New Lumen Bright Reflector. ... any info on them

[glxtrix]

no they are just reflectors. Tho they could be hung as a pendant, check previous pages on how they are hung.

[KurtsReef]

When we did the par readings on my display we also did the sump where some coral prop. will be happening. That system had a spider reflector, 400w MH and icecap electronic ballast at the time....sitting about 28-36" off the water and par readings were below 50 everywhere...so bought a 4th lumenbright and put it down there this weekend.

Do not have a par meter, but can tell you the light used to fill the room and now is directed into the sump area so it has to be stronger, have no way of measuring it now but like what I see.

The Lumenbright is mounted to a piece of plywood and hung over the sump using chains, not pretty but seems effective.

[glxtrix]

yeah I use to have parobolic reflectors before I switched over to the LB's, crazy how much darker the room got once the LB's were installed. Just goes to show how well the light is utilized.

[JRaquatics]

Originally posted by glxtrix
yeah I use to have parobolic reflectors before I switched over to the LB's, crazy how much darker the room got once the LB's were installed. Just goes to show how well the light is utilized.

This is the point that I try to make to everyone that thinks the world of the Lumenarcs. When I had them on my 180 I did not need any other light in my room, infact my wife didn't enjoy watching TV in that room. But now we both enjoy looking at my empty tank full of light and watch TV.

[setec69]

I have to add my 2 cents now. I finally got mine installed this weekend thanks to Mike at Reef Specialty. I must say I am very impressed with the reflector. My sand actually looks white now where as before it was an odd tan color.

My big question now is, about how far is everyone off the water? I see a few posts of 14-16 inches from water to bulb, one guy I spoke with said Coralvue was recommending 12 inches, but I can’t find anywhere that confirms that number. I am sitting at about 14.5.

I will get a pic posted once I get done tweaking them to get the light where I want it on the rocks.

[JRaquatics]

Originally posted by setec69
I have to add my 2 cents now. I finally got mine installed this weekend thanks to Mike at Reef Specialty. I must say I am very impressed with the reflector. My sand actually looks white now where as before it was an odd tan color.

My big question now is, about how far is everyone off the water? I see a few posts of 14-16 inches from water to bulb, one guy I spoke with said Coralvue was recommending 12 inches, but I can’t find anywhere that confirms that number. I am sitting at about 14.5.

I will get a pic posted once I get done tweaking them to get the light where I want it on the rocks.

Distance matters between the size of the reflector and the wattage of the bulb.

[setec69]

mini and 250w

[JRaquatics]

I have the bulb at 16 inches above the water which makes the reflector sit at 12inches above the water. I will have par readings of the 250s this weekend. If Jim has time we might test them at different hieghts.

[salmon alley]

Read through the entire thread and haven't noticed anyone using VHO or T5 supplementation with their LB reflector. Has anyone tried this? I would be concerned that the supplemental bulbs would be so far below the LB that they'd cast shadows into the tank.

[JRaquatics]

I tried 4 36" vho over my tank and there was not a shaddow. At this point in time and with the use of Reeflux 12ks, I rather not have them above my tank. I will try to get a photo this weekend with them above my tank.

[salmon alley]

I've got a 48" x 24" x 20" tall tank. My plan is to keep SPS in top half and LPS in the lower half and on the sandbed.
I'd like to use 175w Iwasaki 15K bulbs but I want to add a little blue and like the dusk-dawn effect of actinics, hence my query.
How far off the water did you have the fluorescents?

[JRaquatics]

I velcroed two bulbs together to go the full length of my tank. I had them resting on the center braces of the tank. So I guess it was an inch of two above the water.

[burton14e7]

Originally posted by glxtrix
no they are just reflectors. Tho they could be hung as a pendant, check previous pages on how they are hung.

Curious why they're calling it a pendant and charging 5 bucks more than the reflectors. Screwed some hooks into the reflectors?

[glxtrix]

they are calling those pendants because those are the HQI versions of the reflectors. I'd imagine they are hung a bit different.

[burton14e7]

Gotcha, didn't know HQI's had different sockets. Thought that was all bulb and ballast.

