adding pop to tank alternatives to powerbrites?

P

pascal32

New member
I'll be switching to halides soon and would like to supplement with powerbrites or something of the sort. Current stopped making the powerbrites, so i was looking around, only other thing i saw was the stunner strips which sound better suited for shallow tanks compared to my 24" deep 120.

looks like current released new LED strips, found it strange they stopped listing output.

http://current-usa.com/truelumenledstrips.html

any suggestions?
 
VHO's are nice but they don't give you the "pop" that blue LED's produce. I've played with the new Current True Lumen LED strips and I have to say that I think it was a bad move to discontinue the Powerbrites. The new model is very slim which makes it easy to install, but it also lacks the optics (or reflectors) that the Powerbrites had. They aren't nearly as powerful but they cover a large(r) area.

In my opinion, if you really want the pop and shimmer, consider a ReefBrite LED. They are more expensive than the Currents, but they are also a LOT brighter. One 48'' strip is probably equivalent to about 6 Powerbrites. They claim that they're also double the PAR of an ATI Blue Plus T5 lamp. JMO, hope this helps.

PS- Here's a video to give you an idea of how bright they are...
 
Johnny C said:
VHO's are nice but they don't give you the "pop" that blue LED's produce. I've played with the new Current True Lumen LED strips and I have to say that I think it was a bad move to discontinue the Powerbrites. The new model is very slim which makes it easy to install, but it also lacks the optics (or reflectors) that the Powerbrites had. They aren't nearly as powerful but they cover a large(r) area.

In my opinion, if you really want the pop and shimmer, consider a ReefBrite LED. They are more expensive than the Currents, but they are also a LOT brighter. One 48'' strip is probably equivalent to about 6 Powerbrites. They claim that they're also double the PAR of an ATI Blue Plus T5 lamp. JMO, hope this helps.

PS- Here's a video to give you an idea of how bright they are...
Click to expand...

wow, those are bright! I'm putting on two phoenix 14ks and was hoping to add the powerbrite pop.

correct me if I'm wrong, but i don't think I need additional lighting.

How is the fluorescence effect of these compared to the powerbrites?
 
I have an 18" ulv 30W with a 250 m80 Radium, and it barely dents the mh. That said I added it to shorten the halide schedule and lengthen viewing time; things certainly glow on just the vho. I am a dog who knows no other home, so I can't compare other than I did see ABC's power bright tank, and the only thing I can say is the ulv is more 470nm (purple), but the flourecse seems the same when viewing the tanks the tanks 200 miles apart.
 
You will probably expect this from me but I would consider DIY. I can help you build if you're not keen on assembly. It gives you 100% freedom to get EXACTLY what you want, instead of being constrained by commercial LED products - which, frankly, IMHO, suck right now unless you spend lots of money. Imagine wanting to paint your living room and going to Home Depot to pick out a color. You see that gigantic wall of samples, but then they tell you that they can only sell you 4 of those colors. That's what commercial LED vendors are doing right now - taking away the flexibility that's inherent in LED technology.

For color and fluorescent "pop" I honestly don't think LEDs will ever QUITE equal the look you get from a trusty old T12 VHO actinic, which many people consider the ultimate in terms of actinic blue light. But you can get awful close - and LEDs offer the advantage of being point sources, so the lighting looks much more "dramatic" than a fluorescent lamp will ever give you - crisp shadows, lots of contrast, shimmer effect, and so on.

The powerbrites produced a nice look but the optics built in were probably too narrow IMHO. They didn't have much coverage on a larger tank, and could easily produce hot spots that would burn corals directly underneath them. It looks like the truelumen product is in the opposite end of spectrum of optic widths, in that it has none, and has great spread but relatively poor intensity. I haven't seen a reefbrite in person, but from videos/photos, they look somewhere in the middle. Probably the best bet right now for supplemental. Though I'd still want to throw a PAR meter under one and see how it looked, to be sure you weren't creating hot spots from the combination of LED and MH.

If you want to go commercial, and you don't mind a wait, it might be worth it to delay your purchase 6 or 8 months. I bet even in that short of a timeframe, the variety of available quality products for LED supplemental lighting will double.
 
I went Radiums, because that's the lighting I designed 6 years ago for this aquarium, but I went away from that after my first bulb; I was hoping this is the last bulb this tank will have on it, and at the last minute I went from experimenting with a daylight spectrum trying it out for my next design, to giving the original design a good try on this m80 ballast. I replaced a Hami 14K bulb that I was very happy with, however, I got jacked by their cs when I had a bulb blow less than 30 days in. Because the shipping date put it out of Hellolights warranty and they were going to charge me shipping, I went to Hamilton because they promised a fast turn around also I was only paying shipping one direction. I 1st class mailed it with delivery confirmation on a tuesday; 1st class will take 2-3 days almost 100% of the time. To keep it short, good thing I used delivery confirmation, because either they lost the bulb or it was back shelved; I trusted their fast turn around, and I didn't call them back until over two weeks had passed, then after I forced my dc# on her the cs person finally conceded lying to me saying it had gone out that day, which her tracking number proved was not true, of course they used a surface delivery service, and the bulb wasn't even picked up until the following Monday. I was in and out of acclimation for almost 3 months, and 10% off my next purchase from them is no where near enough to get me back.
 
