Vertex Illumina LED Arrives

[BigFloppy]

good numbers and a cool looking fixture

[Rickyrooz1]

Very nice!

[blasterman789]

Asian manufacturers are already leading the pack for reasonably priced LED fixtures but they are still very basic in functionality.

Oddly, the Asian makers are still trying to copycat American and Euro designs which use 3watt LEDs. The 'odd' being that the Chinese are the ones making the large, cheap arrays, but don't use them and choosing instead to stick with more fragile 3watt emitters. I'm *finally* in possession of a 10watt *deep* Royal Blue, and can get as many as I want for not much more than a Cree (including 20watts). Still, I don't think the Chinese will connect the dots and start making bigger reef lights using fewer, higher powered LEDs.

There's no reason large LED lights with basic functionality have to be expensive.

The Orbitec patent is holding back market innovation is this area, at least in the USA.

Yep. Asian makers won't care such as they aren't caring now about running over any patent they want. It really just hurts Western designers {sigh}.

The coolest thing about this light is it breaks about from the conventional LED topography and concentrates emitters in a small area over the middle of the tank with no optics, which is what I've been preaching. You adjust coverage by height, which is the same way we've been doing it for years with halides. This is the first big light I've seen break away from the annoying 'recessed lighting' mentality of spreading LED lights all over the tank to get maximum coverage (and wasted light and increased cost). I'm glad to see it working on a nice looking tank.

The power levels here have also cofirmed some numbers of my own. Thanks for such informative post.

[mistacheese]

From the fish shop in St Mary's Ontario and mine is the 4 footer also. I am counting the hours until 18h00 local when he gets here with it... Your tank is amazing with or without your new light by the way, nicely done from a fellow Southern Ontario resident!

Cheese

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by blasterman789

Yep. Asian makers won't care such as they aren't caring now about running over any patent they want. It really just hurts Western designers {sigh}.

There are currently no Asian made fixtures sold in the USA that violate Orbitec's patent AFIAK. The Vertex Illumina would definitely violate Orbitec's patent if it were available in the USA - at least in it's current version.

http://goo.gl/elLW

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by mistacheese

From the fish shop in St Mary's Ontario and mine is the 4 footer also. I am counting the hours until 18h00 local when he gets here with it... Your tank is amazing with or without your new light by the way, nicely done from a fellow Southern Ontario resident!

Cheese

Cool! I was just in that little shop in St. Marys two weeks ago to get my ReefKeeper Elite USB module updated! St. Mary's is a really nice little town!

-TDF

[reeftec]

blasterman789 agreed
The industry should move away from Optics and try to use less brighter LEDs as a single source of light rather than many 1W LEDs.
However
The Power LED industry is still at its infancy, the problem with many Higher Watt LED is that they are not stable, have a lower CRI index or they are Multichip, so they are not really a single diode.
As for the cost, as long as we are chasing the next best lm/w the prices will be high eventually in a few years once we have 300lm/w LEDs or maybe higher !!!! then they should be able to further reduce the number of the LEDs and use an older generation of LED that has for example 200 lm/w and is much cheaper.
Then you will see a price drop but until then it is easy to calculate how much money these Aquarium LED companies make based on how many LEDs and what model they use, At this point they do not probably make a lot of money & that is why the larger companies do not manufacture anything with the latest LEDS. They are just too expensive and gawd forbid Central or Current sell a product with less than 1 billion % mark up ( no. seriously about Minimum 300 to 500 % is what I can guess industry standard for a large set up like Central)
The thing is that although these fixtures are expensive, if they work the energy/ Bulb change savings should offset the initial higher expense in no time.
Looking forward to see the other features of the fixture, I saw on the German forum that you can monitor LED core temperature in real-time and if the fixture is too hot the computer will reduce power to compensate to keep the LEDs safe.
For example if you had the light behind the window and sun is blasting on it in the middle of summer.
Overall from what the site that sells them in Canada says they are packed with features
Features:

http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/vt...4+Inch%29.html

It is funny when the I4 came out it was sold out here everywhere so I actually bought mine from these guys in Canada and they were great, so I might give them a try again, based on the numbers Dogfather has here.
@ Dogfather:
How about lowering the fixture to 1.5 or 2" away from the surface how does that look? How would the Par be then ?how would the reflection from water surface get effected? how do you find the spread along the bottom?
I really hope you have the time and wouldn't mind testing that?
Thanks for all the info so far.

