Popbloom Turing75 - Any one have input/suggestions?

[spideybry]

I ordered the t50 x 2. waited 5 days to get a tracking #, they said that they send it out and are waiting for the tracking #. I told myself that I'm not going to play into their games, and asked for a refund after not receiving a tracking # for the package i paid for 5 days ago.

They refunded my money after filing a complaint with eek-bay ....

I say just bite the bullet and get a brand in the US that will somehow support you if you have issues, I can use a soldering gun really well, Im trying to enjoy my tank by having fun, not fixing things all the time.

I just ask myself, how many times will i need to replace the power supply, and who do i order those same leds from when they go bad, how long will it take to receive the parts from china>???

just ask yourself, do you want to fix lights or enjoy your tank??

Im done with cheap crap and cheap products!!

So far, I haven't had any issues for what it's worth. Even when I bought the extra light that plugged right into my current light and uses the same controller. I did talk directly with one of their people through WhatsApp though. Can't vouch for the ebay experience.

Granted, if I were to get brand new lights for both tanks, it probably wouldn't be these. That being said, they do grow corals, SPS/LPS/Softies.

 

[YegReefRookie]

Hey @spideybry,

Thanks for starting this thread. I've always been a freshwater guy and finally decided to take the plunge into the reef world this year. I purchased this exact light (Turing75) when I started up my reef tank in Dec. I'm curious what's the schedule that you ended up sticking with that works for you? Throughout the thread it looks like you have tried a few different configurations. The lights are on a 46G 3ftL x 2ftH x 1ftD tank. The lights are 10" high off the surface of the water. Overall I have been super happy with the look of the lights and the their functionality... however, currently I have been running my lights as follows and not overly happy with growth...

I am definitely going to be changing the lighting schedule and intensities but I wanted to see what everyone else has settled with and found works best for them first.


PS used a yellow filter over the iphone so the pictures wouldn't be oversaturated with blue.

 

[chris_pull]

Interesting reading through this thread!

I've been using these lights for a few months but think I will soon change them. The issue I have is the LED layout. I can't fathom what they were thinking by putting all the cool whites at the front and the cool blues along the back. In my tank, I can see a clearly defined graduation from white at the front of the tank to blue at the back.

To try and solve this issue you have to mount them super high and lose PAR, or, what I did, was to put some frosted film over the acrylic panel to diffuse the light and get better blending. This also cuts about 20-30% PAR but means you can mount them lower. I also removed the reflectors and now have a fairly even blanket of light and no disco effect. I actually like the look this gives me (albeit it's a bit "flat"). However, I am running the two blue channels on near 100% and the white channels in the 30% range, I am still not getting enough PAR on a 20 gallon long – some of my zoas on the sandbed are nearly two inches long trying to reach for the light. Yet, I don't feel I can raise the white too much more, or I get the issue of a white front half and a blue background again

I also don't really believe that the 420 diodes are actually 420 – mine at least are pure blue without any hint of violet. I'd also love to boost the "420s" more without having the green tinge from the green diodes being placed in the same channel.

I really wanted to like these lights – they're nice and solid, the mounting arms are great, the full blanket of light is great, the silent operation from lack of fans is great...I just don't like the diode layout and channel mixing. I know this is all clearly stated in the promotional material for the lights but until I got it over my tank I didn't realise it'd be a problem. I also wonder if I am just using them on too small a tank and not mounting high enough; though I have them as high as the arms will go. On a larger tank, mounted higher, they'd probably blend better.

Anyway, sorry this turned into a bit of a vent! I guess my frustration with them has been slowly mounting over the past few months as I tried a number of things to get them to work for me.

 

[oreo54]

Interesting reading through this thread!

I've been using these lights for a few months but think I will soon change them. The issue I have is the LED layout. I can't fathom what they were thinking by putting all the cool whites at the front and the cool blues along the back. In my tank, I can see a clearly defined graduation from white at the front of the tank to blue at the back.

To try and solve this issue you have to mount them super high and lose PAR, or, what I did, was to put some frosted film over the acrylic panel to diffuse the light and get better blending. This also cuts about 20-30% PAR but means you can mount them lower. I also removed the reflectors and now have a fairly even blanket of light and no disco effect. I actually like the look this gives me (albeit it's a bit "flat"). However, I am running the two blue channels on near 100% and the white channels in the 30% range, I am still not getting enough PAR on a 20 gallon long – some of my zoas on the sandbed are nearly two inches long trying to reach for the light. Yet, I don't feel I can raise the white too much more, or I get the issue of a white front half and a blue background again

I also don't really believe that the 420 diodes are actually 420 – mine at least are pure blue without any hint of violet. I'd also love to boost the "420s" more without having the green tinge from the green diodes being placed in the same channel.

I really wanted to like these lights – they're nice and solid, the mounting arms are great, the full blanket of light is great, the silent operation from lack of fans is great...I just don't like the diode layout and channel mixing. I know this is all clearly stated in the promotional material for the lights but until I got it over my tank I didn't realise it'd be a problem. I also wonder if I am just using them on too small a tank and not mounting high enough; though I have them as high as the arms will go. On a larger tank, mounted higher, they'd probably blend better.

Anyway, sorry this turned into a bit of a vent! I guess my frustration with them has been slowly mounting over the past few months as I tried a number of things to get them to work for me.

No defense since they always had "odd" diode layouts for years. FW or SW.
They also have 2 series on and off.. w/ fans (higher drive current thus PAR)
and without fans.

