What features would you like to see on a light?

JNalley

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There are many reefers who prefer no features, some prefer dimming only, and some of us prefer extras such as WiFi control, Moonlight Cycles, Storms, etc. It's hard to find a light that "does it all" on the market today, but that doesn't keep me from daydreaming about what my perfect light would be like and what features I would like to incorporate.

If I had to describe my dream light using lights already on the market it would be one where we took the actual lighting technology of a Kessil AP9X, mixed it with the feature set of the Giesemann Futura S, and gave it the same storm mode w/ pump control of the CurrentUSA lights (Lights start a storm simulation, and the pumps follow suit creating storm surges). But everything feels synthetic at this point, stuck to a rigid schedule that happens on cue and isn't very random, which detracts from the natural environment I am trying to recreate. One thing that the Previous Generation of AI lights did was make their storm mode based on probabilities, which you could set over long or short periods, and things became a bit more natural, cloud cover, storms, and natural events became more random, more natural.

But beyond things that already exist, our ever-growing connected world gives us real-time weather data for pretty much the entire globe. So I've been thinking lately, about how it would be nice if someone could create an ecosystem, similar to CurrentUSA, Apex, or GHL which incorporates lighting, pumps, and maybe even the ability to control water temperature beyond a simple on/off switch, and have it based on a specific reef in the wild. You would select, for instance, The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and the realtime weather data, gathered via API, including windspeed, water temperature, cloud cover, storm activity, etc would all be utilized by the ecosystem to raise and lower tank temp, create tidal activity and storm surges, and sunrise and sunset times would vary every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day just as they do in the wild. The reefer would have the ability to choose any reef, and roll the data back to a time that's more suitable for them (So your sunrise and sunset times align with viewing times).

I want to create the most natural environment possible in our mini ecosystems. How about you? What features would you like to see?
 
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JNalley

JNalley

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Cord management!

Still surprising that in 2024 virtually every manufacturer doesn't try to make their cords more hidden.

It can't be that hard to come up with a hidden cord light/mount combo.
Hah! I couldn't agree more! But, I think, at least before I'm dead, we'll have wireless powered devices. There are already wireless charging chips that can charge devices from 10ft away. So imagine TVs, Aquarium Lights, etc that all have Lithium Batteries being constantly charged from a device in the room which allows them to perpetually run. No more cords!
 

BigMonkeyBrain

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There are many reefers who prefer no features, some prefer dimming only, and some of us prefer extras such as WiFi control, Moonlight Cycles, Storms, etc. It's hard to find a light that "does it all" on the market today, but that doesn't keep me from daydreaming about what my perfect light would be like and what features I would like to incorporate.

If I had to describe my dream light using lights already on the market it would be one where we took the actual lighting technology of a Kessil AP9X, mixed it with the feature set of the Giesemann Futura S, and gave it the same storm mode w/ pump control of the CurrentUSA lights (Lights start a storm simulation, and the pumps follow suit creating storm surges). But everything feels synthetic at this point, stuck to a rigid schedule that happens on cue and isn't very random, which detracts from the natural environment I am trying to recreate. One thing that the Previous Generation of AI lights did was make their storm mode based on probabilities, which you could set over long or short periods, and things became a bit more natural, cloud cover, storms, and natural events became more random, more natural.

But beyond things that already exist, our ever-growing connected world gives us real-time weather data for pretty much the entire globe. So I've been thinking lately, about how it would be nice if someone could create an ecosystem, similar to CurrentUSA, Apex, or GHL which incorporates lighting, pumps, and maybe even the ability to control water temperature beyond a simple on/off switch, and have it based on a specific reef in the wild. You would select, for instance, The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and the realtime weather data, gathered via API, including windspeed, water temperature, cloud cover, storm activity, etc would all be utilized by the ecosystem to raise and lower tank temp, create tidal activity and storm surges, and sunrise and sunset times would vary every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day just as they do in the wild. The reefer would have the ability to choose any reef, and roll the data back to a time that's more suitable for them (So your sunrise and sunset times align with viewing times).

I want to create the most natural environment possible in our mini ecosystems. How about you? What features would you like to see?
Just a button for sps, lps, and soft corals.

More electromagnetic radiation around my brain may not help me !
 

Gumbies R Us

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Just a button for sps, lps, and soft corals.

More electromagnetic radiation around my brain may not help me !
Now this is something I would love, where it can just auto program itself based on tank needs
 
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JNalley

JNalley

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Just a button for sps, lps, and soft corals.

