I'm always pretty skeptical when folks claim things about how great lighting difference are. ATI claims higher % from their fixtures, well, I just measured 4 different fixtures and the Tek 8 bulb fixture had 250 umol at 14" and the 6 bulb ATI had 400umol at 14".
So less bulbs 1/4 fewer bulbs but 1/3rd more light. So the 50% more light claim seems to apply to even well designed fixtures like Tek.
The ATI also has controller and dimmer options that are small and discrete function on the fixture. They come in more bulb configurations also.
Very impressed. Tank does not really look brighter, but the meter does not lie.
I can change the height and over spray of the fixture and still dial the dimmer settings to 0-100% ranges with 1 % increments.
I also can run 2 banks of lights separately and rev them up with the dimmer for dawn to dusk settings.
What I will likely do is run them at 0-25% for the first 2 hours and then 25-100% over the next 2 hours, lave them run 100% for 1 full hour, then drop from 100-25% over 2 hours and then 25-0% over the last two hours.
7 hours total run time. The 50% or more will only run for 3 hours, so I'll be using much less light overall, but still have a very intense spike.
Another method might be to slowly increase light till about 5 hours in, then leave it at the max level the last 2 hours with a 30 minute drop off.
This mimics the CO2 build up in many non pH controlled CO2 enriched tanks. It tends to increase and then levels off after 4-6 hours at a high range, then drops rapidly after the lights go off.
So less bulbs 1/4 fewer bulbs but 1/3rd more light. So the 50% more light claim seems to apply to even well designed fixtures like Tek.
The ATI also has controller and dimmer options that are small and discrete function on the fixture. They come in more bulb configurations also.
Very impressed. Tank does not really look brighter, but the meter does not lie.
I can change the height and over spray of the fixture and still dial the dimmer settings to 0-100% ranges with 1 % increments.
I also can run 2 banks of lights separately and rev them up with the dimmer for dawn to dusk settings.
What I will likely do is run them at 0-25% for the first 2 hours and then 25-100% over the next 2 hours, lave them run 100% for 1 full hour, then drop from 100-25% over 2 hours and then 25-0% over the last two hours.
7 hours total run time. The 50% or more will only run for 3 hours, so I'll be using much less light overall, but still have a very intense spike.
Another method might be to slowly increase light till about 5 hours in, then leave it at the max level the last 2 hours with a 30 minute drop off.
This mimics the CO2 build up in many non pH controlled CO2 enriched tanks. It tends to increase and then levels off after 4-6 hours at a high range, then drops rapidly after the lights go off.