So what makes a Lumini Aqua Light so good?

When I first got into the aquarium hobby I had a small amount of electrical knowledge.  I went to college and I was lucky that there were electrical classes in my curriculum.

The build of the Lumini light fixtures is very high quality.  Usually Chinese company turn out low quality, low price LED fixtures for aquariums. This is not at all the case for the Lumini fixtures.

Power Supply

The power supply that comes with the light is very solid.  They use Meanwell drivers.  Meanwell drivers are a standard among LED light manufacturers and Do It Yourself'ers.  Allowing the use of a PWM signal from controllers, power supply is variable from 0-10 volts.  Lumini encases this power supply in a larger protective cover. *****note***** always make sure to set the voltage on these to 120v input on the side of the power supply for the U.S.

Glisten 150 R2 

The Glisten fixture is very well made in my opinion.  The fixture is designed to hang from a canopy, ceiling, or mounting bracket. No legs are included with this unit.  I have seen two designs, the first was a slick black fixture made of what looked to be Lexan.  The other style I have seen is a brushed aluminum cover.  Both units looked very nice.

When you take the light apart, you first remove six screws and pull of a Lexan type cover.  The cover is painted black on the inside with circular spots that the led can shine through. Once the light is open you can see four individual circuit boards with the LEDs mounted on them.  This is a nice feature.  If one board burned out, the rest of the fixture should continue to operate.  Bridgelux LEDs are soldered directly to the board. Mounted to the bulb is a lens.  Either a 60 or 120 degree lens.  All of the boards are mounted to a very solid heat sink.  This is where most Chinese companies fall short.  The design using a very heavy heat sink, efficiently removes heat from the LEDs.

On the underside of the heat sink is the fan.  The fan is controlled using the PWM technology also. The fan increases in speed as the unit needs more cooling.  The fan is very quiet.  I could not hear it even standing right next to the light fixture.

Wireless Control

Lumini offers two controls, one manually connected via a cable and the other version controllable via WI-FI signal.  The wireless controller can be controlled from a laptop or from a smart phone.  I found the initial setup easier with my laptop.  Then if I wanted to make fine-tuned adjustment I used my smart phone.  The wireless controller plugs into a port on the Glisten. You have to be careful attaching the controller, it is very close to where the power supply plugs in. I hope in later versions they will separate these more.

Control provides four channels with eight different time periods.  The moonlight cycle simulates the monthly lunar cycles.  There are also automated sunrise and sunset settings.  Although I never had the Lumini wave makers there is a section in the controller to control them.  While the computer program was a little clunky, the phone program was very nicely programmed.

Conclusion

I am very satisfied with my Glisten light fixture.  I think it very much "on par", pardon the pun, with the equivalent U,S. manufactured LED lights like Aqua Illumination, Echotech, and Maxspect.  On a side note I test over 1200 par directly under the light with most channels at 70% or under.  More than enough par for any tank

My Tank Setup

In July 2014 I bought a 125 gallon reef tank from a friend. The setup included a tank, stand, canopy, a 20 gallon sump, and a 40 gallon refugium.

One thing I had learned from my previous tank was that I really needed to automate some of the tasks. Beacause I work in technology it really made sense to me, that I install an ATO, and an aquarium controller.

First here my parts list for the build:

Lights - Lumini Aqua Glisten 150r2 fixturs, with wireless control.
Skimmer - Reef Octopus Extreme 8", rated for 200 gallons, with a Sicce pump
Ato - JBJ
Controller - Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Elite, with four PC4 power bars
Heaters - Two ViaAqua titanium 200 w heaters
Wave Makers - Two Jebao RW-15's, and Two Jebao WP-25's on Jebao Duals
Controllers Pump - Jebao DC 6000
Reactor - Cad Lights NR-1, with GFO and carbon
Dosing - Jebao DP-4

A bonus of having the controller is that it is like an insurance policy.  It can shut off heaters when the tank water gets to hot.  You can shut off an ATO if the water level gets too high. The controller can also shut down your skimmer if, it starts to over flow.  By adding simple float switches, many disasters can be averted.

The Lumini Aqua Glisten 150 R2

Hi everyone! in this first blog post I want to talk a bit about a light fixture that I have used on my reef aquarium display tank.

The Lumini Aqua 150 R2 is really nice Chinese LED aquarium light. These light include a monthly lunar cycle and weather/thunderstorm simulation. There are setting for sunrise and sunset, and moon cycles also.

The wireless controller has for channels with 8 time settings on each channel.  There is a program for the Windows operating system and also a smart phone app.  The smart phone app is really easy to use and was very well designed.

One very cool feature of this light is the fact that the optics can be changed. Simply pull off the plexi glass lens cover and you have access to all of the leds and optics.

These lights were built very well. In a lot of cases Chinese lights are not very well built, but not these lights.  The feature very nice Meanwell drivers as power supplies.  They also did not skimp on the heat sink.  It is large and solid, allowing for great heat dissipation.  They included large pmw fans that are nearly silent.