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

swk · Jan 20, 2017

I hope they get on it and release this in the US market

swk · Jan 20, 2017

I would buy 2 or 3 today if I could get them with 110v plugs.

GoVols · Jan 20, 2017

@Terence

Thanks for your clarification.

Don't call it "User Error". Your simply on a "Learning Curve"

Drooling for the MH look too.

GoVols · Jan 20, 2017

swk said:
I would buy 2 or 3 today if I could get them with 110v plugs.

I get 2 units ASAP too

gus6464 · Jan 21, 2017

I only have 5 SPS frags so far in my tank so not much to report.

Red Planet
Jedi Mind Trick
Bali Green Slimer
Pink Lemonade
Unknown (was told it's a red robin but it's more on the orange side)

Red planet had a lot of white in the base when I got it with not much zooxanthellae and white body but it turned around quickly and it's got a lot more zoox and body is getting greener and greener by the day. The pink lemonade was cut from a section that was under a good bit of shade so half of the frag was brown with no polyps. Color is filling up entire frag now. The rest are all doing good.

I did an order for some no name maricultured mini colonies from unique corals during their anniversary sale to put the light a little more to the test.

Right now all my acros are getting ~350 PAR except for the red planet which is under ~270 as I like the green body which prefers less PAR. I will say the light is plenty strong. My tank is 16" high with light 12" above the tank. Acros are ~18" from the light and my preferred color is white channel at half of whatever the blue channel is. So basically blue channel is at 60% power and white at 30% during peak. This means I am pushing ~80W give or take to get that much PAR. PAR on the sandbed is basically 200 all over.

Ohh and also adding an oregon tort from a buddy who has a piece but been told it's an easy acro to keep with color.

GoVols · Jan 21, 2017

Thanks for the feed back.

Looks like your taking it slow (That's a good thing) yet satisfied enough to begin to try it on more demanding SPS at this point.

gus6464 · Mar 19, 2017

Roughly 3 months in since tank was setup. All the following SPS were put in around the month mark or so. Also they were all removed from the plugs and put into new ones so all the encrust growth has been within the last 2 months. These pics were straight off my nexus 6P without any type of manipulation or me having to reduce the blue light and all that stuff that usually has to be done with LEDs. Pretty much what you see is what I see in front of my desk.

Red Planet

ASD Rainbow Milli

Jedi Mind Trick

Unkown wild mini colony from UC

Random from UC as well that when I got it had no color

swk · Mar 19, 2017

gus6464 said:
Roughly 3 months in since tank was setup. All the following SPS were put in around the month mark or so. Also they were all removed from the plugs and put into new ones so all the encrust growth has been within the last 2 months. These pics were straight off my nexus 6P without any type of manipulation or me having to reduce the blue light and all that stuff that usually has to be done with LEDs. Pretty much what you see is what I see in front of my desk.

Red Planet

ASD Rainbow Milli

Jedi Mind Trick

Unkown wild mini colony from UC

Random from UC as well that when I got it had no color

Not seeing any pics on Tapatalk or safari on my iphone7

gus6464 · Mar 19, 2017

swk said:
Not seeing any pics on Tapatalk or safari on my iphone7

Fixed. Dropbox changed their linking for public stuff.

GoVols · Mar 19, 2017

gus6464 said:
Roughly 3 months in since tank was setup. All the following SPS were put in around the month mark or so. Also they were all removed from the plugs and put into new ones so all the encrust growth has been within the last 2 months. These pics were straight off my nexus 6P without any type of manipulation or me having to reduce the blue light and all that stuff that usually has to be done with LEDs. Pretty much what you see is what I see in front of my desk.

Red Planet

ASD Rainbow Milli

Jedi Mind Trick

Unkown wild mini colony from UC

Random from UC as well that when I got it had no color

Thanks for taking the time to update us.
They all look great and can clearly see the encrusting.

gus6464 · Mar 19, 2017

Another red acro I got from lfs that had no name. Was told it's a red Robin but don't know.

Pink lemonade

gus6464 · Mar 19, 2017

Ohh and please excuse the gha. About a month ago the DI in my RODI ran out and since the process is fully automated I don't know how long I was topping off with >0 TDS water. I have started to get the GHA under control as it was a lot crazier than what you see in the pics. My oregon tort is surrounded by a thick brown hair algae that looks like a beard which is not dying as quickly as the GHA.

As for the lights they have been set and forget pretty much. I just basically found a color I liked visually, set it to PAR I wanted on the Seneye and that's it. Two control channels makes things super simple and it has just reiterated the thoughts I've had all along that LEDs with a zillion channels are just a gimmick and makes it trickier for people to dial down their lights. I haven't tweaked a setting in months and as you can see all my SPS have no issues.

My plan is to move up to a 4ft tank in a year or so and even if CoralCare hasn't hit the US yet I will still import a second one. This light was worth the hassle of adding a 220v receptacle and then some.

Bpb · Mar 20, 2017

That gha is normal for a tank of that age anyway, not offended. Acro colors look spectacular. Enjoying seeing the progress!

GoVols · Mar 20, 2017

@Terence
Do you have any updates on your Coral Care?

GoVols · Mar 20, 2017

Bpb said:
That gha is normal for a tank of that age anyway, not offended. Acro colors look spectacular. Enjoying seeing the progress!

+1

Terence · Mar 20, 2017

GoVols said:
@Terence
Do you have any updates on your Coral Care?

Yes. They are working like champs. Tiny coral frags are encrusting and sprouting like crazy.

I have had a hard time with getting intensity dialed in where are the corals at all levels are happy. It that is much more about coral placement. It is also harder for me as the lights sit just six inches off the water.

At this point I am so satisfied that I have decided to put them on the other side of the tank as well.

The only thing that I am going to change is to put a single ReefBrite Actinic XHO strip along side the Coral Cares. I think these lights are the closest thing you can get to metal halides - but for some reason, at least to me, just like MH, I sometimes want a bit more of that pop - and the ReefBrites can deliver that independent of my Coral Care settings.

GoVols · Mar 20, 2017

Terence said:
Yes. They are working like champs. Tiny coral frags are encrusting and sprouting like crazy.

I have had a hard time with getting intensity dialed in where are the corals at all levels are happy. It that is much more about coral placement. It is also harder for me as the lights sit just six inches off the water.

At this point I am so satisfied that I have decided to put them on the other side of the tank as well.

The only thing that I am going to change is to put a single ReefBrite Actinic XHO strip along side the Coral Cares. I think these lights are the closest thing you can get to metal halides - but for some reason, at least to me, just like MH, I sometimes want a bit more of that pop - and the ReefBrites can deliver that independent of my Coral Care settings.

Thank You!