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  #26  
Old 12/11/2007, 09:44 PM
moprint moprint is offline
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Drs Foster & Smith is where I ordered mine. They say the 72" is in stock $594.
  #27  
Old 12/11/2007, 10:15 PM
hahnmeister hahnmeister is offline
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Does anyone else see what I see???


That photo shows the light coming out the bottom of the fixture, from a perpendicular from the length of the bulbs. When viewing a reflector at this angle, the light should be solid from one end to the other. I can make out the individual bulbs still!!! If possible, I would like to see a photo from the tank's perspective to see if its not just that photo for some reason.
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  #28  
Old 12/11/2007, 10:20 PM
Paulairduck Paulairduck is offline
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I am sure that the reason for the single sheet is the ease of assembly and having to only use one sheet instead of individually installing single refelectors per bulb

A good improvement, but not great, this is what seperate's the good companies from the great ones
  #29  
Old 12/11/2007, 10:44 PM
DarG DarG is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by hahnmeister
Does anyone else see what I see???


That photo shows the light coming out the bottom of the fixture, from a perpendicular from the length of the bulbs. When viewing a reflector at this angle, the light should be solid from one end to the other. I can make out the individual bulbs still!!! If possible, I would like to see a photo from the tank's perspective to see if its not just that photo for some reason.
Will the fixture allow him to keep anything he wants to in his 30 gallon?

I guarantee the old Nova Extreme 8 bulb would have allowed me to keep and grow anything I wanted to in my 90 gallon and siwelks new "Pro" will allow him to keep anything he wants to in his 30 gallon and it will thrive.

One can criticize just about anything anywhere near the price range that these fixtures cost. There is a very popular fixture that costs more than this one who's users will defend to the death despite the fact that using it with the acrylic lens seriously hurts the par because of it's lack of active cooling. The Nova atleast has effective enough active cooling. And now the closest thing to being a real upgrade, Aquactinics TX5, which was more expensive in the first place, just had a signifigant price increase.

So, like I stated, one can criticize anything anwhere near the price that this fixture cost ... but does one always have to?
I could see it if it wasnt going to do what the buyer needed it to do but in this case, that is clearly not a problem.
  #30  
Old 12/11/2007, 11:48 PM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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Thanks DarG, i expect to receive criticism for my lighting choice but overall im happy with the fixture so far. it looks to be completely adequate for my tank. btw, the new pros have mounts on the top of the fixture for the optional hanging kit which i will be purchasing as soon as i find someone who has it in stock.

and the noise level coming from the fans doeant seem that loud at all so far...maybe slightly louder than my computer cooling fans. but i have nothing to compare it to as this is my first actively cooled fixture.
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  #31  
Old 12/12/2007, 12:47 AM
DarG DarG is offline
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Some of Current USA fans were loud. The ones on my Nova and Outer Orbit were both quiet. I dont use either fixture any longer, BTW. But the fact remains that lots of people do and with successful tanks. They arent the best or most efficient but they work fine as long as the application is correct. Again, you will be perfectly fine keeping anything you want to.

The Current USA hanging kits come with those adjustable cable grips. Makes adjusting height a simple matter of pushing a button and rasing or lowering the fixture at each end.

If it has those keyhole slots, two on each side of the top at each end, then the Outer Orbit hardware should be the same as what they will offer for the Nova Pro. But of course, you would need to check to make sure.
  #32  
Old 12/12/2007, 01:00 AM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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thanks for the tip on the hanging kit. ill have to look into that. it sounds like at least they made it easy to adjust the height, which is nice for maitenance.
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  #33  
Old 12/12/2007, 04:17 PM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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hey DarG, do these look like the hanging kit from the Outer Orbit you were talking about?

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  #34  
Old 12/12/2007, 04:37 PM
Toddrtrex Toddrtrex is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by siwelk
hey DarG, do these look like the hanging kit from the Outer Orbit you were talking about?

I am not DarG, but that is exactly how the top of my Sun Pod looks (( single 250 DE MH, plus moon lights )) I currently do not have it hanging, but that is what you would use with the hanging kit.

As for the fans (( again different unit, but might still be relavent )) I reversed the fan on mine -- blowing out instead of in -- and it is a lot quieter.
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  #35  
Old 12/12/2007, 04:58 PM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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thanks, i bet most of the hanging hardware is pretty similar. thats an interesting idea with the fans. i have the two so i may think about switching one the opposite direction and see if that helps any. so far the noise level from the fans dont seem too loud to me. though this is my first experience with a fan cooled fixture. it doesnt seem much louder than my pc fans.
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  #36  
Old 12/12/2007, 05:00 PM
Toddrtrex Toddrtrex is offline
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Yea, mine really wasn't all that loud to begin with, but I had the fixture off the tank, and thought I would give it a try. I wouldn't have taken the fixture off the tank just for that.
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  #37  
Old 12/12/2007, 05:02 PM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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ha, well i just flipped my lights on for a minute and both the fans are already blowing out...so i may try turning one in. we'll see.
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  #38  
Old 12/12/2007, 05:37 PM
DarG DarG is offline
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Siwelk, just to confirm, yes those are the keyhole slots I was talking about. Should allow you to use the Outer Orbit hanging hardware or other that uses the same configuration. I think that Marine and Reef or Marine Depot carry the hardware in stock. 20 something bucks if I remember right. I'm using the adjustable cable grip portion of the hardware that came with my Outer Orbit to hang my DIY aluminum light rack. Works great.

