Attention to anyone that is interested in using the PAR38 lamps

[evilc66]

Not much has changed with regard to these lamps. They are still spotlights. They still create harder shadows. They are still a great way to light a small tank on a budget.

 

Best advancement since I had my lamps on the market is that most of the lamps have more LEDs, allowing for better LED selection and overall better color quality. The full spectrum lamps that are on the market are pretty damn good.

 

The downside is that there are now a ton of different lamps on the market, and the vast majority of them are still crap.

[evilc66]

Not much has changed with regard to these lamps. They are still spotlights. They still create harder shadows. They are still a great way to light a small tank on a budget.

 

Best advancement since I had my lamps on the market is that most of the lamps have more LEDs, allowing for better LED selection and overall better color quality. The full spectrum lamps that are on the market are pretty damn good.

 

The downside is that there are now a ton of different lamps on the market, and the vast majority of them are still crap.

[Weetabix7]

Thx for the updated summary!!

 

Any recommendations on how to tell which ones aren't crap?

Any comments on what to look for or avoid?

Personally, I use reviews as a gauge, or what I see working over other people's tanks. 

[evilc66]

I tend to recommend lamps sold by reputable companies. If it's on eBay, there's a high likelihood that it's garbage. Here are a few things that I look for immediately when weighing an opinion on a PAR30/38 lamp:

• Cost - if it's insanely cheap, there's probably a good reason for it: low quality LEDs, low quality driver, too small of a heatsink, etc...
• LEDs - high kelvin whites are a red flag for me. Color rendering sucks with them, even if red or even warm white LEDs were added
• Unreasonable wattages - many companies try to over inflate the wattage numbers. They will pitch a 12 LED lamp as running at 36W, only because it's using 3W class LEDs even though the LEDs are only run at 1W each (making it really a 12W lamp). Most passively cooled lamps will top out at about 24-28W. Anything higher that isn't fan cooled is either going to have a short life, or isn't what is advertized.
• Poor LED color selection - there's no good reason to not get a full spectrum lamp. The basic blue/white lamps will work, but the color is so flat compared to a full spectrum equivalent.
• Cree LEDs - Not saying that Cree is bad, but a $30 12 LED PAR38 won't have Cree LEDs. Plus, in a full spectrum setup, you can't get Cree LEDs in certain wavelengths. A white Cree over 8000K or a violet Cree is a huge red flag

[Weetabix7]

Thx, that's very helpful!!