New Photon 48 V2 Pro owner with some questions...

[KevyKevTPA]

We got our new light fixture in just yesterday and must say we're quite impressed so far. That said, a few questions (and surely will have more later) I was hoping to get answered.

1- Moonlights. Are they supposed to look more green than blue? Because ours certainly do!
2- 28-day moonlight schedule. What precisely does this mean? Is it tracking moonrise and set times, and having the lights on/off according to that, or is it just measuring relative brightness and applying that? For example, I set our moonlights to 4%, and last night's half-moon had a brightness of 96%, and a moonset of 0430 or so. So, were the lights simply displaying at 96% of 4% all night, or did it go dark at 0430 when I was asleep?
3- I feel like by going with the higher end pro over the plus, we've actually LOST a feature, that being the random weather. Lighting, etc. I figure that's just a minor software tweak, either to the firmware of the unit, the phone app, or both, and since it exists on the plus, it seems like it would be extremely easy to add "back" to the pro. Are there any plans for this, and if not, can this be considered an official customer request?
4- I am not seeing any community option to share profiles on the app. Based on some vids I've seen, at one point at least it was available and functional, but has that changed?

Thanks in advance!

Kev

 

[Reef Breeders]

We got our new light fixture in just yesterday and must say we're quite impressed so far. That said, a few questions (and surely will have more later) I was hoping to get answered.

1- Moonlights. Are they supposed to look more green than blue? Because ours certainly do!
2- 28-day moonlight schedule. What precisely does this mean? Is it tracking moonrise and set times, and having the lights on/off according to that, or is it just measuring relative brightness and applying that? For example, I set our moonlights to 4%, and last night's half-moon had a brightness of 96%, and a moonset of 0430 or so. So, were the lights simply displaying at 96% of 4% all night, or did it go dark at 0430 when I was asleep?
3- I feel like by going with the higher end pro over the plus, we've actually LOST a feature, that being the random weather. Lighting, etc. I figure that's just a minor software tweak, either to the firmware of the unit, the phone app, or both, and since it exists on the plus, it seems like it would be extremely easy to add "back" to the pro. Are there any plans for this, and if not, can this be considered an official customer request?
4- I am not seeing any community option to share profiles on the app. Based on some vids I've seen, at one point at least it was available and functional, but has that changed?

Thanks in advance!

Kev

Hey Kev,

1- Yes, they are 480nm cool blue. This is closer to cyan, and that's for a reason. At night, you don't want your corals to be photosynthetically active, it's important to give them some rest time. Cool Blues achieve fluorescence but don't directly hit the Chlorophyll a/c absorption points.

2- That means if you set it to 4%, it will be 4% at full moon, 1% at new moon, 2% half moon, etc. It does not follow additional moon rise/set, just the moon phases. Moon rise/set is based on your main lights on/off time.

3- I found with the V2+ the majority of people with the lightening mode turned it on by accident- and sent an email asking why their light was flashing. It stresses fish and I found it unnecessary. We may be able to add weather features later on but I find them be under-utilized in most cases.
4- If you're on android- sharing schedules is in the works and is due to be added this month. It's currently on iPhone only.

 

[Jerdel17]

We got our new light fixture in just yesterday and must say we're quite impressed so far. That said, a few questions (and surely will have more later) I was hoping to get answered.

1- Moonlights. Are they supposed to look more green than blue? Because ours certainly do!
2- 28-day moonlight schedule. What precisely does this mean? Is it tracking moonrise and set times, and having the lights on/off according to that, or is it just measuring relative brightness and applying that? For example, I set our moonlights to 4%, and last night's half-moon had a brightness of 96%, and a moonset of 0430 or so. So, were the lights simply displaying at 96% of 4% all night, or did it go dark at 0430 when I was asleep?
3- I feel like by going with the higher end pro over the plus, we've actually LOST a feature, that being the random weather. Lighting, etc. I figure that's just a minor software tweak, either to the firmware of the unit, the phone app, or both, and since it exists on the plus, it seems like it would be extremely easy to add "back" to the pro. Are there any plans for this, and if not, can this be considered an official customer request?
4- I am not seeing any community option to share profiles on the app. Based on some vids I've seen, at one point at least it was available and functional, but has that changed?

