tako Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I'm pretty set on ordering the new 17w par38's with 3 RB, 1B, 1WW, 2CW LED's.I currently have a biocube 8 with some LPS and softies that are doing fine under stock lighting. I don't have any immediate plans for SPS, but it might be nice to try some. I don't mind a little spotlighting, but I don't like some of the tanks I've seen with tight beams cutting the water.In the next year I'm hoping to upgrade to an ADA 60P since I can buy it locally, or maybe just a bc14. Therefore, I may buy two bulbs to have a matching set. Again, I'd still like to have the option of SPS in a portion of the tank.With all that in mind, 60 or 80 degrees? (If I decide to buy 2 I guess, I could be crazy and do one of each) Link to comment
Tarbot Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I have a AP12 and ordered the same bulb with the 60 deg optics. I figured the bulb should be 16" or so above my sand level to give me a 12" spread at sand level. Link to comment
tako Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 I ended up just buying one with 60 deg optics. They said it should ship tomorrow. I can't believe I haven't heard people talking about these on nano-reef. The LED combination will hopefully give a nice color. I'll have to be very careful not to bleach stuff, and I may have to move my frogspawn that's 2" from the surface. Now I gotta figure out how I'm going to mount it and cover the cube. Incorporating some moonlights might also be nice. Link to comment
tako Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 My order just shipped. I think rapid LED is also in California, so hopefully I'll get the package by this weekend. I'll try to get some shots of the light even though I don't have a fixture yet. Link to comment
tako Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 It came in the mail today, but I only had a minute to mess with it. I'll try to get some pictures up later tonight. It weighs less than I was imagining, but still enough to make the metal gooseneck on my desk lamp sag. The black anodized heatsink is pretty sexy, so hopefully I'll find a fixture to show it off. The WW and blue LEDs have a significantly different color than the CW and RB ones. The result is much more purplish-blue than the crappy stock lights on the biocube. Link to comment
tako Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 Ok here's a couple shots I took while I had it briefly rigged up over the tank. As you can see safety is my first priority; hence, the lead weight on the base of the lamp . Yes, I will get a better fixture and the bulb won't be enclosed like that. The light was about 16-18" above the water level. I know the tank looks very bright and glowing in the photo, but in reality it's a lot dimmer than the standard biocube 8 lights. I know this doesn't correspond to the actual PAR levels, though. Since, I know you were going to ask: Yes, it does shimmer like crazy. Finally, a shot of the 7 LED sexiness: I'll try to get some better stuff up over the weekend and some of my thoughts. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Wow. You sure can tell there is a warm white in there from the shimmer reflection. Link to comment
tako Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 Wow. You sure can tell there is a warm white in there from the shimmer reflection. Yeah, it's going to take some getting used to. There is very noticeable color separation in the shimmer on the sand. Also, the shadows cast have a strong orange and blue fringe -- especially the light passing through small openings. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Interesting. Some closer shots of the tank with the light eventually would be cool. Link to comment
tako Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 Here's a couple others I took last night. I try to get some better ones this weekend. White balance isn't correct on either of these photos, but it's not too bad. My frogspawn/hammer is a fairly light shade of green with pink tips. The LEDs definitely enhance the green, but the pink is pretty subdued. Along those lines, my red titan macro is also fairly muted in color under the LEDs It appears more purple than red under this lighting. I think the warm white LED definitely helps and it will be a matter of me adjusting from the very warm yellow of the biocube lights to the cool blue color. The color produced by these bulbs reminds me of what I see scuba diving on a reef in 30ft; large shift to the blue spectrum, but still some reds. Link to comment
tako Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 I went searching for a fixture yesterday. Found some potential options at IKEA and Home Depot, but ultimately went with a $15 architect lamp at Office Depot. It has detachable shade, which is ideal for the PAR 38's, and a base that clamps on the edge of the desk. It still has the packaging on in this photo because I was worried I'd have to return it because it couldn't handle the weight. It looks great and is extremely adjustable. The bulb is currently about 13" above the water surface which is about 24-25 off the sand bed. Hopefully a reduced photo period will be enough to avoid bleaching. I hope to lower it eventually to about 10" off the water and put a small sps frag near the center of the beam. Any opinions on this? Also, does this seem like a 60 or 80 bulb? I asked them to change the optics after I placed the order, so I'm just curious if it happened. I know you can get a good estimate from trig, but any guesses? The coral most enhanced by the LEDs is definitely my GSP. It's always been pretty short and not the brightest GSP, but under the new lighting it really glows. This picture doesn't begin to do it justice. My one patch of green/purple zoas also looks amazing, but they been pretty upset lately and not opening as much. Link to comment
doctaq Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 that swing arm lamp looks pretty good, nice find Link to comment
doppelganger Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 thanks for the pics! got anymore feedback or did you get a change to snap a few more pics? Very interested in these lamps. Link to comment
