dustin_P74
Reef enthusiast
is this a good company because my LFS has like every product they make.
coralife
- Thread starter dustin_P74
- Start date
ccCapt
Reef Hacker
SUPER :Cheers: So where's your lfs? Don't keep it a secret now.:mrgreen:
dustin_P74
Reef enthusiast
well its near me. hence LOCAL fish store.
yes i know im a smart ass
yes i know im a smart ass
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Bifferwine
I am a girl
Depends on what product you're talking about.
dustin_P74
Reef enthusiast
im just talking about the company in general because i see it everywhere at my LFS
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Like I said, some products are good, and for some products there are better alternatives. I guess the company in general is fine, but the quality of their products vary.
They carry a few top end products and they also have some bottom end products. They are even at the bottom end a few steps above what you would expect from corporate discount stores. In genear there kinda PETCO quality. Not much top end, but no real bottom end either. Definitely do not buy their digital timer.
dustin_P74
Reef enthusiast
are there lights good or is that still too general of a question
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Too general. Give us a link to a SPECIFIC product, like a specific light fixture, and then we can help you out more.
reeffreak
Reef pro
They make decent enty level MH and PC fixtures.
Your a smart man! I agree with you 100 percent. :Cheers:
You must realize also that they manufacture almost nothing , they mainly buy U.S. exclusive right of sales, distribution and names. A very large majority of the better commercial (not custom or small business made) reef aquarium products on the U.S. market are European products in origin, that and Asian.
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I do not know about their entry level lights, but I have bought and used a lot of their top end fixtures. Top end, meaning at or near the top of the price range of what is normally sold at online or local fish stores. This means their Aqualight Pro HQI/Power Compact/Lunar light fixture. I do believe they could be made better by replacing the Power Compacts with T-5's, but other than that they are a great fixture. There are European in origin, not of U.S manafacture or design. It,s only real competition is the Outer Orbit pro, which has T-5's instead of the Power Pc's. They are an uglier, bigger fixtures but those T-5's would be nice, even though they are only supplemental lights. I am cheap though, as I get a good deal on the Aqualights and can not get a deal on the Outer Orbits, so I buy the Aqualights. Even at the same price though I do not think as supplemental actinic lighting the T-5's would outweigh the ugliness of the Outer Orbit Pro fixture or its poorer cooling fan set up.
bjohanson1234
.........
I have not had a bad experience with their digital timer. Although the instruction manual it poorly translated. The timer works good for me. Turns the lights on and off. That said I have heard that they can catch fire, however, any electrical device can do that if overloaded or splashed with salt water. I just make sure that they are located in a dry-ish place where they will not contact water directly. Also, plug them into a GFI and if they do happen to get splashed, hopefully the GFI will trip and shut it off before any damage to anything else occurs.
What are your experiences with these timers?
Brian
dustin_P74
Reef enthusiast
they work great for me. never seen the instructions but its just like any other timer and it was quite easy to figure out and it does its job great the lights come one and they go off.
The problem with the digital timer is that they advertise it in a manner which causes frequent misinterpretation of what the actual timer is capable of doing. Most people buying the digital timer believes you can set a timed sequence for two circuits when in fact you can only time one circuit. The second circuit automatically is off when the first circuit is on, and on when the fist circuit is off. The third and forth circuit are always on. The dual non-digital timer is their only timer with two timed circuits. The single non-digital is the same as the digital in its capabilities. Their advertisement if more clearly written would obviously cause a great decrease in the numbers of digital timers sold. The digital timers are the cheapest to manufacture and therefore have the highest profit, even though they are priced over the single standard timer.
bjohanson1234
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Tell you the truth, They could very easily change the circuit to accomidate multiple lighting circuits. Also, I have had dificulty with mechanical timers keeping time that is what made me look into the digital timer. Thank you for your oppinion on things.
Brian
Brian
The best you can do in timers requires a little bit of work and that is to buy a digital controller and some relay switches. This allows large loads to be used with out the timer circuits having to carry them. The timer circuit only has to carry enough current to signal the relays which carry they heavy current loads. It is the same principle as used with headlight switches in cars,and most motors in industry. Beside meaning the switches can be light weight in construction it also means large wire does not have to be run to and from the switches/timers. Any commercial electrical supply house can sell you nice small digital timers and relay switches. Most of their digital timers will actuate many circuits, meaning that you have many timed circuits at your disposal and relays are a lot cheaper than timers. Just keep adding relays to your timer. Each relay requires a power feed line and then your connection (outlet) to your circuit for lighting etc, and a small wire running to your timer to turn on and off the relay.
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bjohanson1234
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Beleive me, when I get a larger tank, after we get a larger place to live, I am going to go all out on the plumbing and lighting. Just think that all that is overkill for a 30 gallon tank. I am an electrician and these industrial lighting panels are insane in what they can do. The company that I work for just finished a university building and the lighting was about 90% automatic. Someone enters the room lights turn on, with overrides, ocupancy sensors, light sensors that dim the lights based on how much ambient light there is. The switches didnt even go to the fixtures. They went straight back to the panel. The switches were programed by a PDA to what light they turned on. The rep from the manufacturer just pointed his device at the switch then scrolled through the lights until the one he wanted was flashing. Then went to the next light. Really cool.
Brian
Brian
I worked for an electrical supply house on summer during a break from school. I was overwhelmed by the potential. My timing system and wiring ststems are actually compact now. I fit all my relays in a power srip which hais easy to rewire. The power strip comes from radio shack and has a seperate rocker switch and light for each circuit. I just use a communications cable with many 22 gauge wires to run my relays from a single digital timer. The amountof sensor systems and internet intertie systems they have for sensors and switches is great. :bounce:
