New Chihiros RGB Vivid - looks VERY promising

[Wookii]

This is important information that Twinstar and AI should take note of... 😎

I'd be surprised if AI don't come out with an RGB product at some point. The rest of their product (form factor, control system etc) is superb. Likewise with Twinstar, I'd be very surprised if they don't come out with an RGB product in the next 12 months.

The ironic thing is despite Chihiros traditionally being the big 'copy-cat' manufacturer, their products are now pushing ahead of a lot of the competition with controllable RGB chip base lights.

 

[Wookii]

The Vivid II’s have arrived! Amazed at how much light they put out for their diminutive size.

 

[Wookii]

Interesting that the Chihiros app allows you overdrive one or two of the colours if you reduce other colours below 100%, enabling you to use the full 130 watts. You can’t do that on the WRGB2, or indeed many other lights that’s I’ve tried (other than the AI Prime).

 

[Nick72]

Interesting that the Chihiros app allows you overdrive one or two of the colours if you reduce other colours below 100%, enabling you to use the full 130 watts. You can’t do that on the WRGB2, or indeed many other lights that’s I’ve tried (other than the AI Prime).

So what are your initial thoughts on colour rendition?

How are you liking these lights?

(Photos always appreciated)

 

[Wookii]

So what are your initial thoughts on colour rendition?

How are you liking these lights?

(Photos always appreciated)

The tank for thee isn’t set up yet, and won’t be for some time, just slowly building everything up.

The colour rendition looks identical to the WRGB II that I already have - that is, superb - just a hell of a lot brighter!

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

How does the vivid II compare to the twinstar s series? Wanting an upgrade as don't like the purple backlight of the twinstar

 

[rebel]

don't like the purple backlight of the twinstar

With the VIVID2, I suppose you can tune the color of the light to your liking?

 

[rebel]

Chihiros traditionally being the big 'copy-cat' manufacturer, their products are now pushing ahead of a lot of the competition with controllable RGB chip base lights.

Not necessarily copy cat as such.

Their A series was a sleek little light which I still use (with RGB mod). There was nothing in the Australia market that was similar at the time. Now there are plenty of copy cats on the market although not as bright or with a strong pedigree.

With RGBW, RGB Vivid, they are really establishing their dominance in the freshwater market. Some manufacturers abandoned us and we should not reward them for that; great example is the backward color rendition from AI prime/Kessil (Too yellow) for many years now.

 

[Wookii]

How does the vivid II compare to the twinstar s series? Wanting an upgrade as don't like the purple backlight of the twinstar

I don't think there is any real comparison, though the Twinstar is a decent light, the colour rendition is still very yellow compared to the Vivid II, and can't come close to it - but then that seems to apply to any light that uses any white LED's. As @rebel says you can obviously tune the Vivid II to your hearts content too, to get the rendition you prefer.

 

[Wookii]

Not necessarily copy cat as such.

Their A series was a sleek little light which I still use (with RGB mod). There was nothing in the Australia market that was similar at the time. Now there are plenty of copy cats on the market although not as bright or with a strong pedigree.

I was thinking more the Vivid line (released not long after the ADA Solar RGB came to market) and the Chihiros Doctor (which appeared after the Twinstar Steriliser was released).

I've nothing against that approach per-se - plenty of other manufacturers do it the world over - and certainly in terms of the Vivid they have taken the ADA Solar RGB and created arguably a better product in terms of cost and functionality. They could have gone down the route of making a straight copy like UNS have done with the Titan (though as I understand it the Titan is just made out of the same factory that makes the Solar RGB) but fortunately they chose to innovate.

With RGBW, RGB Vivid, they are really establishing their dominance in the freshwater market. Some manufacturers abandoned us and we should not reward them for that; great example is the backward color rendition from AI prime/Kessil (Too yellow) for many years now.

Agreed - Chihiros seem to have continued to release new and improved products. while many others have dragged their heels. I agree the Kessil and the AI Prime are both very yellow out of the box - it all comes from the white LED's no matter what colour temperature they use. I understand why they have had to historically use the white LED's, as they couldn't get sufficient light output with just single colour LED's, but the advent of true combined RGB LED's seems ti have changed that.

When I tested the A360X, there was very little I could do to remedy the yellowing without losing most of the light output - not to mention that the fan was horrendous. The AI Prime however is a very impressive light though. It still have a yellow cast, but you can remove a fair amount of the yellowing by turning off the warm white LED's and over driving the red, green and blue LED's to compensate some. I'm regularly amazed at how much light it can output for such a small and sleek form factor, plus I love the shimmer they produce. It just still doesn't come close to the RGB lights though in colour rendition - bright red plants turn to a dark red/brown at best - as it still relies on coll white LED's for most of its output.

Twinstar surprise me the most - how long have their S series lights been out now? They seem to be sitting on their hands somewhat.

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

I don't think there is any real comparison, though the Twinstar is a decent light, the colour rendition is still very yellow compared to the Vivid II, and can't come close to it - but then that seems to apply to any light that uses any white LED's. As @rebel says you can obviously tune the Vivid II to your hearts content too, to get the rendition you prefer.

Great - thanks both! I think I will go for the vivid II as been hearing great things so far. Any recomendations for the red, blue, green spectrum settings/ratio? I do like the colour rendition used by HeYi in this video. I don't know if anyone knows the setting that he used on the vivid II rgb?

 

[Wookii]

Great - thanks both! I think I will go for the vivid II as been hearing great things so far. Any recomendations for the red, blue, green spectrum settings/ratio? I do like the colour rendition used by HeYi in this video. I don't know if anyone knows the setting that he used on the vivid II rgb?

It's always difficult to judge from an image or video as the camera is rarely able to show the true colour rendition, plus difference in your viewing screens etc. For example on my monitor, I'd say you'll see reds that are a lot more punchy than they seem to be in that video (obviously dependent on settings).

In terms of settings, I've not tested the Vivid II long term, just an hour or so playing around (the Vivid II's I bought are for a future tank I will be setting up towards the end of the year), so will let others comment on that. Certainly on my WRGB II which I have tested longer term, I find the greens a little too over-pumped if left at the same level as the red and blue, so I tend to set the green channel 10% lower than the other two.

There are lots of controls that will allow you to tailor the colour to your preference. You can either change each channel independently, or use the colour temperature slider to change the colour automatically. There are also a number of presets to choose from to give you a starting position to tweak from. I used those initially and found I preferred the 'Buce' setting the most, then I just upped the red a bit to preference, and found I liked red and blue at a similar level, and green reduced a bit. I'm sure other folks prefer settings that are completely different though - there is no wrong answer, its all down to personal preference - so thank goodness we're not stuck with one colour output 😉

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

It's always difficult to judge from an image or video as the camera is rarely able to show the true colour rendition, plus difference in your viewing screens etc. For example on my monitor, I'd say you'll see reds that are a lot more punchy than they seem to be in that video (obviously dependent on settings).

In terms of settings, I've not tested the Vivid II long term, just an hour or so playing around (the Vivid II's I bought are for a future tank I will be setting up towards the end of the year), so will let others comment on that. Certainly on my WRGB II which I have tested longer term, I find the greens a little too over-pumped if left at the same level as the red and blue, so I tend to set the green channel 10% lower than the other two.

There are lots of controls that will allow you to tailor the colour to your preference. You can either change each channel independently, or use the colour temperature slider to change the colour automatically. There are also a number of presets to choose from to give you a starting position to tweak from. I used those initially and found I preferred the 'Buce' setting the most, then I just upped the red a bit to preference, and found I liked red and blue at a similar level, and green reduced a bit. I'm sure other folks prefer settings that are completely different though - there is no wrong answer, its all down to personal preference - so thank goodness we're not stuck with one colour output 😉

Haha very true! Just fyi I asked the 2hr aquarist what settings he uses and he said he liked the ratio of 100% red to 50% green to 60% blue. I'm guessing you can then tune up or down whilst maintaining the same ratio to get the right light intensity for your setup. As mentioned previously it seems the green spectrum is quite strong so having this below the red/blue spectrum works well for most

 

[oreo57]

Haha very true! Just fyi I asked the 2hr aquarist what settings he uses and he said he liked the ratio of 100% red to 50% green to 60% blue. I'm guessing you can then tune up or down whilst maintaining the same ratio to get the right light intensity for your setup. As mentioned previously it seems the green spectrum is quite strong so having this below the red/blue spectrum works well for most

As to the vid.. in terms of color temp it looks to be around 12000-14000K-ish..
So turn blue full, dim red/green till you match.
Turn the green down till the vegetation starts to blacken..😉
Then start turning down red.
Comparison:
https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/blogs/light-3pillars/k-rating