Sadly, I don't think this will ever become a reality, unless the system could somehow take a 3D picture with depth information, or at the very least incorporate your tank dimensions, and take that information + light height into account. Putting an AP9X 10" above the water over a 24" deep tank will be far different from a 18" deep tank, which will be completely different from a frag tank. Don't get me wrong, I love that idea, I just think that the variability of the tank size is the determining factor on what settings will drive different modes for different types of corals.
More electromagnetic radiation around my brain may not help me !
Heh, the world is always becoming more wireless... we're going to have 30,000 satellites over our heads beaming down RF Signals for internet before too long... So we better buckle up :-D
 

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Sadly, I don't think this will ever become a reality, unless the system could somehow take a 3D picture with depth information, or at the very least incorporate your tank dimensions, and take that information + light height into account. Putting an AP9X 10" above the water over a 24" deep tank will be far different from a 18" deep tank, which will be completely different from a frag tank. Don't get me wrong, I love that idea, I just think that the variability of the tank size is the determining factor on what settings will drive different modes for different types of corals.

Heh, the world is always becoming more wireless... we're going to have 30,000 satellites over our heads beaming down RF Signals for internet before too long... So we better buckle up :-D
T5's always work :thinking-face:
 
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JNalley

JNalley

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T5's always work :thinking-face:
Can you elaborate on this? I wouldn't, for instance, put 8 T5HO's at 10" above an LPS frag tank, as I am quite certain a ton of bleaching and death would occur. The total PAR for that many lights that close would be quite high. Conversely, I wouldn't put 2 T5HO's over a 30" deep tank and have it placed 18" above the water, and try to have an SPS Dominant system, as the PAR would be too low. No?
 

BigMonkeyBrain

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Can you elaborate on this? I wouldn't, for instance, put 8 T5HO's at 10" above an LPS frag tank, as I am quite certain a ton of bleaching and death would occur. The total PAR for that many lights that close would be quite high. Conversely, I wouldn't put 2 T5HO's over a 30" deep tank and have it placed 18" above the water, and try to have an SPS Dominant system, as the PAR would be too low. No?
T5's ave been around a long time. Bulbs should be $ 5.00 instead of $ 30.00 and tests show ( BRS ) tubes can last two years. There are many tables for all tank depths and par values of different number of tubes.

I think lighting is mostly overpriced, over par, and individual choice. I use a cheap $ 60.00 programmable fresh water led for shimmer, morning, evening and moonlight !
 

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T5's ave been around a long time. Bulbs should be $ 5.00 instead of $ 30.00 and tests show ( BRS ) tubes can last two years. There are many tables for all tank depths and par values of different number of tubes.

I think lighting is mostly overpriced, over par, and individual choice. I use a cheap $ 60.00 programmable fresh water led for shimmer, morning, evening and moonlight !

Coral vue was blowing out Giesmann T5 bulbs last weekend for ~$13-15 per 80W bulbs with free shipping but you had to buy 10. Not sure if that's still going but I took advantage.
 
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JNalley

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T5's ave been around a long time. Bulbs should be $ 5.00 instead of $ 30.00 and tests show ( BRS ) tubes can last two years. There are many tables for all tank depths and par values of different number of tubes.

I think lighting is mostly overpriced, over par, and individual choice. I use a cheap $ 60.00 programmable fresh water led for shimmer, morning, evening and moonlight !
Ahh, yes, so I was following along with you perfectly. The supply of T5's has gone down and there's still a decent demand for them. That coupled with the fact that they're far more toxic and require licensure to produce/sell than LEDs is why the costs for those has gone up. I agree that everything in this hobby is overpriced, especially lights. The over-par thing I actually view as good considering most of the LEDs on the market can be dimmed which means you can upgrade to much deeper tanks without having to buy more stuff though. And yes, it's very much an individual choice, I preferred the MH + T5 look, but didn't like the heat and the ever rising running cost, so switched to LED.
 

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Lights that automatically move or tilt to simulate the earth’s movement. I know there are versions of this commercially, but I think it is time for something smaller scale on the hobby side. This can also cure things like shading.
 
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JNalley

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Lights that physically move or tilt to simulate the earth’s movement. I know there are versions of this commercially, but I think it is time for something smaller scale on the hobby side. This can also cure things like shading.
You know, I was thinking about this myself when looking at how some soundbars are working these days. They have 30 individual speakers in one sleek soundbar, and each speaker has a servo that, when used in conjunction with a microphone, will direct the audio to bounce off of walls and other surfaces to give you an immersive surround sound experience and create that perfect sweet spot. I was like "I wonder why this couldn't be done with LED lights". One of the applications was considering actual sunrise, sunset, and angle from azimuth, for that I think you'd need a few systems working together, like starting up only the lights on the right side of the tank and gradually adding in more going left throughout the day and then fading into the night, as well as the servos for angles. But another thing I thought about was pointing multiple LEDs at an acro frag or a clam, to increase par only to those parts of the tank.
 