I have a powerbrite lying around. I wasn't super happy with the light distribution. It is more point source, like the halide, but from multiple points. I don't like that. Has anyone used any sort of apparatus to scatter the light more? I tried a diffuser but it only helped a tad, and blocks a fair bit of light.

GL finding something. The powerbrites do have more pop than my VHO actinic provides, fwiw.

-a
 
Newreeflady said:
I have a powerbrite lying around. I wasn't super happy with the light distribution. It is more point source, like the halide, but from multiple points. I don't like that. Has anyone used any sort of apparatus to scatter the light more? I tried a diffuser but it only helped a tad, and blocks a fair bit of light.

GL finding something. The powerbrites do have more pop than my VHO actinic provides, fwiw.

-a
Click to expand...

I set mine up on a angle shining into the tank,spreads the light out a bit..

damn Johnny those reef bright lights look awesome..the price...not so much :hammer:
 
Johnny C said:
VHO's are nice but they don't give you the "pop" that blue LED's produce. I've played with the new Current True Lumen LED strips and I have to say that I think it was a bad move to discontinue the Powerbrites. The new model is very slim which makes it easy to install, but it also lacks the optics (or reflectors) that the Powerbrites had. They aren't nearly as powerful but they cover a large(r) area.

In my opinion, if you really want the pop and shimmer, consider a ReefBrite LED. They are more expensive than the Currents, but they are also a LOT brighter. One 48'' strip is probably equivalent to about 6 Powerbrites. They claim that they're also double the PAR of an ATI Blue Plus T5 lamp. JMO, hope this helps.

PS- Here's a video to give you an idea of how bright they are...
Click to expand...

I'm liking what I'm reading on these.

have you done a side by side of these against powerbrites?

I read in a couple places that these are a darker blue than the powerbrites, not necessarily a bad thing, I'm a little worried about washing things out with a dark dark blue.

Have you compared the "pop" of these to the powerbrites?

what is the availability on these in 48"?

NOTE: I keep referencing the powerbrites, because I have seen them. I do like a lot about these reefbrites...

der_wille_zur_macht said:
You will probably expect this from me but I would consider DIY. I can help you build if you're not keen on assembly. It gives you 100% freedom to get EXACTLY what you want, instead of being constrained by commercial LED products - which, frankly, IMHO, suck right now unless you spend lots of money. Imagine wanting to paint your living room and going to Home Depot to pick out a color. You see that gigantic wall of samples, but then they tell you that they can only sell you 4 of those colors. That's what commercial LED vendors are doing right now - taking away the flexibility that's inherent in LED technology.

For color and fluorescent "pop" I honestly don't think LEDs will ever QUITE equal the look you get from a trusty old T12 VHO actinic, which many people consider the ultimate in terms of actinic blue light. But you can get awful close - and LEDs offer the advantage of being point sources, so the lighting looks much more "dramatic" than a fluorescent lamp will ever give you - crisp shadows, lots of contrast, shimmer effect, and so on.

The powerbrites produced a nice look but the optics built in were probably too narrow IMHO. They didn't have much coverage on a larger tank, and could easily produce hot spots that would burn corals directly underneath them. It looks like the truelumen product is in the opposite end of spectrum of optic widths, in that it has none, and has great spread but relatively poor intensity. I haven't seen a reefbrite in person, but from videos/photos, they look somewhere in the middle. Probably the best bet right now for supplemental. Though I'd still want to throw a PAR meter under one and see how it looked, to be sure you weren't creating hot spots from the combination of LED and MH.

If you want to go commercial, and you don't mind a wait, it might be worth it to delay your purchase 6 or 8 months. I bet even in that short of a timeframe, the variety of available quality products for LED supplemental lighting will double.
Click to expand...

thanks for the advice nate! I'm sure you could build a killer LED fixture, and as much as I like building things I just don't have the time right now. I'm looking to bolt something on for the time being.

You mentioned concerns burning the corals - honestly this never crossed my mind, though I can see where you are coming from. I'm planning on suspending whatever I go with in front of the MHs, with a slight tip back in an attempt to cover the whole tank from the front. If I go with powerbrites I would likely mount two in the front and two in the back, then again till I try you never know.

so say, 12" above the tank - are you concerned about burn?

