Testing the Philips Coral Care LED's claims - Are they realistic?

[gus6464]

Maybe next year. The controller is already US ready.

 

[Maximus]

That would be fantastic!

 

[gus6464]

A short video now that tank is full and operational. There is a slight shimmer but not much. As you can see though there is ZERO color banding in the sandbed. Just a massive even blanket of light with no visible shadows. Ohh and the massive heatsink keeps the unit cold to the touch. At 50% power I wouldn't even say it gets warm. That plus it being completely silent.

 

[lion king]

Ditching my last leds this weekend, color diffusion is one of the reasons I'm getting rid of them. These are definitely promising.

 

[Bpb]

That's crazy it literally has no shimmer. The blending is so even though it really does look like t5ho

 

[Terence]

This light is the real deal. I've been running it for about six weeks now. SPS coral growth is really good. I actually have had to turn this fixture down quite a bit as it is very powerful and my lights are mounted close to the tank. If you want to see more about it and the progression of my 425g, check out my build thread in the 180+ section.

 

[biom]

I really appreciate efforts of Luc Vogels and Coral Care team to bring Philips to reef keeping hobby. About the price ... actually Coral Care is cheaper than the original GentleSpace gen 2 on which architecture is based. Knowing what is the market niche of Coral Care compared to the niche of GentleSpac gen2 (high-bay lighting) this is quite unusual and good for us, reef freaks, market policy. The tank of Luc which is lit from 2 years with Coral Care lamps is really impressive https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/luc-vogelss-300-gallon-coralcare-reef.271225/. I'm not a big fan of reef led lights, I've tested most of them and I'm convinced that t5 is still best option, but Coral Care is the first step in right direction from many years. Together with t5 replacement led tubes this is the future of reef lighting IMO.

 

[gus6464]

Aussie pink tip elegance. The color setting on the light is 50 Blue 25 White channel. The elegance almost has a glowing color without the blue heavy push.

 

[GoVols]

@gus6464
Glad I found you over here too.
Looks like we all be following you on this fixture over the future months.

I think: It'll getter done!

I don't have to have a super sleek, thunder storms and billion color settings fixture. Just give me a great LED thats pretty much plug and play. Just one less thing. I've got enough to do watching my chemistry and regular maintenance than fulling with LED settings and not to mention hot spots and shading.

Those old MH in the 1990's weren't the sleekest fixtures either but they got the job done and were bullet proof built too!

 

[domination2580]

Where are people getting the $1000 pricing. That wasn't mentioned anywhere in the video. I have a CoralCare coming next week from the Netherlands and it was $800 shipped to my door in California including the controller. The light is $749 EU and that's with 19% VAT. It is cheaper than a Radion XR30 Pro.

Where were you able to order it? I'm interested in ordering one myself.

 

[ktownhero]

A short video now that tank is full and operational. There is a slight shimmer but not much. As you can see though there is ZERO color banding in the sandbed. Just a massive even blanket of light with no visible shadows. Ohh and the massive heatsink keeps the unit cold to the touch. At 50% power I wouldn't even say it gets warm. That plus it being completely silent.

Hmmm. Obviously the spread is incredible but I have to admit that to total lack of shimmer is a bit of a turn off.

We need a balance between what Kessil is doing with the AP700 and Philips is doing here. It would be interesting to see what 4-6 dense led clusters would look like behind a diffuser like this. Could that strike the balance ?

 

[Terence]

There is not a total lack of shimmer. It depends on your surface agitation. In my set up there is the perfect amount of shimmer for me. Just a slight bit more than T5. I have halides on the other half of my tank and their shimmer is only slightly more. I personally am not one for the crazy glimmer lines. Even with the diffusers the AP700 is too much for me. And that really is what it comes down to - personal affinity for that sparkle.

 

[GoVols]

There is not a total lack of shimmer. It depends on your surface agitation. In my set up there is the perfect amount of shimmer for me. Just a slight bit more than T5. I have halides on the other half of my tank and their shimmer is only slightly more. I personally am not one for the crazy glimmer lines. Even with the diffusers the AP700 is too much for me. And that really is what it comes down to - personal affinity for that sparkle.

+1

 

[GoVols]

Hmmm. Obviously the spread is incredible but I have to admit that to total lack of shimmer is a bit of a turn off.

We need a balance between what Kessil is doing with the AP700 and Philips is doing here. It would be interesting to see what 4-6 dense led clusters would look like behind a diffuser like this. Could that strike the balance ?

If you want balance shoot one AP700 led cluster through wax paper and leave the other led cluster alone.
Hummm. Scrap the wax paper. House burn down!

 

[ktownhero]

There is not a total lack of shimmer. It depends on your surface agitation. In my set up there is the perfect amount of shimmer for me. Just a slight bit more than T5. I have halides on the other half of my tank and their shimmer is only slightly more. I personally am not one for the crazy glimmer lines. Even with the diffusers the AP700 is too much for me. And that really is what it comes down to - personal affinity for that sparkle.

Right, it's subjective. It's hard to see any shimmer in that video but don't get me wrong... I am sold on this light. I am just posing the question of what kind of results we might get from something like a cross between the AP700 and the CoralCare. Hypothetically speaking, maybe instead of two dense clusters, we have 6 smaller ones and the diffuser from the CoralCare. Wonder what kind of results we'd get from that?

 

[Terence]

After using this light I can tell you there is no need for the dense clusters at all. Distance from the water, surface agitation, and point source light are the three variables for glimmer lines. If you don't have much of one and amp up the others you will have more glimmer lines.

 

[ktownhero]

After using this light I can tell you there is no need for the dense clusters at all. Distance from the water, surface agitation, and point source light are the three variables for glimmer lines. If you don't have much of one and amp up the others you will have more glimmer lines.

Gotcha. Well, I look forward to being able to see it in person!

 

[ktownhero]

After using this light I can tell you there is no need for the dense clusters at all. Distance from the water, surface agitation, and point source light are the three variables for glimmer lines. If you don't have much of one and amp up the others you will have more glimmer lines.

Their FAQ cites roughly 40" x 30" coverage for one fixture. That's kind of an awkward spread for the typical 4' tank. Would a 4' mixed reef really need 2 of these?

 

[GoVols]

Right, it's subjective. It's hard to see any shimmer in that video but don't get me wrong... I am sold on this light. I am just posing the question of what kind of results we might get from something like a cross between the AP700 and the CoralCare. Hypothetically speaking, maybe instead of two dense clusters, we have 6 smaller ones and the diffuser from the CoralCare. Wonder what kind of results we'd get from that?

For myself dense clusters= Hot spots and shadowing.
I want a slight led shimmer with T5 spread.
Simple plug and play with a tad of control is what all I want.
But that's JMO.

 

[Terence]

I would say that depends how high you plan to place the lights and where you want to grow high light demand corals.