Par38 bulb question

[jpond83]

Does anyone have experience with these? It comes with 40 degree optics. Will that be enough spread to cover a regular 20g?

[Europhyllia]

The guy that makes them (I think his name is Evil) was saying on some boards that he wouldn't expect them to cover more than 14"or so so for a 20 you might need two of them?
I do think nanotuners offers them with 60 and 80 degree lenses too which might spread a little wider?
What is the watts on them? I think there are 5 LEDs in that bulb right?

[txg8gxp]

a par38 w/40 is good for about a 12x12 area. For a 20g I would run 2 of them.

[jpond83]

do you know of any other site that have the 80 degree optics? im sure it wouldnt be hard to pop the sucker open and change the lenses? any thoughts on going 20k instead of 14k. I know it will slow my growth but will it be a real big defference. Im not too concerned about growth because my tank is packed with little colonies.

[txg8gxp]

Looks like they changed them to 60 degree optics. The growth will be pretty much the same for the 14K and the 20K. The lumens output of the cree XR series whites and blues are about the same, so par levels should be about the same aswell.

[jpond83]

the 14k still has 40 degree optics. i think i will go 20k though. i guess i will get 2 and see what happens. i really want LED without LED price, so this may be the way.

[Europhyllia]

I considered that bulb before deciding to go a different route.
Stephen helped me built a gorgeous 12 LED fixture for my seahorses tank. It came out to be about $300 in parts and shipping but I got the colors I wanted (royal blues, warm whites and neutral whites) and two different dimmable drivers.
I really like it. The only thing I would do different is maybe I'd rewire it for a couple of the whites to come on with most of the blues rather than have blue/white completely separate for a more gradual wake up call for my ponies. :)
I saw some great deals for the bulbs for Black Friday but before when I was looking it would have cost me $240 for two bulbs anyway so springing a little more for XP instead of XR LEDs, choosing my own colors and getting 12 instead of 10 and getting it dimmable seemed worth the extra cash.
I also got a pretty housing from Jack at Wet Acrylic so it looks very professional I think. :)
I also saw some very reasonably priced Marineland LED fixtures. Have you checked those out?

[txg8gxp]

The marineland fixtures look really nice but they are built with one watt leds without lenses, so coverage is good but par will be low. Just my opinion on them.

[Europhyllia]

Yeah I just checked on that. Looks like it would give you 21w for the 20g fixture for $220:
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+10704+22443&pcatid=22443

[jc]

I have two of the 20k par38 bulbs over my solana. My tank is a 20" cube and the 60 degree lens covers it just fine.

[jpond83]

i saw 20k is on back order until after the holidays. i didnt order yet im still looking around

[Gseclipse02]

marinelands color is real yellow didnt do much for me was kind of disapointed