- Today on BRS TV Investigates.
What if I told you that we found a Reef tank lighting
solution that not only costs significantly less
than the other lighting gold standards,
but also performs better in terms of spread
and even PAR distribution,
over the next few minutes,
we'll show you how a bank of
Reef Bright LumiLite Pro strips, raises the bar
for what LEDs can achieve
and how we recommend setting them up
over your own tank.
(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 if you thought last week's performance
from the standard Reef Bright LumiLite LED strip
was impressive,
just wait until you see what four of the LumiLite Pros
have to offer for our tests that cover
spread, spectrum and PAR.
I'll tell you right now that spectrum testing aside,
today's testing data will show how these
three actinic blue LumiLite Pro strips,
coupled with a single Lumi light 50-50 pro strip,
provide better spread and PAR distribution
than anything that we've ever tested up until now.
Beyond just showing you a bunch of PAR data
and numbers for the LumiLite Pros, after today's video,
you should have a better understanding whether
the pro strips are the right tool for your tank.
Along with our BRS recommended mounting heights
and intensities that we would use
to create stunning LPS softie tanks like these,
or even those jaw dropping SPS dominated systems like this.
I will say that for me personally,
although the regular LumiLite strips
put up a solid performance at just two inches off the water,
using their included mounting legs.
The ability to fix multiple LumiLite pros
to a single mounting bracket,
and then raise them higher off the water.
Not only helps with unobstructed access inside the tank,
but actually it looks really sharp
as a single fixture over the tank.
And because the LumiLite pros are essentially two regular
LumiLite strips in one housing,
the additional output allows us to mount them higher
without losing a ton of PAR,
which we will demonstrate next in our spread test
and recommended optimal mounting height.
So the first step to understanding how to ideally implement
the LumiLite pro LEDs to light our tanks,
is to first identify what type of spread they offer,
and then use that information to dial in their optimal
placement over our tanks in order to get the best
performance from them as possible.
We do all of that by identifying how many strips we believe
will cover the tank evenly,
along with how they should be spaced.
Then we raise the light up inch by inch
until we find a mounting height
that provides maximum coverage
with minimal efficiency, loss, or light spill.
So how many LumiLite Pros do we recommend using?
The simple answer that we found was by mounting as many
strips as we could
to the largest five hole mounting bracket.
Which wound up being three actinic strips
and one 50-50 strip
due to the additional width of the pro strips.
We tested this for LumiLite Pro combo
over our 24 inch by 24 inch testing tank.
And not only found that their optimal mounting height
was at nine inches, but in fact,
combining four pro led strips in a similar manner,
actually provided one of the best spread performances
we've seen to date.
To find that recommended nine inch optimal mounting height,
we first measured a grid of 36 power points at the top six
inches of our 60 gallon test cube
with the Reef Bright LumiLite pros
mounted at six inches off the top of the water,
then raise the entire fixture inch by inch
to the point where we crossed our threshold for light spill
and related efficiency loss of 15%.
Here at six inches off the top of the water,
we see a warm spot in the center of the tank
with an average of 471 PAR
yet surprisingly there's only a 38% reduction
of that PAR in the extreme outer edges of the tank
at 288.
To give you an idea of just how impressive that is,
an eight bulb T5 fixture,
that's almost the same size as the tank itself
had a 48% drop from the center average to the outer edges,
meaning at just six inches off the water,
the Lumi light pro outperforms, one of the gold standards.
Even more surprising than that was how that roughly 10%
difference in spread and even distribution between the two
vastly different lighting options
tracked nearly identically,
as we raise the LumiLite Pros up inch by inch,
until we found our BRS Recommended nine inch mounting height
off the top of the water.
Here at nine inches again,
we see ultra flat distribution from the Reef Brights.
And this time there's only a 26% difference
between the center and outer average part.
Whereas at the same nine inches the eight bulb T5
showed a 35% difference.
The net result of our testing,
the LumiLite pros provide one of the best
even coverage options out there.
And by looking at the strip style form factor
that spans the entire tank,
following a similar form factor
of the historical gold standard, it's not really surprising.
Let's talk about spectrum next with a couple of tests that
will show us what LumiLite Pros offer for spectrum
that will meet the needs of our corals,
how that spectrum compares to that same T5 gold standard
with the ATI Blue Plus bulb spectrum
and what we can expect
for spectrum blending inside of our tanks,
which oftentimes can be challenging for some LED fixtures
currently out there to do well.
So for those who've been following along,
the LumiLite Pro LED strips
offer that same spectrum
as the standard Lumi lights with three different options
in the actinic blue strips
and their spectrum peak at 446,
where that coral pop and zing typically comes from.