Thanks in advance!

Kev

Why iPhone 1st? Android holds a bigger share of thr market. Android maintained its position as the leading mobile operating system worldwide in June 2021, controlling the mobile OS market with a close to 73 percent share. Google's Android and Apple's iOS jointly possess over 99 percent of the global market share.Jan 19, 2022

 

[Reef Breeders]

Why iPhone 1st? Android holds a bigger share of thr market. Android maintained its position as the leading mobile operating system worldwide in June 2021, controlling the mobile OS market with a close to 73 percent share. Google's Android and Apple's iOS jointly possess over 99 percent of the global market share.Jan 19, 2022

Not holding off an android for any particular reason, just scheduling conflicts with the app dev who handles the android side. We're actually closer to 60/40 iPhone/Android. Both platforms have equal priority and we're pushing to get this done asap. I was an android user myself a while back, not trying to push one platform or another as that's no benefit to us in doing so.

 

[KevyKevTPA]

Hey Kev,

1- Yes, they are 480nm cool blue. This is closer to cyan, and that's for a reason. At night, you don't want your corals to be photosynthetically active, it's important to give them some rest time. Cool Blues achieve fluorescence but don't directly hit the Chlorophyll a/c absorption points.

2- That means if you set it to 4%, it will be 4% at full moon, 1% at new moon, 2% half moon, etc. It does not follow additional moon rise/set, just the moon phases. Moon rise/set is based on your main lights on/off time.

3- I found with the V2+ the majority of people with the lightening mode turned it on by accident- and sent an email asking why their light was flashing. It stresses fish and I found it unnecessary. We may be able to add weather features later on but I find them be under-utilized in most cases.
4- If you're on android- sharing schedules is in the works and is due to be added this month. It's currently on iPhone only.

1- So could I put one of the other blues on to a really low number that both triggers the fluorescence AND allows them to get enough sleep?
2- I vote for tracking moonset/rise phases. It's more realistic, and should (famous last words) be a simple firmware tweak.
3- Hmm. I'm surprised it would stress fish, after all, there is lightning in the real world, especially in the latitudes where typical reef fish and corals are found. I can attest to that, because I live there, too... Not in the water, though, and it can stress humans out (and dogs!), so I could be wrong...

 

[Dburr1014]

1- So could I put one of the other blues on to a really low number that both triggers the fluorescence AND allows them to get enough sleep?
2- I vote for tracking moonset/rise phases. It's more realistic, and should (famous last words) be a simple firmware tweak.
3- Hmm. I'm surprised it would stress fish, after all, there is lightning in the real world, especially in the latitudes where typical reef fish and corals are found. I can attest to that, because I live there, too... Not in the water, though, and it can stress humans out (and dogs!), so I could be wrong...

Just found out today, as an android user you can set lights down to 0.1% I did my dark blue thru the 24 hour program thru the night. Much dimmer than the light Blues.

 

[Reef Breeders]

1- So could I put one of the other blues on to a really low number that both triggers the fluorescence AND allows them to get enough sleep?
2- I vote for tracking moonset/rise phases. It's more realistic, and should (famous last words) be a simple firmware tweak.
3- Hmm. I'm surprised it would stress fish, after all, there is lightning in the real world, especially in the latitudes where typical reef fish and corals are found. I can attest to that, because I live there, too... Not in the water, though, and it can stress humans out (and dogs!), so I could be wrong...

1- You could- any single channel 1% or lower should be OK to use.

