Viparspectra 165watt, Anyone using these?

[Coastie Reefer]

Does it have UL listed power supply?

Doesn't need a UL listing... that's only used in the US. If it has a CE rating it's just as good, as that's what the rest of the world uses.

That said I believe it has both. I'd have to go look when I got off work.

 

[oreo54]

Reference:
https://www.meee-services.com/electronic-product-certifications/
https://www.batteryspace.com/ul-ce-emc-fcc-and-csa.aspx
biggest difference is CE mark is self administered.. i.e no "independent" testing was done but the manuf..

Csa mark is equiv to UL though..

 

[AdamB]

Hi,
I'm new to this site and can't find if it has been asked before. So my question is, is anyone else using these viparspectra led lights?
I have had one since Xmas, 8" over a 24x18x18 mixed reef, I have worked upto a setting of 65% blue an 20% white, which have worked upto and I have only had this setting for a week. As on an old nano tank I had bleached hammer corals with a Tmc aquaray, so I'm taking it slow. The few sps frags I have, have shown some growth but not as much as I would have liked to see over 7 months. I just wandered if I should run the whites or blues higher to promote growth? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

I had 2 of them on my 90 mixed tank with over 50 types of coral in which I saw a ton of growth out of my acros more than anything else . Very pleased with this light . The whites are very strong. I ran them at 15% . Blues were at 90%

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I've got a spare transformer for mine I'll have a look at it.

All that was on the transformer was the part number.

 

[icejam]

Sorry it took so long, but as promised couple months ago here are some PAR measurements.
My lights are 4" above the water [yes I know - way too low] and the sensor was placed at the bottom of the tank directly under the center of the light [~18" of water column].

Plotted are white and blue channel PAR measurements at 1-10% every 1% and 10-100% every 5%.
The light is mostly linear, and PAR values from both channels add up [i.e. 50% blue and 5% white would be ~430 PAR]

I will be taking more measurements mid water and off axis sometime this week.

Thanks.


edit: I currently have mine set up at 45% blue and 5% white [420 PAR at the bottom of the tank]

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

This is very informative, thank you so much for going through all that effort, and even plotting it on a graph it must have taken you a minute or 2 ;). So going by your graph mine running at 70/10 9 inches off the water , through 16 inches of water it would be between 475 and 490 par, that's allowing a little for extra air distance. Also if running 1% on each would that actually give a ready of 190 par. Or am I reading g the graph totally wrong?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

This is very informative, thank you so much for going through all that effort, and even plotting it on a graph it must have taken you a minute or 2 ;). So going by your graph mine running at 70/10 9 inches off the water , through 16 inches of water it would be between 475 and 490 par, that's allowing a little for extra air distance. Also if running 1% on each would that actually give a ready of 190 par. Or am I reading g the graph totally wrong?

If this is the case I'm well over lighting my lps that are only about 8 inches straight below the light. I might have to wind them back a bit, and if 2% white on it's own is 100 par these are extremely powerful. I'm tempted to run 50 blue 1 or 2 white with only about 10 par difference in the white. Also is blue at 100% 490par. If so I'm shocked. So full whack on both that's alot of cooked corals

 

[icejam]

This is very informative, thank you so much for going through all that effort, and even plotting it on a graph it must have taken you a minute or 2 ;). So going by your graph mine running at 70/10 9 inches off the water , through 16 inches of water it would be between 475 and 490 par, that's allowing a little for extra air distance. Also if running 1% on each would that actually give a ready of 190 par. Or am I reading g the graph totally wrong?

Yes 1% on each channel gives 190 PAR. With both at 100% I had 920 PAR [so not exactly summed as blue and white are 470 PAR each at 100% but close enough]
Also notice I had white channel almost flat at 130 PAR between 5% and 8% but that might be just my unit.

I can temporarily raise the light 6~12in above the water surface and take the readings again.

