Quick review of the BuildMyLED 20K LED striplight

[zooman72]

I promised this a little while back, and so I finally banished the little ones to the TV and got down to it!

I have been intrigued by the BML lights for some time now, basically since I saw one reviewed briefly with an overseas aquarium here on NR over a small ADA tank. I loved the small form factor and the diffuser "lens" used that reduced "spotlighting" of the different diode colors, and thought I would try one once they had been around a bit to "work out the bugs" if there were any.

Well, after some time, and a couple of conversations with Nick at BML, plus the addition of the 20K option, I decided it was time to give one of these a try over my 20L, which was being lit with a trio of RapidLED gen-2 Par38's. The Par38's worked very well, but their form factor left a bit to be desired over a tank like a 20L - long and relatively shallow, they dominated the appearance. I thought a slim single strip hung discretely would look much better.

Here are a couple of shots of the new strip over my 20L running since 2002, which has been lit by PC, T5, and LED's. I will get a new shot of it hung above the tank shortly - here it is simply resting on the tank glass...

Par38's


BML 20K strip...


Color is not that far off from the Par38's honestly, and the shadows are even less when it is hung about 5" over the tank - those pics will come shortly. I am also going from 51W of light with the Par38's (17W x 3) to 32W with the BML strip (2 sections of 15 diodes, each running at 16W), and I am not dimming the BML strip. Cost here is almost a wash - $255 for a trio of Coral Compulsion Par38's ($237 for a trio of the latest RapidLED Par38's), and $252 for the 30" BML strip in black. Add to the Par38 cost (over $100 new) if using goosenecks however.


I also decided to use one of these over my 15g column for similar reasons - to remove the hanging Par38 from above the tank, reduce shadows within the column tank (even bigger issue on such a tall and narrow tank lit by one point source light), and see how the color compared.

I used one of the 20K's in a 12" length for the 15g column, and using the little metal brackets they include with the light, "hung" it from the aquariums plastic rim, placing it at the front and slightly angled back. This really cut down on shadows and resulted in more even lighting, but using lights like this does greatly cut down on shimmer as well.

Old pic of the 15g lit by the Par38...


Pic of the same tank lit by the BML 12" 20K strip...


Again, color is just slightly better than the Par38 (first-gen ledtric "full spec"), and shadows are greatly reduced, but so is shimmer. Here is this case, the result is better since the corals are more evenly lit, but not all will like the shimmer reduction. I am also going from 18W with the Par38 to 16W with the BML strip - slightly more PAR (judging by the coral response) for slightly less power, but for a lot more money - a similar Coral Compulsion Par38 is $85, whereas this 12" BML is $142.

These are basically the T5's of LED light fixtures. The cost is also quite high for what the end user is getting, at least in comparison to some other examples out there. They can be dimmed with a separate dimmer - I have one just in case, but am not using it on either aquarium here - but there is no color "tweaking". BML is planning on offering a multichannel fixture in the near future, which would allow for color tweaking and daily dimming protocols, as well as their own controller, but again the cost for these may be more than other LED lights. One thing BML does have in their favor is the incredibly small form factor of their lights - there is a lot of light coming out of a very slim housing. They also have a very nice warranty as well, as long as one chooses one of the preconfigured colors (12K, 14K or 20K).

Feel free to ask questions or to comment, and I will update the 20L example with a pic of the light hanging above it for comparison. Oh, and sorry for the poor-quality pics - I will try to fix that moving forward...

[markalot]

Thanks Zooman. My 36" 20K fixture arrived 2 hours before we left for St Louis so I was able to look at it over a tank for about 20 seconds.

 

I still prefer my crazy blue custom fixture to the 20K, at least at first glance, but I need to run it for a week or so to really decide. My custom blue was a mix of royal blue, blue, violet, and 3500K white LEDs.

[zooman72]

Thanks Zooman. My 36" 20K fixture arrived 2 hours before we left for St Louis so I was able to look at it over a tank for about 20 seconds.

 

I still prefer my crazy blue custom fixture to the 20K, at least at first glance, but I need to run it for a week or so to really decide. My custom blue was a mix of royal blue, blue, violet, and 3500K white LEDs.

 

You are welcome, and I actually do like the light, but feel that replacing one of the cool whites with an additional warm white might make it a bit better - it currently has 4 cool whites (~6500K) to one warm white (~3000K) for every 15 diode "board" they use in a 12-18" section of the light.

 

I know from talking to the owner that they have played with many combinations, but so have many of us, and I don't need some of their technological "tools" to tell me what looks good and what does not. I am also not quite sure this looks like a 20K Radium, and it definitely does not look like the photo they provide on their website - my greens and reds are not nearly as rich as their photo depicts, though to be fair my photos are terrible here.

 

I strongly considered going with a custom blend of diodes, but wanted to be able to return the light if I was unhappy, and that cannot be done with a custom mix. I am not completely happy with the overall color rendition, but I am not unhappy either - I love the sleek form factor for longer tanks like a 20L.

[MeCasa]

From a technical aspect i don't know good from bad but I do know what pleases my eye and these tanks bring out a smile :-)

[zooman72]

From a technical aspect i don't know good from bad but I do know what pleases my eye and these tanks bring out a smile :-)

 

Thant is very nice of you to say - thank you!