blasterman Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I'm pretty set on ordering the new 17w par38's with 3 RB, 1B, 1WW, 2CW LED's You realize if you ditch the WW and CWs and just use three NW's you'll get about the same color but with much less of a color problem? I like these color experiments, but the 'Saturday Night Fever' effect isn't exactly winning folks over to the LED arena. Bet the light looks cool bounced off a disco ball with a smoke machine on though :-) Link to comment
beeker Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 You realize if you ditch the WW and CWs and just use three NW's you'll get about the same color but with much less of a color problem? I like these color experiments, but the 'Saturday Night Fever' effect isn't exactly winning folks over to the LED arena. Bet the light looks cool bounced off a disco ball with a smoke machine on though :-) actually there is no disco effect with this bulb i just put one over my 200g DD last night the disco effect mainly comes from having wayyyyyy toooo much surface agitation, so unless you have all your powerheads pointing at the top of your tank the shimmer actually resembles a MH very well and it is east to adjust the intensity/duration if you change the surface agitation the color blend is perfect, its a balanced white/blue, not overly powerful in either form which to me makes it a great 50/50 bulb i'll have to get some shots of it next to my PAR38 nanocustoms 12k and 20k as well as the 2 style of customs i run over my tank Rapid led IMO has made the perfect led bulb and after a few weeks of it being up over my sps i'll be able to give a better review of it but for now it seems as good as it can get Link to comment
tako Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 You realize if you ditch the WW and CWs and just use three NW's you'll get about the same color but with much less of a color problem? Sure you might get the same temperature of white light, but the red spectrum of that light will still be completely different. actually there is no disco effect with this bulb i just put one over my 200g DD last night the disco effect mainly comes from having wayyyyyy toooo much surface agitation, so unless you have all your powerheads pointing at the top of your tank the shimmer actually resembles a MH very well and it is east to adjust the intensity/duration if you change the surface agitation This is correct. That picture was taken when the rotating hydor flo was pointing directly at the surface. I like the hydor flo too much, so I'll deal with the intermittent crazy shimmer. Although, everyone that's seen the tank loves the effect. I was able to greatly reduce the amount of shimmer by placing an acrylic lid on the tank. The condensation on the lid scatters the light more. the color blend is perfect, its a balanced white/blue, not overly powerful in either form which to me makes it a great 50/50 bulb It's definitely the best LED blend I've seen in person, but I still think the spectrum is missing something. It doesn't come off quite as natural feeling as a good set of T5's or MH, IMO. That being said, Rapid LED has put together a great product. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap and easy way to get into LED lighting. Plus, the all black anodized bulb is so good looking I want it out in the open to show off (maybe that's just the engineer in me). Link to comment
Funktastic Wint Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 i was not aware of this bulb! thanks for bringing it to my attention. do you think this lamp would work ok on my 3 gallon picotope? would this destroy zoas or do u think it would help them grow faster? i want to order this light but not if it is too much light. i want to keep mostly zoas, ricordias, mini carpets, and some sps...birdsnest, montis etc. thanks in advance! Link to comment
Trick Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 get the par 30 light instead of the 38 Link to comment
tako Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 i was not aware of this bulb! thanks for bringing it to my attention. do you think this lamp would work ok on my 3 gallon picotope? would this destroy zoas or do u think it would help them grow faster? i want to order this light but not if it is too much light. i want to keep mostly zoas, ricordias, mini carpets, and some sps...birdsnest, montis etc. thanks in advance! The par30 would be plenty for a pico, but it will just be CW and RB LEDs. A par38 with 80 degree optics would still be ok IMO. You're going to get a lot of light spill and have to be careful acclimating coral. There's plenty of people on here that have done it with the 21w nanocustoms bulb. You can check to see what their experience was. Link to comment
Funktastic Wint Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 The par30 would be plenty for a pico, but it will just be CW and RB LEDs. A par38 with 80 degree optics would still be ok IMO. You're going to get a lot of light spill and have to be careful acclimating coral. There's plenty of people on here that have done it with the 21w nanocustoms bulb. You can check to see what their experience was. thanks what sort of methods have u seen for light acclimation? what could i diffuse the light with if it is too intense? any ideas? Link to comment
doppelganger Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 think alot of ppl just use window screening. You can layer it easily as well. I've always thought just the standard light diffuser from home depot would work maybe (in the lighting department where you get the egg crate). Not sure if that would scatter it too much tho. Link to comment
NeveSSL Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 With this bulb you could just raise it up higher and bring it down a little each day. Especially if you have one of those swinging-arm type fixtures. Brandon Link to comment
Funktastic Wint Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 With this bulb you could just raise it up higher and bring it down a little each day. Especially if you have one of those swinging-arm type fixtures. Brandon thanks guys. i just ordered it. i hope its awesome! Link to comment
tako Posted February 3, 2011 Author Share Posted February 3, 2011 thanks guys. i just ordered it. i hope its awesome! Hope you like it! Just keep an eye on your corals and increase the intensity/duration of the light slowly over a couple weeks. Link to comment
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