I got my 20k Solaris yesterday and love it! This was a very fast delivery, PFO really has great technology and GREAT customer service. I wasn't expecting the lights back for another week or so, but I did get them and I really do love it! Now, I just have to complete my mixed reef tank with more, well, corals. The 20k really brings out the beautiful colors of my green star polyps, mushrooms and frogspawn! I really want to put in a SPS or two now, seeing how Amp is having great growth with his. Just wanted to let yall know I finally got the Solaris in!
Amp- I noticed in an earlier post that you said this:
The Solaris units have a two year guarantee. It would be unreasonable to expect anything longer, in my humble opinion. I don't think you can assume it will breakdown in a few years either. The electronics inside the fixture are low voltage and should last beyond the bulbs.
Typically, a guarantee is made to benefit the supplier, not the consumer. A guarantee is necessary as a selling point, but to minimize cost, the supplier tailors it to his or her product's estimated reliability. This is usually measured so that the supplier only has to replace or repair between 0 and 5% of products. So, the supplier estimates that at a maximum, only 5% of the products will last less than 2 years. With a little more info, you can extrapolate the average estimated reliability using probability and statistics math. But, assuming normal distribution, and that 5% of the units will actually last until within 2 years of the maximum lifespan, you can ballpark that around half of the lights will need to either be repaired or replaced within 7 years.
Just a ballpark, I'd be curious to know exactly what the average estimated reliability is. And either way, it looks better and saves some money. Plus, the cost of replacement is sure to go down.
I have a different take on guarantees. I believe it protects the consumer for the length of the term against design and manufacturing snafus and limits the manufacturer's liability the length of the term against user abuse.
No one knows the average reliability. The Solaris has only been out four months. there were some QC issues that plagued the early units and PFO's owner handled them personally. No issues are outstanding as far as I know. I talk to Pat at least once a week and my Rep, Carla, nearly every working day. The QC has improved remarkably and issues are down to less than 5% I believe.
They are a great unit. I love mine.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
No argument here! I want one ASAP, and I'm agonizing over saving for it... I think that they are definitely the next big thing. And being the next big thing, the technology is bound to get better, and it is likely that these first few units will be viewed as inferior when the next round of LED technology comes out. It's hard to judge when the right time to make that investment is, but the one thing that really makes your mind up in this case is the immediate potential for savings...
And I agree that those are the reasons companies have guarantees, that is a great definition. I only mentioned that guarantees must be calculated to save money at the same time, and that is (usually) how it's done. I'm not saying that these units will crap out as soon as their warrantee expires; I'm just saying that they also aren't likely to last until the maximum lifespan either. You can approximate 7 years, and figure that 90% of the units will crap out within +- 5 years of then, with the majority being close to 7 years.
__________________ "Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study Hard. Be evil."
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Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread since it was the deciding factor in why I got the PFO Solaris. The price was the biggest issue, but for the past several months I've been given some hand me downs from people who have dismantled their aquariums. So by saving money on my tank set up, I was abble to afford a nice lighting set up. To me the Solaris offers everthing and more in what your looking for in a lighting system. Since I have turned the Solaris on my tank has taken on a whole new character. Took a while for my eyes and brain to adjust to the LED light output compared to a compact florescent light output. By far the LED simulates real world light better, like the light you see in the Ocean when scuba diving or snorkeling. Being able to vary the light to simulate the Sun's cycle and Moon cycle is to me worth it. The cloud effect is cool too and you can see how anemones react to the changing light conditions. Also the abscence of heat soak to the aquarium is a plus. Power savings is interesting, but I'm not expecting my electric bill to be rock bottom next month either. I really like the fact that I won't have to worry about bulb changes, due to color shift for at least 6 years. So far I am very happy with the Solaris light.
I've gone from a 12 gallon Nano Reef to a 46 gallon Bow Front. I had a 36"Coral Life dual compact florescents that were not putting out enough light so I lost a stony coral during the move. So finding the right light was the most important thing to set up during the transition from a smaller to larger tank. It is assuring to know that many of you with Solaris lights have had great growth in your SPS corals. With the Solaris I'm confident that I'll have success with some Acropora and Plate corals. My tank has been up for 4 months now and is maturing nicely, Coraline is growing nicely and now I can't wait to get started with more SPS corals.
Last edited by strangelove; 03-02-2007 at 11:17 PM.