2- I will see what I can do there. The problem is pretty much everyone picks a sunset time that is way off from actual sunset. In the winter here- my lights don't shut off until 10pm. The sun has been gone 5 hours at that point. So should the moonrise be held off until the lights are off? Or just be a faux moonrise where lights go full dark, then ramp up until the middle of the night? The problem with that is- unless you are looking at your tank at 2am regularly, it's not really a benefit to the user. The main idea with moonlights is to extend your aquarium's viewing time.

3- The V2+ has lightening. I estimate 9/10 users who turn it on do so by accident- they contact us asking why the light is randomly flashing It's a fun gimmick but it mostly just makes my fish cower under the rocks. I get that there are storms in real life- but they are often drawn out over days or hours, with the sky going dark, water surging, etc. and storms do damage the reefs and kill some corals/fish in the process. It's stressful for fish in nature as well.

That being said- I am definitely open to adding lightening/cloud functions some time in the future. Before we do that there are some other features in the pipeline that I feel should take precedent- like acclimation mode and a few other tweaks to the setup process.

 

[Fishtank603]

1- You could- any single channel 1% or lower should be OK to use.

2- I will see what I can do there. The problem is pretty much everyone picks a sunset time that is way off from actual sunset. In the winter here- my lights don't shut off until 10pm. The sun has been gone 5 hours at that point. So should the moonrise be held off until the lights are off? Or just be a faux moonrise where lights go full dark, then ramp up until the middle of the night? The problem with that is- unless you are looking at your tank at 2am regularly, it's not really a benefit to the user. The main idea with moonlights is to extend your aquarium's viewing time.

3- The V2+ has lightening. I estimate 9/10 users who turn it on do so by accident- they contact us asking why the light is randomly flashing It's a fun gimmick but it mostly just makes my fish cower under the rocks. I get that there are storms in real life- but they are often drawn out over days or hours, with the sky going dark, water surging, etc. and storms do damage the reefs and kill some corals/fish in the process. It's stressful for fish in nature as well.

That being said- I am definitely open to adding lightening/cloud functions some time in the future. Before we do that there are some other features in the pipeline that I feel should take precedent- like acclimation mode and a few other tweaks to the setup process.

Couple months old on the thread but that would definitely be cool I was just saying something to my wife the other day about putting the old chip back in so we can have some weather effects

 

[Dburr1014]

Couple months old on the thread but that would definitely be cool I was just saying something to my wife the other day about putting the old chip back in so we can have some weather effects

Passing clouds is something I would probably use. Set it and forget it. It happens in nature and it would be useful. Maybe set how many clouds per hour or day.

 

[Dave Dumanski]

I just purchased the IM Nuvo 75 EXT which is 36Lx24Wx20H tank and I already have a Photon 24 V2 and decided to hang it from the ceiling for this build. My question is for a mixed reef tank how far from the surface would you hang them?

 

[Dburr1014]

I just purchased the IM Nuvo 75 EXT which is 36Lx24Wx20H tank and I already have a Photon 24 V2 and decided to hang it from the ceiling for this build. My question is for a mixed reef tank how far from the surface would you hang them?

Optimal I think(or brs tried?) is 13 inches.
I would just make sure you get the coverage of the tank. 120 degree optics are available also from Logan. Standard is 90.
I don't use any optics for maximum spread but my lights are only 4" from the water.

 

[Reef Breeders]

I just purchased the IM Nuvo 75 EXT which is 36Lx24Wx20H tank and I already have a Photon 24 V2 and decided to hang it from the ceiling for this build. My question is for a mixed reef tank how far from the surface would you hang them?

8" or more is my recommendation, 13" is a good height but anywhere 8" or more will work well.

The V2 Pros have 100 degree optics onboard.

 

[Dave Dumanski]

Optimal I think(or brs tried?) is 13 inches.
I would just make sure you get the coverage of the tank. 120 degree optics are available also from Logan. Standard is 90.
I don't use any optics for maximum spread but my lights are only 4" from the water.

Thank you!

 

[Dave Dumanski]

8" or more is my recommendation, 13" is a good height but anywhere 8" or more will work well.

The V2 Pros have 100 degree optics onboard.

Thank you!