The fact is you can illuminate a entire tank. I am doing it. No fans are required, the built in heat sinks are very adequate since there is very little heat.
Wait, wait, wait . . . I never said you cannot illuminate an entire tank. I also never claimed that fans were
required or that their heatsinks were
inadequate. I'm quite pro-LED, and try to push them at my shop - we're in TX for crying out loud - our home AC bumps up the bill enough, do you think I'm a proud supporter of MH lighting, or chillers, or any other device that will add hot air into my living quarters? Certainly not - the lower the temps, the lower the bills, the happier my animals are, and the happier my wallet is.
Certainly you CAN light up a whole tank with these...but I think his point was that since these are spotlight bulbs, it plays to their strengths by using a spotlight lighting scheme.
This is my point exactly. Through the inevitable light 'spill' in the aquarium, the entire interior SHOULD be lit unless for some reason you're using very few bulbs over the space provided. I'm simply saying that one should no NEED to use X bulbs over their tank, based on square footage of the bottom. If you had a pair of LR islands measuring 1'x2' & 1x1' I'd say go for 2-3 bulbs over the larger, and 1-2 bulbs spotting the other. If you plan on keeping some clams on the bottom glass/sand, throw a light directly at them, too - but light the tank based upon your organisms and their placement. There is very little, if ANY, strategy to
most peoples lighting schematics with these over larger tanks from what I've seen so far, and I think that's too bad. I don't plan your budget, much less your aquarium - so to each his own (obviously) - but I can't say I don't think it's a shame if/when people are using more of these lights than necessary. That just means you're overspending, and either putting more light than necessary into the tank - or just having too much even distribution of it.
Ok...you not only CAN do it, but you can also do it successfully. The implication was that people should not even entertain using them for primary lighting which is just not the case
No, you're missing my point there again - I feel many people can be very successful with these lights over their tank. Like I said - buy as many as you want, and pump as much of this light into your tank as you want - but many people will be using MORE of these than necessary over their tanks - even nanos! I never said to use them as supplementary lighting, and I never suggested pairing them with other lighting at all. I myself am using the PAR38's supplemented by Stunner LEDs - as I want more than just the two colors of LEDs that come in the PAR38s.
The key is to use more of them. I see a lot of people trying to stretch the light by using higher optics. Doing so will significantly lower the par. I guess this whole debate of one light vs another is pretty much do whatever works best for you.
But this is where we disagree. For different people, more or less of them over a given area will be ideal - it will not simply be the same for all intents and purposes. I say this because not everybody needs to have their tank
100% evenly illuminated, like I implied in the original message - there is NO reason to have complete widespread distribution of light, much less any
intense lighting, throughout the entire aquarium. Unless you simply have a large rock-wall/island that covers most of your tank, and your goal is to grow SPS & clams across pretty much every inch, the 100% even coverage is wasteful, and silly.
These lights are a strong new tool for achieving dramatic and effective aquascapes, and can especially lead towards much more
natural displays. "Mileage may very" totally applies here, and I already said - your tank/money, your choice. But I can't help but try and stress that they don't need to be evenly spread across your tank,
or all pointed straight down. The comfort of my deep-water fish in my aquarium is #1, and I can control that based on the lighting color & distribution. Lucky for me, I can target all my lights to be aimed at my rocks - so the fish can have numerous spots in the tank to be in a more dim light if they want. Another bonus to this is that most/all of my corals will be kept on my rocks - right where all my light is shining, so they're happy & comfy too. It's a beautiful thing, right?
What I was getting at before is what I'm getting at now:
- the average aquarium does not need 100% even light distribution
- you do not need to cover any entire tank with PAR38's to achieve happiness
- the cost of, and the crowding of PAR38's to "100% evenly light" an aquarium is not worthwhile when compared to the price & efficiency of whole aquarium LED fixtures
(IMHO)
- if you're trying to achieve "100% even distribution" through the tank using only 40 degree optics, you are wasting time and money
(IMHO)
Make sense?
fine print: I'm not bashing anyones displays, or use of these lights. I only wish to inform of ways to be more efficient when implementing these in a display, and provide alternative ideas - there is no good reason to waste money or electricity, period.
