Ahh, I run a bare bottom tank so no white as my bottom is covered in coralline. How many gallons is your 12ft system?Thanks! It is 12ft. I am using the "Mixed Corals" setting. The disco ball really I only notice anyplace white, like the sand.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Ahh, I run a bare bottom tank so no white as my bottom is covered in coralline. How many gallons is your 12ft system?Thanks! It is 12ft. I am using the "Mixed Corals" setting. The disco ball really I only notice anyplace white, like the sand.
Its possible it could be a difference in mounting heights. How high do you have yours? Right now I have them 7" above the water surface. It could be the lower you mount them the more pronounced the effect.I have noticed no disco ball? I also have had 5 G5's with diffusers and the Stratons have much less than those. Interesting that we see things so different on these. I also have no sand but is gray bare bottom.
The system is around 480gal. Yep the only place I notice the disco is on white sand or white previously-shaded patches of new-ish aquascape. How high do you have yours mounted?Ahh, I run a bare bottom tank so no white as my bottom is covered in coralline. How many gallons is your 12ft system?
Mine is mounted 10" from the top of the water surface. I'm sure the white sand exaggerates the disco ball effect.Its possible it could be a difference in mounting heights. How high do you have yours? Right now I have them 7" above the water surface. It could be the lower you mount them the more pronounced the effect.
Its possible it could be a difference in mounting heights. How high do you have yours? Right now I have them 7" above the water surface. It could be the lower you mount them the more pronounced the effect.
This is the one thing I was hoping for more than anything else. I'm really sensitive to any disco effect and really appreciate smooth/well-blended light. For this reason I like g5 with diffuser and kessil. I too wanted to do kessils with stratons so I could have FULL coverage from stratons with an adjustable shimmer from the kessils. Planning a 7'x4'x2.5' reef. Based on everything else I've read I was sold on these lights. They are likely still a solid option for me, but not happy to hear that there is a noticeable difference in color separation compared to kessil/diffused G5. Most people probably won't be bothered, but I was so close to thinking this was the end all be all light for me.I got 5 stratons in a few days ago, currently sourcing the aluminum rail to custom mount them. I have a couple hanging over my tank on rigged up temporary supports. Just a few things I have noticed:
The good:
The amount of spread and par these things have is second to none. It truly is a blanket of light. Way more even than two xr15's. I got an apogee par meter out and the spread is extremely even. EVERYWHERE looks bright and lit up under these.
The light spill is low, much lower than radions or kessils at the same height.
Zero fan noise.
They are the sexiest/slimmest looking fixture, its tempting to just go all stratons (but I won't).
The bad:
There is definitely a "disco ball" effect with the shimmer of these on white surfaces like sand. Compared to the light from kessils or radions it is much harsher. Things look better when I mix in kessils, so my plan is to sandwich one of my existing kessils in between each straton. I have a straton side-by-side with a g5 radion blue with diffuser and the light of the radion looks so much more pleasant and smooth. If I was mounting lights in a hood and aesthetics/lightspill/fannoise didn't matter I would probably go with radions. But exposed in a room I am sticking with stratons.
So i rented a par meter this week and im not happy with the spread of my Radion and Reefbrites over my 30x24x16. The tank is just a tad too wide and i want sps across my entire rock work. So its either a 6 bulb or 8 bulb ati Sunpower or spending the extra on the Straton. In the long run do you think the straton is the better buy?Absolutely, I run 4 over my 8’ but 3 would be fine. I wanted 0 shadowing
So i rented a par meter this week and im not happy with the spread of my Radion and Reefbrites over my 30x24x16. The tank is just a tad too wide and i want sps across my entire rock work. So its either a 6 bulb or 8 bulb ati Sunpower or spending the extra on the Straton. In the long run do you think the straton is the better buy?
lol my tank was banished to the basement all together oh well, atleast i can do whatever i want now!I haven’t done T5’s in years so I would have to defer to @ReefEngineer
My wife was against the looks of T5’s hanging in our living room
here is mine with the lights
I would love to see a vid to get a better idea of the shimmer this combo is putting out. Its obviously adjustable as you're getting solid par/spectrum/coverage from the stratons, but I'd love to see what you ended up with! BEAUTIFUL setup btw!