New Nano LEDs!

[Reef Breeders]

To be clear, you can definitely use the blues as moon lights (I don't care for them either). What you can't do is have the blues turn on before the whites and stay on after the white turn off.

Yes the light was easy to program. So if I were to compare this to the v1:
- No timer required
- Many more levels (3 channels instead of 2, 1% granularity instead of set 0-15)
- Harder to mess up your program (how many times have I bumped the +/- on the v1 only to forget...did I have whites at 3 or 4 clicks past off.....)
- Can do moonlight (personally I don't care for it but surely others do)
- Nicer form factor (both the smaller fixture and the cluster of leds versus individual lenses)
- Higher watts/more leds
- Ramping (unknown intervals here, it's not documented)
- Goose neck on v2 seems much nicer than the awkward metal arm on v1

Things that would make this a perfect light imo:
- Two more set points for a total of 5
- Ability to turn off the time display (maybe it goes off on its own? Haven't gotten that far)
- Replace one white led with some sort of actinic blue

Overall it's a nice upgrade over the v1, but a little pricey when the v1 can be found for around $60 from places not called reefbreeders

It's a basic timer, it's meant to do just a simple on, ramp up, then ramp down. It looks like undetectable changes from my testing- I have yet to see a noticeable jump.

Yes, we do charge a bit more. But we also service these for 12 months, and offer customer support and programming assistance. Keep in mind the aquaknight v1 listing on amazon is just a factory drop shipping to an FBA warehouse. No real CS or warranty involved after the 30 day return period. And you need an external timer, no sunrise, sunset, or moonlight possible.

The V2 is more comparable to something like the Kessil A80, which at $130 with no gooseneck or timer included costs quite a bit more.

 

[Reef Breeders]

Channel B on my light is cool blue, channel C is white.

I can confirm the light kept its time overnight without having power, within a minute or less, having no power for 14+ hours.

I set it up as described above and ended up with 25/25/0 from noon to 1, 100/100/50 from 1 to 11, 25/25/0 from 11 to midnight. Idk how long it takes to ramp yet, should give me an effective photo period of like 8-10 hours which lines up with the way I was using the v1 (on a simple on/off timer from 1-11p).

Bonus pic

Tank is looking nice!

I do agree 5 dimming points would be nice, you could extend your max light output a bit more that way! Perhaps it can be done on the next iteration, right now there doesn't appear to be room enough on the screen.

 

[lolmatt]

It's a basic timer, it's meant to do just a simple on, ramp up, then ramp down. It looks like undetectable changes from my testing- I have yet to see a noticeable jump.

Yes, we do charge a bit more. But we also service these for 12 months, and offer customer support and programming assistance. Keep in mind the aquaknight v1 listing on amazon is just a factory drop shipping to an FBA warehouse. No real CS or warranty involved after the 30 day return period. And you need an external timer, no sunrise, sunset, or moonlight possible.

The V2 is more comparable to something like the Kessil A80, which at $130 with no gooseneck or timer included costs quite a bit more.

100% - I think your price is fair, I thought your price for the v1 was also fair. Warranty and support (plus supporting a US business) is easily worth the few extra bones. I'm very happy with my purchase, especially after finding the creative timer-based solution to running only blues for a couple hours.

I think this thing kicks the crap out of the a80 easily. Comes close to ai prime territory imo (without the wifi obviously but SO MUCH cheaper).

 

[lolmatt]

Tank is looking nice!

I do agree 5 dimming points would be nice, you could extend your max light output a bit more that way! Perhaps it can be done on the next iteration, right now there doesn't appear to be room enough on the screen.

Ha yeah definitely true re screen real estate.

Hopefully my posts here have been helpful. Any other info you or anyone else needs (besides par...still looking in to the clubs meter) let me know.

 

[ibob991]

@Reef Breeders
So I purchased one of these lights for a upcoming nano build and I am just curious what people think the levels should be at the three intervals?

A	450nm Royal Blue	Cree XP-E	3	5
A	420nm Violet	SemiLED	3	1
B	7500K Cool White	Cree XP-E	3	4
C	480nm Cool Blue	Cree XP-E

From what I understand channel A is the most important being your blue and violet but I'm not a light expert. Currently thinking of using the light on a timer, while saving the internal 3 for ramping. Any thoughts on what a "schedule" for the 3 internals should look like for growth?

 

[ibob991]

@lolmatt

After having the light unplugged and re-plugged in, the light seems to default to plain white rather then loading what the pre-set should be. Is my unit defective or is this normal? If this is normal, how do you tell the unit to load the programming after regaining power.

 

[Reef Breeders]

@lolmatt

After having the light unplugged and re-plugged in, the light seems to default to plain white rather then loading what the pre-set should be. Is my unit defective or is this normal? If this is normal, how do you tell the unit to load the programming after regaining power.

