Reef Brite LED's available in Canada

[DiverDude]

LEDs are unquestionably the future of aquaria lighting. The question is how long will it take for the volumes to ramp up so the prices can come down.

Right now, the manufacturers are feeding mightily at the 'early adopter' trough; prices are probably double what they could be.

As this effect wears off expect prices to get more competitive. With even a modest allowance for future bulb changes, purchasing an LED fixture will soon make a lot sense vs conventional lights.

I'll go out on a limb and predict that within 2 years, you'll be able to buy a quality 48" LED fixture that will replace a MH/T5 setup for $1000 or less.

I can hardly wait.

In fact, I may not. If I upgrade tanks, I'll consider making my own LED fixture.

[Ron99]

Looks nice. Can you do some PAR measurements?

Also, just for the sake of clarity when comparing LED units, The Reef Brite strips power their LEDs at something like 1.5W or 2W each.

[PFoster]

Originally Posted by Ron99

Looks nice. Can you do some PAR measurements?

Also, just for the sake of clarity when comparing LED units, The Reef Brite strips power their LEDs at something like 1.5W or 2W each.

Sorry but we dont have a PAR meter right now. I do have a lumen meter that I use to compare the difference between reflectors when using the smae lamps and the same ballasts but that wont help us here really.

[PFoster]

The Reef Brite LED strips actually use 3 W LED's that are being under driven so as to decrease the heat the generate and therefor increasing their live expectancy and depenadbility.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by PFoster

The Reef Brite LED strips actually use 3 W LED's that are being under driven so as to decrease the heat the generate and therefor increasing their live expectancy and depenadbility.

Yes, for marketing purposes they all say they use 3W LEDs. That means the LEDs are rated up to that power but are often actually driven at lower power to reduce heat and increase longevity as you state. But the actual output and therefore PAR will differ at different drive currents. Two different brands could use the exact same 3W LEDs but give different performance because they are driving at different currents Most manufacturers usually don't say exactly what current they are driving the LEDs at. FWIW, I believe that the Reef Brite uses Edison Opto emitters that are built using Cree chips so they are decent LEDs but the output is decreased from the max potential because of the lower drive current.

So as an example let's look at a Cree XR-E 3W cool white LED Q5 bin:

@350mA drive current the LED is using about 1W of power and generating about 107 lumens

@500mA drive current the LED is using about 1.6W of power and generating about 145 lumens or 1.35 times the output at 350mA

@700mA drive current the LED is using a bit over 2W of power and generating about 177 lumens or about 1.7 times the output at 350mA

@1000mA drive current the LED is using about 3W of power and generating about 235 lumens or about 2.2 times the output at 350mA.

PAR will probably correlate well with the lumen output so you have roughly twice as much PAR running at 1000mA vs. 350mA. Or to put it another way, you can probably light a tank twice as deep with LEDs running at 1000mA vs. LEDs running at 350mA.

[Ron99]

Just as a follow on, I'm not trying to poop on the product or anything of that nature. I just feel that with LED technology being fairly new to our hobby there is alot of misinformation, misunderstanding and marketing hype such that people don't really know exactly what they are getting and what the particular LED fixture they are buying is capable of doing. The manfacturers don't help in this as they don't release important specifications on their products and they don't publish PAR numbers (which they must have tested).

So what happens is a customer buys an LED unit to replace MH or T5HO or whatever and then it doesn't have the results or performance they believed it would so they conclude LEDs are no good and get on the interwebs and talk about how bad LEDs are and how their corals stopped growing or lost colour etc.

I believe LEDs are the future of reef aquarium lighting and can replace T5HO and MH in most applications if implemented appropriately. That means high quality LEDs driven at 3W with secondary optics if you need very high PAR or want to have penetration in deeper tanks. Bare LEDs without secondary optics for lower light requirements or shallower tanks etc.

I believe Reef Brite's literature says these can replace T5 and VHO lighting which probably means (if you read between the lines) that these will not perform as well as MH or T5HO. So they will be great for some applications but not for very high light requirements or penetration into deeper tanks.

[Jaws]

So what depth are you suggesting they would be good for?

[PFoster]

Yeah LED's are rather pricey, but it is our opinion that the Reef Brite LED strips are VERY well priced especially for a product that is made in the US and NOT in china.

Here are some prices for you:
15" $150-170
24" $205-235
36" $235-270
48" $270-300

So at their current price you are coming in at just above $1000 for LED's today!

We have a couple of tank builders in the Toronto area that are already using the Reef Brite's and installing them as the sole source of lighting on tanks up to 30" deep. I dont have any pics of this yet though as the tanks are still a work in progress but I will see what I can do for you.

Please note that you can not purchase these from us, but we would be happy to ship them to your local retailer.

Also for a fixture type setup you can buy a bracket to attach you Reef Brite LED strips to. The bracket allows you to start with say 2-3 strips and add more in as your tank and budget allow. Additionally if you already have halides you could either suspend one reef brite LED strip on either side of the light for suplimentation or you could buy one of the brackets to attach both stips too. And if you are looking for a new halide reflector, Reef Brite has MH pendants already designed to have the LED strips mounted on them to ensure that the fixture looks very clean!

[DiverDude]

Originally Posted by PFoster

Yeah LED's are rather pricey, but it is our opinion that the Reef Brite LED strips are VERY well priced especially for a product that is made in the US and NOT in china.

Here are some prices for you:
15" $150-170
24" $205-235
36" $235-270
48" $270-300

So at their current price you are coming in at just above $1000 for LED's today!

Mmmmm....not quite ! In some applications, absolutely; in others (i.e. deeper tanks) probably not -yet.

I think Ron99 has the right view on this in that until the manufacturers start publishing PAR numbers, the consumer will always be left trying to compare apples to oranges.

From a business perspective, I understand how it can be appealing for a marketing department to obfuscate details to a degree but if LEDs are really going to make quick headway in the market, aquarists will need (and hopefully demand) data that will allow them to select an appropriate product for their setup.

Perhaps as a distributor, they may take some of these comments from you and actually listen ? One can only hope !

[PFoster]

I have already emailed Reef Brite to request any info that they have on PAR output. We do have a copy of the spectral output of the strips, but right now its a printed copy with a small graph.
As for PAR output, these strips are supposed to have double the PAR output of an ATI Blue Plus with reflectors, but as for actual numbers I dont have those on hand at this time. I dont suppose anyone here has a PAR meter?


Here is a link for the Reef Brites being used as a suplimentation on a large tank for you:
http://reefbuilders.com/2010/01/04/r...-feet-of-reef/

And here is another link to them in action on a deep tank with tons of halide lighting:
http://reefbuilders.com/2009/12/18/r...ep-reef-tanks/