# Anyone with vertex illumina 260?



## kookie_guy (Oct 15, 2014)

Anybody running a vertex illumina 260 on their tank? How do you like it? How reliable has it been? Does it live up to the expectations one would expect from a vertex product?


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## koopie (Feb 9, 2014)

*re light*

I have been running one for over 3 years now and just love it, The only hard thing was setting it up, but it will grow anything.


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## kookie_guy (Oct 15, 2014)

koopie said:


> I have been running one for over 3 years now and just love it, The only hard thing was setting it up, but it will grow anything.


That's great to hear. Have you experienced any technical issues with it at all?


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## koopie (Feb 9, 2014)

*re light*

when the light was just over 2 years old, I had trouble with the main board, sometimes the light would not shut down or I could not set the time or date. Cheryl aka crayron on the boards here; gave me a person email from vertex. with in 2 weeks they sent me a new main board under warranty and has not been any trouble since.


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## kookie_guy (Oct 15, 2014)

koopie said:


> when the light was just over 2 years old, I had trouble with the main board, sometimes the light would not shut down or I could not set the time or date. Cheryl aka crayron on the boards here; gave me a person email from vertex. with in 2 weeks they sent me a new main board under warranty and has not been any trouble since.


Was it Jen from proline? I've dealt with her in the past regarding my omega 150 skimmer and she was awesome to deal with. Unfortunately proline is done. Wonder how good the Canadian support is now.

Thanks for the feedback. I've loved these fixtures since the day they came out. Maybe I'll get to own one.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Hey ya! I have three vertex lights. A 12" on my 30 gallon and 2 x 48" on my 60" tank. Pros and cons.
I use the tank lip feet for the vertex and thought it was a great thing cause it kept the light close to the tank and prevented light leak out to where we sit (the dreaded light in your eyes thing). Since we've been running them, for about 3 years or so, the feet have corroded. In some cases, like on my rimless 30 gallon tank, they have corroded quite badly.
If I could hang them, I would, but alas our ceiling height does not allow hanging.
Because the light is so close to the tank, the beam spread is very narrow, which is why, when a matching light became available on the forum, I picked it up. We now run two of them side by side (front to back) on our 175 tank and the light coverage on the tank is awesome. We cover all the tank evenly with light. However, now, if I need to get in to the tank (which happens more often than I like), I need help to remove a light, and generally it ends up propped up standing beside the tank for a few hours...... or days.
Those are the cons.
The pros are: the quality of light, ramping, brightness, spectrum and programming are the best of any of the lights we have tried. We run 7 colours, with the added pads. Don't ask me if they do anything, but I have 7 colours to tweak. I have minute by minute control on each colour channel for any part of the day. I can ramp up or down each channel individually and can also set a monthly moon cycle to coincide with the lunar schedule. So we have some nights that moonlight in the tank is quite bright and other parts of the month where there is no light at all. I have noticed this affects the fish and it is quite interesting to watch them at night. During no moon, all the fish are hiding in the rocks. During full moon, they swim actively later into the evening.
We have Kessils on our QT tank, AI on my nano tank and some generic LED lights for hospital tanks and refugiums. To date, nothing compares to the flexibility of the Vertex.

Proline is gone from Vancouver, they are now now based in the US, but Vertex is active and around. Flavio from Advanced Reef, who was the former dealer for the lights is still active with Vertex and can access product for you. Yes, Jen was an asset and was excellent. I can't comment on customer service since they moved because I haven't needed any. We had a few glitches at the start, when the light went for a swim. By the way, did you know it is completely modular and all parts can swapped if something fails? So if something goes wrong with any part of the light, you replace that part, not the whole light.
Which is good, because this is also one the most expensive lights on the market......

If I can figure out a better mounting system, nothing is going to part me from my vertex lights.


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## notclear (Nov 5, 2011)

I have been running the Illumina SR200 (yes, 1st generation) for over 6 years now. Totally agree with Crayon's all points.

The mounting feet had no problem for me as I rest them on the euro bracing.

As for spread, yes, it is also only 4" from the water line. So spread is not enough. But I have two Reef Brite LED, one on the front and the other at the back to supplement. I have bought one more Reef Brite, but as Crayon mentioned, I still have yet to get someone to help me take the light down so that I can mount the Reef Brite to the fixture.

My fixture is 6 ft, so I have 11 additional modules installed - 4 Blue, 4 UV, 3 multi-colour. 

All in all my corals, even SPS, grow and nice as many members in this forum know.

