kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[kien]

So recently I had an opportunity to try out a Radion and a Kessil LED units to see how they compared. Two very different units but great at what they do and that is put out light. Not quite Metal Halide light but good enough I think.

Well, next up on my hit list is a GHL Mitras. First of all, this is one sexy unit! I'm a huge fan of silver. I believe they come in a black as well.

The control panel is quite easy to use and it's nice that it is on the side and not on the top like the Radion. I found the control panel on the Radion a bit of a pain to use. The GHL with its built in LCD panel is quite a nice treat.



And yes, they do come with their own sunglasses!



The Mitras is equipped with a generous 6 pods, each pod housing 12 LEDs with a mixture of Blues, Whites, Reds and Greens.



Just another quick disclaimer here. My intent is not to test the effectiveness of the LED unit. Rather, I am interested to see how the look compared to my tried and true Metal Halid+T5 combo. That is, can they match the aesthetics that I prefer?

For comparison sake I'm going to throw up my 250watt, 15K Metal Halide picture again. Note also that no T5s are on, just the Metal Halide. Also, these bulbs are about 8 months old so they are due for replacement which means they're probably burning closer to 12K or 13K.

Metal Halide.


Next up is the Mitras at full blast. All channels, all on. (idental camera exposure settings as the Metal Halide photo).


Immediately you can see that there is a $#!t load of light here! LIke I mean A LOT! Now I know why it came with sunglasses. Seriously, like HOLY ****.

But, clearly this isn't the ideal setting. There's way too much red here. Next I dialed down the Red channel to ZERO.



Still A LOT of light here! Plus, not a bad colour cast. I played around with the colour combinations a bit more (did I mention that I REALLY like the control panel? So nice!) to see if I could get something more in line with my taste. Here is the blue dialed down to something more appealing to me. Pretty close to 15K in my eyes.



All in all a very pleasing look. Not quite as bright as the halide but still a lot of light. The most light that I've seen from an LED at this colour temperature for sure.

Okay, so ya, this light KICKS ASS. However, it isn't perfect. Sadly, like many others this LED unit does suffer from a noticeable disco effect. Keep in mind that everyone's eyes are different and this effect may not be noticeable by everyone. I on the other hand could definitely notice the separation of lights on my sand bed. It wasn't as bad as some units that I've seen, but not as good as the Kessil. The Kessil with its tightly packed LED array pretty much eliminated this effect.

Kessil LED Array:


Mitras LED Array:


And here it is in all its glory (or gory?), the dreaded disco effect..







Keep in mind also that these photos exaggerate the effect because of the freeze frame nature of the dSLR camera. However, it's there, and as I said, some people will notice it and some will not.

Final thoughts.

1. This is one sexy light. The build quality is excellent and by far the best that I've see on the market. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into this unit with its generous distribution of pods to its user friendly control panel with LCD display. Plus, it comes with a freaking hanging kit!

2. The colours are quite nice with a virtually an infinite number of possibilities! Plus, damn this unit is BRIGHT!

3. Like with all LEDs you get the coveted caustic effect (ie, shimmering). Sadly, like with most LEDs the shimmering is also its Achilles heel as that's where the dreaded disco effect rears its ugly head. Well, I suppose it won't necessarily be ugly to everyone.

[Snappy]

What I find most amazing about the LED lighting is that it made all the stuff on the substrate disappear. It's like magic! Or perhaps the fish just moved them out of the way to clear the dance floor so they really groove to those disco effects.

[lastlight]

more sweet unbiased review action. the hunt continues!

[Coleus]

Ok I need to sell one of my kidney for these sexy mitras. Wonder how many can I get for my kidney.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Coleus

Ok I need to sell one of my kidney for these sexy mitras. Wonder how many can I get for my kidney.

In my opinion, considering the feature set, the build quality and the actual amount of light output, I would consider the Mitras moderately priced :-). In other words, you can spend the same amount of money elsewhere and end up with a lot less.

[sphelps]

Maybe my eyes adjusted cause I just checked my tank again and can't see any disco effect from the Mitras. Maybe your tank is too small, have you tried switching that out yet?

And where are you getting all these fixtures from? I think Dave might need better security

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by sphelps

And where are you getting all these fixtures from? I think Dave might need better security

I was just thinking the same thing!

[kien]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Maybe my eyes adjusted cause I just checked my tank again and can't see any disco effect from the Mitras.

Maybe you are just one of the lucky ones who are not as suceptable to the disco effect. The Mitras do a good job of reducing it with a tighter array unlike the Radions. Mind you, even with Radions there are those who don't notice disco with them. And of course there is also the possibility that you would just simply get used to it :-)

It kind of reminds me if the early days of DLP Projectors. Are you familiar with those? They have a spinning colour wheel. The first and second gen DLP projectors had horribly slow spins on their colour wheel and some people noticed colour banding as a result. Not everyone noticed it but a lot of people did. Then they sped up the colour wheel and gradually reduced the effect. Fewer and fewer people could pick up the colour banding (ie rainbow effect). I have a 4th gen DLP projector in my home theatre with a 6x speed colour wheel and I can still occasionally see the rainbow effect but rarely any of my guests do.

Originally Posted by kien

For comparison sake I'm going to throw up my 250watt, 15K Metal Halide picture again. Note also that no T5s are on, just the Metal Halide. Also, these bulbs are about 8 months old so they are due for replacement which means they're probably burning closer to 12K or 13K.

Metal Halide.


Next up is the Mitras at full blast. All channels, all on. (identical camera exposure settings as the Metal Halide photo).

Not only was the Mitras brighter, it blew all those SPS colonizes at the bottom of the tank away. Now das awesome.

Have you decided which unit you want to move over to? Or are you still part of the no LEDs club?

My clowns are just like yours, they never venture away from their cave.

[kien]

Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi

Not only was the Mitras brighter, it blew all those SPS colonizes at the bottom of the tank away. Now das awesome.

Have you decided which unit you want to move over to? Or are you still part of the no LEDs club?

My clowns are just like yours, they never venture away from their cave.

Well, I wouldn't say that I am necessarily NO LEDs. I'm quite open to the idea of switching to LEDs if I could just find one that I liked. This is why I've been trying a bunch out. I still prefer my MH and T5 combo for its over all look. However, if my fixture were to break today and I could not replace it with another one, I would either go with a Kessil 350W and T5 combo or just the Mitras.

Ya, I could probably place my anemone and clowns into a cup of water and they probably wouldn't notice. In fact, they might be happier since they don't really enjoy the company of any of the other fish. Mostly they get annoyed whenever someone swims near their anemone.