Mitras Moonlight, Help needed

[Saith]

Over the past 8 months or so I've spent hours trying to get the moonlights working. Still haven't managed to do it. I get inconsistent results, sometimes the moonlights don't turn off, sometimes it doesn't turn on. I got it to turn on and off, but it wasn't ramping so I messed with it some more. I should have just left it alone at that point.

I initially tried to use Royal Blue channel for moonlights. After hours of messing with it, I think the problem is they are just too bright. It seems like the lowest setting they will turn on is 10% on the Brightness slider and 0.5% on the LED slider. That would be fine for peak brightness, but I don't want it that bright for entire moonlight period.

Then I went on to try and setup the Hyperviolet LEDs as moonlights. I simply want them to ramp up from 9pm to midnight, then ramp down from midnight to 2am.

A few weeks ago I added moonlights to Vinny's light composer project and the moonlights wouldn't turn off, they just stayed on all night. So I went back to my project and thought I had it working, but it was supposed to be a new moon in a couple days and the lights are still on full brightness so I figured it was time to make another attempt.

Tonight I setup the hyperviolet LEDs to ramp from 0% to 20% to 0% in light composer, set the Moonlight simulation to 50% and set yesterday to be the full moon. At first I was getting some moonlights, but they wouldn't change when I adjusted max brightness at full moon in the simulation settings. Now I am not getting any moonlight at all. With the hyperviolet channel moonlight setting unchecked I can use the test illumination run and see it is working. Once I turn on the moonlight settings, there is no moonlight on the tank in real time or when I do the test illumination run.

I've been at this for a few hours and it's getting late, so maybe I missed something. Would appreciate if you can let me know if you happen to notice anything incorrect in my settings.

 

[Lasse]

Here is some tips

Mitras Moonlight schedule

Anyone have a good moonlight schedule they are using ? I’ve read that red is one of the more dominant colors in moonlight ? Not sure. Just seeing what’s being used out there !

www.reef2reef.com

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Cali9dub]

Over the past 8 months or so I've spent hours trying to get the moonlights working. Still haven't managed to do it. I get inconsistent results, sometimes the moonlights don't turn off, sometimes it doesn't turn on. I got it to turn on and off, but it wasn't ramping so I messed with it some more. I should have just left it alone at that point.

I initially tried to use Royal Blue channel for moonlights. After hours of messing with it, I think the problem is they are just too bright. It seems like the lowest setting they will turn on is 10% on the Brightness slider and 0.5% on the LED slider. That would be fine for peak brightness, but I don't want it that bright for entire moonlight period.

Then I went on to try and setup the Hyperviolet LEDs as moonlights. I simply want them to ramp up from 9pm to midnight, then ramp down from midnight to 2am.

A few weeks ago I added moonlights to Vinny's light composer project and the moonlights wouldn't turn off, they just stayed on all night. So I went back to my project and thought I had it working, but it was supposed to be a new moon in a couple days and the lights are still on full brightness so I figured it was time to make another attempt.

Tonight I setup the hyperviolet LEDs to ramp from 0% to 20% to 0% in light composer, set the Moonlight simulation to 50% and set yesterday to be the full moon. At first I was getting some moonlights, but they wouldn't change when I adjusted max brightness at full moon in the simulation settings. Now I am not getting any moonlight at all. With the hyperviolet channel moonlight setting unchecked I can use the test illumination run and see it is working. Once I turn on the moonlight settings, there is no moonlight on the tank in real time or when I do the test illumination run.

I've been at this for a few hours and it's getting late, so maybe I missed something. Would appreciate if you can let me know if you happen to notice anything incorrect in my settings.

Currently we are at a new moon so I’d say you won’t see any illumination for a couple days. When the illumination will actually show based on whatever percentage the leds actually fire up is another question.

 

[Saith]

Here is some tips

Mitras Moonlight schedule

Anyone have a good moonlight schedule they are using ? I’ve read that red is one of the more dominant colors in moonlight ? Not sure. Just seeing what’s being used out there !

www.reef2reef.com

Sincerely Lasse

I read that. Nothing in there about why it isn't working as expected.

