Ice cap LED lunar light

[dadyoj21]

Well it came in today and here is my opinion of it.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This light blows my socks off. Both my tanks look weak under my actinics compared to this thing. A lot of you have seen my tanks and I and you thought especially the 90 looked great, but this light makes it true eye candy. When on by itself it provides a nice adequate blue light for viewing the whole tank in a dusk/dawn mode but the corals burst with color like a black light effect, corals that have hints of other colors in them will dazzle. Especially like billed out makes green, blue, red, orange, and yellow stunning.

The light is not strong enough to make much of a difference with the other lights on, but I have been running only actinics from 8-11 pm as this Is my favorite viewing mode and the best time I have for viewing my tanks after my son goes to bed. That will change from 8-8:30 with actinics, and from 8-11 with the new light. I figure with them only running 3 hours a day and them being LEDs they will last for years and cut down the cost of running those actinics so long.

The only problem I have is I only ordered one 4ft, because of the cost and lack of reviews. I figure that one after holding it above both my tanks is slated to be installed on the 90 this weekend. The corals looked great in the 220 with it on it but one 4 ft light was a little weak for lighting the 220 with enough light for viewing the whole tank instead of just a bunch of glow in the dark corals.

Wish I had it for the reef meet to show all who came. But I will be ordering more as soon as funds permit.

 

[csa dad]

hey if ya want to get rid of some more lights let me know

 

[csa dad]

ya got any pics of them in action the tanks were awsome before i would ave thought it hard to improve on them

 

[ade]

So are you keeping the other actinics on with them or changing out old for new?

 

[lighthouze08]

LOL Jorge i recently ordered the same LED, i ordered the 48" b/c i didn't like the look of my actinic. Still waiting for it to come, i'm excited after hearing your thoughts on it, can't wait to it out.

 

[dadyoj21]

I think I will continue with the halide actinic combos I have and just use the new light for an evening cycle. Will not reduce any # of lights, it will just cut back power consumption and give me some visual eye candy in the evenings

 

[goneawayfarm]

Sounds like you have found a great light.

So Jorge, What do you think would happen if you had four 3' led's on the 220. Do you think it would replace the actinics. Or do you think it would still be so overpowered by the MH that it would not get you the pop that you are looking for. Actually, I was hopeing that the led would supply the blue bands that we are looking for for growth/photosynthisis when on with the MH as well as provide the "eye candy" for when they were on buy themselves.

Can't wait to see what you have accomplished this time.

 

[dadyoj21]

Replacing the actinics with LEDs would be a huge plus. Lower power consumption, less heat, and much longer bulb life. However I am not sure if it would be enough blue with the MH on, and I guess that would depend on the bulbs you are using 10k, 14k, 20k.

As far as running 2 banks of LEDs for an actinic cycle, I think it would work out fine and will try it out when I get another and run 2 on the 90 and see how it looks. I guess the real question I do not have a good feel for but I believe it should be fine for the health of your corals.

Maybe some more knowledgeable reefers have input on this last topic. It sure would be nice to get rid of the actinics and save some money on electricity and bulb replacements.

 

[dadyoj21]

Last night I installed the light on the 90. This light will not take the place of the actinics unless you are running 20k bulbs. It does not put out that much light, but makes a great dusk/dawn mode. The fish remain active but not to the same level and the corals start going into night mode. When I get some money and buy some for the 220 I will try the 90 with 2 lights and see how that looks.

I imagine if you go with a blue MH bulb and use 2 sets of these as your actinics you could skip the other variety of actinics you may be running, but I think I will be happy with them as they are intended as a dusk/dawn bulb.

I have seen led fixtures out there that claim to take the place of the MH and actinic bulbs, and I think this will be the future but pricing needs to come down before this option becomes practical along with some more advancements in this area. Just my opinion.

 

[ade]

Tried a blue LED strip from ebay this past week 2' for 4.99 shipped you have to hook it up to a 12v transformer, these are the led's that boy racers use to place under their car. They are encased in a waterproof casing. Pluged it in with the MH on and it didn't make a difference, when the lights went off I saw what Jorge was talking about with the icecap LED's. I am not sure what the true color spectrum of these LED's are but they are bright and make everthing pop. I am not comparing them to Icecap by any means but a cheaper Alternative. Until a full time job comes my way I am going to have to wait for the good stuff for my tank or wait until the price comes way down.