Par 38 LED spotlights

[NaClH2Opgh]

9 for a 210, so you think I will be ok with 6 or 8 on a 67g?

Anyone order from nanocustoms lately? are they still backordered? what about the Japanese ones from Premium aqauatics, anybody get theirs yet?

The Japanese ones have 2 more 3 watt led's in them and cost $80 more. I would rather just buy two of these.

 

[wolf reef]

the jap lights also have a choice in colors vs 12 and 20 k only which nanocustoms has droped back down to for whatever reason, and volx are 21watt vs 15 watt they can say 21 all they want but 5, 3 watt leds still equals 15 watts in my book

 

[beeker]

Yeah but how good are the leds in the japan light? how many hours can the run at the temp they are running the leds in the light at?

There's not enough info on the japanese lights to sway me away from the PAR38's i've looked into both but haven't found any information pertaining to life/electronics or led brand in those japanese lights

 

[sjmantis]

Thanks Beeker. I think since your cover a 12" X 12" from the difference, I think I'm ordering mine with the 80 optics. With a shallow tank I think the par should still be pretty decent.

Ive had 3 w/80 optics over my 20 long for the past two months and its been working great

 

[JTL]

They are over-driving Evil's lights to get the 21W. I believe Evil is an EE but even if he isn't his reputation for understanding led's is matched by only a few. I know he looked at a lot of different lamps before he settled on this particular one. A lot had to do with the driver and the heat sink. I would go with his design over anything else at this point. I also believe he will customize for a few $$ more.

 

[beeker]

Some pics cause pics are worth 1000's words, lol

Red planet and purple acro (been there for 4 day so far)

My Beautiful elegance coral seems to be loving the LED's it's been in the tank since saturday

 

[JTL]

Put mine up today and they look very nice. I did order 2 more lamps, six one a 24x44 tank isn't quite enough. I did a mix of 12K and 20K.

 

[marinerfr]

pics??

 

[KRASHPD]

Outstanding Pics Beeker. Looks like everything loves the light so far.

 

[alcove]

looks good, how blue are the 20ks? seems hard to capture the true color of led bulbs

 

[beeker]

Those pics are of the 12k PAR38's with 40 optics

The 20k PAR38's would have a little more blue to them, but the 12k's look great honestly, it's a nice crisp white, less blue than a pheonix 14k but not far off colorwise

Eventually i'll be adding 2 all blues to the right side to give the tank more depth and some more flourescents to the corals

 

[JTL]

I will get some pics up as soon as I have time but let me say this. The depth and shadowing that these lamps provide is amazing. I started out with 3-12k and 3-20k, I ordered two more 12k. The 50/50 mix is a little too blue for my taste, but by no means bad, I could have lived with it but I wanted to add more lamps for coverage. I have mine about 30" off the sand and there appears to be plenty of light on the bottom. If I had gone with 60 degree optics or if I raised the tracks I could probably have gotten by with 6 lamps with some loss of PAR. The color is actually more purple than Windex blue. I think it looks very natural. Beeker's pics are very accurate color representations however I am not sure that the spot light effect is quite as obvious as it is in the pictures. It is really difficult to capture the effects of any tank lighting and LED's are no exception. Maybe he could take a coupe of FTS. All things considered I think this is a wonderful way to light a tank and guess what you can change the appearance by just moving the lamps. I am very new to corals so I can't speak to how they will react longer term but so far my limited number seem to like it.

 

[beeker]

Some FTS's, the spots are more noticable in the pictures than they are in person

 

[BennyFrank]

Looks great Beeker! How accurate is the color representation in the pics of the 12K's would you say? More blue/white in real life?

 

[beeker]

actually they look just like that in person, that color is almost 100% accurate, the pic is a little brighter than what it looks like in person, but the color is accurate, it's a nice crisp white with a hint of blue, looks like a Radium blend to me, i might eventually add 2 all blue bulbs to the right side with 60 or 80 optics to give more depth to the tank as well as more flourescents to the corals

the sps in the pics are all holding there color nicely after being in the tank the last 2 weeks, hopefully they stay that way i'll take some more pics this comming weekend so far everything is loving the Led's my LPS have honestly never looked better

 

[JTL]

This is a work in progress but here is a pic of mine.

 

[agsansoo]

JTL, what are the dimensions of your tank ?

 

[JTL]

Tank is 44x24x24 and it needs two more lamps to get the coverage I want without using 60 degree optics. The lights are about 30" off the sand.

 

[agsansoo]

Nice ... I ordered my first PAR38 bulb the other day for my new frag tank. I should receive it today. If this looks as good as I hope it does, I will replace my MH lights on my DT with these spotlights.

JTL, which optics did you get ? (mine is 80 deg. 20K)

 

[JTL]

I used the standard 40 degree optics which is why I need to add two more lamps to get the proper coverage and keep the PAR.