LED lights

[ckwatson]

does any one know any thing about theses http://www.current-usa.com/powerbrite.html">http://www.current-usa.com/powerbrite.html</a>

I was thinking about putting some over my tank which is 36" wide but it says you can only link 2 which would be 24". It also recommends 1 for every 20". I think you can put them on the tank with out a hood but I am not sure how. Any info would be great.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

LOL, Ya those are for pretty much moon lights only... They are 1 Watt LEDs and there are 4 of them per light.. Make great night lights though...

 

[ckwatson]

I was wanting it for the shimmer. Right now I am running 4 T5s and the price is not that bad on theses units. You dont think it would add the shimmer like a MH would? I know it will not help with par or coral health.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Prob not that much. Cameron just had a set up kind of like this. He was hoping for the same shimmer and never really got it. The light was washed out by the power of the T-5s. He did get a really cool spot light effect at sun up and sun down though. MAYBE if they were 5 Watt LEDs you you get SOME noticable shimmer but IMHO, you are not going to come close in a 1Watt LED. Like I said, a moon light is about all it is going to be able to be used for. Not that that is bad, there is something good to say about moon lights, just not what you are going for.

 

[ckwatson]

Ok thanks for the info and saving me some money

 

[cameron]

T5s just kill them as they are much brighter. However, I would buy them again in my setup. I loved sun up and sun down with these. They are bright enough to see everything going on in the tank. Not so bright to disturb anyone so you get to see full nighttime activity. The shimmer is WAY more than an MH with just these on and lastly the best part of all it looks like shafts of light hitting a reef. I have never seen an effect like that in a lighting system before. If I ever do another lighting system, it will include something like this. Way cool.

 

[jhutto]

I saw it in action before Cam's take away and it was amazing. Cam is right. I am going to order two to use as early morning wake up and late afternoon.
Beautiful lights when the others are off.
Joe

 

[ckwatson]

Cameron what is the rest of you light set up and how many LEDs do you have? The nova extreme unit I have has 3 white LED moon lights but they do not put out much light. I may get some and try them out also. I did not think about using them in the cycle like you are

 

[jhutto]

Cam had two strips. The shimmer was way cool in kind of like two spots shinning down. It was the same lighting you are talking about. For it to work, the T5s need to be off. Its a cross between moon light and a soft shimmer.

Joe

 

[warloc4326]

If you want a good shimmer I've seen the solaris lights put off some nice effect. These lamps are costly but do have the output to put out that shimmer.

 

[warloc4326]

The price for a 36" fixture when I looked about 6 months ago was about 1500, Output about the same as a 250 or 400 watt MH and used much less power to boot. The initial cost is what kept me from these. I factored the savings over the long run and the fixture more or less pays for itself in approx 16 months or so. Due to not needing a chiller and the much lower power consumption. Also needless to say the bulbs last approx 100,000 hours. Given the rate of 8 hours a day you're looking at about 7 - 9 years of use.

 

[cameron]

I used the PowerBrite LED 10k bars. You need one system and 1 or 2 linking modules:

http://www.petsolutions.com/12-Powerbrite-LED-Lighting-Systems+I42901643.aspx">http://www.petsolutions.com/12-Powerbrite-LED-Lighting-Systems+I42901643.aspx</a>

Pretty cheap for what they do. If I had a FOWLR, I would probably just run these.

 

[ckwatson]

yeah I like the solaris lights but this is my first tank. It is not what I would call the ideal reef tank so if it works out and I like the hobby I will not have this tank for long, I will up grade to a tank that is easier to work with, so I dont want to drop 1500 on light that I may not be able to use 6 months from now