out of the way.

Cheers, Tony

 

[Ditto]

@Tristren - thank you for the site!! I love my spectrum and it works. I really just want to raise the lights and keep my par from dropping to low on the bottom of the tank.

My apogee 510 battery died so I ordered new ones should be her by Friday.

I plan to raise my Lightbars up this weekend, my canopy is only 18 inches 16 with the braces so I am maxed on light bars, 3 total.

My plan is as follows:

Take a new set of light readings with them on the tank and confirm my orginal readings. I will post them

Raise the lights increase the power, and see if I can overdrive them) to 120 at peak time and take readings. I will post these also

If that does not give me enough par, then I will install the Mitras Lx7206 with two light bars and take the readings. If I go this route I plan not to pair them with the Controller immediately because I will run a acclimation setup on the Lightbars and different one on the Lx7206 so that it can be a smooth transition. Once the acclimation is done on the lights then install the pwc card and have the P4 control them.

Thank you again @Tristren and @Lasse for your input!!

Should be a great set of test!!

 

[Gareth Kirwan]

Thank you guys for all the details you've put on this, and other threads.
I'm planning an upgrade to a 6' tank, and I've already switched to GHL for profilux and kh director mostly thanks to @Ditto 's thread on his apex-> ghl.
I've been planning on LB2 ever since reading the first writeups I came across from @Lasse

With that said, I just wanted to share my plan and ask for any feedback.
The tank will be 6' x 2' x 2' mixed reef.
I'm planning on 4 x 160 LB2, running off two power supplies ( because of the max wattage of the PSUs ).
2 Deep actinic, 1 actinic and 1 ocean blue.

I've been contemplating how to mount them, and currently I think I'll just have an open pelmet with grooves for them standard railings to fit into.
I'm wary about @Ditto 's comment about them being flimsy at full stretch, so I'll get the pelmet to have a protrusion at either end to reduce how far they have to stretch.
For maintenance, I can either slide them all back giving me about half the tank to work in, or turn one off and stack one or more on top of the others.

The other option I'd considered was a closed hood with them mounted to the ceiling of the hood. But then the hood would be too narrow for easy access, OR the lights would be too high from the water.

Does this sound sane?

I've seen some trepidation about whether the Ocean Blue was necessary.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ditto]

Your plan is correct and matches what @Lasse did on light bar solutions. You could mount them to the hood but you will loose on average 70-120 par depending on the height. I did this and then brought them back down.

 

[Lasse]

I´m very pleased with my LB2. I think they are the LEDs nearest T-5 tubes today, according to spread pattern.

To have or not to have an Ocen Blue in your line up is a tuff question. The reason why I include one in my set up was that I want some wavelenghts above 650 nm and the 4500 K included more that than the others. I run my 4500 K for the 6 hours I have max illumination

For maintenance, I can either slide them all back giving me about half the tank to work in, or turn one off and stack one or more on top of the others.

Its exactly what I do. However - you plan a 6´long tank and the LB2 160 is only recommended för max 5.58´I have a LB2 100 over a span of 4.07´(recommended max 3.61) It works but with a cry for help The LB2 160 is heavier too and I think it will be a slack. You can solve this with one brace along each short side of the tank with a gap betwen the brace and side window of around 1.5 - 2 ". The light spread will be enough IMO. One tip - if you not let the bars start directly at the front window (leave a 2 - 4 " gap) and put the first bar in an inward angel (my inner lower part of the first bar hit my second bar at its upper end) In this way - you do not get much light on the front window - lower algae growth on it

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Gareth Kirwan]

Thank you both!
@Lasse So when you're talking about recommendations there, you're strictly talking about the size of the extending bars, and you're not worried about the light distribution at all?
In which case, I think I'm fine. It's a custom aquarium, so I'll just get them to put a strip further in, as you suggest.

Thanks for the tip regarding tilting the first bar. I may do that with both the front and back ones, tilting inwards and outwards.
Pretty sure I can just plan to have a shim on the mounting to allow for that.

