# TMC Grobeam 1500 Ultima Questions



## livewire

Hello everyone,

I am looking at possibly purchasing two of these tiles for my planted tank, I am injecting Co2.
My questions are;

My tank is 200L (100 x 40 x 55cm) so is reasonably deep, between the hood and water surface there is around 8 cms and I would like to fit the tiles inside the hood if possible to keep everything looking neat and tidy. Will this mean the tiles will be to close to the surface of the water? (I guess 2-4cm above)

Also there are two types of the TMC 1500 Ultima tiles, one Natural Daylight and Colour Plus. The colour plus claims to be designed for use in planted tanks but is this true?

Many thanks
Dan


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## livewire

This may help! but I dont realy understand it but the colour plus looks like it puts out more light. But I am more than likley wrong!


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## ceg4048

Yes, you are wrong. The data on the charts are irrelevant. Get whichever model is the least expensive. The one on the top will look more green/yellow. The one represented by the bottom chart will look slightly bluer. Your plants will not care. Whichever light you get, make sure they come with dimming controls because that is 1000X more important than what color they are.

Cheers,


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## greenink

I've got two above a slightly bigger tank and that gives too much light!


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## ceg4048

Yeah Mike, but as I mentioned, if the unit has a dimmer then this is no problem. If it doesn't have a dimmer then yeah you will have major troubles.

Cheers,


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## Steve Smith

The real downside to the TMC tiles (and maybe other manufacturers?) is that all of the mounting kit is often seperate.  I concede that this gives you some great flexibility on buying only what you need, but it's one of those hidden costs.

Check out George's current scape in the featured journals section.  He's using two of the 1500ND tiles I believe.


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## greenink

Dimmer is £185 or just raise them up (free) if tank open top. Details in 259 journal.


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## livewire

ceg4048 said:


> Yes, you are wrong. The data on the charts are irrelevant. Get whichever model is the least expensive. The one on the top will look more green/yellow. The one represented by the bottom chart will look slightly bluer. Your plants will not care. Whichever light you get, make sure they come with dimming controls because that is 1000X more important than what color they are.
> 
> Cheers,


 
Thanks for the info, the Colour Plus tiles are slightly more expensive but I would prefer the light to look slightly bluer, so the dimmer unit is a must so that will need to be factored in to the cost. 

So would the tiles be fine if they are only a couple of CM's from the surface? I guess it would just be a case of dimming the tiles to the correct level. 



SteveUK said:


> The real downside to the TMC tiles (and maybe other manufacturers?) is that all of the mounting kit is often seperate. I concede that this gives you some great flexibility on buying only what you need, but it's one of those hidden costs.
> 
> Check out George's current scape in the featured journals section. He's using two of the 1500ND tiles I believe.


 
Hello, If I end up with 2 of these I would like to make a new plastic hood and cut the hood so that the heat sinks are exposed above the hood, (same thing that was done by a member here with a corner tank) I will check out Georges journal. 



mikeappleby said:


> Dimmer is £185 or just raise them up (free) if tank open top. Details in 259 journal.


 
The twin dimmer units can be had from Ebay for arund £75, raising the hood is not an option as it wont look right with my tank.


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## rebus

livewire said:


> The twin dimmer units can be had from Ebay for arund £75,


You will need one for each tile  ​


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## Steve Smith

You can get a controller that will work with multiple tiles, like this one at Aqua Essentials:

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/tmc-aquaray-multicontrol-8-output-dimming-controller-p-4942.html

(This one does 4 tiles)


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## livewire

Ok, I was assuming that a 2 channel control would run 2 tiles;

 TMC Aquaray AquabeamTwo Channel Control | eBay

But saying that this control does not say it will run the 1500 Ultima tile.


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## rebus

livewire said:


> Ok, I was assuming that a 2 channel control would run 2 tiles;
> 
> TMC Aquaray AquabeamTwo Channel Control | eBay
> 
> But saying that this control does not say it will run the 1500 Ultima tile.


 
http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/tmc-aquaray-controller-p-3806.html


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## Steve Smith

Might need to double check that. I posted that link for Rebus' benefit, but looking at it you might need that one.  It seems the Aquarays and Aquabeams differ judging by the description of that one at AE.  I guess the tiles pull more juice


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## livewire

Cool thanks for the info guys.


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## bogwood

The two channel controller operates my 1500ND tile fine.
As it was not stated on the box, i played safe and checked with TMC.


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## rebus

The OP wants to run two tiles with a facility for dimming, for that he will either need 2x two channel controllers or 1x eight channel controller.
the two channel will run 1 tile or 2 strips, the eight channel will run 8 strips or 4 tiles or any combination of.


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## Steve Smith

Exactly this ^

Or, it might actually be cheaper to buy two controllers?  Seems a bit silly so again, research this!  I'm sure TMC would be able to provide you with a good answer though


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## bogwood

livewire said:


> But saying that this control does not say it will run the 1500 Ultima tile.


 
rebus
Im well aware what the OP wants to do.
I was simply responding to the statement he made above.


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## rebus

Bogwood
i was reply to this, sorry for any confusion


rebus said:


> Ok, I was assuming that a 2 channel control would run 2 tiles;


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## bogwood

rebus said:


> Bogwood
> i was reply to this, sorry for any confusion


 
FIne. Im new to LEDs, it takes a bit of sorting out, and a lot of ££££££.
Cheers


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## livewire

bogwood said:


> FIne. Im new to LEDs, it takes a bit of sorting out, and *a lot of ££££££*.
> Cheers


 
You are not wrong there!! and the worst thing is a 1500 Ultima tile and Storm controler was for sale on here for £180 last week, I would have paid £200 for the pair without hessitation.


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## sanj

Does anyone know the difference between the Colourplus 1000 and 1500? The leds seem to be the same...


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## George Farmer

sanj said:


> Does anyone know the difference between the Colourplus 1000 and 1500? The leds seem to be the same...


Not sure mate. Could be the lenses. If you email TMC I sure they'll tell you.


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## livewire

The color plus uses different color LED's (4 white, 2 green, 2 red and 2 blue) where the 1500 just uses 10 White LED's.


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## sanj

livewire said:


> The color plus uses different color LED's (4 white, 2 green, 2 red and 2 blue) where the 1500 just uses 10 White LED's


 
Hi livewire,

what did you end up buying?

I mean the difference between the colourplus 1000 and the colourplus 1500, or is that what you meant?


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## livewire

sanj said:


> Hi livewire,
> 
> what did you end up buying?
> 
> I mean the difference between the colourplus 1000 and the colourplus 1500, or is that what you meant?


 
O sorry, I thought you were asking what the sifference was between the 1000 color plus and the 15000 Ultima!! my bad. 

I would guess the difference is the type of LED's used.

ps; I went with 2 1500 Ultima tiles and am very happy with them.


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## sanj

Thanks for the feedback Livewire,

just to confirm TMC informed me that there is no difference in the Colourplus 1000/1500 other than rebranding. This would make sense when I was looking on an American site selling TMC products it stated the Colour plus 1000/1500 were the same. It confused me considering all the other 1500s are upgrades or different led colours.


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## Grrwaa

You can run 2 tiles with the two channel controller see page 8 of aquarays manual which can be viewed here > http://aquaraylighting.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/AquaRay-Control-instructions.pdf - also there is a difference between the 1000 and the 1500 models, they were a direct replacement but have around a 30% increase in output.


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