**The GHL Mitras LX7 LED**
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I have posted in this thread a couple times about the GHL Mitras LED's, and I have to say that I"m satisfied with their performance. I'm a first generation purchaser of the GHL mitras led fixtures (GHL 6100) in 2012. I was a die hard 3x 400w MH/2x 160 watt SVHO coral guy. Sooner or later I got tired of the electric bill and my chiller coming on all the time. Now my corals were vibrant and I will have to say......they will never look as good as that combo....but finances are another issue.
I waited to reduce my electric bill so I focused on my lighting and pumps. Of course I eventually purchased 4 6100 GHL HV mitras fixtures for my 255 gallon aquarium. I have been running them since 2012 on my mixed reef. I had an aquarium crash at the end of 2016, from treating dog dewormer to get rid of blue star polyps. Of course that didn't work ;Nailbiting
BTW, after treatment. They are still in the &^%$#%$# aquarium. Anyway...I purchased a bunch of frags after the crash in Jan 2017 and upgraded my mitras 6100 fixtures to the GHL 7206 pucks (6300) in April or May of this year. My corals have been growing like weeds. The 7206 pucks are allot better than my original 6100 pucks. I really enjoy the color of my corals. Its not MH/SVHO combo, but its nice.
For those of you sitting on the fence wondering if LED's and can grow sps, etc. I will start a build thread to show you my success. These pics here are only from a couple months growth of coral frags from my 6100 lights and the new 7206 pucks. Detailed info will follow in a build thread. A fixture that you can upgrade is a great bonus in this hobby. Here are a couple of top down pics from my aquarium. These are my first pics with my new toy, so they are not that great...but I will get better.
I have no idea what the names of any of the corals are. LOL.
These are just a couple pics of SPS under the GHL Mitras with no other supplement lighting. The key is to set your lighting and leave it alone on led's once you get it dialed in. Of course since I have changed pucks....I have not dialed mine in where I want them
. I tried to post more but its not working, so I will save for my build thread. I really enjoy the fixture and what they offer. They have been working for me since 2012. I don't have all the wifi stuff, etc... but I don't think its needed ...because once you dial the lights in, there is no reason to start changing anything.
I waited to reduce my electric bill so I focused on my lighting and pumps. Of course I eventually purchased 4 6100 GHL HV mitras fixtures for my 255 gallon aquarium. I have been running them since 2012 on my mixed reef. I had an aquarium crash at the end of 2016, from treating dog dewormer to get rid of blue star polyps. Of course that didn't work ;Nailbiting
BTW, after treatment. They are still in the &^%$#%$# aquarium. Anyway...I purchased a bunch of frags after the crash in Jan 2017 and upgraded my mitras 6100 fixtures to the GHL 7206 pucks (6300) in April or May of this year. My corals have been growing like weeds. The 7206 pucks are allot better than my original 6100 pucks. I really enjoy the color of my corals. Its not MH/SVHO combo, but its nice.
For those of you sitting on the fence wondering if LED's and can grow sps, etc. I will start a build thread to show you my success. These pics here are only from a couple months growth of coral frags from my 6100 lights and the new 7206 pucks. Detailed info will follow in a build thread. A fixture that you can upgrade is a great bonus in this hobby. Here are a couple of top down pics from my aquarium. These are my first pics with my new toy, so they are not that great...but I will get better.
I have no idea what the names of any of the corals are. LOL.
These are just a couple pics of SPS under the GHL Mitras with no other supplement lighting. The key is to set your lighting and leave it alone on led's once you get it dialed in. Of course since I have changed pucks....I have not dialed mine in where I want them
. I tried to post more but its not working, so I will save for my build thread. I really enjoy the fixture and what they offer. They have been working for me since 2012. I don't have all the wifi stuff, etc... but I don't think its needed ...because once you dial the lights in, there is no reason to start changing anything.When I first got aquarium up and running from the dog dewormer. Most corals I put in the aquarium would die. It was not till September of 2016 when I was able to sustain corals again. Following is just some photos to show the growth rate of a montipora under these led's.
Sept 2016 purchased Rainbow Monti from WWC. This coral is in the sand on a rock. I have no idea what my PAR levels are BTW.
November 2016
Jan 2017
Feb2017
April 2017 Tank started to really normal out
This is the coral in June
As I stated before. The growth rate is not like that of my MH's of old, but they do a great job. My growth rate increased and colors more vibrant with
the 7206 pucks. The new UV helps allot. The corals are vibrant and growing well. I have some growth rate pics of LPS as well if you are interested.
My aquarium is a mixed reef with anemones, lps and sps. Mostly sps positioned all over the aquarium from top to bottom.
