luminarc A3 mini

scarletknight06

scarletknight06

New member
does anyone use one of these reflectors? thinking of replacing my 2x175's with a single 250w 20k radium on an hqi ballast with one of these reflectors.

was wondering what kind of light spread I could get with it, and what size area it would cover.
TIA
 
i have a mini la3/250watts over a 30gal.12 inches off the top of the water.it gives me about 2'x2' intense light spread and moderately lights the rest of the tank. hth.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6487651#post6487651 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scarletknight06
so in your opinion does it give better light spread than a spider reflector?
Click to expand...

Many, many times better. You won't believe the difference. I went from a Reef Optix III (the best DE reflector) to the LA3 Mini. The Mini blows the ROIII out of the water. Great, great reflector.
 
so you switched from DE to SE and are happy with the results ?

There was a thread on RC around the holidays that covered that exact debate (SE vs DE) and those that had switched from one to the other, and some back again. What sort of coverage did you get witht he LA3 ? The ROIII states approx a 2' square coverage area, how much more/better was the LA3 ?
 
i agree. i am using three of the mini's on a 230 and love them. at 10" above the water they give off a good 24 x 24 light coverage. you wont regret it. eric
 
problem with my tank is that I would need to center it on a 36" tank thats 18" front to back. I dont mind having 3-4" of non coverage on the sides, but the problem is the overflow box is in the center and is 4" deep so I'd be waisting a lot of light because itd be going into there.

tough choice
 
be prepared to clean coraline off the tank from top to bottom. lumenarcs are great reflectors but reflects light all over the place. I have them and switched over to DE so i can have more of a focus light over my tank. I now only need to clean the bottom half of my tank.


Paul
 
My tank is 20"wide/20"deep/12" tall, it easily covers the whole thing, I keep it about 12" off the top of the tank. I use a 175w bulb. 18" front to back will not be an issue.

--John
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6488019#post6488019 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
so you switched from DE to SE and are happy with the results ?

There was a thread on RC around the holidays that covered that exact debate (SE vs DE) and those that had switched from one to the other, and some back again. What sort of coverage did you get witht he LA3 ? The ROIII states approx a 2' square coverage area, how much more/better was the LA3 ?
Click to expand...

The ROIII doesn't get anywhere near the even coverage that the LA3 gets. The LA3M has no hot spots, unlike the ROIII.
 
I just went from Spider Lights to Lumenarc Minis a few weeks ago. They blow the Spider Lights away in both intensity and spread.

Well worth the upgrade IMO.
 
no I havent seen them in person but I've seen pictures (which doesnt mean much) and heard they are great on an hqi ballast, but not so hot on a regular ballast
 
I ran the LAIII Minis for a while, and they are awesome. I had the full size LAIII but they were far too big for my set-up, so I got the minis. GREAT, even spread. Much better than the ROI IME. They are overkill and INEFFICIENT though unless you are TRYING to cover a wide area. You just end up wasting light energy, rather than keeping it tighter (and brighter) on a more narrow tank.

On a 36x18 tank (just read it) if you want the best coverage I'd say spend a little more money and get 2xDE if you can. You'll get more effective light out of 2x150W DE than you will a LAIIIM. Or even 2x150W (or 250W) mogul spiders. Bigger spread is only better if you have a bigger tank. ;-) Its not really that much more to get a dual ballast, and you can usually find that stuff used all the time.

On the bulb - I ran 250W Radium on HQI a couple years ago and it was fine, but there are probably better choices out now. The 400W off HQI combo is far different than the 250W off HQI.

GL!
 
Fliger is correct, over a 40BR it won't be all that much help. I run mine over a 20L but I bought it for the impending 36"x24"x18H" upgrade.

edit: In my avatar you can see how much light it throws. It's about 14" off the top of the tank.
 
Fliger - two questions - did you have the spider reflectors before this then? I have a 225 with 4x400 and the only place I have less than ideal coverage is in the middle of the tank where the acrylic cross brace is and there are no lights over it - I'm wondering if changing reflectors would give beter coverage there - I now have spider reflectors and SE bulbs -would this lessen my coverage elsewhere ie sacrificing in one area to cover others? and last question "waiting patiently for the snow"? in AZ? you had better be really patient then!
 
oh yeah, bulbs are about 10" off of water surface if that makes a difference and mounted in a canopy
 
I had spiders a few years ago and hated them. I don't really like them, they lose too much light IME. I just meant that in his situation, 2x spiders would probably work better than 1x LAIIIM. You could cut your light down if you went with LAIII's or even the 3x LAIIIM though. There are lots of people that run 3x400W or even 3x250W over 225's. That center brace is a b*tch though. I found the coverage to great, and very even.

Hey we have snow here! I'm only a few hours from the base of 2 ski "resorts". ;-) We have tons of lakes and mountains and even skiing. But its 75 outside right now. ;-)
 
I am currently running 3 mini's over a 150 gal. 5x2x2. the light spread is awesome. when i was first installing them i was surprised to see that i actually only needed 2 of them. There 3x400w radiums on hqi, no supplement light needed, and the colors are amazing on the corals. Only downside is heat, im running 4 icecap fans in the canopy, and my chiller runs for about 3-4 hours every night. Lights are about 8-9 inches off the water.
 
where can I get them at? I looked for them at MD and PA in the past and do not remember seeing them there - do they mount well in a canopy or do they have to be suspended?
 
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