 

[jaypeecee]

Hi Folks,

All of the Chihiros LED Systems appear to have very similar published lighting spectra. I don't understand why these spectra bear little resemblance to the absorption/action spectra of plants. For example, the Chihiros products all seem to have a peak output at 630 nm. But plants have their peak responses at 430 nm and 660 nm. The only thing that will benefit from light at 630 nm is Cyanobacteria (aka BGA). I don't get it. Take a look at this link:

http://www.chihiros.cn/en/productd/m2/id412.html

JPC

 

[oreo57]

Hi Folks,

All of the Chihiros LED Systems appear to have very similar published lighting spectra. I don't understand why these spectra bear little resemblance to the absorption/action spectra of plants. For example, the Chihiros products all seem to have a peak output at 630 nm. But plants have their peak responses at 430 nm and 660 nm. The only thing that will benefit from light at 630 nm is Cyanobacteria (aka BGA). I don't get it. Take a look at this link:

http://www.chihiros.cn/en/productd/m2/id412.html

JPC

chl b will hand off photons to ch a..
Keep in mind the "exact" peaks and spectrum are enviroment(solvent) dependent but yes 660nm is the close wavelength for chl a but not b

Chlorophyll a is the site of photochemical reaction. It absorbs light required for photosynthesis. It is the primary photosynthetic pigment. Chlorophyll b supplies more light energy to chlorophyll a. It is accessory pigment. However, chlorophyll b is more adaptive to stress condition. In absence of light or in shade when chlorophyll a fails to absorb energy, chlorophyll b carries out the function. The ratio of chlorophyll a to b is generally 3:1. However, in shade plants, the ratio is reduced to 1.4:1.

Just for fun since I just found it.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2017.00272/full

 

[rebel]

The only thing that will benefit from light at 630 nm is Cyanobacteria (aka BGA).

And the human eye. Remember that we are trying to balance aesthetics as well as plant growth. For me personally it's mainly aesthetics because plants generally seem to grow with any ol light if it's intense enough.

 

[rebel]

All of the Chihiros LED Systems appear to have very similar published lighting spectra.

One wonders whether they are simply just lazy to check each of their lights OR just using very similar diodes/manufacturers for the various lights.

Or a combination of both.

Has anyone ever done a spectral analysis of their lights? Is there a machine which can analyse the spectra? [ It sounds expensive ]

 

[oreo57]

One wonders whether they are simply just lazy to check each of their lights OR just using very similar diodes/manufacturers for the various lights.

Or a combination of both.

Has anyone ever done a spectral analysis of their lights? Is there a machine which can analyse the spectra? [ It sounds expensive ]

Good spectrophotometers are 1000's US dollars though there is a budget line.
Think its French made using, thanks to solid state and miniaturization, using modules..
like this:
https://www.newark.com/hamamatsu/c12880ma/mini-spectrometer-5-to-50deg-c/dp/21AH3200
I'd have to find the company again. I was interested since it was err "cheap" at around $400US
Another "cheap" brand
https://www.intl-lighttech.com/prod...Wtrs3blYGZN5gOk7K1wKmmclrwuECIlhoCly4QAvD_BwE

Thing is none are used under water.
Chihiros usually publishes spectrums.
supposedly WRGB one below.
See this page for why I say "supposedly" Looks more RGB than RGBW
https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/blogs/light-3pillars/the-best-led-for-planted-tanks


https://www.aquariumline.com/catalog/chihiros-light-wrgb45-p-24547.html?language=en

Not sure they ever made or sold this model:


I don't have a RGB version atm.
ADA,UNS Titan, ONFlat.. ALL RGB versions and similar w/ approx 630-ish peak in red. Prob. just the most common available red.
Adding 660nm adds cost. See Finnex line w/ some w/ 660..


Cheap spectrophotometer.. needs fiber optic cable.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Spectromet...Lv5PairwiseWeb&_trksid=p2386202.c100677.m4598

 

[jaypeecee]

Hi @rebel

And the human eye. Remember that we are trying to balance aesthetics as well as plant growth.

Yes, of course, aesthetics is important. But, my hunch is that aquarium light manufacturers are homing in on aesthetics at the expense of optimum plant growth. And there is the important matter of minimizing algae and cyano growth.

JPC