Sept 2016 purchased Rainbow Monti from WWC. This coral is in the sand on a rock. I have no idea what my PAR levels are BTW.
November 2016
Jan 2017
Feb2017
April 2017 Tank started to really normal out
This is the coral in June
As I stated before. The growth rate is not like that of my MH's of old, but they do a great job. My growth rate increased and colors more vibrant with
the 7206 pucks. The new UV helps allot. The corals are vibrant and growing well. I have some growth rate pics of LPS as well if you are interested.
My aquarium is a mixed reef with anemones, lps and sps. Mostly sps positioned all over the aquarium from top to bottom.
Well I just checked and here is where I"m at.
Water Parameters
Salinity 1.025
DKH 7
PH 7.88
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1310
Nitrate: Non detected
Ammonia: Non detected
I think I will add a bit buffer to raise my Ph a bit now. Glad I checked. Been paying allot of attention lately to my quarantine tank.
LIGHTS
Power Level: 100% (Don't believe in the energy saver mode. Coming from MH, I"m saving energy!) Also you need to run them here if you want optimum growth. This is what I have learned in my 5 years of using them. JMO.
Height from water: 61/4"
I run my lights on a 14.5 hour light schedule. That includes Dusk to Dawn and about 3hours peek sunlight at the peek of day. Ramp up and Down on the whites basically. I'm still working on new schedule right now with new pucks. Cant decide if I have too much whites at mid day.
Water Parameters
Salinity 1.025
DKH 7
PH 7.88
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1310
Nitrate: Non detected
Ammonia: Non detected
I think I will add a bit buffer to raise my Ph a bit now.
Glad I checked. Been paying allot of attention lately to my quarantine tank.LIGHTS
Power Level: 100% (Don't believe in the energy saver mode. Coming from MH, I"m saving energy!) Also you need to run them here if you want optimum growth. This is what I have learned in my 5 years of using them. JMO.
Height from water: 61/4"
I run my lights on a 14.5 hour light schedule. That includes Dusk to Dawn and about 3hours peek sunlight at the peek of day. Ramp up and Down on the whites basically. I'm still working on new schedule right now with new pucks. Cant decide if I have too much whites at mid day.
Thanks for the info.
Yes energy saver was pretty dim in my opinion. I'm at 90% in high output mode now but was considering raising it more. I'm close to the default temperature limit already though. You ever had issue with the pucks burning out or anything in your years of using Mitras?
How high do u go on whites/red/greens and what kelvin is that? I'm only at 30% which with everything else at 100% is a 16k color. Also had a project with a period with them at 50% which equates to 14.5k and both were pleasing to the eye. Only changed to more blue b/c of a bout with dinos in the hopes that it might help. My schedule:
11A-12P Ramp up
12P-7P 16k @ 90%
7P-8P Ramp down to 20K @ 30%
8P-11P Ramp down to 0%
Yes energy saver was pretty dim in my opinion. I'm at 90% in high output mode now but was considering raising it more. I'm close to the default temperature limit already though. You ever had issue with the pucks burning out or anything in your years of using Mitras?
How high do u go on whites/red/greens and what kelvin is that? I'm only at 30% which with everything else at 100% is a 16k color. Also had a project with a period with them at 50% which equates to 14.5k and both were pleasing to the eye. Only changed to more blue b/c of a bout with dinos in the hopes that it might help. My schedule:
11A-12P Ramp up
12P-7P 16k @ 90%
7P-8P Ramp down to 20K @ 30%
8P-11P Ramp down to 0%
I have never had any issues with the pucks. I ran the 6100 pucks for 5 years with absolutely not one issue. These fixtures have been rock solid. I have ran them at 100% from the get go and they have never seen anything less. These fixtures do get hot so don't touch them, but the fans speed up and they are dead silent. The software will back things down if they get too hot. I havn't looked at those features in while, but you can set your temp warning stuff I believe. I believe I had the whites at one time at 60% for a couple hours at peak but I have changed them since to 50 something. I will have to log into them to find out what I have now. I guess it just found a need for wifi. LOL. When I log back in, I will let you know. I have been tweaking them and I'm almost close to my final settings.
I actually do not know what the Kelvin level of my lights are currently set too. I used my base from the 6100 pucks and started tweaking from there. I change my settings the old school way by logging into each led color and making my settings there. I will see if I can go to the illuminator and import my settings to see if it gives me a Kelvin rating. I have been tweaking light settings by whats pleasing to my eye and coral color rather than picking a Kelvin rating. Sounds like you are setting your lights the same way I do.
I actually do not know what the Kelvin level of my lights are currently set too. I used my base from the 6100 pucks and started tweaking from there. I change my settings the old school way by logging into each led color and making my settings there. I will see if I can go to the illuminator and import my settings to see if it gives me a Kelvin rating. I have been tweaking light settings by whats pleasing to my eye and coral color rather than picking a Kelvin rating. Sounds like you are setting your lights the same way I do.
