Does anyone use led screw in bulbs? Can't find info on them

Adasfish · Feb 28, 2015

Haven't been able to find much info on led bulbs. Wondering if anyone has used them and could tell me more about it. Seems like a cheaper alternative to the led fixtures out there. Wondering about wattage par rating. Colors. What brands to look for

RUGDOG · Feb 28, 2015

Bought a soft white one last night for a refugium light. I do not believe you could obtain enough light to keep coral Ina display with one.

Zacco · Mar 1, 2015

Highest kelvin would be around the 5000 to 6000k range in a LED Screw In. These would be good for a refugium growing macro algae, but not for your main display. You want to be around 10,000 to 20,000 K in your display. 10,000k for growth, higher for color.

Adasfish · Mar 1, 2015

What about mixing a led bulb that was 6000k with a compact flourecent 10k or a 50/50. Just thinking of a cheap option for lighting on a 27 gallon hex. Also saw a led bulb on marine depot that has blue lights as well as cool white. Would thAt mean the blue lights would be a higher k rating?

ReefLEDLights · Mar 2, 2015

The PAR 38s with a good mix of Cool White, Royal Blue and maybe Red or Violet work well.

The quality varies greatly with the weak link the internal driver which more often than not fails rather quickly compared to the LEDs.

If you can try to find one with at least a three warranty and save the receipt.

Bill

NanaReefer · Mar 2, 2015

I use the Reef Radiance DM-5e. I was so surprised with this light. I'm getting fantastic growth from my Chaeto and I've even got Coralline growth on the rock rubble. http://reefradiance.com/dm-5e.html
SPECIFICATIONS:
Power: 5 WATTS
Layout: 5 X 1 WATT LEDS:
1 RED LED @660 nm
2 ROYAL BLUE LED @ 450 nm
1 VIOLET LED @ 410 nm

1 WHITE LED @ 6500K Kelvin

Mustang Man · Mar 2, 2015

Coral Compulsion has some really nice PAR30 and PAR38 lights.

NanaReefer · Mar 2, 2015

Mustang Man said:
Coral Compulsion has some really nice PAR30 and PAR38 lights.

But Reef Radiance is an R2R sponsor

tyler1503 · Mar 2, 2015

I bought a 9W one with 2 white LEDs and one blue led. It was to replace an 11W 50/50 PC on an LPS and softy 5 gallon tank.
I ended up just getting a new tube for the PC as the 9W LED barely lit the tank up. I would have only been able to keep the lowest light tolerating softies and zoas. Even then it may have been a stretch. It was crazy bright in a circle about 2 inches in diameter directly below the light, but there was next to no spread and if I raised the height of the light to get more spread, I wouldn't have been able to keep any coral at all.
A larger wattage one may be ok for a fuge, but as mentioned above, they're not suitable for a display tank. At least the cheap Chinese ones anyway.
Perhaps a good quality European made one would be better?
The 9W is on my 24gal fowlr for 2 hours either side of the normal lighting for a sunrise/sunset type of thing.
I am going to try again with them though. I'm going to get one of those 15W ones with 2 red, 2 blue and a white led and put it on my fuge eventually. Maybe even the next wattage level up. 21W I think?

NanaReefer · Mar 3, 2015

IMO your looking to get away just a tad bit to cheaply. I mean there are some nice LED units out there at great prices.
Check out the Reef Radiance Nano for just $119.00. Full spectrum and dimmable. Not going to get much cheaper than that for a unit that will grow just about anything.

Z06-Hec · Mar 3, 2015

here is one you could read some specs on
The Original FathomLED CREE PAR 30 Series Â« FathomLED

Mustang Man · Mar 3, 2015

NanaReefer said:
But Reef Radiance is an R2R sponsor

This is true, but the Dm-5e is advertised as a refugium light. The PAR30 from CoralCompulsion has almost triple the power and more color choices.

NanaReefer · Mar 3, 2015

Mustang Man said:
This is true, but the Dm-5e is advertised as a refugium light. The PAR30 from CoralCompulsion has almost triple the power and more color choices.

OP didn't state whether this was for fuge/DT. Only a screw in LED

mjs020294 · Mar 3, 2015

I have used Coralcompulsion and BoostLed bubs on my 13g Nano tank. I use two on the tank, which is a total of 42w of LED. Work great, plenty bight enough for soft corals.

Themaddhatter · Mar 5, 2015

I got these from China. They incorporate a lumia 5.1 chip into a halogen replacement style fixture intended for warehouses. I can't control the individual channels or even dim it, but they screw into a medium base, so super easy to set up, and the light intense. I get crazy shimmer and so far, good growth!

NanaReefer · Mar 6, 2015

Themaddhatter said:
I got these from China. They incorporate a lumia 5.1 chip into a halogen replacement style fixture intended for warehouses. I can't control the individual channels or even dim it, but they screw into a medium base, so super easy to set up, and the light intense. I get crazy shimmer and so far, good growth!

Amazing!! How do you get the water to stay in? Lol