update time.

Paul decided to change the bulb out to the 12K without my permission...i hate him lol jk. The 12K bulb looks pretty nice, definitely alot less blue but still gives the corals that pop in color that everyone wants. Water has cleared up but we have some little flatworms issue, the non acro eating ones that just sit on the glass and looks hideous. A new stand was made for the tank so that people no longer have to bend down to look at it.

Other then that not much change, the colors are staying pretty good. The valida has gotten some of its colors back from being bleached under the 400W MH. But all corals seems to be holding its color. temp stays steady at 79.4-80.3 throughout the day. Thats how much heat is being transfered into the tank :mrgreen:

More update to come next week.
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Great little tank. Very interested in the lighting....whats the light spread and penetration like on that LED spot light? does it just fit into a normal bulb socket?

great little shop you guys have there, great looking corals and tank.

i would say the spread of the spotlights are roughly 1ft x 1ft range for the 27W version and abotu 10"x 10" for the 15W version. Penetration on the LED are fairly good, with the light at 10" above the surface and the PAR meter 10" below surface we were getting ~250PAR for the 27W and ~160PAR for the 15W. Considering MH coverage is roughly 24-30" depending on the reflector, these little bulbs are pretty up to par(no pun intended) in terms of area of coverage and PAR value(almost equal to a 250W if not equal).

And it does just fit right into an average lighting socket :) so if your socket breaks somehow something at homedepot or hardware store can fix it.

Thanks! Glad you liked it, come drop by again once we get more things up and running!

Looking Good Eugene! Great to see a more affordable option in LED spots.

Here's a review of the PAR38 lamp and its PAR coverage at varying distances THROUGH THE AIR:

http://glassbox-design.com/2010/par-...led-spotlight/

FWIW, the coverage is pretty pathetic but would suffice for spotlighting - certainly not a MH replacement.

i don't think it's fair to say coverage is pathetic or to compare them directly to MH as they aren't intended to replace MH over larger tanks. LED's can produce performance equal to MH over a small area which is why you need a large array of LEDs to cover a larger tank (I'm using 80 LEDs to cover my 48"x18" 75 gallon). But for nano tanks or spotlighting these Par38 type bulbs are a great option.

That LED spotlight looks really cool. Any word on getting any that have more blue colour? It's kinda white for my liking.

If you look into the PAR38 lamps by evil66 those are 15W Bulbs, they are not comparable to MH much in terms of PAR value as well as coverage. Since they do roughly 10" x 10" and right after that the PAR value pretty much becomes non existent for a large tank 1 bulb will not cut it to replace MH, and its not made for that as Ron has pointed out. Also the test in the glassbox design was done with 40degree optics which isnt really all that useful for reefing applications. The O.C ICE CooL.E.D comes standard with 60degree optics and they have a much better coverage area compared to the standard evil66 PAR38s. If you look at the nano tank above, lite by the 27W version the footprint of the tank is 14"L x 8.5"W x 10"H and we have about 1" on both sides thats a little bit shaded, so these are definitely able to power bigger tanks just not so much tall tanks.

Now looking over across the ocean to Japan/Taiwan/Hong Kong, Spotlights has been used with great success, they use less power, injecting less heat into the system and most tanks you see thats 50-60gallons or above has at least 5+ on them. If we were to guess at the wattage total i would say 5 spotlights would only use no more then 250W(and this is over rating them) over a 3ft tank, are the tanks in Japan able to keep SPS or any coral they want? I think we all know that answer, but these bulbs were not made to replace MH by each bulb and if you do plan to use spotlights as the main lighting system multiple would be needed, either that or as Ron has already mentioned earlier in order to light up a system thats big, you would build a big enough array that would allow it to illuminate the footprint of the tank like a MH system would.

I am personally debating whether to switch over my 2x150W MH + 4x T5HO lighting setup over to these spotlights, as im running 2 over my frag tank at home and couldnt be happier with the way that its bringing the colors out of the corals.

The Spotlights come in 2 colors right now, a 12K which is what the latest photos were taken with. and a 14K which unfortunately we dont have a bulb right now to show. I would say the 14K bulb is an ice white color, meaning that its white with a tint of light blue to it.

we are going to get a sample of a 20K bulb to see how blue it will get, but we are afraid that since there will be too many blue LED and not enough white ones that the brightness (lumens) to the human eye will seen dim. So we have to test it out first to see if we will bring one but definitely we are looking into a 20K version

The only reason I commented on the comparison to MH is because it was already being done in this thread with statements like: The numbers for the PAR38 light clearly show they aren't comparable and would be good for very small tanks or for spotlighting. In this form factor they certainly are not a panacea of LED lighting - they are good for their intended purpose - spotlighting small areas; not being comparable at all to MH.

What makes you conclude this? The new lamps are 21W ("NOW 21w for more PAR"). Apparently Nanocustoms is just slow about editing their old literature so there's a mix of old 15W stuff included in the 21W stuff.

The PAR38 light in the review used 40 degree optics and through the air lit a 7" circle at 200 µmol/sec/m2 at 18" THROUGH THE AIR (repeated for emphasis). The narrower optics would be expected to provide more "punch" than 60 or 80 degree optics. Therefore the usable light for moderately light demanding corals is about a 7" circle fewer than 18" away from the light THROUGH THE AIR (corals would probably have to be even closer due to PAR loss if measured through water). If we assume PAR is lost through the water and need to bring the PAR values up while still using the single light the light would need to moved closer to the tank making the irradiated area even smaller (based on the bell shaped dispersion of light probably closer to a 5" diameter).

I understand and appreciate that the 27W O.C ICE CooL.E.D utilizes more LEDs with wider optics than the reviewed 21W PAR38 but until real data are compiled an assumption about superiority is just that - an assumption. PAR values through water depicting spread and intensity at varying depths (similar to that done in the above noted review) would certainly help legitimize this light if indeed it does provide substantially greater PAR with wider coverage than the PAR38

So again, I think the lights are useful for spot lighting small areas probably no larger than a single "large" colony of 7" in diameter with usable PAR. And again, the comparison to MH was already being made and I was simply pointing out that actual data don't support the claims being made. This form factor for LEDs is good for spotlighting small areas. An array of LEDs is certainly a better bet for more typical display sizes. Unfortunately there has been a lot of unsubstantiated hype about LEDs and now that real data are starting to become available broad sweeping claims with comparison to MH need to be tempered. I've been excited to use LEDs and had wanted to buy one of these spotlights about a year ago but decided not to be a guinea pig as an early adopter and wait until real data became available. As it stands now it looks like the best bet for me is something like the AI modules as I don't have the desire to go the DIY route.