So go for it although it does look like that Vertex has discontinued this product. Their Illumina version 2 has been the talk for 2.5 hours, but still not here yet or it may never will.


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## kookie_guy (Oct 15, 2014)

That's awesome! Thank you very much for taking the time to write that. Makes me want to get the light even more now. As far as adding modules, do you need to do anything with the power supply? Or is the power supply overbuilt to allow for a certain number of added modules?


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## notclear (Nov 5, 2011)

I don't believe that you need to add anything as I didn't.


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## Yellowtang (May 26, 2015)

I had the vertex 360 on my tank and at first I couldn't believe the colours of the LPS in my tank, they were terrific. Then I added some SPS to the tank and waited. Unfortunately for me, the SPS didn't do well, I didn't loose any but I wasn't happy with my SPS. I switched to a HO T-5 hood with reefbrites on each side and I'm very pleased with my tank and the overall growth and colour of my corals. It is really personal choice, go with the overall colour and setup that you like.


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## nc208082 (Jun 27, 2013)

If you have seen Notclears tank, or Kens tank at SUM then you know the vertex can bring out some of the best colors in sps. Its a fantastic light, I'd put it at the top end of the spectrum with Geissman, theyre new light looks incredible.
Also not to throw off topic but the new Coral Care from phillips could be a game changer for led lighting our reef tanks.


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## nc208082 (Jun 27, 2013)

If your interested on Can reef someone is selling their vertex 260. 37" I believe.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=120905

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk


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## kookie_guy (Oct 15, 2014)

I've got a lead on a 24" that would suit me better for $320 US.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

nc208082 said:


> If you have seen Notclears tank, or Kens tank at SUM then you know the vertex can bring out some of the best colors in sps. Its a fantastic light, I'd put it at the top end of the spectrum with Geissman, theyre new light looks incredible.
> Also not to throw off topic but the new Coral Care from phillips could be a game changer for led lighting our reef tanks.


I wasn't aware of the Phillips Coral Care until now. It has very interesting mix of LEDs compared to the popular brands out there. In particular, it does not use green and red LEDs to provide "full spectrum" look.

How do you see this being a game changer by the way? In what way do you see this product stand out from the rest?


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## nc208082 (Jun 27, 2013)

It will be a game changer because this is the first time an LED maker is making a reef light. Look at the huge success they are having with the horticultural led market. All other companies just buy off the shelf leds and put them together. Phillips is able to make their own custom leds. They also have been making lighting products for a very long time and their R&D department is quite large compared to ecotech, geissman, kessil etc... The fixture uses no fans and is passively cooled for a dead silent fixture. They also designed this fixture to be plug and play. No control needed, just like a MH bulb that you throw up and don't have to adjust.(there is an additional controller you can purchase to use).

It will stand out from the rest because Phillips isn't selling this based on wifi, or thunderstorms, or other features that other lights promote first over their growth success.

Look at this tank using only the coral care leds. This fixture uses no greens or red but I think colors speak for themselves.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Call me skeptic, but it's too early to call the Coral Care from Phillips a game changer. It is interesting indeed but there's not much I can say that makes it stand out from the rest. 

It has been proven already that LED fixtures are good enough replacement of more traditional T5 or MH light fixtures. Based on what's available, it appears the Coral Care product was initiated by an engineer at Phillips who happened to be a reefer himself. It appears the development focus was on two parts - keeping the corals healthy and grow, and maintain natural looks.

His tank which is pictured above started off with T5s. The prototypes that were used on his tank worked very well and kept the growth and enhanced color. Regardless, the light fixture comes with a proven performance, which is a good thing and probably a must have in current market place with existing fixtures that are already proven.

The passive cooling is cool, this is much needed for an LED fixture and this alone can probably bring more people to consider this over others. I'd want it for that reason alone. However, this could make the fixture little bigger as larger heatsink would be needed at least.

It uses LED arrays instead of pucks, and I like this. It should provide much more even spread of lights and less of the shadow issues.

It still appears to require a separate controller for programmability, which is disappointing.

The price - ~CDN$1150 - is similar to completing products. I think this is disappointing, as this will make it out of reach for most people entering this hobby who would like to start off with modest budget. Some say reefing cannot be cheap but you could have a good success with limited budget.

What I don't see, which is why I cannot call this a game changer, is that there's no sign of "custom LED" development for reefing or light spectrum development based on science. The design simply makes use of common LEDs available from their sister company Luxeon. It appears much of the development work was done to tune the light output for appearance.


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