[scholar]

dogfather were did you get your fixture i was thinking about heading up to ORG to pick one up from Tom

[TheDogFather]

How about lowering the fixture to 1.5 or 2" away from the surface how does that look? How would the Par be then ?how would the reflection from water surface get effected? how do you find the spread along the bottom?
I really hope you have the time and wouldn't mind testing that?
Thanks for all the info so far.

Lowering the fixture any further will significantly reduce the front to back spread on a 30" deep tank (deep NOT tall). It's perfect as it is IMO and any higher PAR numbers will just lead to stressed corals. Sure, I can get 1000+ at 1" but really, what's the point?.
Cheers!

-TDF

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by scholar

dogfather were did you get your fixture i was thinking about heading up to ORG to pick one up from Tom

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=12

[Nanoized]

Originally Posted by TheDogFather

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=12

Awesome fixture and SeaUMarine is my favorite LFS in Southern Ontario.

[notclear]

I am also planning in getting one. But I have one question:

For argument sake, if the intensity of the lamps will decrease by 20% over 5 years, would it be a good idea to set the lamps intensity to 80% in the 1st year, then 85% the 2nd year, and so on? This way, over the 5 years period, I may get uniform lamp intensity?

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by notclear

I am also planning in getting one. But I have one question:

For argument sake, if the intensity of the lamps will decrease by 20% over 5 years, would it be a good idea to set the lamps intensity to 80% in the 1st year, then 85% the 2nd year, and so on? This way, over the 5 years period, I may get uniform lamp intensity?

The loss of intensity is likely to be uniform over the life of the diode no matter how hard you drive them.

LUXEON Rebel Luminance Maintenance Projection

[sseaner]

I have got to get my hands on one of these. Incredible fixture!

[sseaner]

Dogfather, Are you or can you tie the Vertex in with your Reef Keeper Elite?

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by sseaner

Dogfather, Are you or can you tie the Vertex in with your Reef Keeper Elite?

No, the RKE cannot control the Illumina. The Illumina has it's own built-in controller and the V-Stick wireless USB stick and LightStudio software is about to be released that will allow the fixture to be programmed via your PC.

Cheers!

[notclear]

Originally Posted by TheDogFather

The loss of intensity is likely to be uniform over the life of the diode no matter how hard you drive them.

LUXEON Rebel Luminance Maintenance Projection

Thanks for the link. So basically I can have these LED last for more than 7 years without losing too much intensity?

By the way, what is the width of this fixture?

[hatfielj]

WOW!! this fixture is going to get a lot of people into LEDs! I love how well it transitions from sunrise to sunset and even has a moon light that moves across the tank like that! Very very nice. It makes Aquaillumination fixtures look like a joke with their pathetic controllers. If AI is listening: You need to get your fixtures to do what this one does!

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by notclear

Thanks for the link. So basically I can have these LED last for more than 7 years without losing too much intensity?

By the way, what is the width of this fixture?

The diodes should still deliver 80% after 10 years.
My fixture is 4ft and they are available in 1',2',3',4',5',6' lengths.

Cheers!

-TDF

[notclear]

I meant the depth, not length or thickness of the fixture.

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by notclear

I meant the depth, not length or thickness of the fixture.

Ah, sorry. 12".

[Yogre]

That is one sweet fixture. I doubt I'd be able to afford a 6 foot unit at this time, but it aggravates me that a patent squatter keeps this fixture out of the US.

[tahiriqbal]

I bet the actual foot print for the actual LEDs panel is no more than 100mm but coverage seems to be pretty good. There are no lens on the rebles either and PAR reading are quite intersting!!!!

[raynist]

Awesome light!

Did you sell your powermodule yet?

--Ray

I am in the market for a 8x54 watt fixture.

[TheDogFather]

Originally Posted by raynist

Awesome light!

Did you sell your powermodule yet?

--Ray

I am in the market for a 8x54 watt fixture.

Thanks! I am extremely happy with it and the tank inhabitants are all responding very well.

I still have the PowerModule...

Cheers!

-TDF