PFO's Solaris LED System; Tested

[liveforphysics]

Scooter- In reguards to your first statement. "So your saying they didn't test on even plains." That all depends on the application you will be useing it for. The deeper the tank, the better the LEDs would test VS MH, if your application is for shallow tank use, than the testing was fair and relivant to your application.

The test didn't mention what reflectors the MH bulbs were useing (unless I missed it), but it did mention they used reflectors. Critical angle losses are when light hits the surface of the water beyond 44.5deg, and rather than entering where it can reach corals, it bounces off. The LED array is designed to try to not emmit any light beyond that 44.5deg magic number, meaning, much less light should be wasted by reflecting off the surface of the water.

 

[Maxx]

Maxx- LCD + liquid crystal display LED = Light emmiting diode.

Inverse squared rule is used for situations from a omni directional point source onto a surface, like a MH bulb. Now think of a laser for example, if the mannor in which the light is columnated is in straight lines (think laser), then the inverse squared rule has no application. An LED is not a laser, but its certianly not a point source either, its kinda in-between things.

Exellent question BTW.

LCD, LED, LSD...whatever....

Thanks for explaining though. I was never a physics guy in school, alsways preferred the life sciences as opposed to the others...

Nick

 

[Llarian]

The light penetration thing is an interesting point. Would be nice if we could see a comparison of light falloff between these and a MH down to 30" or so (since that's the deep end of what people usually keep).

They do say that SPS can be kept down to about 18", and softies down to about 30". That doesn't seem to measure up to a 250W MH from what I've seen, and there is no LED equivalent to the 400W (SE) lighting required to light deep into a 30" tank.

-Dylan

 

[Boomer]

Livefo

Have I ever posted this website for you ?

http://www.intl-light.com/

Also check from them
Light Measurement Handbook

http://www.uni-mannheim.de/fakul/ps...ikel/Alex_Ryer_Light_Measurement_Handbook.pdf

 

[Scooterman]

Critical angle losses are when light hits the surface of the water beyond 44.5deg, and rather than entering where it can reach corals, it bounces off. The LED array is designed to try to not emmit any light beyond that 44.5deg magic number, meaning, much less light should be wasted by reflecting off the surface of the water.

Sounds like a bullet hitting the surface at the right angle which I've seen & done many times. I see where your coming from saying the LED's focus all of its usable light into the water, the MH lamps with the proper height could get a very large area of light into the water using proper reflectors like the LIII's but at a higher cost, now we need to get the LEDs to put in not only the right wavelength but just enough more to actually show that it can grow corals. This will blow away all other lighting eventually from what I've seen so far, if/when it can be done that is.

 

[BJTenn]

Y'all are waaaaay above my area of expertise, but can I ask a lighting question???

How far from the water can you have your lights and not lose any light benefit?

75 gal - (1) 2x65 48" long unit and retrokit with 4x65

thanks
BJ

 

[liveforphysics]

Scooty- As far as blowing away other forms of lighting, assumeing that the LEDs can get 99% of the light they make into the water where it can be used, they are still makeing below 1/3 the light/watt that T5's are generateing. T5's with proper reflectors are able to land +90% of the light they generate into the water, and they generate 3 times the light for the same amount of power used...

In other words, they have a VERY long way to go before they can catch T5, and by long way, I mean more than doubleing efficiency.

 

[steve-s]

Y'all are waaaaay above my area of expertise, but can I ask a lighting question???

How far from the water can you have your lights and not lose any light benefit?

75 gal - (1) 2x65 48" long unit and retrokit with 4x65

thanks
BJ

PC lights allow for very little distance from the water line before you start significantly falling off. Usually once you go beyond 3", youre heading downhill from there. The closer you can get PC lights to the water safely, the better off your tank will be and the less wasted light.

Cheers
Steve

 

[liveforphysics]

Yep, PC and MH both are a case of lighting systems that create a ton of light with great efficiency, but in the case of exellent PC reflected setups, only about 1/3rd or less of it makes it into the tank, and with the best lumenarc MH reflectors, you get slightly over half of the light created into the tank. Both systems very quickly loose intensity with distance (can be modeled with a rough inverse square ratio).

T5HO is nothing more than your PC bulbs you are running now, only straightend out into a straight stick. In straight stick form, the bulb is able to get over 300% more light into the water due to its ability to be reflected in a mannor with enables light to enter the water. Hence my hard-on for T5HO.

No other system puts the same amout of light into the water for the same amount of energy used.

 

[liveforphysics]

Something people considdering the LED lighting setup may want to know...

The 300watt model for use with a 48" tank will actually be putting more heat into the room than a 400watt MH bulb... Possibily more than 2x250watt MH bulbs, although its going to be close.

Note that I am saying "put into the room", as the sinks of the LEDs are designed to transport the heat into the room effectively. Now, for those of you that cool your homes with AC, this means you get to use considerable amount of electricity to pump this heat outside your home. Likely useing more power than a chiller venting outside to cool a tank running MH bulbs...

Just as a wild side note here, people who have chillers sitting next to tanks in air conditioned homes (I know its hard to belive, but I keep seeing it), you realize that for every 1watt your chiller draws, your home AC system draws at least 1.2 additional watts...

 

[Scooterman]

Just as a wild side note here, people who have chillers sitting next to tanks in air conditioned homes (I know its hard to belive, but I keep seeing it), you realize that for every 1watt your chiller draws, your home AC system draws at least 1.2 additional watts...

Your saying this because the chiller isn't venting the heat outside right?
On my new tank & plan on ducting it into the attic

 

[piercho]

You guys are providing a lot of useful information and opinion, thanks for taking the time to post replies to this thread, as I'm currently flopping and twitching over a light setup for my next tank, which will be my first attempt at an open-top single-fixture tank. I tried to get a conversation going about Solaris on http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=907745&perpage=&pagenumber=1, and was pretty dissapointed with the direction the thread took.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the spectra of the "20000K" Solaris shown by Dana. Its a fat band centered around 450, and it looks like a better analog of light at moderate depth than some other reef lighting, to me. I've never liked the peaky spectra of typical "10KK" and "20KK" MH. At this time, the Solaris only has white and blue LEDs, and the "white" has a dominant spectral content in blue. I would think that the few colors available in LED, as well as the ability to control their output, would allow a person to shape their lighting to exactly what they wanted, assuming the fixture gives you that option.

Which brings up another subject, how upgradeable will the Solaris be as the LED technology advances? I'm assuming that LED technology will continue to advance as a market grows for higher-wattage emmitters, and if I chunk down 2K for a fixture, I would hope that it would have decent upgrade options.

 

[MarineTeng]

curious how these are doing now days (a couple months in public), i'm obviously behind the times