Our manufacturer droped a nice little surprise on use with our last batch of PAR38 lamps: MOAR POWER!! They have gone from about 15W to about 21W of power draw. What this means is about a 25% increase in PAR output with the same lense configuration. All lamps shipping now will be the higher power version.

awesome - ygpm

Evil, I ordered on the 8th of this month and haven't recieved shipping notification yet...will my lamp be the 21watt version and will there be a noticeable difference color temp wise considering it'll be used over the tank in addition to the 15watt?

Drawing 21w now, so do they have 7 emitters, or something utterly different, or somehow overdriving the 5 emitter configuration? If its 7, just think of the coloring options once available, and better blending.....

You will be getting the new ones. The color temp doesn't change, only the brightness.


Still 5 LEDs. After driver effeciency losses, the LEDs are running just under 1000mA.

Sweet, thanks for the reply.

i have the old version and will be ordering the new version with the red
with the more power does this mean i will have to mount the lamp higher
then the current one i have?

You don't have to. Same coverage, just a little more PAR.

Is one of these enough to cover a Nanocube 12?

Not really. I'd recommend two for tanks of that size.

just got my new par38 lamp and i must hand it to you Evil you are a mad scientist genius man!!!


thanks for the great lighting set up!!!

Glad you like it. I'm loving them more and more. I love the setup now that I have everything mounted on the ceiling.

hey evil, thinking about ordering theese, do you think 3 with 80* optics will be enough spread on a 29 aga to keep sps?

60s. 80s would be a little too wide to keep PAR up.

thanks how high do you think i should mount them. considering the tank is 18" deep

Maybe 5-6". You will have to play with it to see what ultimately works well with your tank.

cool thanks man!!

what lenses do you guys recommend for 3.5gallon that measures 12" x 6"?? It's the picoaquariums.com barracuda tank

80s work pretty well for tanks of that general size. Doesn't force you to have the lamp super high off the tank, and still gets you good PAR.

Hey Clive,

I picked up a PAR38 with both 40 degree & 60 degree lens for my new curvilinear II_the Pico.Reef.
The tank has a 9" diameter and is 10" deep and I'm planning to keep SPS corals in the mid to upper areas, zoa's and misc corals in the lower areas. With your experiance would you have any good suggestions on which lens to run and what height to mount the lamp above the sand? Would it be a good idea to maybe mix 2 40's and 3 60's?

I also know the PAR38's are sold as non-dimming (and dimming will void the warranty), but is it possible to DIY the lamp to make it dimmable? I'm sure other PAR38 owners might be willing to try it too.

THANKS,
Rick

Either lens will work. The difference is how close you have to mount the lamp to the tank.

As for dimming, it's really not easy to do.

Thanks Clive,

I haven't bought a fixture for the lamp yet, so mounting height is unlimited for now. I would like to keep the light completely focused inside the tank, with minimum light spillage outside of the tank.

No dimming . . .

You are going to have light spill. If you keep the lamp low enough to keep all light in the tank, your PAR levels will be too high. There may be another way to help with that. W.C. Lighting makes clip on barn-doors that might fit on the lamp. That will help block light without having to change the lens or the height.

I found a flex-neck floor lamp at walmart that with a few DIY mods will work as a PAR38 light fixture, at least for my application.

Nice. Certainly looks different.

hi -

i have a solana 34 gallon tank with the stock 150 watt DE light ... i was hoping to use 2 of the par38 bulbs to accomplish 2 tasks ...

> the tank is bare bottom, and, in one front corner, i would like to place 3-4 clams, but, i want to boost the par in that area to provide for the corals

> finally i would like to use one bulb to increase the general par of the tank as i have plans for a lot of sps ...

would i want to use a 60 or 40 degree on the bottom of the tank and how far from the water surface, plus, could i use a 80 degree closer to the water surface to boost the light in the tank?? Thanks.

I'd go for a 60 for the clam, and 80's for general PAR increase.

very cool - thanks for the information.

I have an AGA 15 gallon extra-high (no longer made) that is 13" x 13" x 20" deep that is currently lit with 36 watts of PC and an 8W NO T5 for mushrooms, xenia, zooanthids and a Rumphella gorgonian. The tank has been up a year now and doing well (gorgonian has doubled), but you have me considering one of your bulbs - I need to replace the PC's again, so thinking of alternatives since I got my tax return back today. If I went with one of the 12000K fixtures, would you recommend the 60 or 80 degree optics? I like the look of the tank now, but LED shimmer would be interesting, plus not having to constantly replace bulbs would be nice.

Thanks Evil,
Aaron

Depends on how much light you want. The 80's would put you probably a hair higher than you have it right now. The 60's would be a major increase. Both should be able to easily cover the 13x13 area though.

Thanks Evil, that is kinda what I was thinking after seeing your PAR plots in the other thread. I would hate to have the mushrooms shrink - some are 6 inches across, although the gorgonian might like more light.....decisions, decisions. Anyways, good work creating the fixture in the first place, and thanks again for the advice.

Aaron

If they get grumpy, raise the fixture.

Thought of that, just don't like too much light spillage.....it is in my study/ office.
If I do it I will probably get the 80 degree optics.

evil -

on the same line, i have a new 14" cube i having built to house zoas and clams ... would a 80 degree 20K bulb work well or should i hold out for the new t5/led fixture you guys are building??

Thanks.

That's completely up to you and what you will see as a benefit. Keep in mind that the hybrid won't be for sale for months possibly, as the one you saw is literally the first prototype and about 4 days old. Both should be able to do everything you need though. With the PAR38, you may want to think about the 60 degree optics for a little more light for the clam.

how far from the water surface would you recommend for the 60 degree?

You may want to start at about 12" and adjust from there. It's all going to be how the tank reacts.

Clive - along that same line, how many PAR38s and with what optics would you recommend for an 18 inch anemone cube? Gotta tell you, I've got 2 20K PAR38s with 40 degree optics about 18 inches above a 10G zoa tank and the shimmer and colors are unreal!

I'm glad you like them.

For a tank like that, I'd say a pair of 60 degree lamps mounted about 12" over the tank would work pretty well.

Thanks for the recommendation!