PAR 38 fixture build

[Kay Tickle]

Loved the idea of using the PAR 38 LEDs, but couldn't find a fixture that would accomodate those and some stunners. My dad came into town and we built. (I only have one LED bulb right now, and the stunner strip is not attached yet).

The square dowel rods swivel so that the LED stunners can shoot at an angle.



Have nothing in the tank right now but snails and some ghost shrimp.

[Reverend Reefer]

woah, that's bright. is that just one bulb with no stunners on? wow. does it feel hot to touch? are those just regular sockets or ceramic ones?

[SoFLreef]

wow thats bright how many LEDs on each bulb ?

[Kay Tickle]

I think it looks a little brighter because of the glare. I will try to get a better shot when I get home. That is only one PAR 38 (I put 2 sockets because I plan on getting another one soon but they are $$$). The stunners are not up yet either.

The bulb has 5 LEDs (3 Day White and 2 455nm Royal Blue) from ecoxotic.

[Kay Tickle]

Originally Posted by Reverend Reefer

woah, that's bright. is that just one bulb with no stunners on? wow. does it feel hot to touch? are those just regular sockets or ceramic ones?

It is not hot at all. They are great! The top is open though for any heat to escape. I think the sockets may be ceramic. They are just $15 pendant fixtures, with the cord pulled all the way through.

[Reverend Reefer]

very nice. when u turn the powerhead on do you get shimmer?

[TVenters]

What kind of PAR38 are you using and what kind of optics are on it?

And, what's the distance from the fixture to the tank?

I'm curious, I was thinking of doing something similar. The canopy itself looks real nice =)

[Kay Tickle]

Originally Posted by Reverend Reefer

very nice. when u turn the powerhead on do you get shimmer?

I don't have a powerhead yet, so I'm not sure. However, there is a lot of shimmer on the sandbed. I tried taking pics last night of shimmer, but that's hard to capture. I will post some later.

Originally Posted by TVenters

What kind of PAR38 are you using and what kind of optics are on it?

And, what's the distance from the fixture to the tank?

I'm curious, I was thinking of doing something similar. The canopy itself looks real nice =)

They are the Ecoxotic PAR38 bulbs and they have 40 deg optics. I mounted them 12" above the water. I can't wait to get the 2nd one because it will light up the whole tank! Thanks for the compliment on the canopy. I've been looking and looking for something but I can't find anything that will allow me to use the PAR38 bulbs and stunner LED strips. You can put the PAR38 bulbs into any fixture that will take a normal light bulb, so if you just wanted them, you can pretty much hang/mount anything. I was hoping to get my stunner strips closer to the water, but for now I will attach them to the bottom of the canopy.

[Kay Tickle]

I tried to capture some shimmer:

[frankpayne32]

You have a very nice build there! I really like the DIY canopy you made.

[Jstdv8]

I just bought one of Evill 66's par 38 lights, should be in today, gonna use it for my frag/QT tank. it has 20k light and i was told to keep it 12-18" off the water.
can't wait to get it home and try it out.

[Kay Tickle]

Originally Posted by Jstdv8

I just bought one of Evill 66's par 38 lights, should be in today, gonna use it for my frag/QT tank. it has 20k light and i was told to keep it 12-18" off the water.
can't wait to get it home and try it out.

How did your light work out? What are you mounting it in?

[Kay Tickle]

Originally Posted by frankpayne32

You have a very nice build there! I really like the DIY canopy you made.

Thanks! I'll probably put some type of trim around it to cover the stunner strips (that I've since mounted) and make it more girly

[Jstdv8]

Originally Posted by Kay Tickle

How did your light work out? What are you mounting it in?

it's just over a QT/frag tank in my fish room. Ive just got it in one of thsoe shop light fixtures you get from Home depot witht eh spring clip on it. it's attached to the wall.
Right now I've got a huge rock of fire and ice zoas, a couple of neon green leathers, a couple of purple digi, a sour apple monti, i got that was very off color due to the last guys tank crash. and a bunch of green, blue and purple mushrooms.
It's been almost a week with those in there and everything looks to be doing great.
before that I had a bunch of LE zoas i bought through a guy on here and only a couple of them opened very good. I also had a load of crabs in there with them in the QT. So I'm not sure if it was too little or too much light or poor water quality from having to feed all those crabs. once they were moved to my DT with the T5's most of them opened up pretty good within 24 hours.

I did a few good sized water changed once the crabs were moved before i added the new coral so I'm assuming it was the water quality and not the light since iver got quite a variety now all doing great.

The colors are great and I loooooove the shimmer.

I held the fixture up over my 120g for my family to see as I moved the spotlight from coral to coral. They all asked when i was going to put LED's on my big tank LOL