One thing though: Are you saying I could get away completely without a 4th light (the blue one) and start off with just 2 deep actinics and 1 actinic, across the 24" tank ?
( Or were you saying that I could just make the 4th one a daylight or another actinic )
I know that @Ditto started with two and added a third.
Maybe I could just start with 3 and later add a 4th ?

So many options!

 

[Lasse]

Y ou will lose some light in the ends but it will mostly be in the upper parts and I do not think that you will place so much corals near the ends anyhow - but if you plan an in wall with rocks going up at the ends you maybe have to add some suporting lights at the end - but I´m not so worried about the spread.

I use two 110 deep actinic, 1 110 actinic and one 100 ocean blue. It gives me around 273 W to a 4´ x 1.64´x 1.64´tank (300 litre) Only for comparission around 0.91 w/l. You can see my PAR chart below

If you use 3 x LB2 160 you will have around 315 W to 680 litre -> 0.46 W/l. Four will give you 0.61 w/l and five will give 0.77 w/l. I know that w/l not is a good tool but in this case we compare the same light and if you want to compare with my tank - it can be helpfull. However - I´m not sure that I have to run my fixture att 100 %. I have run it around 90 % (0.81 W/l) and even at 80 % (0.71 w/l)

Remember one thing The PAR value between surface and bottom reflect how many photons that will reach the bottom compared with the surface. In my case around 52 %. If I add one more bar to my setup - I would introduce 25% more photons to my tank and 52% of them will reach my bottom layer. You will have a deeper tank (60 cm) - it means that fewer photons (compared with me) will reach the bottom. I lose 10% each 10 cm. Let us say that you lose the same - a guess would be that you will have 40 % of the photons in the bottom -> a PAR below 200 at the bottom. Let us say that my and your fixture produce the same PAR/watt - it will give you in the case of 3 bars maybe 100 PAR in the bottom, with 4 bars around 134 PAR and with 5 bars - around 170 PAR. You will have a wider tank too and it will effect the PAR readings at the edges. I think you need at to start with 4 bars - but if you want to try with 3 bars first - use the largest power modules just in case. My caculations heve to be seen between the hand and the thumb as we say in Sweden.

Next question - do you need a Ocean Blue bar? You will have a white shimmer (not so heavy blue as normal fixtures without RGB LEDs) without it (only deep actinic and actinic) but - for the moment my opinion is more that I need its power in other wavelenghts more. If I think it is too yellow - just bring it down a little. But the 4500 LEDs (10 for me) are bright - very bright. If you test 3 bars - maybe 1 OB, 1 A and 1 DA should be good. @Tristren - do you have any input?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Gareth Kirwan]

@Lasse That's very helpful, I really appreciate it.

I'll go for 4, with the original plan.

I'm going to get a support built in for them, 5cm in from the pelmet edge, meaning the supports are only extended about 5cm.

 

[Lasse]

I will send you a photo later when I am at home

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

First the original

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Optional

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Sincerely Lasse

 

[Tristren]

Hi there,

Sorry for the delay. I am very happy with the set up I have. I am essentially running two and a half lights. A 140 Deep Blue Actinic and a 140 Ocean Blue, and then also an 80 Ocean blue. This is on a 26" deep, 5' long tank.
I don't have any SPS at the moment, but its not for lack of light. My par readings are 400 at the surface, 200+ on most of the rocks, and down to 125-150 or so on the sand.

I agree with @Lasse that the added spectrum from having the Ocean Blues and Deep Actinics is worth it. And like @Ditto said, you're better off with them sitting on the tank as opposed to the hood. Mine are in a canopy, but resting on the tank. They are on the rim at one end, and on the brace at the other, so the extension is fine.

I'm generally happy with my program now as well, but I think in the fall I will probably go in and just clean it up a bit to get a smoother arc. I'm also using the seasonal lighting with a 10% reduction in duration and intensity from June to December. I used that in part as a kind of extended acclimation (I added the 140 Deep Actinic this past winter). I like the duration shift though as it matches the environment better. I may cut back on the intensity reduction though.

Cheers,
Tony