Vertex Illumina

[BlueTang<3]

done deal. bought and shipping in am.

all goes well it's here friday.

Got a 24' Coming

[Wanderer]

congrats!!!!

You must be VERY excited

[Coleus]

Really want the light but at $4200 for 72 inch. Too much for me! :-(

[StirCrazy]

thatnks, I got a good laugh out of this thread, goes from asking for opinions, some are given then turns to personal attack cuz people didn't agree with the opinion given.

it is natural for people to defend there purchases and remember no mater what we buy there will always be some one who has something better or some one who doesn't like if for other reasons..

I have been playing with LEDs over tanks for about 8 years now, granted mostly for lighting tanks with out corals or for moonlight or effect purposes using old 5mm LEDs . now in the last year I have gotten back into it and learned a ton more as over the last 5 years there have been significant advances in LEDs and ways of controling them.

Ron has very valid points, and from personal experiance with PAR readings and SPS growth I would not set up another SPS tank unless I can obtain about 300 PAR on the bottom of the tank, with between 500 to 700 PAR towards the top.

my reasoning for this is as follows. 10 years ago there was no info on lighting and I started off with VHO's and overdriven NO's and a LUX meter, then went to PCs and bought a PAR meter. SPS grew, and yes they will grow under NO's if set up properly, but very slowly and will mostly be brown.

then I switched to a VHO/PC system and got a bit more growth and a tiny bit of color. soon I added a 175 watt MH and again more growth and more color. after about 4 months of reading boaring articles on light and growth, I designed my own system with 250 watt MH, HQI ballasts, and home made reflectors, this jumped my PAR up to about 800 just below the surface and about 350 at the bottom of a 24" tank. coral growth took off to the point where I contenplated lowering the light levels, but didn't.. the result was colors like I had never experianced, One brown Acro I was given, and I named "butt ugly" turned into a stunning deep purple and was my faviorate coral. my millies were growing over a CM/month in dia, and soon space was becomming an issue. All water peramiters and feeding remained the same through out so the only varable was the light.

I do not agree with people saying over 1000PAR will inhibit growth for one simple reason, a coral reef in the sun gets way more than that for at least 6 hours of the day I do agree that they will use so much light then stop for the day, I concluded this as I was running my MH for 6 hours a day then upped it to 8 and coral growth increased, then I upped it to 10 and another increase, but at 12 hours there was no increase over 10 hours so I went back to 10 hours.

now as for the vertex fixture, ya they are neat, good quality LEDs, and a tone of features for the price, but they are designed to be "cool" looking and small. because of the way the did there thermal managment there is a trade of being a single strip of LEDs. so what you get as was stated is a row of light, now by not using optics this will alow the spread to light the whole tank but it will be most intense with in about 25 degrees of the verticle axis. what I would liek to see is ass on moduals to turn it into 3 strips that are spaced out so say another light strip with a heat sink that extens on only one side that can be attached to the edge of the main heat sink. so you add one on each side and overall PAR will be more even and increased.

If you have the ability you can always build a better fixture than you can buy preformance wise, but making it pretty takes conciderable skill and money, so if it is the look your after and willing to trade a bit on preformance then the vertex is a very good option especialy when the price is brought in. if your fixture is going to be hidden and you have the skills to solder, tap, ect.. then building a setup for the same money will give you better overall power, but you trade on looks..

so it is a personal choice and that always means that some one will be defending there choice, but lets try to keep it with out sarcasm and personal attacks, just say why you made your choice and don't let others opinions get to you.

Steve