High Tide Aquatics

Par 38 LED?

Gonzo

Gonzo

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Does anyone know a place to get a Par 38 LED and fixture for my nano? I did a google search and it came up with a bunch of different ones (red, blue, white) and even some reviews how some of the LED 38's are not legit and blah blah. So I wanted to check with a more reliable source; BAR :)

Thanks
 
Nano customs has best par 38 bulb if I member.....always on back order for 20k. There are a few more good ones but there are a lot of cheap ones too

Beware how big of a nano r u lighting
 
I currently have Evil's/Nanocustom's Par38's (60*) and they're sufficient but for best results, particularly with a nem, I'd go 2 bulbs and 40* optics. LPS should be fine with 60* optics over a 12g.


I have a few Boost LED Par30 bulbs coming in so we'll see how those match up.

Didn't know this before but I guess par30 and par38 refer to the size of the bulb itself :)

Fixture can be anything you want :) Multiple bulbs - People use different variations of track lighting. Single bulb - Desk types seem to be the pick. Preferably open so it doesn't cover the flanges for better ventilation.
 
problem is the original maker was a bit stupid in naming them, PAR38 is a bulb size, so they couldn't claim it was a unique name and was no problem for others to copy and simply call it the same thing, which is why you might find different ones with a similar name.
 
My buddy runs 2 PAR38 on his 40G mixed reef cube. All his corals are thriving and looking good. I think it was aquatic central that he got it from a year ago.
 
Raddogz said:
There is Evil's/Nanocustom's Par38's and there is also Rapid LED (Rapid led I believe is local i.e. Oakland)
Click to expand...


Rapid LED = Chinese low quality odd color (IME)

Evil's (Clive) Nanocustoms are made here in California and have excellent color and par.
 
GreshamH said:
Raddogz said:
There is Evil's/Nanocustom's Par38's and there is also Rapid LED (Rapid led I believe is local i.e. Oakland)
Click to expand...


Rapid LED = Chinese low quality odd color (IME)

Evil's (Clive) Nanocustoms are made here in California and have excellent color and par.
Click to expand...



Any opinion on BoostLED's Par30?
 
I am not a fan of PAR38 like LEDs.

I have had two PAR type LED lights fail in my house. Both failed due to burned out power supply.
Not aquarium related, they were for general house usage. Replaced standard flood bulb.

But same the problem applies - the power supply has to be jammed in there really tight,
gets pretty warm, and is often built cheaply, so fails.
Takes a couple of years, but is not anything like the 50K hours an LED has.

The LEDs can be name brand, and often are, since customers care about that spec.
But there is little incentive to use high quality components in the power supply.

Plus, even the LEDs might have shorter life. The physical limitations of the bulb limit the heat sink.
That means the LEDs get a lot warmer, which has a huge effect (squared) on the longevity.
A really good LED system should have a big heat sink + fan.
 
GreshamH said:
Raddogz said:
There is Evil's/Nanocustom's Par38's and there is also Rapid LED (Rapid led I believe is local i.e. Oakland)
Click to expand...


Rapid LED = Chinese low quality odd color (IME)

Evil's (Clive) Nanocustoms are made here in California and have excellent color and par.
Click to expand...

This is NOT my experience at all with RapidLED, I would just like to point out and emphasize.
 
Tamazula said:
GreshamH said:
Raddogz said:
There is Evil's/Nanocustom's Par38's and there is also Rapid LED (Rapid led I believe is local i.e. Oakland)
Click to expand...


Rapid LED = Chinese low quality odd color (IME)

Evil's (Clive) Nanocustoms are made here in California and have excellent color and par.
Click to expand...

This is NOT my experience at all with RapidLED, I would just like to point out and emphasize.
Click to expand...

And that WARRANTS yelling it? You can put emphasis on something with out yelling :lol: italics and bold are very useful ;)

Fwiw yelling will not change the fact Nanotuners are the ONLY ones assembled here in Cali. To ME that is a deal breaker on the rest. Any chance I can het a higher quality build in an American product I jump at the chance. The fact they are assembled in Cali is even bigger. Chris at Nanotuners is about the most stand up guy in the industry.
 