A note on the fans ... the fixture cools well as is. T5 bulbs need the cooling with the acrylic shield in place to maintain par. Par drops if they overheat. The fixture is set up for a tunnel cooling effect and I think that both fans are providing that by drawing a good amount of air past the bulbs from one end of the fixture to the other. I think that reversing one will make for less efficient cooling than leaving them as is. If you are going to reverse one, I would definitely set up a thermometer to check the temperature inside the fixture and compare configurations to see which one is more effective. Also, if they sound about as loud as computer fans I would say you got a good pair of fans. The fans in both my current usa fixtures were quiet as well.
  #39  
Old 12/12/2007, 06:00 PM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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thanks for the confirmation on the hanging kits, ill be picking up one of those sometime in the near future. i like the idea of the adjustable cable. youre probably right about the fans too. if i did reverse one i would monitor the temp to see if it made any changes but ill most likely just leave it the way it was. im sure theyre blowing out for a reason.

quick question...does the acrylic shield lower the par output? if so, is it significant?
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  #40  
Old 12/12/2007, 07:41 PM
DarG DarG is offline
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The shield itself does reduce Par but it's not all that much. Not using it is not worth the trouble of having to worry about staining the reflectors and cleaning the inside of the fixture, IMO anyway. Plus, the sockets arent splashproof. I think it's a 10% reduction? Might be less. Someone else should chime in with the correct percentage if I have it wrong.
  #41  
Old 12/12/2007, 08:40 PM
Rwinfrey Rwinfrey is offline
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DARG what do you think I was planning on doing this light on my 150 AGA mostly zoo's ,leathers and such.do you think with less bulbs in the fixture we can fit icecap reflectors.
  #42  
Old 12/12/2007, 09:00 PM
luke33 luke33 is offline
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You won't be able to fit many IC reflectors, its not that wide and the reflectors in there now are only a bit over 1" by the measurements. I think your going to be better off leaving it stock. To me it looks like a well built light, sure its not the greatest reflectors but it will most likely be able to penetrate and work fine for tanks up to around 24". You'll have to keep the lps towards the middle and the sps up high i'd imagine, and time will tell.
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  #43  
Old 12/12/2007, 09:04 PM
DarG DarG is offline
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Not on 6 bulbs. The fixtire is 12" wide. The Icecap reflectors are 2 1/2" wide each. Plus, there has got to be about an inch of fixture on both front and back beyond the outside bulbs. So, they have 6 bulbs in probably 10" of space. At the most, you could get 4 IceCap reflectors in there and you would either have to relocate the sockets to do it or put an SLR on every other bulb so you would only get 3 in there. The original Nova Extreme 8 bulbs units were 14" wide, so maybe 12" of space for bulbs. You could maybe get 5 in that one if you could overlap the reflectors a little bit. Probably be better off with the original Nova and then using 5 or possibly 6 of the Hello Lights generic reflectors which are only 2" wide each. But you would still have to move endcaps. And then, I dont know if the cover will fit with the individual reflectors and the endcaps are not waterproof. May be better off just skipping the shield and wiring in all new waterproof endcaps if one were to try and convert a Nova.

I will say one thing though ... if you had an 8 bulb Nova extreme and only were able to get 4 SLR's in it, I think you would have as much or more light with the 8 bulb Nova. There still havent been any tests specifically on the NOVA Extreme comparing it with individual reflectors. I have owned both and I just dont think that 4 bulbs under SLR's is quite as bright as an 8 bulb Nova Extreme. Again, that's by my eyes which is not a good way at all to judge par. But I have to believe my eyes over the word of those who have never owned the fixture and can only spout theory. I think it's close and I think that 5 individual reflectors wins but 4 ... it's close but the 8 bulb Extreme looked brighter to me. Same bulbs in same proportion. I believe I used Blue + and 10000K 1:1 to compare. So, I wouldnt even bother anyway, even if I thought it was worth the effort, if I couldnt get 5 reflectors in there. You would get better depth penetration though, whether it wasnt as bright overall or was just as bright or whatever .... So in that regard, with a deeper tank, maybe it would be worth it even if you couldnt get enough in there to be "brighter" overall.