It should keep the program- make sure that you press OK all the way through when setting it, and go all the way to the clock before pressing esc

 

[ibob991]

It should keep the program- make sure that you press OK all the way through when setting it, and go all the way to the clock before pressing esc

Yes the programs are all set properly. As an example, I currently have setting 3 to 0 on all channels. If i unplug the light and plug it back in the light defaults to 100% white channel only. When i go back into settings, the program is still the same and when i exit the menu, it picks up the programming again.

 

[lolmatt]

Yes the programs are all set properly. As an example, I currently have setting 3 to 0 on all channels. If i unplug the light and plug it back in the light defaults to 100% white channel only. When i go back into settings, the program is still the same and when i exit the menu, it picks up the programming again.

I think it's ramping down. I thought mine was doing this too, but if you leave it for a minute it figures it out.

 

[ibob991]

I think it's ramping down. I thought mine was doing this too, but if you leave it for a minute it figures it out.

I'll retest tonight, but I left it for a good 15 minutes with no obvious change.

 

[ibob991]

I think it's ramping down. I thought mine was doing this too, but if you leave it for a minute it figures it out.

After testing, it seems it does not like being turned on into all channels being set to zero. Light will auto load the programming if the channel has a value other then zero. This can be avoided by using a timer to set the light off and using the built in settings for ramping up and down.

 

[Katrina71]

@Jake_the_reefer look. The older ones are good also

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

@Jake_the_reefer look. The older ones are good also

Thank you!

 

[ibob991]

Channel B on my light is cool blue, channel C is white.

I can confirm the light kept its time overnight without having power, within a minute or less, having no power for 14+ hours.

I set it up as described above and ended up with 25/25/0 from noon to 1, 100/100/50 from 1 to 11, 25/25/0 from 11 to midnight. Idk how long it takes to ramp yet, should give me an effective photo period of like 8-10 hours which lines up with the way I was using the v1 (on a simple on/off timer from 1-11p).

Bonus pic

I can confirm that my white channel is also C, so this must be a mistake from the factory or a mistake in the product information released, as the material lists channel C as cool blue. Since reef breeders hasn't posted any feedback or suggestions for a schedule, I copied yours and hopefully it works out.

 

[lolmatt]

I can confirm that my white channel is also C, so this must be a mistake from the factory or a mistake in the product information released, as the material lists channel C as cool blue. Since reef breeders hasn't posted any feedback or suggestions for a schedule, I copied yours and hopefully it works out.

I have since discovered that my light is coming on white every day. So I'm going to redo my first time setting so it will change to blue within 5 minutes of turning on. Overall I wish the programming was better on this light but it's the only pseudo complaint that I have, really sharp light especially versus the competition.

 

[ibob991]

I have since discovered that my light is coming on white every day. So I'm going to redo my first time setting so it will change to blue within 5 minutes of turning on. Overall I wish the programming was better on this light but it's the only pseudo complaint that I have, really sharp light especially versus the competition.

yea I had this same issue if you look a couple posts up, but that was when the schedule was set to 0% on all channels which can be rectified with using a timer to power on/off. Are you experienced this differently?

 

[lolmatt]

yea I had this same issue if you look a couple posts up, but that was when the schedule was set to 0% on all channels which can be rectified with using a timer to power on/off. Are you experienced this differently?

Nope, same as you.

 

[ibob991]

Nope, same as you.

I have the light on a timer now, and I have replicated your lighting schedule. Ill post up tomorrow my results after I can observe a full light cycle. Side note: the shimmer effect on this light is fantastic, looks better then a kessil IMO.

 

[ibob991]

I have since discovered that my light is coming on white every day. So I'm going to redo my first time setting so it will change to blue within 5 minutes of turning on. Overall I wish the programming was better on this light but it's the only pseudo complaint that I have, really sharp light especially versus the competition.

Having the same issues as you and before, where the light doesn't pick up on programming when it's powered on during a schedule time. My mechanical timer isn't accurate enough with time and powers the light on 5 min before the first schedule (11:55, should be on at 12). The only way to rectify this problem would be to have a timer system that would supply power to the light maybe 5-10 seconds before your first programmed time, so the time shift will trigger the light to re-pick up the progamming.

@Reef Breeders Is it possible to reach out to the manufacturer and find out if they can add this feature into the next version of the light? (When light receives power, automatically load the last known programming so the light does not just default to white only at 100%,)

 

[ibob991]

@lolmatt Issue seems to go away once connected to a digital timer, ordered one off amazon and now i have the timer enable power to the light 1 minutes before the programming rotates, although this does mean that your first minute of light is still pure white.