Luminarc DE mini's - initial impressions

[JohnK]

I just got a pair of these a couple of days ago and thought I would post my impressions. Right now this is 2 x DE luminarc mini's with 250W pheonix 14K bulbs, over a 120G.

1. Pendant design is nice, but you have to take one side off of it to remove the glass for cleaning or bulb replacement. Inconvient, but not really a big deal.
2. Right away I could see how the luminarc reflector design is perfect for SE bulbs, but maybe not as ideal for DE lamps - the bulb clips must have some impact on the super even spread seen with the SE lamps

3. fire em up, (same bulbs and ballasts I had before) -
the light looks great, not earth shatteringly different from the DIY DE reflectors from hellolights, but the tank seems a bit brighter, the corners and edges of the tank are brighter but the center seems about the same. Also, I'm tempted to say that the color is just a tiny bit different, just a little fuller or something, but this is awfully hard to say??

4. OK, these things are cool, I could have lived without them, but I like them even though I was hoping for just a little more noticable difference in the light going into the tank - - - - -
"Oh yea, they are hung so the bulbs are at least 3" higher off the water than the old lights!"
Once I lower them some, I'll see how bright it looks.

5. Two day summary; Design a bit difficult to service, size shape and convience nice IMO, Output maybe not the spectacular gain seen with SE lamps on the full size luminarc but definately an observable gain in overall light spread and delivery to the tank.

Any questions or anything?

jk

 

[MichaelJ]

Nice set up... what is the depth of those lights? 5'' 6'' ? And can they be mounted in a canopy or do you think they will run to hot?

Michael

 

[JohnK]

Funny you ask, those are the exact things I'm working out right now.

As is in the pic, the bottom of the reflectors are 7.5" off the water. The centerline of the bulbs is about 4" up into the reflector, making the actual bulb height about 13.5" above the water.

In the AM I will be installing a hood that's to serve to;
enclose the luminarcs
give me a way to mount a 150w MH in the center and two VHO's
and to hopefully create a nice channeling effect with the air to keep things cool.

The hood will have 3x90 cfm fans pulling air out the top and the bottom is open to the back of the tank where there are two 6" clip fans blowing across the water. (today, with the clip fans and no hood the temp peaked at 78.8)

I'll post how this works sunday

 

[JohnK]

new hood installed for a test run/reason for the fish to stress out in the middle of the night.

 

[JohnK]

trying to look at the lights

 

[tubsy3]

looks nice. Were you getting decent growth with the phoenix bulbs? Did you ever try 10k's?

I was thinking of going this route. But if you think the diy hello lights is almost as good maybe I'll go with that. Im still waiting to move into my new place so I still have time to decide

 

[JohnK]

Well, after lowering the fixtures to about the same height, I'd definately say that the tank is overall looking brighter. It's mainly in the edges where there really seems to be a difference. If you have a 24"wide tank, Consider the luminarcs, if your tank is narrower go with the diy or other refelctors IMO.

So far the pheonix's are the only DE bulbs I've used, but I'd assume that any good 10K would be good for a little more growth.

 

[MichaelJ]

Did you use the same bulbs in your other setup? Or did you put new ones in the luminarcs?

 

[JohnK]

Same bulbs so I could get a fair comparision.

I had my doubts at frist, but I really like luminarcs now.