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

@Saith
Your schedule doesn't make much sense to me. Why have the lights turn OFF completely at 8:30pm only to have them turn ON again at midnight? Why have the moonlight period run from 9PM - 2AM, if nothing is actually ON at this time?

Looking at your moonlight settings, of course it's going to be "too bright". You have your intensity set to 20% with a moonlight range of 0-80%, which means the LEDs will run at 0 - 16% brightness. This is not natural. How this feature works is explained in the Mitras and ProfiLux programming manual. With your moonlight max set to 80%, a brightness of 5% would be more subtle.

The transition would be more smooth and easier on the coral if you just kept your moonlight affected channels running past your normal light schedule. For instance, you can end the normal schedule at 8:30pm, then at 8:31 turn ON the lights that are part of your moonlight. Run this until 1:30am. At 2am, the lights will turn OFF completely. With this example, you can set the moonlight period to run from 20:31 - 02:00.

 

[Saith]

Currently we are at a new moon so I’d say you won’t see any illumination for a couple days. When the illumination will actually show based on whatever percentage the leds actually fire up is another question.

Thanks. I am assuming that setting the "Full moon also at" to the current date should means the cycle is shifted and the moonlight should be on. They don't say anything about this setting in the LX7 or Profilux 4 programming manuals.

It says 99% brightness in the Current calculations section.

I also tried setting the "Min. brightness (new moon)" to 50% and that didn't work either.

 

[Saith]

Your schedule doesn't make much sense to me. Why have the lights turn OFF completely at 8:30pm only to have them turn ON again at midnight? Why have the moonlight period run from 9PM - 2AM, if nothing is actually ON at this time?

I would like to simulate the moon rising and setting after the sun goes down. My daylights turn off at 8:30 and I would like the moonlight to start ramping from 0% at 9pm, reach peak brightness at midnight, then ramp down to 0% at 2am. Is that not how my schedule is setup?

Looking at your moonlight settings, of course it's going to be "too bright". You have your intensity set to 20% with a moonlight range of 0-80%, which means the LEDs will run at 0 - 16% brightness. This is not natural. How this feature works is explained in the Mitras and ProfiLux programming manual. With your moonlight max set to 80%, a brightness of 5% would be more subtle.

My "too bright" comment is about the minimum setting for royal blue LEDs, not the posted setting. The royal blues completely turn off below 10% brightness with 0.5% LED value. I thought that is why I couldn't get it to ramp up or down below that. That is brighter than I would like so I switched over to the hyperviolet channel.

I agree, the setting posted above would be way too bright if the lights were actually turning on. I started with a lower value and there was no light, so I bumped it way up and there still isn't any light. I have read the LX7 and P4 programming manuals and multiple posts explaining how the calculation works. That brings us to the problem. At midnight with a full moon it should be at 16%, however there is no light at all.

The transition would be more smooth and easier on the coral if you just kept your moonlight affected channels running past your normal light schedule. For instance, you can end the normal schedule at 8:30pm, then at 8:31 turn ON the lights that are part of your moonlight. Run this until 1:30am. At 2am, the lights will turn OFF completely. With this example, you can set the moonlight period to run from 20:31 - 02:00.

Thanks for the suggestion and that is an option. Are the fixtures not able to do what I would like though?

 

[Lasse]

Here is my schedule for my 425 actinic light

Here is my moonlight settings

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Saith]

Here is my schedule for my 425 actinic light

Here is my moonlight settings

Sincerely Lasse

Thanks for sharing your settings Lasse. You run moonlights from 1am to 8am? That never crossed my mind.

Maybe I'll try setting up the moonlights with GHL Connect. I've noticed a difference before in what GHL Control Center and GHL Connect will let me do.

 

[Lasse]

Yes - its not natural but I want a total dark hour in the middle of the night- And if I understand the instructions totally right - my brightest settings is 0,02*0,02 = 0,0004 =0,04 %. I do not run Mitras 7xxx - I run Mitras LED bar 2

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Saith]

I guess the Mitras programming isn't able to handle two periods with lights out. I removed the first dark period between 8:30 and 9:00 and the moonlights are working now.