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It seems since the mighty PFO aquatics has disappeared there have been an onslaught of new LED products, but alas these products have been around before but when you owned the market share that PFO did its hard to see any other LED light. This new LED liked named “Sun-Brite” introduces itself via a You Tube video. They are thousands less than the Solaris which would have been a great selling point several months ago, now not so much. The LED lighting system comes in several sizes 20″ ($189.99), 24″ ($199.99), 36″ ($209.99), 48″ ($219.99) and 72″ ($259.99) does anyone else think these are a little too inexpensive to be a good LED light? Each lighting system does come with a “dusk till dawn” digital timer, LCD screen and support legs for the unit. These are shipping in April…we woud like to see the actual LEDs in action, but we suppose we can’t have everything can we?
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This thing has 14 Comments
Seems too good to be true, but if it is independently verified to give that par rating at that price, I’ll be putting one of these over my aquarium.
More info
http://www.exotic-aquarium.com/index2.html
by no means is this too good to be true. i’m getting back into the saltwater hobbie after a 4 or 5 year hiatus and have been shocked to find the prices of LED lighting. Its a complete ripoff. I’m a huge LED afficionado and have rooms in my home illuminated by high end LED setups that cost 1/3 the price of some of these LED canopies. The prices these people say are actually approaching reality. I for one will be following them to see if this is a gimmick or someone who is making a product and not charging 300% tax on the fact that its not CFL or halide
I have had a hard time believing what they are claiming with the technology they use. I have done tons of work with all kinds of different LEDs and you need sheer power (per LED, not per array) to be able to generate that kind of PAR at that distance.
Low power LEDs like the ones used fall off very sharply in PAR as the depth increases. Even high power 3W LEDs require tight optics to achieve those kind of PAR levels, and at much higher wattage per array than they are using.
I would love to be proven wrong, but will still be a non-believer until an independant source tests these units.
agreed, evilc66.
their LEDs seem like low wattage LEDs. My statement on what other companies charge for LED canopies still stands though. Several luxeons and housing doesn’t cost $1k like some of these other companies charge.
It is over inflated when you consider the cost of materials. But the low volume makes it hard to recoup the engineering costs when you only charge 10% over cost to make the price reasonable.
Another way to look at it, if PFO hadn’t made a decent amount of money on Solaris fixtures they wouldn’t have been able to even start to put up a fight against Orbitech.
Anyway. We are getting off topic
HI I’m very interested. The website is a pic of the fish tank I just bought. 46 gallon acrylic bow-front fish tank. I want to do mainly soft coral but it would be nice to do hard also. I have a center brace and a hood already. The hood “sits” between the two rectangular holes. Can an led system fit where the holes are on can my hood be sent to you all for addition cost put the LEDs in the hood. Next question how can you get the exact lighting needed for the reef and coral? I see there is no fan so do you cool it. what chiller would I have to buy. Lastly, when I need to replace an LED what can I do? Is it something I could buy from lets say home depot or do I have to send it to you. At what cost? My husband is an ex electrician. I guess the question can we just buy the replacement bulb from you? Finally, is there a guide that will tell me how to set it for my tank? Thanks for your time!!! I really want to do this right.
Kimberley
evilc66: Check your PM please. I couldn’t wait any longer…lol.
Updated clip: ” The Judgement Day”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD5yy0RDwxQ
I was in that store today, saw that setup, and helped my cousine buy some of those exact bulbs for setting up his first reef tank! The store owner bashed the tubes the same way he does in the video – I think it’s a parlor trick to impress the customer.
But – I don’t know what those meters are, and what the readings mean. I presume it is some kind of verification that the light is bright enough, or in the correct color temperature range?
Please explain, thanks
D
Hey there!
I have seen these lights at the store for a few months now. I’m not an engineer or anything, but the SPSs in the LED tank are growing and look happy! On a side note, they are in the process of ordering the aluminum housing, but they offer the LEDs with ballasts independent of the enclosure. I’ve seen pictures of their customer’s tanks with converted LED canopies as well. If you’re interested call them, the owner in charge of the lighting systems is named Tim.
Here’s their info:
Exotic Aquarium
Sacramento, CA.
916.422.7266
Cheers,
Casey
I have seen the demo in person. The prices on the piece of paper in the video are just for the fixture, without the bulbs. You need 4-many bulbs and they cost $100 each. So, the cost is actually higher than ~$200. I wish I knew more about what the PAR is supposed to be, but Tim/Exotic Aquarium does have a PAR meter in the tank and it reads as you see in the video. Is that enough? One thing that disturbed me was that the corals were all bleached when I visted 3 weeks ago. Tim said this was because someone working at the store made a mistake and put something in the tank that did that. Stil, you wonder about that.
I’m concerned about the PAR value going down over a short period of time. I have heard that Tim has had to replace his bulbs already because they were losing PAR. It may be too early to buy these bulbs. I heard that Solaris is really good, but does anyone know where you can get a great discount on this light fixture?
Yes, the Sunbrite system will bleach your SPS and LPS, thats a fact.
Please DO NOT USE more than 6 daylight bulbs(12k,16k) if your tank is less than 24″ deep.
350 PAR at 20″ deep tank is overkill.
We replaced 3 12k bulbs to Actinic. Way too much PAR for a 55 gal tank.
PAR drop 15 to 20% for the first year is expected.
The drop rate will slow down in 2nd year and the 3rd…..
There is a bumber to bumber warranty for 2 years as long as you don’t dip it in water or break it in half.
With 8 x 48″ bulbs running 8 hours per day, 30 days. You pay $3.20 a month to run these bad boy.
No chiller needed, Just keep your house @ 80F. NO Fans, No noise. Just doesn’t make coffee…LOL
The hood price is cheap because they are empty. It’s fitting them and deciding what bulbs you want to run that gets expensive.