Neptune Sky, not happy at all!

jda

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I am not really somebody who wants to be on the bleeding edge at all, but if somebody buys a new-to-the-market light and then has complaints, then it is on them. It is easy enough to wait and see how things work out before making a change. Price is no guarantee of anything, other than that money leaving your account. Caveat emptor, mostly, unless the manufacturer has lied to people, but even then, when has ANY LED company had totally accurate representations about power, spread or intensity? They are always best-case and not real-case.
 

EJReef

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Sky vs Chinese black box…. You judge based on par if sky is worth it

1628395396445.jpeg
What par? That's spectrum
 
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EJReef

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I disagree on the value of the tasks. They are a bandaid on a ancient foundation that is far out of date. Do they work? Most yes. However when thing don’t work together, I.e. set a V/O for maintenance and say, turn the heaters and skimmer off when it on.
Good luck with “fixing” any of it when it doesn’t work.

in the world we live in today, there’s no reason to have a product that requires line by line coding with limited functionality and requires every line of code be in the proper order or things simply don’t work.
Here’s another example of how dated the Apex is.

Setting up my Klir filter on my Hydros I set an alarm to alert me if the filter didn’t roll in 24 hours on the days it was programmed to roll. I set a second alarm to alert me if it rolled longer than it is programmed to roll.

The first alarm took 2-3 minutes on Hydros. It’s not even possible on Apex. Ok, it kinda is, but it’s a lot of long convoluted programming with room for many errors.

The alarm can’t be done either, at least not directly. There is a convoluted work around. With Hydros it was a few seconds to set it up.

The difference. Hydros is a modern more or less WYDIWYG, or at least point and click interface. It’s far more robust and can do many things Apex isn’t capable off. Apex on the other hand is 1980’s (being generous) technology with a bunch of bandaids to try and keep it working.

I get it. Neptune wants to have their own ecosystem. I mean they frequently compare themselves to Apple. That not too smart, it like comparing a 1902 Volkswagen to a 2021 BMW. Add to that you can’t build a ecosystem on cheap Chinese junk or by stealing other companies IP. Especially in a micro industry.

Hopefully BRS puts better management in place and spends money and time addressing core products at Neptune.
1980s? I must know which components are from the 1980s
 
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Shooter6

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What's par? That's spectrum
2 questions, the overlay wording has the word (trace) in parentheses, what's that about? Second which is the sky vs the blk box, the white line and graph image?

Iastly you posted an image of spectrum, which I believe all lights are trying to achieve the same or close to the same spectrum for optimal coral health right? In otherworldly brs trys getting as close to ab+ spectrum for all their lighting test, and this is what 90% of the light manufacturers shoot for as that's what customers are wanting.

For par I'd assume the blk box can be cranked up to put out more par then the sky, radions ect. Highest Par really isn't that hard to achieve.

Most blk box suffer from lack of a reliable app/ wifi control.

Here is one for you, my ledzeal.com mirage x200 light mounted 17 inches over my display, and running at 40% per channel is putting 300 par at the bottom of my 400g. 79% pur too.
 

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EJReef

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2 questions, the overlay wording has the word (trace) in parentheses, what's that about? Second which is the sky vs the blk box, the white line and graph image?

Iastly you posted an image of spectrum, which I believe all lights are trying to achieve the same or close to the same spectrum for optimal coral health right? In otherworldly brs trys getting as close to ab+ spectrum for all their lighting test, and this is what 90% of the light manufacturers shoot for as that's what customers are wanting.

For par I'd assume the blk box can be cranked up to put out more par then the sky, radions ect. Highest Par really isn't that hard to achieve.

Most blk box suffer from lack of a reliable app/ wifi control.

Here is one for you, my ledzeal.com mirage x200 light mounted 17 inches over my display, and running at 40% per channel is putting 300 par at the bottom of my 400g. 79% pur too.
Why are you quoting me? I didn't post that comparison.
 

Shooter6

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LED's are over priced garbage! Another victim of hype. T5's here and couldn't be happier! :p Gold standard for a reason kids...
Actually mh is superior to t5, t5 try to mimic mh. Hell every light produced since mh was first used has tried to equal the results. T12,t8,powecompacts,t5,and now leds.

2 400w mh vs 8-12 t5 bulbs for the same coverage, par, ect.
 

oreo54

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Actually mh is superior to t5, t5 try to mimic mh. Hell every light produced since mh was first used has tried to equal the results. T12,t8,powecompacts,t5,and now leds.

2 400w mh vs 8-12 t5 bulbs for the same coverage, par, ect.
2 400w mh's has more radiant power than 12 4ft t5's based on average watt efficiencies..Around 20% more.
 

Shooter6

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2 400w mh's has more radiant power than 12 4ft t5's based on average watt efficiencies..Around 20% more.
Yeah I know they are far superior, as I started in 1988 with them. And have used all the lights I listed since then
 

Shooter6

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It says MikeandDee
I understand that, I clicked on the image in your post to that person and since it opened up to their post, I thought I could respond to their post.
Don't see what the big deal is for you as I already explained that it was accidental the question going to you. So you can let the thread get back to the light now.
 

Mhuq1197

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I a
I have to say I fail to see a lot of the issues several poster have identified as "Problems" with the SKY lights. I am not a computer Wizz nor am I a Coral farming Wizz. I am an average Joe that enjoys the reef hobby and "MOST" of the people I meet in the hobby. I bought the new SKY lights for My 220G mixed reef that was previously lit by Kessil AP700's and T5's. I have always enjoyed a fair amount of luck and coral growth under the Kessil's.

Prior to making the change I took Par readings for the Kessil's and after installing the SKY'S I used the same apogee 510 meter to take readings on the SKY'S. The new fixtures were mounted at the same distance from the water. The SKY'S output was about 175 additional Par vs the Kessil at the same power setting. (70%)

The first thing my wife said was "Wow those new lights sure do make the aquarium look better". She is not one to make Positive comments about things I buy for the tank. Additionally, after 2 1/2 weeks the coral's seem to be gaining better color.

As for weather or not the lights will hold up long term only time will tell. I will however give them the benefit of not trashing them unless I have actual reason to do so. I personally think they are great and the price is in the same range as most of the other lights on the market.
m planning to buy because of no shimmer. Shimmers give me headaches for some reason! Is there lot of sideways light spillage if I have the tank in the living room? Thx!
 

pelicansreef

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Sorry for the delay responding! I have been out of town for a bit. We have a hood on our tank, so side light spillage isn't an issue. We did run the SKYS without a hood for a while and my wife did not like the amount of side light You can have anyone with a 3D printer make you a skirt and that eliminates almost all side light issues
 

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