ATI Straton LED Light - Comments, Review, PAR, Coverage, Discuss...

[Reef-Engineer]

Any capacity for moonlight effect you can see? Curious about maybe driving just one of the channels at a very low level. How far down do they dim?

ooh I didnt see anything for that in the program (like something that would vary an LED in strength depending on the phase of the moon).

It would be possible to just run one Straton's Back array with just a few percent of blues and that would do quite well, but it would always be the same moon (I didn't see the potential for seasonal programs).

Maybe that is somewhere for ATI to go next.

 

[carlosec83]

Wow, just an incredible review. I'm currently waiting on my CD aquarium to arrive and the one thing I did not buy was lighting. I really want these but since there was not much info I decided to wait. Seems like I found the light I will choose.
Getting 2 for my 60 x 32 x 24 Peninsula. Thinking it should be enough for this tank.

Thanks again for sharing your findings and review, I speak for many who don't post as much (just like me) - but this info makes a big expense easier to decide.

 

[Biff0rz]

First, amazing review. I'm pretty convinced I need these, lol.

Second, it looks like your old T5 setup is hung with hanging wire from both left and right sides. The stratons are hung from front and back. Is it possible to hang them left and right?? I ask because I have a roller motor above my tank that raises and lowers my current light fixture. I'd like to keep that and hang the lights from the same roller. The roller is parallel to the tank lengthwise, if that makes sense. I'm not sure if you must mount the stratons that way because of the 3 lighting options (front to back)? If I orientate them 90* do I still get that front to back feature or would it then be left to right? Short and sweet, does orientation of the light matter?

 

[Reef-Engineer]

First, amazing review. I'm pretty convinced I need these, lol.

Second, it looks like your old T5 setup is hung with hanging wire from both left and right sides. The stratons are hung from front and back. Is it possible to hang them left and right?? I ask because I have a roller motor above my tank that raises and lowers my current light fixture. I'd like to keep that and hang the lights from the same roller. The roller is parallel to the tank lengthwise, if that makes sense. I'm not sure if you must mount the stratons that way because of the 3 lighting options (front to back)? If I orientate them 90* do I still get that front to back feature or would it then be left to right? Short and sweet, does orientation of the light matter?

The lights are hard wired to have the three segments (front/middle/back) when mounted with the hanging wires back/front, also, the power line comes out the back. It IS possible to mount them sideways of course, this may allow for some cool sunrise/sunset effects, as long as you can manage the cable. But you would now have Left/Middle/Right segments, rather than front/back.

Still, as many folks may not actually control the three segments per light differently from each other, it would not matter, and in that case, there would be no drawback to mounting the light with the hanging wires on the left and right.

 

[Hydrored]

The lights are hard wired to have the three segments (front/middle/back) when mounted with the hanging wires back/front, also, the power line comes out the back. It IS possible to mount them sideways of course, this may allow for some cool sunrise/sunset effects, as long as you can manage the cable. But you would now have Left/Middle/Right segments, rather than front/back.

Still, as many folks may not actually control the three segments per light differently from each other, it would not matter, and in that case, there would be no drawback to mounting the light with the hanging wires on the left and right.

Thank you! I ordered 4 and will be here on Wednesday, hoping to mount them from a hanging 90” ecotech rail.

 

[Reef-Engineer]

Wow, just an incredible review. I'm currently waiting on my CD aquarium to arrive and the one thing I did not buy was lighting. I really want these but since there was not much info I decided to wait. Seems like I found the light I will choose.
Getting 2 for my 60 x 32 x 24 Peninsula. Thinking it should be enough for this tank.

Thanks again for sharing your findings and review, I speak for many who don't post as much (just like me) - but this info makes a big expense easier to decide.

My pleasure, and I am glad that my info was helpful, but I want to make sure to be clear that though I decided to use these lights, I have no skin in the game if people buy them or not (no affiliation with ATI other than as an unpaid tester who paid for the test units himself).

I almost bought a CD aquarium, had at my house several times... long story.

 

[Reef-Engineer]

Thank you! I ordered 4 and will be here on Wednesday, hoping to mount them from a hanging 90” ecotech rail.

cool! Please post pics when you get them hung and let us know your thoughts! The more data points the better

 

[Biff0rz]

I ordered 2 today for my 60" tank

Btw what did you use to measure par?

 

[Hydrored]

cool! Please post pics when you get them hung and let us know your thoughts! The more data points the better

I have an Apogee 510 to test the PAR with and compare to 5 G5 XR30’s. I don’t know how to make cool charts and all lol

 

[Maximus]

Would it be a good idea to have a fan blowing on the Straton at all times (when on)?

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Would it be a good idea to have a fan blowing on the Straton at all times (when on)?

Well, it can hardly hurt helping the heat dissipate faster but provided that the heat sinks are properly engineered it shouldn’t really be needed.

 

[Maximus]

Just placed the order. The agonizing wait begins!

 

[Big E]

@ATI North America

What about fixing these? One year warranty isn't very appealing

Is it easy to get in and replace a driver or a board of the LED diodes?

