youcallmenny Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 I've had my tank up with this light for a little over 12 months and it's always been slightly off. Red's don't show up in the coral, top layer colors often refuse to fully fluoresce. Everything else has been golden for a long time yet I am still having these problems. This is after using two different PAR meters to make sure it was producing 350 at the top, which it could barely do. I finally broke down and ordered 4x Hydra 26's from Jeff because I'm tired of fighting with this light. They're on order and should be here soon, yay! 🎅 While I've been waiting, I've been really trying to understand what went wrong with this current LED. I've been noticing a lot of flickering in the 7500K (not a typo) white diodes. Probably 80-90% of them visibly flicker all the time. As far as I know this isn't a new problem with the light. I remember this topic got brought up at Rudy's the last time we were there. Anyone have some experience with what flickering (particularely white) diode's will do to a tank? Just before anyone asks, NO3 and PO4 are well within happy ranges and my chemistry has been stable for a long time. I cut a major corner when I set this tank up by getting cheaper LED's and I am pretty sure that's the issue though I'd be happy to test whatever if anyone has some ideas. The fans are making crazy noise again on this thing too. I am so super excited about the Hydra's. They're white to match my Red Sea stand which I think looks awesome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 The only thing I can think is that it will affect the coloration of your coral like you mentioned already. It also will affect the amount of algae you may end up with in your tank particularly the green hair algae. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 Haven't had an issue with algae's so much with the exception of brown film algae. I know that it's production rises and falls but this light grows much more than what I've seen in the past with my tanks. I have a nice Kessil fuge light though so that might also be offsetting macro growth up top because it works so well. This light also does NOT grow corraline which I used to have a ton of before switching. Good input. Thank you Kim! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 Hi Greg - I can't even remember what lights you ended up with. I do recall the discussion at Rudy's around the "flickering" which was a result of how some of the manufactures implemented their intensity control since the alternative (running the diodes at lower voltages) could result in less consistent output/spectra (since they were designed to run at a set voltage). I don't recall catching anything about what frequencies that might entail and whether or not you would be able to perceive it as flickering... perhaps if the output level were low enough? Seems odd that it will barely reach 350 at the top regardless. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 It was a partnership brand through ReefBreeders. The light is an AquaHelios R120 or sometimes the AquaSanrise. They dropped it pretty quickly due to 'undesired results' and have since replaced it with a more popular version. I had good luck with their Photon V2's in the past and they were super powerful. I've seen a lot of great results with Hydra's and there are known working schedules out there so I'm hoping this will be a good solution for my tank. I probably should have just got them with the tank to begin with... Ah well, you live and you learn. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 15 minutes ago, youcallmenny said: It was a partnership brand through ReefBreeders. The light is an AquaHelios R120 or sometimes the AquaSanrise. They dropped it pretty quickly due to 'undesired results' and have since replaced it with a more popular version. I had good luck with their Photon V2's in the past and they were super powerful. I've seen a lot of great results with Hydra's and there are known working schedules out there so I'm hoping this will be a good solution for my tank. I probably should have just got them with the tank to begin with... Ah well, you live and you learn. Ah - I remember the Photon V2s you had but somehow missed these guys. It is somewhat disconcerting that they were dropped so quickly - wonder if the "undesired results" were something specific or just general underperformance. Well, sounds like you should be in good shape going forward anyway - a lot more info and experience to tap into with the Hydra's thats for sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 Are all the whites flickering together at the same time? Seems like that would suggest a driver issue on that channel. Only time I’ve ever had any sort of flickering issues was when using the low amp channel on a ReefKeeper as the timer for a single channel of black box LEDs. You are in a different situation with the programmable head unit though. No idea on what the pulsing effect would have on corals and their coloration/growth. I would assume it wouldn’t be good especially if you can visibly see it (most lighting does flicker but at a speed not detectable by the human eye). overall I’ve been pleased with my Hydra 52, I’m sure you will like it much more! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 Some of them are. I was ready to point the finger at the driver(s) too but there a bunch that aren't in time with one another and a few that are. I agree that it seems... much less than ideal. Glad to hear it about the 52! This will be my first top-tier LED so I'm sure I'll be blown away by the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaywood Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 When you get your new lights, I'd be happy to share my scheme. Nothing fancy, but it works. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 38 minutes ago, shaywood said: When you get your new lights, I'd be happy to share my scheme. Nothing fancy, but it works. That'd be awesome! Have you by chance tried any of the signature line schedules? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaywood Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 I'm not aware of the signature line for AI Hydra. Here's a copy of my scheme for my Hydra HD 26's. Works great. AI Preset 3_25_2019.aip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 There's typically a driver per channel if using PWM dimming. So if these are on their own channel, very likely a driver issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 That was my thought too. Either they're on more than one channel for the whites or the channel(s) are just flickering randomly. I didn't mention either that the fixture has a small display on it that is going out. The backlighting for the tiny screen went out almost immediately and the individual pixel's have been going out steadily. It's to the point you can't read it any more. Why does this matter? Because this light can't just join a network. It has to broadcast it's own SSID and network. It also likes to drop this network connection about once a month and forget that it knew how. I bet you can guess at this point that the only way to reestablish it's network is through that little screen. The last time it happened I had to blindly press buttons while reading the manual and barely managed to make it work. Yeesh. Save me @CuttleFishandCoral! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 2 minutes ago, youcallmenny said: That was my thought too. Either they're on more than one channel for the whites or the channel(s) are just flickering randomly. I didn't mention either that the fixture has a small display on it that is going out. The backlighting for the tiny screen went out almost immediately and the individual pixel's have been going out steadily. It's to the point you can't read it any more. Why does this matter? Because this light can't just join a network. It has to broadcast it's own SSID and network. It also likes to drop this network connection about once a month and forget that it knew how. I bet you can guess at this point that the only way to reestablish it's network is through that little screen. The last time it happened I had to blindly press buttons while reading the manual and barely managed to make it work. Yeesh. Save me @CuttleFishandCoral! Sounds like game over! I wonder when Ocean Revive is coming out with a new light? Daniel's new lights show promise too. LEDs have sure come a long ways! Cannot go wrong with hyrdras it sounds like, congrats! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, youcallmenny said: Save me @CuttleFishandCoral! You're my only hope. 👻 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 16 minutes ago, TheClark said: Sounds like game over! I wonder when Ocean Revive is coming out with a new light? Daniel's new lights show promise too. LEDs have sure come a long ways! Cannot go wrong with hyrdras it sounds like, congrats! You're right, of course. There were definitely safer options while on a budget! Both OR and Reefi have very proven results around here that I've seen myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdrop Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 I had that happen to my AI prime the other day now the entire white channel is dead 😞 so yeah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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