Originally Posted by
-Aaron-
Ok, so I’ve been running this beast of a light for almost a month now. It’s time to give my thoughts on it, for those who are interested in the lighting unit. I’ve been posting bits and pieces as I’ve gone along but I'll bring it all together into one place.
First Impressions of the light unit were very good, well crafted, sleek and it looked the business. Build quality is top notch, same as with any other GHL product I own. The sunglasses you get with them are a nice touch; I may even use them this summer. ;)
When I turned them on, the first thing that jumped out at me was the spread from the unit; I had dark areas from the previous lighting being used but not anymore. The unit is hung at exactly the same height as it’s at the very top of my hanging bracket. With the spread being so good, I reckon one unit could easily do 3 foot long and 2 foot wide. I run mine currently at 70% peak 10 inches from the waters surface. So raising them further and increasing the intensity would improve the spread no doubt.
The initial set up for me had some issues, this was surrounding using VMware as a virtual machine, I couldn’t get drivers to install and I managed to resolve it using Bootcamp in the end. Programming the lights was pretty simple, having used the illumination program in the Profilux before there are some similarities in the software. This made life easier for me. Something I really like is when you have created a custom Kelvin, this can be saved and applied all across the lighting run quickly and easily. The colour rendition is fantastic, lots of flexibility to cater for different tastes, the hyper violet LED’s make the colours of the corals really pop. The software makes it very easy to make tweaks to your lighting schedule, I haven't explored all features of the software yet as I've been happy with my current settings. They seem to be working for me so in reluctant to change anything.
Performance wise, the original corals I had prior to the swap over are now showing good colouration, except one, which was like this prior to the change over. It's a green Digi, which refuses to colour up for some reason. I've noticed in the last week some corals starting to base out and signs of growth in the tips of others. My red Goniopora has now made a full recovery; I was on the verge of binning it at one point when I got it back from the shop. The fans are very quiet whilst the unit is running, unless I put my ear to the unit I cannot hear them when they are working at 80%ish.
The simulation is pretty cool, I was a fan of rolling cloud cover in the Profilux so I was glad to see it incorporated in the Mitras. I should imagine over a longer tank the rolling cloud cover would look even better, starting from one end and moving across the tank.
I updated the firmware last night for the first time, it was very easy and a simple process from start to finish. It went through without any hiccups so I'm now on 1.13. The Control Centre software tells you when an update is available when the lights are connected which is a nice touch.
What I don't like about the lights - there's not a lot really, being a snobby Mac user and having no software for OS X available is my only dislike. That's my own choice of OS and it's not a deal breaker though. I have no issues or concerns with how the light performs, from what I've seen in the last week it certainly grows corals and I'm pleased with the results as I've always struggled with SPS corals in the past. I would like to see connectivity with the Profilux, I believe this is in the pipeline.
It's the same with using the Profilux, there's a slight annoyance in having to use Windows but it's something I can live with.
I would really like to see some Mac support though at some point.
Would I go back to a Radion? Not a chance!