 

[icejam]

If this is the case I'm well over lighting my lps that are only about 8 inches straight below the light. I might have to wind them back a bit, and if 2% white on it's own is 100 par these are extremely powerful. I'm tempted to run 50 blue 1 or 2 white with only about 10 par difference in the white. Also is blue at 100% 490par. If so I'm shocked. So full whack on both that's alot of cooked corals

Yes, that would seem correct - the lights are way more powerful than expected. 100% blue and white are 470 PAR each.

Also white Kelvin temp is around 6800K. Blue is of the scale [as expected].

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Yes 1% on each channel gives 190 PAR. With both at 100% I had 920 PAR [so not exactly summed as blue and white are 470 PAR each at 100% but close enough]
Also notice I had white channel almost flat at 130 PAR between 5% and 8% but that might be just my unit.

I can temporarily raise the light 6~12in above the water surface and take the readings again.

I wouldn't say that is necessary. But do you think that it would make much difference through air. The only thing I would think is you might not have as big of a hotspot as they colours should blend a little better further away. Was your test done with flow in the tank?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Yes, that would seem correct - the lights are way more powerful than expected. 100% blue and white are 470 PAR each.

Also white Kelvin temp is around 6800K. Blue is of the scale [as expected].

With the kelvin reading is there a percentage of blue to white to give reading of like 14k 16k 18k 20k type of thing, if that makes sense? As the lights seem linear in par, per percentage. Like say 10blue to 1white is like 16k same as 50blue 5 white. I'm not sure if it would work that way though.

 

[icejam]

I wouldn't say that is necessary. But do you think that it would make much difference through air. The only thing I would think is you might not have as big of a hotspot as they colours should blend a little better further away. Was your test done with flow in the tank?

Yes, it was done with flow on and some cloudiness in the water as I have sand stirring creatures. I took a 10s average of the reading at each %.

 

[icejam]

With the kelvin reading is there a percentage of blue to white to give reading of like 14k 16k 18k 20k type of thing, if that makes sense? As the lights seem linear in par, per percentage. Like say 10blue to 1white is like 16k same as 50blue 5 white. I'm not sure if it would work that way though.

Kelvin reading is with white channel only.
Kelvin reading is off the scale [approaching infinity] with blue light on. [it's almost impossible to measure K of blue or green light above 10 000K]

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Yes, it was done with flow on and some cloudiness in the water as I have sand stirring creatures. I took a 10s average of the reading at each %.

That must have taken quite a while to do it. Any amount of many thanks and cheers, can't reward you for all your time and effort in doing this.
But on behalf of people running this light, MANY THANKS and CHEERS for doing this.
It gives them/myself included settings to aim for for their tanks according to your results and your graph helps visualise it. Also knowing that you can get enough par with 50% blue and a couple percent white it helps people run the tank at a colour that they prefer for viewing.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Kelvin reading is with white channel only.
Kelvin reading is off the scale [approaching infinity] with blue light on. [it's almost impossible to measure K of blue or green light above 10 000K]

I did not know this, thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Alec Byrom]

A reading at 10-12” would be great see how it affects the par as I run mine at 11” and think I’ve had it turned up too high going by your chart.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

A reading at 10-12” would be great see how it affects the par as I run mine at 11” and think I’ve had it turned up too high going by your chart.

I think alot of people run them too high. I'm turning mine down to 50/5 was running 75/10

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

And yes a reading at a higher level would be great, but I dont think you would have to do every 1% maybe 5% just to see if it makes that much difference at a higher position.

 

[Semisonyx]

A reading at 10-12” would be great see how it affects the par as I run mine at 11” and think I’ve had it turned up too high going by your chart.

I have my lights sitting about 14” off the water surface. My initial setting was B:60% W:10%. I ended up tweaking it to 50/15 to better match the 250w Radiums they were replacing. At that setting, I’m getting a peak of about 40,000 Lux at the water surface, which is roughly 700 par. A $15 lux meter off of Amazon is a great tool for getting these things dialed in without having to spend $$$ for a par meter.

 

[Alec Byrom]

I think alot of people run them too high. I'm turning mine down to 50/5 was running 75/10

I’ve been having problems with some of my corals not opening and can’t work out why so have lowered from 60blue 30white down to 10blue 2white for a while and see what happens, my torch already seems to be extending more.