The Modified Black Box Thread

[Flippers4pups]

Nothing too hard.
Montipora stellata , digitata
Acropora formosa green
Milka
Acant'
Zoanthus
Lobophyton
Sarcophytonpachy and briareum

Deph 50cm
Line water marsaqua 22cm

50% blues, 20% whites.

 

[Wolf94]

50% blues, 20% whites.

With all lenses remove ? Stand Only 6 white in middle right ?

Cordially

 

[Wolf94]

With all lenses remove ? Stand Only 6 white in middle right ?

Cordially

A little question

If i have smd, must i remove lens like epistar ?
Cordially

 

[AquaRaider44]

I removed all of the lenses on my two 165w Mars Aquas and now have amazing coverage and much less disco and shadowing. I still have shimmer but not a ton which I achieve with surface movement. I have slowly bumped up the settings to 100% blue and 50% white and the corals seem to love it. I was running 10 hours of blue with 4 of white in the middle but I decided yesterday to up the time to 12 hours of blue with 4 hours of white. in the middle. I needed more blue because I have a ton of zoas that color up under the blue light much better.

Anyone measured the par at 100% blue with no lenses?

 

[Flippers4pups]

A little question

If i have smd, must i remove lens like epistar ?
Cordially

They still have lenses either way. It's your call.

 

[oreo54]

They still have lenses either way. It's your call.

Yep at, usually, 120 degrees...

ONE catch.. at .5" the 120 degree light cone is approx. 1.73" ..Which means if the "hole" (faceplate to diode top)
is too deep you will be blocking some light (AFAICT from others experiences not much, and probably no more than the spill out of the cheap lenses)..

A true 120 degree lens brings the actual light aperture to the plate so.. no blockage..
Ignore most of this but it shows the basics.. The little dome would be the diode w/ out a lens..
Like I said depends on depth . Goes for both "egg" diodes and SMD's w/ smd's being slightly "lower..
Ideally one would replace the lens w/ another lens or reflector.. Or change the front "baffle"

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

So I got two of the “next gen” Marsaqua units in today. One from an Amazon vendor and another from an eBay vendor. Both had the same pictures, but different diode descriptions that didn’t match the pictures. All were wrong. Both units were the same and had the following layout:

CH 1: 8 x12000k, 6 x 6500k, 6 x 3000k, 2 x 520, 2 x 660, and 4 x 460.

CH 2: 27 x 460

Couldn’t take a picture worth a dang with my iPhone.

Very disappointing. All that blue with all the warm white and red diodes made for a Grimace purple hue. My sps looked brown, but my coraline algae sure did pop .

I have a viparspectra on the way and will see how that goes.

Let us know how you get on with the viparspectra.

 

[EMeyer]

I removed all of the lenses on my two 165w Mars Aquas and now have amazing coverage and much less disco and shadowing. I still have shimmer but not a ton which I achieve with surface movement. I have slowly bumped up the settings to 100% blue and 50% white and the corals seem to love it. I was running 10 hours of blue with 4 of white in the middle but I decided yesterday to up the time to 12 hours of blue with 4 hours of white. in the middle. I needed more blue because I have a ton of zoas that color up under the blue light much better.

Anyone measured the par at 100% blue with no lenses?

In a 40b filled about 2/3 full, with sensor at the bottom of the tank, I get a maximum of about 125 PAR from blue channel only at 100%.

 

[AquaRaider44]

In a 40b filled about 2/3 full, with sensor at the bottom of the tank, I get a maximum of about 125 PAR from blue channel only at 100%.

What do you get at the top?

 

[Wolf94]

He

I removed all of the lenses on my two 165w Mars Aquas and now have amazing coverage and much less disco and shadowing. I still have shimmer but not a ton which I achieve with surface movement. I have slowly bumped up the settings to 100% blue and 50% white and the corals seem to love it. I was running 10 hours of blue with 4 of white in the middle but I decided yesterday to up the time to 12 hours of blue with 4 hours of white. in the middle. I needed more blue because I have a ton of zoas that color up under the blue light much better.

Anyone measured the par at 100% blue with no lenses?

Hello

What do you think if you re-put 6 8 lenses in middle to popup efficiency ?

Did you try it ?

 

[Wolf94]

What do you get at the top?

And middle ?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I removed all of the lenses on my two 165w Mars Aquas and now have amazing coverage and much less disco and shadowing. I still have shimmer but not a ton which I achieve with surface movement. I have slowly bumped up the settings to 100% blue and 50% white and the corals seem to love it. I was running 10 hours of blue with 4 of white in the middle but I decided yesterday to up the time to 12 hours of blue with 4 hours of white. in the middle. I needed more blue because I have a ton of zoas that color up under the blue light much better.

Anyone measured the par at 100% blue with no lenses?

I would love to know how much par these type if lights put out just under blues at a few different intensities with and without lenses, alot of people run at 100% blue. I have the viparspectra 165, so not too dissimilar to the mars. I'm running 60 blue 10 white at 9 inches off the water. Only have the whites on 5 hrs and just blue for the rest so 10 hrs total light.

 

[Wolf94]

Hello

after thinking well, I plan to remove all the lenses from my marsaqua 165w and 300w ramps but leave the horizontal line in the middle complete with its lenses.
I think my choice should be good, or at least better than the original.

I keep original lens like blue line schema and i remove all others.

 

[Wolf94]

Pop

 

[Wolf94]

Hello

Finally i keep more lens on blue like that.
All in orange, lens removed.

Am i wrong ?

 

[Wolf94]

Alone

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Alone

You're not alone on here. I have removed all lenses before, but it introduced alot of light spill into the room. so I refitted all the lenses but the spread was better with them removed.I would be tempted to remove all the inner lenses off the blues and whites to help blending and leave all the lenses on the outer edge to stop spillage. It doesn't take along time to do so you could experiment with different combos.

 

[Wolf94]

Hello

I have 300 marsqua with epistar 3w, i remove lens like explain before.

Today i receive my new 165w.... Its with SMD..... SMD.....

I think i cant remove lens with the smd like epistar, because SMD are not 120°.... Right ?

So ? Before i mount the light 165w, what must i do ?
-let like factory receipt and let the 300w with lens remove.
- let like factory and re.put the lens on the 300w
- remove lens like the 300w

Im disapointed....help me ouinnnn please

Question too ... I think spectrum on 300w epistar and new SMD 165w are different ?


Cordially from france

 

[Wolf94]

Hello

I will go on viparspectra

 

[ascheff]

I picked up some 165w Phlizon units and reconfigured almost all the chips on them. Next step was to do some testing with a Seneye to determine whether I go with or without lenses. While as expected I got much less of a PAR dropoff as I moved away from the light's center, the average PAR drop for all positions was pretty extreme - a 77% drop at 800mm (31.5 inch) and 68% drop at 400mm (15.7 inch) height.

Without a doubt I want to go with lenses, but which? I've been looking at beaded lenses and have seen some discussions on them on this thread, but not finding a definitive answer. With all else being equal, like lens angle etc., what is the difference between clear and beaded lenses when it comes to PAR, spread and color blending?