ReefBreeders Lumenbar vs. Chinese Black Box lights

[thepotoo]

Couldn't find any reviews of the Lumenbar, took a chance and bought one. Not super impressed for the price, to be honest. Wishing I had just gotten an additional Chinese black box for half the money.

Both lights mounted 10" over the water, PAR readings taken at water surface and 8" below.

PAR readings and a couple quick coral shots here: https://imgur.com/a/VCbr8B4

 

[christopherjudd]

Are you using the lumenbars as the main light? I believe they’re more of a supplement lighting

 

[mcgyvr]

Yep..lumenbars are supplemental lights to be added to t5,etc.. Not at all a replacement for a blackbox..
Nice to see par/spectral data though

 

[thepotoo]

Are you using the lumenbars as the main light? I believe they're more of a supplement lighting

No. Supposedly these are to be used next to black box lights or other cheaper lights to give coral extra "pop".

The are supposed to provide some magical wavelength that black box lights don't have. I don't believe this, based on my use of them for the last couple months and the PAR data in my initial post.

 

[Bpb]

ReefBreeders Lumenbar vs. Chinese Black Box lights

Hate to be a Debbie downer or argumentative. But....nothing magical in what they offer. Clearly listed in the product details. I don't know of any black boxes that contain 405 and 380 nm diodes. 420 nm is typically as low as they'll go. So the advertisement is correct. They contain wavelengths not only missing in a black box, but wavelengths that will either be under represented, or completely omitted from a seneye reading entirely.

Another word on the seneye. I know brs has tested them fairly close to the apogee meters....but when testing my own blue led strips, ATI sunpower, as well as my metal halides, I got an average reading of about 60% LOWER than the apogee 510 read. I have my suspicions the seneye is merely a lux meter with an internal calculation to show par which would be fairly inaccurate/inconsistent as I understand it.

At any rate. A UV heavy strip just isn't going to read high on a par meter because UV lighting isn't part of the par equation. You shouldn't have bothered testing those strips to begin with. A par meter isn't the correct tool for that job.


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[thepotoo]

I hope you're right and the half of my tank that's lit by it will have double the growth of the other half. We'll see.

 

[Bpb]

I hope you're right and the half of my tank that's lit by it will have double the growth of the other half. We'll see.

No hope needed these are discrete facts. Definitely right. Now the part about doubling your growth? Well that's patent nonsense. Please don't expect that. Marketing fluff is so embarrassing to read with led companies.


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[five.five-six]

I hope you're right and the half of my tank that's lit by it will have double the growth of the other half. We'll see.

If you believe that, I have a bottle of purple up to sell you.