BigMonkeyBrain

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You know, I was thinking about this myself when looking at how some soundbars are working these days. They have 30 individual speakers in one sleek soundbar, and each speaker has a servo that, when used in conjunction with a microphone, will direct the audio to bounce off of walls and other surfaces to give you an immersive surround sound experience and create that perfect sweet spot. I was like "I wonder why this couldn't be done with LED lights". One of the applications was considering actual sunrise, sunset, and angle from azimuth, for that I think you'd need a few systems working together, like starting up only the lights on the right side of the tank and gradually adding in more going left throughout the day and then fading into the night, as well as the servos for angles. But another thing I thought about was pointing multiple LEDs at an acro frag or a clam, to increase par only to those parts of the tank.
That must be an expensively nice soundbar. I think the glass walls of a tank bounce light around a bit. T5's at 9-inches above the water :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
 

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You know, I was thinking about this myself when looking at how some soundbars are working these days. They have 30 individual speakers in one sleek soundbar, and each speaker has a servo that, when used in conjunction with a microphone, will direct the audio to bounce off of walls and other surfaces to give you an immersive surround sound experience and create that perfect sweet spot. I was like "I wonder why this couldn't be done with LED lights". One of the applications was considering actual sunrise, sunset, and angle from azimuth, for that I think you'd need a few systems working together, like starting up only the lights on the right side of the tank and gradually adding in more going left throughout the day and then fading into the night, as well as the servos for angles. But another thing I thought about was pointing multiple LEDs at an acro frag or a clam, to increase par only to those parts of the tank.
Yeah, I can see it being done with one big module like a “Neptune Sky” type of footprint. It can be self contained with many different led modules that all move independently. I’m not sure what actual gains would be made to justify the obvious price increase though.
 

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Sadly, I don't think this will ever become a reality, unless the system could somehow take a 3D picture with depth information, or at the very least incorporate your tank dimensions, and take that information + light height into account. Putting an AP9X 10" above the water over a 24" deep tank will be far different from a 18" deep tank, which will be completely different from a frag tank. Don't get me wrong, I love that idea, I just think that the variability of the tank size is the determining factor on what settings will drive different modes for different types of corals.

Heh, the world is always becoming more wireless... we're going to have 30,000 satellites over our heads beaming down RF Signals for internet before too long... So we better buckle up :-D
I had this other thing I used to throw money at called a boat. It had a fish finder that showed the depth and bottom features and sometimes a fish. I think that tech could be incorporated into a light feature for a price.
 

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Can you elaborate on this? I wouldn't, for instance, put 8 T5HO's at 10" above an LPS frag tank, as I am quite certain a ton of bleaching and death would occur. The total PAR for that many lights that close would be quite high. Conversely, I wouldn't put 2 T5HO's over a 30" deep tank and have it placed 18" above the water, and try to have an SPS Dominant system, as the PAR would be too low. No?
You’d be surprised if you did.. I can cook hammers and torches in 500 par under halides and they love it!
 
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JNalley

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You’d be surprised if you did.. I can cook hammers and torches in 500 par under halides and they love it!
I guess I should have specified which LPS, since Euphyllia are highly adaptable and can take extreme light, unlike Blasto's, Candy Canes, and most Acan/Micro's which do a fair bit worse under high light. That's not to say some of them can't be acclimated to receive it, it's just not all that common and definitely requires a gradual change, lol.

I had this other thing I used to throw money at called a boat. It had a fish finder that showed the depth and bottom features and sometimes a fish. I think that tech could be incorporated into a light feature for a price.
Yeh, there are ways for sure. I guess I should never say never :-D

That must be an expensively nice soundbar. I think the glass walls of a tank bounce light around a bit. T5's at 9-inches above the water :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
Yamaha YSP-5600 Dolby Atmos Digital Sound Projector

I don't own one, but it was around $2,000 new I think, currently people selling used for like $1,600. If I was going to spend that kind of cash it would be on a Nakamichi Shockwaife.


Yeah, I can see it being done with one big module like a “Neptune Sky” type of footprint. It can be self contained with many different led modules that all move independently. I’m not sure what actual gains would be made to justify the obvious price increase though.
Yeh, I dunno. I mean, I know that coral spawning requires a certain set of elements, one of those is believed to be the angle, intensity, and color of moonlight. But I can't see that being a real big driver for home use. Coral Farms may find benefit in it though.
 

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