New Neptune Sky...or?

[BigMax]

Considering the implications of the 25% discount on Neptune Sky today. Bertram Capital (Aperture) 'runs' these companies (Neptune, BRS and Ecotech) could they be re-positioning the portfolio and getting Neptune out of the lighting business as lighting is one of Ecotech's mainstays? Or Ecotech could be redesigning the Neptune fixture for greater economies of scale, for the greater good of the 'group'? It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[blaxsun]

I don't see the SKY being phased out as from everything I heard - it's a really decent LED. But unless you have a crystal ball...

 

[fishybizzness]

New model coming out soon. Never fails when current version of a product suddenly gets big markdown in price. I've been seeing a few used ones selling in the 700 range lately. For 600+ its not a bad deal new as I've read some pretty good reviews so it seems like a decent light.

 

[Jbell370]

DOS on steep discounts here as well as the Sky.

 

[Tamberav]

I would just ask yourself would you be mad if you bought it 25 percent off and a new model came out? Or they discontinued it?

It isn’t like the SKy just stops growing coral when a new version comes out or such.

 

[fishybizzness]

Great point. For those sky users, what's your opinion on the lights? Are they working out for you? At the discounted price I'm definitely thinking about switching from my t5 red sea 90 combo. The heat reduction alone would be worth it.

 

[rtparty]

No new Sky coming. It's on sale. Enjoy it.

Black Friday is coming up. Retailers have a lot of inventory coming in over the next 2 months. Time to move some product during the slow times.

 

[minus9]

MACNA is next month, so I imagine there will be new products launched as well. If you need a new LED, then buy what’s available now or just wait and see. It’s not like all of the LEDs available now are garbage. Besides, there will always be something new or improvements made along the way. Any quality LED should get you about 5 years of good use, after that things (diodes) start to degrade.

 

[BigMax]

Agreed it's a good price for good light. I would have no problem if a new one came out and I bought this for $652. Just curious as to what drives a huge discount from a company that doesn't discount things often, or that deep. Just fishing for any information others might have stumbled across.

I see premuimaquatics believes that due to slow sales across the industry, due to weak consumer spending towards the hobby, that inventories are high and the discount is for the most obvious of all reasons, just to move product. Their premise was that gas prices and necessities are highly priced and it has slowed discretionary spending in general, could very well be the case. It may also imply supply chain issues are improving, hopefully so...

 

[jmatt]

I thought the same thing... new model or phaseout of the product coming. I still need to purchase lights for my new setup so the announcement caught my attention.

 

[gbru316]

Or they're discounting it to pull new A3 junior owners deeper into the Apex ecosystem.

 

[pomoev]

I found this deal yesterday and was almost ready to hit "checkout", but decided to google around first. This article on reefbuilders made me think that Neptune made a few weird design decisions that will cause issues over time. Now this light looks like a risky investment for someone expecting to use it for at least 5 years. Thoughts?

Of greater concern inside the housing of the SKY LED is the complete absence of any kind of moisture barrier on the sensitive electronics. Some companies totally isolate the electronic components from the humid air flowing through for cooling, some use a protective conformal coating, others use both, but Neptune Systems didn’t use either of these tried and tested techniques for building long lasting aquarium electronics.

The small daughterboard containing the communications, memory battery and single programming button is right between the two fans and completely exposed! Water and moisture ingress is by far the single biggest cause of failure in ‘smart’ aquarium gear so unless we’ve completely missed something we have serious reservations about the durability of the SKY light, especially in more humid environments.

 

[gbru316]

I found this deal yesterday and was almost ready to hit "checkout", but decided to google around first. This article on reefbuilders made me think that Neptune made a few weird design decisions that will cause issues over time. Now this light looks like a risky investment for someone expecting to use it for at least 5 years. Thoughts?

I'm an EE who's spent a few years working alongside a failure analysis lab for high reliability microwave electronics used in aviation and defense.

I've no real concerns regarding corrosion.

 

[pomoev]

I'm an EE who's spent a few years working alongside a failure analysis lab for high reliability microwave electronics used in aviation and defense.

I've no real concerns regarding corrosion.

Interesting. Is it because of high operating temperatures or used materials?

 

[jmatt]

I found this deal yesterday and was almost ready to hit "checkout", but decided to google around first. This article on reefbuilders made me think that Neptune made a few weird design decisions that will cause issues over time. Now this light looks like a risky investment for someone expecting to use it for at least 5 years. Thoughts?

He mentions that there's no moisture barrier and that the fans blow down across the LEDs and toward the water surface. Perhaps the idea here is that it's not sucking moisture laden air up into the fixture but creating a positive pressure from above that pushes downward and keeping the moisture away from the electronics.

I dunno, that assumes the humidity above the fixture is drier than below it... so perhaps that makes no sense.

 

[gbru316]

Interesting. Is it because of high operating temperatures or used materials?

a combination of things.

first of all, there are no bare die. All the IC’s are packaged. So corrosion is only going to occur on exposed traces. This isn’t a high speed circuit so that’s not much of a concern. And exposed copper is really only present around pads of discrete SMT components.

second, air is sourced from above the device and blown down to the water. So the cooling air should be about the same humidity as room air, unless they’re mounted in a canopy (and who uses canopies these days?)

Third, this isn’t a high density board. (ie, with spacing a measured in mils). So it’d take a major event for corrosion to grow to the point where it causes a short.


It just feels to me like the author is looking for nits to pick.

 

[Jon's Reef]

The Sky light has had no issues since release. Many speculated, but it was either proven flat out wrong or never manifested into an issue. It is one of the coolest (temperature wise) lights that I have ever used.

 

[rtparty]

I found this deal yesterday and was almost ready to hit "checkout", but decided to google around first. This article on reefbuilders made me think that Neptune made a few weird design decisions that will cause issues over time. Now this light looks like a risky investment for someone expecting to use it for at least 5 years. Thoughts?

I've yet to hear of any serious issues or failures with the Sky fixtures

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

I was at RAP today and I saw the light there, unfortunately I could not speak with anyone, I saw the discount and I was intrigued by it, do you think two will cover a
60x30x24 tank?

 

[BigMax]

I'm writing this for fun so please don't flame me I watched a video for repairing an EB832 by a really solid technician. One of the primary EB832 failures was related to using a triac that was not up to the task and was to easily overdriven (I'm a mechanical engineer not a sparky). What was interesting was that while Neptune was seeing a lot of failures on their EB832 they placed a job posting to hire a EE. I'm guessing they farmed out the design of the electronics and some poor choices were made, subsequently they were looking to bring some expertise in-house? Good move...

As far as long term reliability I come for the computer industry we did multitudes of stress tests to get an idea of future potential failure points. (for you engineers 80/80 - 80C and 80% humidity, elevated temp only, HALT and HASS and so on). Now to the punch line.... although all of these test will show 'weaknesses' they need to be qualified. A VP I worked for had a great saying..."you can't bake baby's to see what old men will look like". That being said you can tear something apart and look at perceived weaknesses, but time in different applications will be the ultimate tell. Give the light a few years of field use and we'll see. Feedback from customers to date looks positive, hopefully it remains so...