I certainly wouldnt buy a new Nova to try it. Maybe if you already had one and definitely needed more light and could get atleast 1/2 the bulbs as the stock fixture holds and preferably 1/2 + 1.
  #44  
Old 12/14/2007, 09:59 AM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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fyi, ill be giving a mini-review later today once i let the lights run for a good while.
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  #45  
Old 12/14/2007, 06:51 PM
The Grim Reefer The Grim Reefer is offline
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Hey Kyle

For lamps the current blues are as good as the Giesemann Actinic Plus as far as initial PAR output but I couldn't tell you if they will have the longevity

For new lamps try this

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Pro Color
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
ATI Actinic Blue
ATI Aquablue

As far as the splash shield leave it in place. If your tank was taller I would say pull it but for a 16" tall tank you already have enough to grow acros in most of the tank.

Don't mess with the fans. I don't think they have a particularlly good cooling scheme with the fans at one end only but reversing one would be a bad idea IMHO. Turning both so they pull the hot air out of the fixture might actually work better BUT that would likely cause the fans to fail a lot sooner. If it were mine and I wanted to hot rod the thing I would add fans at the other end as well and cut some vent slots in the top above the ballasts so air would be pushed in from the ends and out the top past the ballasts so the ballasts are cooled too.
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  #46  
Old 12/14/2007, 07:33 PM
DarG DarG is offline
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Grim, the fans do suck hot air out, they dont blow inward.
You're right, they probably dont do much for cooling the ballasts but they are more effective than one may realize. The bulbs are decently cooled. I had one of the original Nova Extremes and it had the same cooling scheme. I found no real reason to modify it.
  #47  
Old 12/14/2007, 07:56 PM
The Grim Reefer The Grim Reefer is offline
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It doesn't take all that much to cool the lamps. In fact blowing a fan directly on the lamps can overcool them to the point of decreasing the output.

After looking at the pics again it looks like that rascal already has vents in the top. Be interesting to put a temp probe and PAR meter on one of those things and play. I think reversing the fans to blow in and partially blocking the vent holes on the opposite end from the fans so the air is pushed out the end and out the top would be an interesting experiment. Getting air to move past the ballasts would at least extend their effective life and likely boost the output a tad.
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  #48  
Old 12/15/2007, 05:40 AM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by The Grim Reefer
Hey Kyle

For lamps the current blues are as good as the Giesemann Actinic Plus as far as initial PAR output but I couldn't tell you if they will have the longevity

For new lamps try this

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Pro Color
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
ATI Actinic Blue
ATI Aquablue

As far as the splash shield leave it in place. If your tank was taller I would say pull it but for a 16" tall tank you already have enough to grow acros in most of the tank.

Don't mess with the fans. I don't think they have a particularlly good cooling scheme with the fans at one end only but reversing one would be a bad idea IMHO. Turning both so they pull the hot air out of the fixture might actually work better BUT that would likely cause the fans to fail a lot sooner. If it were mine and I wanted to hot rod the thing I would add fans at the other end as well and cut some vent slots in the top above the ballasts so air would be pushed in from the ends and out the top past the ballasts so the ballasts are cooled too.
thanks for taking the time to comment on my new fixture grim. ill be going with your recommendation when I upgrade. I really have no idea about bulb selection and placement. I really appreciate the fact that someone like yourself is willing to take time out to help noobs like myself.

I was wondering about the splash shield. I will leave it in place like you suggested. as long as I'm capable of supporting the requirements for acros in the future that's all I need to know.

as for the fans, ill most likely leave them the way they are except for possibly adding a couple more at the other end.

thanks again grim!
  #49  
Old 12/15/2007, 10:18 AM
DarG DarG is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by The Grim Reefer
It doesn't take all that much to cool the lamps. In fact blowing a fan directly on the lamps can overcool them to the point of decreasing the output.

After looking at the pics again it looks like that rascal already has vents in the top. Be interesting to put a temp probe and PAR meter on one of those things and play. I think reversing the fans to blow in and partially blocking the vent holes on the opposite end from the fans so the air is pushed out the end and out the top would be an interesting experiment. Getting air to move past the ballasts would at least extend their effective life and likely boost the output a tad.
It is also possible that a replacement fan and bracket assembly from an Outer Orbit or other Current fixture would actually bolt right up into one of the top vents. The current fixtures all share many common traits and basic parts are interchangeable in alot of cases. The Nova very likely has the two grooves that run along the top edge which are made to huld brackets for fans, ballasts etc. Maybe leaving the fans as is and adding one up top would be plenty to draw some air up and help cool the ballasts without losing the cooling to the bulbs.

Earlier I was referring to there being no noticeable drop in output after the Nova warms up. I think that is atleast a modest indicator that the cooling is effective. I have read multiple questions and complaints from TEK owners who stated that there fixtures seemed to get dimmer after several minutes of being turned on when the acrylic lens is in use. Not making any comparisoons as to which fixture is better, just pointing out a known issue of the passively "cooled" TEK that apparently the Nova doesnt suffer from because the fan cooling seems to be effective enough.
  #50  
Old 12/15/2007, 10:21 AM
siwelk siwelk is offline
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ill have to check out those mounting grooves you speak of when i get back from my first trip to Premium Aquatics

im so glad theyre only an hour away...i just wish we werent in the middle of a winter storm warning all day.
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