Had a fun Sunday at my friend LA Fish Guy Jim's house. After seeing my tanks under the Mitras, he opted for LX7's over his new 60"x30" frag tank. I had some extras extrusions at my house from my light rack so we hung that above his tank using steel wire light suspension kits he had on hand and we mounted the Mitras to that using the same Mitras Articulating Mounts that I use over my tank along with some light rack clamps designed for those articulation mounts. It made hanging the Mitras and angling them to eliminate shadowing and eliminate light bleed onto the viewing panes simple and quick. He's really happy with the lights and will probably be spending a fortune on frags next week when he goes to the wholesaler. Marco happened to be in town this weekend and tagged along with me to Jims house. The install was filmed for a future LA Fish Guys episode. We also covered the programming including setting up and using project files.
A couple more SPS that have grown from tiny frags. Some of these have started to grow into each other and have started SPS warfare. I"m going to
have to do some grooming so I don't loose the colonies. The SPS on the right was hit by my rabbit fish and totally uprooted. Its barely hanging on.
It rocks when I hit it with my pump when I blow the detris off the corals once a week.
These are behaving so far.
The blue aqua till color of this coral is pretty amazing.
The red coral on the right has a green and orange base on it and I have pretty low in the aquarium. Its below the mid level of the aquarium and not
getting enough light, so Its lacking the pop it should have I think. My rabbit fish fragged a piece off, so I glued it down a little bit higher in the
aquarium. Want to see if the color changes.
This coral is getting shaded out by the coral on top. I had to let allot of light in on this pic just to expose the coral underneath. I really don't want to
cut the coral on top, but its eventually going to choke out the one below. The coral on top is one of my gorgeous show pieces.
have to do some grooming so I don't loose the colonies. The SPS on the right was hit by my rabbit fish and totally uprooted. Its barely hanging on.
It rocks when I hit it with my pump when I blow the detris off the corals once a week.
These are behaving so far.
The blue aqua till color of this coral is pretty amazing.
The red coral on the right has a green and orange base on it and I have pretty low in the aquarium. Its below the mid level of the aquarium and not
getting enough light, so Its lacking the pop it should have I think. My rabbit fish fragged a piece off, so I glued it down a little bit higher in the
aquarium. Want to see if the color changes.
This coral is getting shaded out by the coral on top. I had to let allot of light in on this pic just to expose the coral underneath. I really don't want to
cut the coral on top, but its eventually going to choke out the one below. The coral on top is one of my gorgeous show pieces.
dangros
Well-Known Member
I hope my corals look like that soon! Amazing color.
So how high up should the Mitras be? I have a standard 90g tank 18 inches wide and 48 long. Currently they are approx 11.5" off the H2O.
Also, what's the plural of Mitras?
So how high up should the Mitras be? I have a standard 90g tank 18 inches wide and 48 long. Currently they are approx 11.5" off the H2O.
Also, what's the plural of Mitras?
I don't think there is a height set in concrete. You will have to judge it according to your setup.
1. Length & depth of aquarium
2. Number of Units over aquarium.
3. How much light intensity your are looking for.
Mine are just over 6 inches over the water.
1. Length & depth of aquarium
2. Number of Units over aquarium.
3. How much light intensity your are looking for.
Mine are just over 6 inches over the water.
dangros
Well-Known Member
My main concern is coverage to prevent shadowing of the sps but maintain enough intensity to grow sps well. The intensity is difficult to judge b/c it's in acclimation mode. My tank is 48x18x24" and I have 2 units.
So far, it seems far better at that than my 2 kessils 360WE's in every way.
So far, it seems far better at that than my 2 kessils 360WE's in every way.
Last edited:
dragon99
2500 Club Member
I think you'd be happy with them 8-10 inches off the water. My reefer 350 is similar dimensions (except the depth) and I'm getting a little over 500 par peak at surface with them mounted at 10 in.
I have no idea. They look like they have a real good spread as well. There are several threads about them. Hit the search engine and I bet you can find some people that have them that can help you out on how they are so you can make some mental comparisons. I think you would have to see them both in person to really gauge it though....but you could get an idea of how many units people are putting over the aquarium etc. Both units are really good led pendants.
dangros
Well-Known Member
That might explain why my wall is glowing right now
These things look wild when viewing through my nanny cam
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GHL's own specifications, which seem to mirror most folks' experience, is one light per 24x36 space of tank you are trying to light. In your case, it seems like 2 fixtures would do the trick. I plan on 2 fixtures for a 48x24x20 tank, so not too dissimilar in dimensions.
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