Very few LED products offer replacement parts, ect.

I have no desire to continue to buy upgraded units like Echotech and others that keep stringing you along to buy the newest and "improved" product every few years.

 

[User1]

@ATI North America

I have no desire to continue to buy upgraded units like Echotech and others that keep stringing you along to buy the newest and "improved" product every few years.

There is no requirement to upgrade yearly let alone every other cycle. That is up to the hobbyist. I'm not sure I understand the comment. Unless there is a significant or other compelling reason to upgrade why bother. Also the warranty is no different than others. Heck buy a new large screen tv and their warranty is only a year...

To put this into perspective. I recently added a couple Kessil a360x's to my display tank. Looking at their documentation and FAQ they say the life expectancy is about 35,000 hours or 5 - 7 years. That is my upgrade window. Not before...

 

[Maximus]

Here is some info about the led's from Oliver at ATI. It was translated into English from German.

With spot solutions that energize their LEDs much higher and do not make the temperatures transparent at all, on the one hand you cannot check how hot the LEDs really get and on the other hand, LEDs that run at maximum load are more stressed than in our Straton that the 5 watt LEDs are operated with just 30% (1.5 watts). Since we have built in 153 high power LEDs, at 1.5 watts per LED, only 229 watts of possible maximum power come out. This gentle operation is only possible because we have spared no costs in the LED assembly. The high number of LEDs means that you have a lot more substance, which allows the LEDs to be operated more gently and efficiently. From a technical point of view, this is important for long-term performance.

It sounds like they are 5 watt led's driven at 1.5 watts?

 

[User1]

Here is some info about the led's from Oliver at ATI. It was translated into English from German.

With spot solutions that energize their LEDs much higher and do not make the temperatures transparent at all, on the one hand you cannot check how hot the LEDs really get and on the other hand, LEDs that run at maximum load are more stressed than in our Straton that the 5 watt LEDs are operated with just 30% (1.5 watts). Since we have built in 153 high power LEDs, at 1.5 watts per LED, only 229 watts of possible maximum power come out. This gentle operation is only possible because we have spared no costs in the LED assembly. The high number of LEDs means that you have a lot more substance, which allows the LEDs to be operated more gently and efficiently. From a technical point of view, this is important for long-term performance.

It sounds like they are 5 watt led's driven at 1.5 watts?

If so then it is similar to what the DIY crowd does. It isn't uncommon to drive higher power LED's at lower power for better thermal dynamics. The note above makes sense based on my limited experience of builds. Sounds like if a hobbyist takes proper care of the unit it should last a long time without fall off. That could be a very attractive feature to knock off the sticker shock of entry point. At least how I see it.

 

[Kyl]

There is no requirement to upgrade yearly let alone every other cycle. That is up to the hobbyist. I'm not sure I understand the comment. Unless there is a significant or other compelling reason to upgrade why bother.

Most brand fanboys upgrade just so they can keep up with the Jones's, that more often than not tend to be heavily subsidized by the vendor in question. You'll almost never hear that side of things, though it is quite rampant in our hobby.

Wonder if there's a way to direct-mount these to an extrusion using the holes from the hanging kit..

 

[Reef-Engineer]

I ordered 2 today for my 60" tank

Btw what did you use to measure par?

Hello, I used an Apogee MQ-200. Which detects quantum flux from 410-655nm.

 

[Reef-Engineer]

Here is some info about the led's from Oliver at ATI. It was translated into English from German.

With spot solutions that energize their LEDs much higher and do not make the temperatures transparent at all, on the one hand you cannot check how hot the LEDs really get and on the other hand, LEDs that run at maximum load are more stressed than in our Straton that the 5 watt LEDs are operated with just 30% (1.5 watts). Since we have built in 153 high power LEDs, at 1.5 watts per LED, only 229 watts of possible maximum power come out. This gentle operation is only possible because we have spared no costs in the LED assembly. The high number of LEDs means that you have a lot more substance, which allows the LEDs to be operated more gently and efficiently. From a technical point of view, this is important for long-term performance.

It sounds like they are 5 watt led's driven at 1.5 watts?

Thanks Maximus! I remembered that he said they were significantly under-driving them due to lifetime and efficiency gains, but I thought they were 2-Watt driven at 70%, not 5W driven at 30%! That is even better!

Also, for what it's worth, I have no fans blowing on mine and they never get over 46C per the units internal thermistors.

 

[Reef-Engineer]

Most brand fanboys upgrade just so they can keep up with the Jones's, that more often than not tend to be heavily subsidized by the vendor in question. You'll almost never hear that side of things, though it is quite rampant in our hobby.

Wonder if there's a way to direct-mount these to an extrusion using the holes from the hanging kit..

The hanging kit holes are SUPER small and filled with the "hanging kit adjustment one way-cable pinchers". So if you want to mount to an extrusion you may need to 3D print or build a clamp/mount for the fixture.

Also, one of the reasons that I purchased these, beside PAR, looks, silence, adjustability, and such, is the fact that the LEDs were being underdriven and I want to use these fixtures for 10 years...