[glxtrix]

Yes HQI's are double ended. So the bulb will fully fit inside the bell. The single ended bulbs have a mogul socket and rectangular bracket that sticks out of the bell. Pics are kinda hard to see whats going on. Not too sure how those hang, but I'm sure it'll excite the HQI owners that these are offered now. I'd sure like to know what kindof PAR readings will be coming from these guys! Oh BTW guys, I'm getting a PAR meter on Sunday, the new bulbs will be here tomorrow, so I'll be able to post the results of my 175's by monday

[salmon alley]

glxtrix- Looking forward to seeing what kind of PAR you get with the 175w bulbs. I'm considering going with this size myself.
Are you using the Reeflux 12K bulb?

[ksed]

Bubbletip2

I currently have a Giesemann 2x250watt 2 t-5.
Tank size 48x24x24 120G . I was woundering if you could give me some info if I were to install Lumenbrights with same wattage and lamps if it would make an improvement?
Also I debating to go with 250 or 400w. The aquarium mainly sps dominated?
I only have 20" from tank to ceiling. Would the minis fit?

[Poppy828]

I am using the minis in an 18" canopy (outside dimensions)

Noticed a huge difference in the LB as opposed to the LM. I also have the same tank you do. I run 250 12k Reeflux on Coralvue ballasts.

[bubbletip2]

Originally posted by ksed
Bubbletip2

I currently have a Giesemann 2x250watt 2 t-5.
Tank size 48x24x24 120G . I was woundering if you could give me some info if I were to install Lumenbrights with same wattage and lamps if it would make an improvement?
Also I debating to go with 250 or 400w. The aquarium mainly sps dominated?
I only have 20" from tank to ceiling. Would the minis fit?

Hey ksed,

I think you should wait a couple days, at least, to make a decision as glxtrix is posting 175w numbers with LB's and I should have 3 different 250w bulbs tested as well - 12K Reeflux, Blueline, and a 14K EVC. Should be pretty interesting.

I was over at Jermey's(JRAquatics) today in the ice storm and tweeked his dimmable ballasts to optimal and took some non-blue(right Jeremy)) properly white balanced shots of his tank. We also took shots of the 3-250w bulbs under the middle reflector being the only bulb fired ot show the spread.

Here is a shot of the 250w - 12K Reeflux bulbs under LumenBright(AKA - Laserbeams). These were set to the threshhold using the PAR meter and Jeremy's CV dimmable ballasts. I think Jeremy will agree that this shot looks identical to what his tank looks like in person. Spot on, huh Jeremy?



I will have pics of the 3 bulbs in a bit and will post them and in the next couple days I should have some numbers punched in. Come on glxtrix, lets see your numbers...

[JRaquatics]

Great Photo Jim. This is an exact replication of what my tank looks like in person. I can't wait to see everyones reactions to the numbers we got.

[BreadmanMike]

Tank looks great Jeremy. I love the scaping.

[bubbletip2]

These three shots will show you a couple different things.

First you will see in each the actual "spread" of a single Lumenbright mini 14.5" from the surface. As you can see and can also look back at the full tank shot that the spread is pretty significant and very doable even at this height. You can actually see in these photos by the hard lines the light clearly illuminting a large section of the tank. By raising the reflector the section of the cone of light at the surface of the water will become wider crossing light into and under the next reflector.

Don't be fooled by silly talk of laser beams and a lack of spread when referring to a LumenBright. These things are for real. The numbers will show that the spread is also very evenly distributed throughout Jeremy's rock work - more to come.

The second thing shown here is actual color balanced examples of 3 different bulbs and how they look under a LumenBright on an electronic CV ballast. It will be pretty obvious how illuminated each bulb truly is and will be backed up by the PAR numbers we took today. More to come as well...

Blueline 250w 10K bulb(How old is this bulb Jeremy?)


Coralvue 250w 12K Reeflux: 1 month old bulb(Jeremy?)


EVC 250w 14K: 1.5 month old bulb


As you can see the 12K is simply brighter and has a more natural appearance as opposed to the other two bulbs. I do notice that these 12K bulbs really do pop against a blue background. I myself will be scraping my back glass over the next week to apply a blue coat to better help with white balancing photographs.

[drudude]

that tank looks pritty.. the light looks amazing.

[glxtrix]

salmon alley I'm running the Iwasaki 15K