- Today on BRS TV Investigates,
can a single LED strip perform as good
or better than a single T5 bulb, ultimately replacing them?
How about a combination of five Reef
Brite XHOs compared to T5s, Lumi Lights
or even Lumi Light Pros?
Well, today I've got the answer
and also you'll see why the XHOs
are Ryan's choice for fill light
on his very own 360.
(upbeat music)
Hi, I'm Randy with this Friday's BRS TV Investigates,
where we experiment on our own tanks.
So you don't have to experiment on yours.
And today we put together five Reef Brite XHO LED strips
to test their performance in spread, spectrum and PAR
and find out if their integrated reflectors,
higher wattage LEDs and wider spectrum offering
can measure up to the Lumi Light Pro's
record-breaking performance we saw last week,
meaning if the combination of four Lumi Light Pros,
which have 96 LEDs in each strip,
can put up the best spread,
distribution and PAR numbers we've ever tested,
can five XHOs with reflectors
and only 24 LEDs per strip
or 72 less diodes match or surpass them?
Let's find out in today's testing of three XHO
actinic blue strips combined with two 50-50 strips
in our first test to determine spread
and optimal mounting height.
And as a bonus, we'll also take a look at how
a single actinic blue XHO strip
compares to a single blue-plus T5 bulb
to see if we can begin answering the question,
can LED strips replace T5 bulbs?
Determining a light's spread is vital
to understanding how to implement
it optimally over our tanks.
In order to wrap our corals in even intensity
of light from all sides and reduce hotspots or shadows.
In some cases that can be achieved using
a large single fixture, like an abled T five.
Well, in other cases,
it requires harnessing multiple smaller LED modules
to spread the light out as evenly as possible.
For the XHO we've combined three actinic blue
and two 5O-50 led strips
into one single five hole mounting bracket
effectively turning them
into one larger single light fixture.
And because reef bread has size options
that span the most popular tank links
from sizes from 24 up to 72 inches.
And given the impressive performance you're about to see.
We can skip right to finding their optimal mounting height.
Our test begins where the look
at the spread and distribution
of our XHO Reef Bright configuration starting
at just six inches off the top
of the water with each strip set
to their max of a hundred percent intensity.
The performance measured at six inches deep
in the tank across a grid of 36 data points
is already proving to be pretty flat
with the center average PAR at five 62
and 281 average PAR in the outer edges.
However, there is room to improve
by raising the setup higher,
to reduce the warm center and increase
the spread near the edges.
We did just that by raising the five XHO up one inch
at a time and testing the same PAR grid until
we reached a point that allowed
for max spread without losing too much
of efficiency the spill into the room.
That point came at our BRS recommended mounting height
of 10 inches off the water.
Where now we start to see the center down to 381
and the outer ring at just 264,
which works out to be a very low 30% difference
between the two averages
and one of the best bread performances we've tested,
even on performing one of the lighting gold standards,
like the eight bulb T five fixture.
But is it fair to compare the spread light distribution and
PAR of our XHO LED strip to the T five fixture
in the first place?
In order to better answer that question,
We first need to know how a single XHO compares
to a single T five bulb.
In which case we mounted each one
at nine inches above our 24 by 24 inch test tank
and measured the same 36 PER data points
at six inches under water.
As you can see here, not only does
this single 24 inch T five bolt perform really well
in a 12 inch by 20 inch rectangular space.
But there's only a 60% loss from the dead center
of the tank towards the outer edges.
Surprisingly enough, the single 24 inch XHO LED
had exactly the same 60% loss of PER
from the center to the outer ring.
However, in that same 12 by 20 inch rectangle,
it has 33% more PER averaging, 87 over the T5S 59.
Obviously one single bulb isn't designed
to light a large area like the entire 24 inch cube,
but looking at the higher amount of PER coming
from a single XHO strip over a single T five bulb,
not only are we getting more part in that rectangular shape,
the LEDs actually perform exceptionally well
at spreading more of it into the outer edges.
