Comments on: Sunbrite Lighting System is rethinking how to implement aquarium LEDs

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:31:33 +0000

I purchased a complete set of seven Sunbrite LEDs for my aquarium about a year ago. First of all, I would like to say “Don’t waste your money”. The White LEDs start fading after only about three months. I would estimate approximately a 30% loss in output over the three month period, which in LED terms, means they are spent. Over the last year, three of the LED bulbs (22000k, 16000k, and 12000k) have completely burned out. Only a few LEDs still light on those bulbs – these rest of the LEDs are burned out completely. The other two 6500K bulbs I purchased have dropped in output by about 50%, even though all of the LEDs still light up. The Blue (470mm) and Purple (440mm) both seem ok – there does not appear to be any drop in output and all LEDs still light up.

In general, I would say Sunbrite LEDs have some serious issues with their White LED Aquarium lights. Needless to say, the affect on my aquarium has not been good. I supplemented the lighting with some T5’s to keep everything alive. Just to see how long the Sunbrites would actually last. Without the T5’s all of my hard and soft corals would be dead. Well, I found out – the white Sunbrite LEDs really only last about three months, and are complete dead in about a year. The colored ones have been working fine for about a year. We’ll see how they hold up in year two.

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:26:54 +0000

i ve already seen the product and was just about to order i find out that the price of $260 on ebay is SHIT….the reaon i say this is cause they sell the fixture for about $260 plus…. $170 PER BULB…. SO IF YOU ADD IT ALL UP IT COMES WITH 8 BULBS around the sweet cost of $1700 to $1900 dollars….how about that….

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:06:32 +0000

any updates on your review of this product. i am very interested to see what you guys have learned about this amazing development.

By: nueva iluminaci�n LED en el mercado - Acuarios desde Costa Rica

nueva iluminaci�n LED en el mercado - Acuarios desde Costa Rica — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:34:51 +0000

[...] estas lamparas LED sunbrite lighting reef builders , creo que va ser una muy buena inverci�n Sunbrite Lighting System is rethinking how to implement aquarium LEDs | Reef Builders SunBright LED system is real and it�s awesome | Reef Builders [...]

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:48:25 +0000

I’m a bit skeptical of those PAR numbers and would like to see an independent test. The problems with using these 5mm LEDs are: 1. They generally don’t produce as much PAR as high power LEDs, 2. The useful life low power LEDs is much less than high power LEDs, and 3. Thermal management is harder as you can’t mate these up to a heat sink very easily and heat will reduce their useful life,

By: Elebriend

Elebriend — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:37:00 +0000

Not to jinx it or anything but is this lighting system between the cracks of Orbitech’s patent, are we going to see another patent infringment lawsuit? I mean this just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what Orbitech does. The cat’s out of the bag, just makes me wonder how Orbitech couldn’t get enough funding for their system yet a little aquarium shop came out with one before they did. By the way how is the Orbitech-PFO lawsuit going?

By: Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:28:50 +0000

Gotta love a company who spells “hobbyist” as “hobbiest” in their advertising/promotion – makes you question how much quality control goes into the actual product. Come on people! Take some pride in how you present your product!

By: JoeJ

JoeJ — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:48:48 +0000

oops, nevermind…I just watched the video.

By: JoeJ

JoeJ — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:46:30 +0000

PAR? PAR? PAR?

By: jwalsh

jwalsh — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:59:16 +0000

Does it have shimmer like a halide lamp would since its a bunch of point sources? Also I assume the 180 price for a 20 inch system is dealer cost, so probably somewhere around 350 consumer level?