I will photo a comparison this week, i just found red bugs in my tank from a recent purchase so i will be treating my tank this weekend and should have a video up by the end of the week as well if i have the time, i've had a ton going on but plan to get some more pics up soon

haha it's a good idea but i'm pretty sure i'd kills myself with electricity in the process as the light would be directly above my sump and knowing my clumsy ass i'd for sure end up with a bulb in my sump

i will be uploading the rest of my pics tomorrow since i have my bandwidth back now

Any luck with the new Rapid Par38 photos? I just unpacked a new GLA 12 gal long so I'll probably be getting a little anxious to decide on which bulbs to go with! I was wondering if it's bluer than the 12k Par30 over my Picotope but not as blue as many of the photos of 20k's seen here in the forums?
Thanks

Here you go a comparision between a Nanocustoms PAR38 12k and 20k with 40 optics, and a Rapidled New 7led bulb with 60 optics, notice the color of the Rapid is very similar to the 20k nanocustoms bulb, the main difference is the slight tint of green comming from the cool blue led

the rapidled bulb is on the far right

20k Nanocustoms on the left, Rapidled 7 led on the right


12k nanocustoms on the left, Rapidled 7 led on the right


20k on the left, 12k in the middle, Rapidled 7 led bulb on the right

Thanks for posting the photos! To my untrained eye the Rapid does look similar to the Nano 20k with the Nano beng somewhat brighter.The difference between the 40 and 60 degree optics is more apparent. Color difference might be more apparent over different corals I would guess. Bottom line is which would you personally choose if you were starting all over again? I don't mean to put you on the spot as I am sure they both look great. Just looking for opinions from those with much more experience than myself.
Thanks

to bad you dont have a meter i wonder what the par dif is.

The PAR difference is most likely 30-50 PAR per height, at 33 inches i was getting a PAR of 180 on the bottom with 40 optics on the 12k and 20k's, with the Rapidled 60 at the same height i assume the PAR would be 130 if not a little less which is ok because the spread difference would be a little better

Honestly if i did it again i'd use less cool white, lol

But personally all the Bulbs offer something different, my 12k's work really well over lps and clams because of their brightness and the fact that cool white seems to have far less of an effect on LPS colors, the 20k's work better over my sps because of the Royal blue and less cool white since cool white tends to yellow/brown out most sps unless heavily hit with Royal blue, basically a 3-1 ratio or 4-1 ratio is what i'd prefer though Cool blue is great for greens and some purples it is really a estimating game i've moved quite a few corals around in my tank to find the sweet spots and i'm still doing this with every new coral purchase, lol

I also have custom bulbs with 4 cool blues and 1 neutral white, these are great for light blues, deep greens and any coral that is cyan in color, as well as custom bulbs that are just 5 Royal blues with 60 optics, these offer me great color with my purples and oranges as well as blending out the 12k's and allowing the corals to intensify in color and brown/yellow out far less although some browning can be seen in between the branches where the cool white is most intense


If i had the option to do it again id go with the Rapidled bulbs i think i will most likely phase out atleast 4-6 of my 12k bulbs for them seeing as i'm going to have mostly sps in my tank and feel the 4 spectrums of the rapid bulb will net me better color, the 12ks i keep will be used for the front half of my tank where i plan to keep plate corals, doughnut corals and clams

As of right now i have tweaked my dosing as well so i might as well post that

I had some corals STN a little bit so i stopped my Phols Xtra dosing

Instead this is what i'm doing now, lol

I dose 7 drops of Vodka Daily (just started 3 days ago) will continue until i see an issue wether that be cyano or STN and then i plan to cut the dose in half but continue to dose daily, i feed a ton now with the 3 gorgs so not sure when the tank will hit ULN but i dont want to kill the gorgs so i'll be watching this very closely

i dose 2 drops of Elo's Amino's daily and 3 ML of Elo's Pro skimmer at night for the gorgs

other than this i dose BRS Alk/Calc/Mag

PS:

I will try to get a video up by the end of next week, since i tweaked my lighting schedule and my dosing i want to give it some time to take effect before i post up a video and more pics

it would help if you took the pictures in the same white balance so we can get a better idea of the colors.