First of all, welcome to TR Strangelove! That's great that this thread and site helped you to move towards what sounds like a great improvement on your system. Dick's done a great job on keeping us posted on the changes in his tank and corals since switching over to the Solaris system.
Hope to see pictures of your tank soon in the member journals soon!
strangelove, welcome to TR. Your Solaris should serve you and your corals well.
Christi, so good to hear from you. Thank you for the kind words. I've been largely absent from TR the last month. Lots of things going on in life right now. I've been in the background of TR much of the time and posted when time permitted. How are things?
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
Thanks for the welcome, this site seems like a great place. Amp, do you have any suggestions on how to set the Auto Mode for the Solaris. So far I have been using the Timer Mode at 12 hours white and blue day lights 50% and 12 hours white lunar lights 0%, blue lunar lights 5%. I'm planning on increasing the day light levels 10% a week until the corals are adjusted to 100% light output.
The other day I ran the Solaris in Auto Mode with the same light output percenteges. The Cloud effect is really neat and the gradual light changes for the sunrise and sunset seems to help the anemones wake up.
The thing I noticed is that the Lunar lights don't turn on consistently when in Auto Mode. According to the PFO forum they explain that the lunar lights are supposed to stay on all night until the day lights turn on. With the minimal instructions that came with the solaris I'm wondering if I'm missing a function. How have you set up your Solaris?
__________________ 36" PFO Solaris LED Array, 46 gallon Bow Front, 20 gallon refugium, CPR Skimmer,
I just set the Auto Mode "ON" and let it go. It runs with the sun-up and sun-down timing and lunar timing automatically. After a few days I adjusted the day-blues down to 80% and that's where I left it. I took out all the cloud cover periods because I didn't feel it enhanced coral growth. It's cool to see them dim during the day but unnecessary in my opinion.
The lunar lights, in my experience, have followed the lunar schedule. There are time when the moon is not above the horizon at sunset. Also the lunar lights are not always the same intensity because a half or quarter moon produces less light than a full moon. So they are going to vary from week to week. I thought the moon lights were too bright at 100% so I turned mine way down to 20%. I like my tank dimmer at night than the original setting.
These are truly cool lights.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
I've had my Solaris up for a week now and I've noticed something interesting. For starters my calupra is going absolutely bananas, it's growing like a weed, even some clippings that fell to the bottom of the tank are now starting to sprout. But whats really interesting is that algae growth on the tank glass, on the rocks, and a few patches of cyano are now gone. I haven't done a water change, refugium and filter is still the same, only difference is the Solaris. With my old CF lights where the light was more diffused, I had to use a magnet cleaner every 3 days or so to clean the glass, and once a week I would use a power head to stir up the sand and blast off some algae from the rocks. Also I've noticed that a few patches of hair algae is starting to disappear. At first I thought it might be a snail or hermit crab finally doing their jobs and getting to it, but I've noticed a drop in hair algae throughout the tank. Now I can see the Coraline much better.
I think since the LED light has a limited light spread that it doesn't reach the glass and a majority of the light is directed to where you want it, centered in the middle. Another factor might be because I have a Bow Front tank and light doesn't reach the glass as much. There is a little algae on the left and right sides of the tank glass, mostly on the bottom and fades as you go half way up the tank glass, and it looks like most of the snails are getting to that, before it becomes a problem.
Has anyone else noticed a decrease in nuisance algae?
__________________ 36" PFO Solaris LED Array, 46 gallon Bow Front, 20 gallon refugium, CPR Skimmer,
Well I've had my Solaris at 100% white and blue lights for two weeks now and everything seems to be growing, good and bad. I had to remove the calupra from my main tank because it was growing too quickly, it's now in my refugium. Hair algae is growing faster as well. I added an aqua sock to my refugium to increase filtration. I think I was overfeeding the tank too. Since I've gotten a Montipora Digitata and Capricornis, I've been feeding more phytoplankton. I'm also going to add a few more cleaner critters too.
The good is that the Digi and the Capricornis are both growing well too. I also added a Turban and Zenia coral, both doing good too. So I think I've got the light thing right, now I just need to get water quality under control.
__________________ 36" PFO Solaris LED Array, 46 gallon Bow Front, 20 gallon refugium, CPR Skimmer,
Please keep posting your thoughts and results on the 250W version in this thread, thanks.
Dick
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
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