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Vertex isn’t the inspiration for these lights? – Pacific Sun is the inspiration for these lights and they have been lighting aquariums with LEDs for many years before Vertex introduced their lighting. I think if you really look at the Vertex illumina, you might find that there is more than one idea borrowed from Pacific Sun. The Pacific Sun lamps have been advocating the ‘no optic’ design for many years.
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Well, the same could be said about PS looking to the PFO Solaris for inspiration... PFO was in the Reef LED business earlier (2007) than PS (2008 designs and late 2009 to market).
I read somewhere that the engineer who was contracted to design the initial PS LED fixtures is also the brains behind the the ReefTech design. Can anyone confirm this?
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With that said, I don’t think these lights have all that much in common. The Vertex lights are all about style while the ReefTech lights are more about PAR (or whatever measure of coral loving light you want to use).
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I'm not sure what you base that statement on. The Vertex engineers take their lights to the top light lab in Europe (if not the world) to get performance measurement data on their designs. No one else in the industry does this to my knowledge. The new 260 driven at only 2.5W to extend diode life, reduce colour shift and heat is a PAR monster and at 100% power will likely bleach out any living creature placed beneath it.
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For my tank, the front to back depth is 3 feet. It’s hard to imagine how the Illumina could fully light the tank better than the ReefTech lights. Optics are not really an option as I could never get the spread that I need with them.
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The Illumina with it's center strip of diodes at 120 degrees is designed to cover a 36" deep (front to back) tank when suspended at 6" over the water. My tank is 30" and it has excellent coverage at that height.
I would love to see the results of a side-by-side comparison but tests performed by hobbyists are always somewhat subjective. What we need is an independent body to take these lights into the lab and measure them under identical conditions with calibrated instruments.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is great that there are more fixtures entering the market and everyone will have their own reasons to prefer one make over another...