that would be possible if my camera decided not to shut off every 30 seconds to a minute, that is the main reason the balance isnt perfect in all 3 pics, but the last pic gives you best idea of the color, and if you've ever tryed to photograph leds with a powershot canon or any camera then i'm sure you know it isnt easy to get the correct EYE color to appear on the photo's let alone get it perfect when your camera is giving you ####, lol

believe me the rapidled looks like the 20k but has a little green tint to it, you dont notice the warm white in the bulb at all when looking at the color it produces on the white paper, it to me offers the best color out of the 3

thanks for the comparison shots beeker. Very helpful!

idk how your lightings wired or if you can do this, but i would like to see your tank with only one of the rapid leds par38 bulbs on (all other lights off). just to see color of the one bulb and how it looks with your optics spotlight wise.

i could do this but would have to unscrew about 20 bulbs, lol and that is something i'd rather not due, but maybe i could remove the spots on the right side of the tank and just have 1 Rapid bulb going, give me a few days or so and i'll try to get a pic for you

Have you ever thought about adding a thin layer of sand to the tank, in order to give the tank a more natural look?

Yeah i didnt want you to have to go through a bunch of trouble didnt know if you only had a couple that turned on for dawn dusk and would only have to unscrew like 2 or 3

Well eventually the bottom of the tank should be covered in coral, funds and other life issue's have made it slow for me to buy a ton of coral at the moment to do this though, but that is the plan, lol

i like the look of sand but feel it covers up way too much detrius and will cause a nitrate factory to develop, even if it was shallow i'd spend double the time trying to keep it free of waste it would be more work than my BB is right now, i spend about 1-2 hours every sunday being precise with getting out as much waste as i can by putting powerheads behind my rockwork and moving waste to the front to get it out and with sand that wouldnt be possible i also change out around 20 gallons of water when i do this

I'm in the process of creating a new reef tank, and I was planning on lighting with Par38's. Your thread has solidified that decision. Very inspiring tank you have. Thank you for sharing it.

Well my camera is horrible at video so i took some new macro's and a few new tank shots Enjoi!

This is after 2 weeks of daily Vodka dosing after those 2 weeks i have now gone to dosing Phols xtra at 1.5ml every other day as well as Vodka at 8 drops every other day (meaning the Vodka and Phols xtra aren't dosed on the same day) so far i have been doing the Vodka/Phols for a week now, my split in my photoperiod is all gone now and i am running 9 hours of lighting a day

Polyp extension has never been this good

Stunning

Looks great Beek. Well done.

Any updates?

It's time for a video

Wow I lost this tank for a while, just found it again. Looking awesome beeker

lost my job and have been unemployed till now so my tank took a little beating, in about a month i think i'll be back in track, those last shots i took were the best pics of my tank, i lost the purple gorgania and wasn't able to keep up on my feeding routine or water change routine since unemployment doesen't pay crap, so it will be a month or two before i get any new pics up, but the tank is still up and running

Sorry to hear of the bad luck. Hope things turn out for the best now.

Good News finally! i just got another vorecth mp40 because i was having some flow issue's with my return pump losing flow over the last year causing bad algea and low flow issues

i also added an Aquaillumation SOL fixture, going to eventually replace all my PAR38's with these if the AI can produce the right colors with it's dimming and fine tunning capability, also have to get the 70 degree optics and see how they work out, so far i'm impressed with the individual Led color control, it seems being able to control the intensity of the cool whites not to overdrown the corals with yellow light will net a good result, i'm hoping to have new pics up within the next month, i just hate taking pics when my tank looks so bad IMO...

I need 6 PAR38s 20k 40 degrees( I can always change the lenses if there not 40). PM me if you wanna sell them

getting the rest of my SOL blues in a week or two and a bigger skimmer, i think my inconsistancy with my ALK is what has caused a few corals to turn to crap and i've been fixing this over the last month hopefully i will have it all back on track within the next month or two, i've had some corals receed 3/4's of the way and my tank won't be looking like it did in march anytime soon sadly, but i promise i am working to get there again, wish my life hand't been so unstable for the past 7 months but it happens too bad my tank had to take the brunt of it

I see your getting the Aqua Illumination light's!. Good choice! You should join the Aqua Illuminations Club. Just post a few pics of your tank with the AI lights and Ill add you! Ur tank is huge and looks crazy as it is now and I cant wait to see it "SOL"ly lit with AI's!!! Ill keep an eye out for you on the AI club forum!