The 50-50 strips,
that is a combo of both the same actinic blue LEDs
with the addition of what I would consider
cool white LEDs that add in a little green, yellow, and red.
And reduces that overtly blue to the tank,
making it more pleasing to look at
followed by a white LED strip that still has a spike at 448
but it's primarily what our eyes perceive as white
with heavy amounts of green, yellow, orange
and red spectrum.
We mix then match the actinic blues,
50-50s and white strips.
But ultimately we landed on our BRS recommended combo
of three actinic pro strips, and one 50-50 pro strip,
which winds up creating a spectrum mix,
that's a bit wider than the regular LumiLites
that we previously tested specifically around 460.
And when we compare that spectrum
to the ATI T5 blue plus bulb,
it's not as wide between 450, like we'd like to see,
but still better than many of the lights we've tested
and certainly capable of creating pretty stellar tanks
and meeting our corals needs.
Up next is the dynamic spectrum test
where we take 10 spectrum readings
underneath our 60 gallon cube with moving water
and looking at those 10 readings,
there's no surprise here that the roughly 88% actinic
LEDs to white LEDs create a nearly flawless performance
with only two individual LED colors to blend
nearly flawless,
meaning unless you were looking extremely hard
at spectrum shifts on paper
inside the tank,
our eyes would likely be unable to pick up any color
differences amongst the shimmering lines.
So the Reef Bright LumiLite Pros
have that standout spectrum and distribution
at the recommended nine inch mounting height.
And a spectrum range that will lead to some
pretty epic tanks,
but achieving those LPS and softie works of living art
or that iconic take that's filled to the brim
with rainbows of branching SPS
lies within the LumiLite pro's ability
to target PAR ranges to get you there.
And up next, we find out if it has what it takes.
First, let's find out our four led strip configurations
capabilities at filling this entire 60 gallon tank
from top to bottom in as much PAR as possible
between our goal for tanks with lower light demand,
LPS softies and polyps
or 75 to 150 PAR
where our standard
is 70% or more of the 108 PAR data points
at depths of six, 12, and 18 inches.
We mounted the LumiLite Pro configuration
at our recommended nine inches off the water
and set each of them to the fourth intensity setting,
using the included inline dimmers
and found 94 out of 108 points
measuring within our 75 to 150 goal.
Meaning 87% of this entire 24 inch cubed area
is optimized to support all of your favorite Zoanthids,
hammers, frogs ponds.
Blast those in A cans
or even tanks filled with leather Zenia
or other awesome softies.
That 87% being the highest of any light we've tested.
After reviewing the data for other lighting options
on the same tank with the same goals,
these four Reef Bright LumiLite Pro strips
perform at the top of their class
right up there with LEDs
designed specifically for this purpose.
However, the LumiLite Pro have another trick up their sleeve
when we turn up their intensity to a hundred percent
and test the same 108 data points
for ranges between 200 to 350 PAR,
which is our goal for creating
a stunning SPS dominated system.
So let's see how they performed.
At that same mounting height,
in the inline dimmer set to their brightest settings.
We tested an amazing 90 out of 108 points
or 83% of the entire tank
at or within those SPS dominated PAR ranges.
Again, putting the LumiLite Pros
at the very top of the list
for best performances that we've seen to date.
The only question we're left with are the LumiLite Pros,
the right option for me and my tank.
Well, in addition to the higher output
and higher mounting Heights
of the LumiLite Pros over the regular LumiLite strips
that we tested last week,
if you're looking for top tier performance
in spread light distribution
and adequate PAR alone, for me a set up like
four LumiLite Pros is a no brainer decision,
especially when you tack on the lower price point
over other more expensive options
that are also capable of providing adequate PAR
for those higher PAR demand tanks.
Although in most cases that cost savings
does come as a trade off over other LED modules
that include an array of features in control,
as well as more robust spectrum ranges
and color channel options.
So weighing what really matters to you
will be the key to choosing the right tool for your job.
Reef Bright does have other controllability
options available,
rather than the included inline dimmer switches
like Bluetooth control
or even zero to 10 volt Neptune apex ready modules
that you can add on.
I will say openly that I recommend sticking to the included
inline dimmers over adding these control options,
because each LumiLite Pro strip
has two independent dimmable channels,
meaning that you would need one Bluetooth controller
or one zero to 10 volt controller for each strip,
which can really start to add up.
But what if I told you that there's one more Reef Bright
LED strip option out there that offers
the exact same level of spread
and performance that we saw today,
coupled with an even wider spectrum band within our goals,
and also makes those additional Bluetooth or apex ready
control options, more cost effective to implement?
Well, there is,
and you can find out just what the Reef Bright XHO LEDs
are all about in this next video here.