Anyone out there still using Plasma LEP ?

PlasmaBoy · Oct 11, 2019

Just thought I'd reach out and see who maybe using LEP. I have been using a Gavita unit for the last year and love it. I don't think there are many of us still using plasma, a light I believe came into the market at the wrong time. I'd be interested to hear people's experience with them. Personally I feel they are like the old iwasaki halides with less heat and way better efficiency. Oh and zero bulb changes.

PlasmaBoy · Oct 19, 2019

I guess not lol

uglyman · Oct 20, 2019

Would be interesting to hear more about these lights as I was keen on them when they came out but they were hard to get in Australia at the time so I never bothered getting one.

Auquanut · Oct 20, 2019

I'd kind of like to hear more too. I've never heard of them.

C. Eymann · Oct 20, 2019

Last I heard of plasma arc lighting was like 10 years ago in Coral Magazine , and at that time its scale was more suitable for institutions /museums/ aquariums rather than home aquaria applications.

Has it become more downsized/practical for hobbyists these days?

PlasmaBoy · Oct 21, 2019

They are pretty big and pack a punch, I would equate them to a 500w halide or more. I have mine over a 1m x 1m square shallow tank. I am still experimenting with mine, had a tank move and a timer got stuck on , which the tank is only now recovering from. Early outcome is it's far more powerful than I expected, as in 4 hours a day fried some of my corals. So I now run it for peak light of 2 hours a day and about 150w of led for the other 10 hours. So far any Wild colonies I buy stay alive and keep their colour, that's when I don't fry them ! Other issue is these lights are sunlight spectrum, as in algae celebrates life! So be prepared to have a big clean up crew and a turf scrubber!

Too early to make a judgement yet, so far it's like having a 500w halide that's putting out what a 150w halide would be for heat. Polyp response is insane, I've never seen the response out of led, maybe only my 10k Hamilton 400w bulb got close. As in fluffy super happy polyps.

I'm actually thinking I might open it up and work out the dimming circuit, or put up a mesh screen like u see on sunlit coral farms.

I can see why they didn't take off, they are huge and heavy, look like a street lamp, throw out 6500k yellow light etc etc. but the colour looks exactly like a reef under the sun, crisp lines from a single tictac size bulb make it feel like a shallow lagoon at midday. I've never seen a light mimic the sun so well. Sanjay might like the look

I add blue LEDs to bring it to about 10k look.

These lights also have uva and uvb at natural levels, so it will be interesting to see how that goes. Could have something to do with frying corals with only 4 hours peak. I probably need to identify the species that are in 5m or less water naturally.

oreo54 · Oct 21, 2019

Everyone likes teaser

Cool! Sent Via the R2R Forum APP

www.reef2reef.com

Some images in the above..

Yea sort of a fringe tech. more popular in terrestrial plant growth..

JohnThomas · Oct 21, 2019

What in gods name is this madness?!

PlasmaBoy · Oct 22, 2019

Let the madness begin ! There were touted as too expensive ....... then came ecotech

uglyman · Oct 26, 2019

If I remember right you can dim plasma lights and the spectrum changes to more blue light.

Sallstrom · Oct 30, 2019

We bought one Gavita 300W (if I remember it right) to the Aquarium where I work. We used it for a while above a large reef tank but then switched and put it over a mangrove tank. The trees loved it

The reason we didn't keep it over the reef tank was that it was too big difference between the plasma and the halides in colour. The tank was yellow in one end and blue/white in the rest of the tank. Don't remember if the growth was good or not, it was about 5 years ago I think.

We did meassure the spectrum of our plasma when we had a company in who had a Jaz spectrometer. Here's the result. Closer to sun light then most halides IMO

PlasmaBoy · Oct 30, 2019

Ah nice, yes they will grow mangroves and other plants ...... very well

I have a Gavita 300w bloom version over my tank at the moment, it has less red spectrum but still not a wonderful blue that we all enjoy. But I'm at work during the day and don't see it running. On weekends I let the corals take a break with led.

What I have noticed is the UV output is too high for some corals, some sps will colour up or tan in response and some will semi bleach. So I have a 15mm thick bit of lexon under the lens to reduce the UV.

I have run halides before with good results, but plasmas solider true spectrum I feel seems to really excite polyp extension and insane growth. corals love real sunlight, so plasma is the closest we have to that, for,shallow water corals it's a perfect match

I was tempted to try ceramic halide too.

I worked out I'll get 25 years out of the bulb so I'm happy to keep it along side my leds

In my ten years of reefing I haven't seen the growth and happiness of corals under plasma or halide in any thing else , well T5 is up there too. Led is a great viewing and supplemental light, I've never been able to quiet crack pure led, I have tried and seen long term tanks in lots of local LFS that even under top end LED , don't look anywhere near as good as they did under halide and T5. Just my opinion, David Saxby and paletta, Sanjay etc have pulled it off, I just can't afford to throw 5k of led over my tank. And black box hasn't worked for me.

U could throw some big blue leds right next to it and produce a 10-15k look maybe in one of your shallow lagoon tanks etc.