I've recommended these lights in the freshwater world only with a custom spectrum.
They will build to suit and AFAICT are fairly easily modded like any "egg" diode layout for determined tinkerers.

 

[chris_pull]

No defense since they always had "odd" diode layouts for years. FW or SW.
They also have 2 series on and off.. w/ fans (higher drive current thus PAR)
and without fans.

I've recommended these lights in the freshwater world only with a custom spectrum.
They will build to suit and AFAICT are fairly easily modded like any "egg" diode layout for determined tinkerers.

Yes, mine is the fanless Turing75 so probably on the lower PAR output end of things. Don't get me wrong, though, if I whack up the whites the PAR is intense, but then my tank looks like a flood-lit sports stadium. I had thought about modding them by switching the royal blues in the mixed channel with the white diodes, but not sure I really sure I have the skill set.

I am currently thinking of cutting my losses and switching to the more expensive but still "budget" Reefbreeder/Evergrow light – it's somewhat similar in that it's a giant heatsink with a panel of diodes but has a better layout, the 420s are actually violet, and it has separate channels for each spectrum.

Part of me feels like I am just slowly working myself up to spending crazy money on something like Radions or Orpheks...

 

[GSnake]

I also don't really believe that the 420 diodes are actually 420 – mine at least are pure blue without any hint of violet

ya i agree with this, at least from my point of view and not some measurement device. i was hoping for more purple/violet when i read 420 nm. it was actually one of the reasons i bought these lights. (previously used blackbox with 4 purple leds only)

i also notice the white and blue difference from front to back of the tank. i put my blues up front and whites in the back. this against my painted black background isnt all too bad, If it were my design, it would def be evenly mixed.

I am definitely going to be changing the lighting schedule and intensities but I wanted to see what everyone else has settled with and found works best for them first.

hey rookie,

mine are on vivid setting, with set max limit 75% across each channel. this gives me my 350 par where most of my sps frags currently are. ill get a FTS soon, but things have been growing for me like some SPS (pink lemonade) and encrusting monties, and my LPS/softies are happy enough.

Being a new tank, i would look at more than just lighting to see better growth, like alk/cal and no3/p04 levels. new tanks have relatively much less nutrients than older tanks. what are your n03 p04 levels? do you have coralline yet?

renting a par meter would be the surefire way to get accurate par numbers with your rock set up and tank depth. you can also estimate par with the numbers posted and our tank depths / mounting height.

if you really want to see growth, get a kenya tree or something similar. super easy to take care of and almost guaranteed to do well fast.

 

[spideybry]

Hey @spideybry,

Thanks for starting this thread. I've always been a freshwater guy and finally decided to take the plunge into the reef world this year. I purchased this exact light (Turing75) when I started up my reef tank in Dec. I'm curious what's the schedule that you ended up sticking with that works for you? Throughout the thread it looks like you have tried a few different configurations. The lights are on a 46G 3ftL x 2ftH x 1ftD tank. The lights are 10" high off the surface of the water. Overall I have been super happy with the look of the lights and the their functionality... however, currently I have been running my lights as follows and not overly happy with growth...

I am definitely going to be changing the lighting schedule and intensities but I wanted to see what everyone else has settled with and found works best for them first.


PS used a yellow filter over the iphone so the pictures wouldn't be oversaturated with blue.

Glad the thread helped you out. I actually recently switched over to Noopsyches, got them used for a great deal and I couldn't turn them down (about two weeks ago now).

My biggest gripe with the Popbloom 75 was the layout - if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have switched.

This was the rough schedule I had, I wound up bumping up the whites eventually. Find something that works for you though schedule-wise, and stick with it. Stability is more important than switching schedules around and stuff. The lights do look good though and will grow corals, I just couldn't stand having more white color toward the back of the tank since I enjoy looking at the sides of my tank as well (I am just picky lol).

The on board presets are good as well btw, like others have said in the thread - I was just always preferred being on the low side with PAR since I didn't have anything that really warranted that intense light at the time.

 

[GSnake]

hey, just an update. im still using the popbloom 75's. To balance the layout and get more coverage - like a blanket effect for less shadowing - I bought a blue LED fixture to supplement the turing 75's. You can see how I attached the bracket it came with to the popbloom. I now have the coverage I want ( I found the popbloom alone a little narrow for my SPS tank [20Wide, 22inch Height of tank]), and I have the spectrum blend I want for the look of the tank.
The new blue light bar sits behind the cool white LED's of the popbloom, so now there is no distinguished white look in the back of the tank.
As far as par, im not too worried about it at the moment. but will be ballparking it when i get a chance to calculate it based on Turing 75 450nm LED par levels and the number of LED's in the new bar (also 450nm).

 

[spideybry]

hey, just an update. im still using the popbloom 75's. To balance the layout and get more coverage - like a blanket effect for less shadowing - I bought a blue LED fixture to supplement the turing 75's. You can see how I attached the bracket it came with to the popbloom. I now have the coverage I want ( I found the popbloom alone a little narrow for my SPS tank [20Wide, 22inch Height of tank]), and I have the spectrum blend I want for the look of the tank.
The new blue light bar sits behind the cool white LED's of the popbloom, so now there is no distinguished white look in the back of the tank.
As far as par, im not too worried about it at the moment. but will be ballparking it when i get a chance to calculate it based on Turing 75 450nm LED par levels and the number of LED's in the new bar (also 450nm).

That's a smart move, nice to hear that there are no blending issues.