Next up we look at spectrum offering
and the spectrum output of the Reprodex XHOs
as I alluded to early on,
although there are three color options to choose from,
like the Lumi light and Lumi light Pros.
That's the actinic blue 50-50 actinic blue and cool white,
and the full white strips are spectrum testing of each XHOs
strip revealed a wider band of blue in the actinic strips
between 430 and 500 than the Lumi lights
and even a slightly wider blue and more green, yellow,
and red output from the 50-50 XHO strips.
Much like the last two Reef LED tests.
We found that coupling XHO actinic blues
with the XHO 50-50 together
in a three to two ratio of blue to 50-50.
Not only made the most pleasing look
to our eyes inside the tank,
but actually resulted in a spectrum mix
that was much fuller and more evenly represented
between 420 and 500 that also more closely aligned
with the ATI T five blue PAR spectrum comparison tests,
then both Lumi light options.
This goes to show again that the wider band
of blue spectrum is the biggest differentiator
between the XHOs and the Lumi lights.
In our dynamic spectrum blending test of the actinic blue
and 50-50 XHO strip under our 60 gallon cube filled
with water.
As we cycle through the 10 spectrum testing points,
the XHOs provide a nearly flawless blend of both actinic
and cool white LEDs into one cohesive blend inside our tank.
This is something we also saw with all
the reef Brite LED strips,
and really speaks to the simplicity of having just two LED
colors needed to be blended together.
Taking what we've learned from both spread and spectrum,
meaning mounting the five XHOs strip set up
at our BRS recommended 10 inches off the water
and using them in a configuration like you see here
for an even spectrum blend.
We now attempt to tune the Reef Brite to target PAR ranges
for two tank type goals.
That first goal being 75 to 150 PAR in as much
of the tank as possible for LPS softies and polyps,
while aiming for 200 to 350,
for those SPS dominated systems.
starting with the first LPS softie Impala goal inside our 60
gallon tank, we set each of the five X eight show strips
to their fourth intensity setting
which is about 60% using inline dimmer switches
and tested part at 6, 12 and 18 inches deep in the tank.
Out of the 108 data points that we collected 94 of them,
or 87% of the entire tank fell at within
our PAR goals for LPS, softies and polyps.
Putting the XHOs at the top of all the lights
we've tested for this tank type
and nearly identical performance
as the reef, bright Lumi light Pros.
Actually that impressive performance
gets even more impressive.
When we turn the XHOs up to their max setting
and measure the same hundred and eight data points
with the goal of having as many points
as possible falling at
or within wall to wall SPS dominated PARS with spot ranges.
What we find again is some of the best performance
we've tested to date with 90 out
of those hundred and eight points,
hitting our goal of 200 to 350 for a total of 83%
of this 24 inch by 24 inch cube.
So with the performance in spread spectrum
and part like what we just saw today.
What is there to gain from using the Reef Brite XHOs
over the Lumi light Lumi light Pros?
For me, I like the single cord
for each XHOs strip versus dual cords
for the Lumi light pros,
which means I would need half the control options like
Bluetooth dimmers or zero to 10 volt apex ready controllers,
which also means half the cost to implement
on top of that in the major difference
between the two there's no denying
the wider spectrum offering of the XHOs,
which make them more of a complete lighting solution option
that I'd be willing to hang over my tank on its own,
but even the look of our five strip combo over a tank like
Ryan's E170 is enough make any refer draw.
Really that balance between actinic blue and 50-50 blue
and cool white does make
for some pretty awesome looking tanks.
Along with that given the data
that we saw comparing a single actinic XHO
strip to a single T five bulb,
when it comes to choosing a supplemental fill light
for a hybrid lighting options.
I'm actually more inclined to choose the LED strips
over the T five bulbs,
which is something Ryan's going to try over on his own 360,
as we discussed in this live stream over here,
where we attempt to answer the question,
could this led on LED hybrid change reef lighting forever?
Find out for yourself.