I had a pretty poor experience with nano tuners myself, but it wasn't LED equipment. Just extremely slow to the point that I canceled my order.
 
anathema said:
I had a pretty poor experience with nano tuners myself, but it wasn't LED equipment. Just extremely slow to the point that I canceled my order.
Click to expand...

I've head that. They were quick with mine, but they are a 2 man operation so I can see how they can get swamped.
 
I just got 3 of Boost LED's par30 bulbs and would purchase these over Evil/Nanotuner's par 38s.

Granted, I haven't even put them over a tank yet but they just feel more solid. Yes, excuse my uber technical analysis ;) The heat sink is not made up of flimsy flanges but is similar to a CPU heat sink. Very solid and cold. Holding both at room temp, I would guess the Boost LED heat sink keeps the entire unit much colder. They are also lower profile which IMO, is a plus. Price is $70 compared to $90.

A quick plug in, and these bulbs are bright and colors seem spot on. The support and customer interaction with Boost LED has been fantastic. They are also located in NorCal.

It'd be great if someone can give a more technical analysis. The PAR charts look great but a break down of the guts in each fixture would be awesome.

5519909193_1455a7933b.jpg


5519932937_5fc10bb17c.jpg
 
So, I've just gotten my hands on a Boost LED lamp (BLL) myself, not too long ago -the one I have has 40* optics, with a 4b/1w color combination. There are other LED color combinations you can choose from on Boost LED's website, IIRC. These lamps burn 10w total, each.

In any case, I am currently using a single BLL in conjunction with three Evil Par38's lamps from Clive over at Nano Customs over my reef tank. I have the 12k (3w/2b) par38's, two with 40* optics, and one with 60* optics. There is also a 3b/2w 20k option. I believe these lamps run (5) 3w Cree LED's per lamp; each lamp consuming about 21w.

My initial thought on the Evil par38 lamps from Nano Customs was that, wow these are fairly large, and heavy. They do get warm after being on for a while, but that is what those wonderful heat sinks are for. The heat sinks get warm to the touch. I have not been let down by these lamps, as they're really very powerful, IME. If you're tank is large enough, you will need a handful of these lamps to get equal, for satisfactory coverage IMO -and at $88 per lamp, this can quickly add up in cost for most people. If you have a nano tank though, say in the 20g or less range, I think these lamps are ideal. Any larger, be prepared to drop some dough. But wow, with the 40* optics, these are fabulous little spotlights.
All in all, the Evil lamps are good to boot. Strong, built fairly well, and great PAR -and I'll be honest, they look good.

The BLL's are $70 ea. They use 3w Edixeon LED's, though I'd suspect that they're not driven to their maximum. If you're looking for an economical 1-2 lamp solution for a small tank, under 10g, I think this lamp works great. Being that the BLL is a par30 lamp (compare to Evil's par38) the form factor of the lamp is much smaller, and much lighter. Also, the BLLs are very well built, and very sturdy. More sturdy then the Evil lamps IMO; though Evil's lamp are no slouch either. But let me just say that if I dropped one of Evil's lamps, I don't have much confidence in the lamp holding up. If I drop a BLL, I would be more worried about whether or not the floor was damaged instead of the lamp. The heat sinks on the BLL also look, and feel substantially more sturdy for the thin rayed heat sink on Evil's lamp (you can literally cut yourself on them if you're not careful).
The BLL seems to run a little bit cooler than Evil's lamps, maybe the difference in power consumption may be the cause of that (I'd imagine).
The BLL are pretty powerful for what they are. But when I placed the 40* BLL next to my Evil 12k 40* lamp the Evil lamp clearly beats out the competition. I am using the BLL mainly to add a touch (literally, a touch) of blue to my tank, and it does just that. I don't have a par meter, and haven't looked at the par plots for the BLLs, so I can't speak on that.

Though, if I had to choose one lamp to use again -I can safely say that I would definitely go with the Evil's par38 lamps. At only $20 more per lamp, you get quite a bit more power IME. But again -the BLL are nice as well.

And as a side note, I'm going to agree with Gresh -the customer service with Clive is one of the best.

Hope this helps.
 
I have two failed LED PAR-type lamps in my house. As the two sides failed to burn out the power. Aquarium is not related to their use of the general house. Instead of the standard flood light bulb.
 
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