I'm not looking to wait 6 months, when we get there I'll end up waiting another 6 and so on :)

I agree 100% on the optics of the powerbrites - if they were not so focused I would have bought a set a while back - up till now I have great color from my T5s (1 KZ, 5 ATI Blue+, 2 Geisman midday)

I did find a little on the LEDs powerbrite uses - not from the manufacturer, so not sure how accurate it is:


evilc66: They aren't Cree LEDs, but they are "Cree" LEDs. What I mean by that is that the die (the actual light emitting part) is Cree made, but the entire package is made by Edison Opto. They use the same LEDs that we (Nanocustoms) use in our AIO retros. They work pretty well though. They had a custom setup over a frag tank at MACNA and the royals certainly made the colors pop. If the LED strip is going in a hood or fixture, make sure there is airflow. These strips are not designed to be kept in closed areas with little to no airflow.

and another guy on RC:
each 3 watt LED bulb is running at 2 watts

pic of a smaller version:

reefbrite2.jpg

rb1.jpg
 
Blurry said:
I'm liking what I'm reading on these. have you done a side by side of these against powerbrites? I read in a couple places that these are a darker blue than the powerbrites, not necessarily a bad thing, I'm a little worried about washing things out with a dark dark blue. Have you compared the "pop" of these to the powerbrites? what is the availability on these in 48"?

NOTE: I keep referencing the powerbrites, because I have seen them. I do like a lot about these reefbrites...
Click to expand...

I have never personally used these, but I spoke with the woman who owns the company at length during MACNA last month and I've seen them used at several frag swaps. I too am very familiar with the Current Powerbrites, I use six of them over my 4x2' Prop Tank and I really like them.

DWIZ has a good point about LEDS, almost every single hard-good vendor at MACNA had some sort of LED fixture on display. I'm sure that nicer ones will come out, and also that you can build one a little cheaper if you know how.

Back to the ReefBrites; as you can see in the video I linked, they are VERY bright. I know someone who has a 36'' model on a 48'' 90G Tank and it lights up the entire tank with ease. They are fairly expensive, but when you add up the cost of 4 Powerbrites (or the like) it really isn't any different. An added bonus is that these come with a controller to adjust the intensity, something most other supplimental LED strips can't do. As for the color, I believe they use 453nm LEDS but I'm not positive. All in all I think these are the best bang-for-your-buck supplimental LED, especially for a larger tank. JMO :)
 
For supplemental lighting the manufacturer/model/bin of LED used isn't AS important, since you're just looking for a visual effect - you can determine effectiveness on that criteria with your eyes. :) Knowing the make/model/bin is really only crucial when you're concerned about efficiency, i.e. how much power you're wasting to get your desired result - and I'd guess that when it comes to supplemental lighting for an MH rig, efficiency probably isn't #1 on anyone's list. At any rate, NONE of these supplemental LED strips are using "the best" LEDs in terms of efficiency, so it's almost not even worth discussing when comparing them.

The ReefBrites would probably be my choice for supplemental out of the stuff available today. It just burns me a bit that they're so costly and not customizable. It would only add a few bucks to the manufacturing cost for one of these vendors to make swappable optics and a controllable power supply, and those features would make the product much more versatile.

Blurry, this might seem like a silly question, but what exactly do you mean by "pop" when you say you're looking for pop? Do you mean fluorescent glow like you'd get from a blacklight? If so, you WANT a deeper blue (meaning, a lower wavelength). Once you get below about 460 - 470 nm, light starts to appear much less intense to our eyes, but you don't really get "glow" until below that point - so if you're getting a product that has a single color of LED in it, and you want glow, you probably want the lowest wavelength you can find. On the other hand, if you want visibly bright blue light, you probably don't want to go lower than 460nm or so. Most LED manufacturers make a royal blue color that's typically right around that point, so it gives decent glow and decent visible light.
 
by pop I meant fluorescence. I'm thinking about taking the plunge on the reefbrite. The freshwater aquarium is gone, might as well send the money to the reefbrite folks :)

I'm torn on 36 vs 48 - the tank is 48, thinking I might get a lot of spill from the 48, though the extra intensity is desirable.

so many choices!
 
not to deter you from your purchase, but i'm always for helping each other out, didn't someone here fab some awesome DiY LED bars? I mean like BARS...full tank...for pretty cheap?
 
I just bought a T5 Retro Kit Not 20 minutes ago. Nothing like late night impuse purchases...


currently I run a combo of both blue and white PB strips over my tank during the day. While the LEDs have your "pop" they just dont flood the tank with light. Too directional for my tastes, unless you plan on covering your tank with multiple strips (like Ive been forced to do.) after seeing some super actinics in person i decided to go with HO T5 to suppliment. hopefully the T5/LED setup will give me what im after.

If i could do it all over again, it would be MH/T5 hands down.
 
I just bought a T5 Retro Kit Not 20 minutes ago. Nothing like late night impuse purchases...

you dont happen to own a Ginsu knife, do you? ;)
 
Tough call on 36" vs 48" - how high above the tank will they be? Does anyone have actual up close product photos of those two sizes? Would be nice to know how close to the ends the LEDs are in each.
 
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