Question on the Lumenbrite MH/T5/LED fixture

[yoccm]

Hi Jeremy - I have a couple questions on this fixture.

My biggest question is whether I have enough headroom for it. I have a 72Lx36Wx27H tank (300 gallon DD). I only have 22" from the water surface to the ceiling and I know the fixture is 12" tall. Is 10" enough room between the water surface and the bottom of the unit? I want to make sure it has enough height to get good coverage across the 36" width of the tank.

My other question is on the cooling fans. Are the fans only cooling the MH pendants? Is there any active cooling for the T5s or the LEDs?

Thanks for the help.

Chris

[Jeremy@CoralVue]

Due to the depth of your tank, At 10-11" you are looking at getting a decent 26" spread and you really would need to get the fixture about 13-15" from the water surface for the halides themselves to cover 36" spread optimally across the board (vertically). This fixture will likely be fine at 10"-11" because your tank is 27" deep so the facet of light has further to go. Now you also have the T5s which add light to the mix so even the outer bounds of the halides reach will have some increased par. The Fans are really only there to keep the LEDs cool.

I attemted to give you some sort of perspective of what coverage you will get with the LB wide reflector alone. Don't be concerned with the par numbers as they will be greater than what is shown due to the dirty reflector and old standard ballast I am running. Also take in account that the SPS colonies directly under the reflector do block a considerable amount of light. I am just trying to give you an idea of what the spread is like at 12" off the water surface.

[yoccm]

Originally Posted by Jeremy@CoralVue

Due to the depth of your tank, At 10-11" you are looking at getting a decent 26" spread and you really would need to get the fixture about 13-15" from the water surface for the halides themselves to cover 36" spread optimally across the board (vertically). This fixture will likely be fine at 10"-11" because your tank is 27" deep so the facet of light has further to go. Now you also have the T5s which add light to the mix so even the outer bounds of the halides reach will have some increased par. The Fans are really only there to keep the LEDs cool.

I attemted to give you some sort of perspective of what coverage you will get with the LB wide reflector alone. Don't be concerned with the par numbers as they will be greater than what is shown due to the dirty reflector and old standard ballast I am running. Also take in account that the SPS colonies directly under the reflector do block a considerable amount of light. I am just trying to give you an idea of what the spread is like at 12" off the water surface.

Thanks for the info Jeremy. My aquascaping is such that I have three "islands of rock" that should sit directly under each halide and all of them are 3-4" away from the glass. So I think the PAR should be fine for where I have higher light specimens.

With the T5s I assume I won't have dark bands around the edge of the tank? Also, I noticed in the pictures that it comes with mounting legs ... how high do they put the fixture off the tanK?

I think I am going to order this fixture - as I started pricing out doing a DIY build of the same makeup I was at or above the price of this fixture and I really like the "all in one" nature of this.

Thanks for the help.

[Jeremy@CoralVue]

Just let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

[ganjero]

Can the fixtures be hung? whats the total weight?

Thanks

[Jeremy@CoralVue]

Yes the fixtures can be hung. The weight of each fixture can be found on the bottom of the LB fixture page on our website. Click Here

[ganjero]

I'm also wondering about the ballasts, inside the big box are they individually encased or placed? what if one goes bad, do you need to send the whole box to be repaired?

[Jeremy@CoralVue]

The ballasts are individual but the wiring can be a bit tricky. I would suggest that we would replace the components but if your comfortable with wiring it can be possible for an individual to make replacements.

Here is a photo of an interior of a single halide component box to give you an idea of what it looks like.

[90ct]

Does the fixture come with legs and mounting hardware?

[Jeremy@CoralVue]

Sorry but the fixtures only come with the hanging kit.

[alton]

Looking t the details on the website the ballast box has 5 cords 3 for MH, 1 for T5, and the last one for LED correct?

[Jeremy@CoralVue]

Originally Posted by alton

Looking t the details on the website the ballast box has 5 cords 3 for MH, 1 for T5, and the last one for LED correct?

Depends on the length of the fixture. Each MH has its own cord, fans, T5s and LEDs.

[yoccm]

Hi Jeremy - just ordered a 72" fixture thru reef specialty. Can you tell me how many T5 bulbs go in the fixture, also their length and wattage. Thanks and I am excited to get this in my hands and get it set up.

Also, Mike at reef specialty said the ballasts are the new Luxcores. Is that true?

[dahenley]

bump for this. is anyone else using one of these.
they seem so cool.

[thysrof]

I'm curious to hear some feedback from a current user. I just ordered the 48" from Reef Specialty for my tank.

[galoot]

Anyone have some first hand experience comments yet?

[thysrof]

Premium Member



Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Santa Rosa,ca
Posts: 707
I recieved and installed mine 3 weeks ago. So far so good. The PAR is awsome well over 1000 at the water surface and I have my fixture 16"'s off the water. Im running 250 watt bulbs. You can run 400 watt bulbs off the same balast.

The fixture only comes with the hanging option. I have mine hanging above my 48" long rimless. it really looks great there is only one cord going from the ballast to the fixture. Where my previous hood had 4 cords. Great look on the rimless

The only knock on it is the fans are pretty loud. I have high CFM fans.Jeremy from CoralVue shipped me new lower CFM fans at no cost. I would reccomend ordering the fixture with the lower CFM fans installed.I haven't installed the new fans yet. You will want to run some kind of small fan(s) across the top of the tank to keep tank temp down. I installed the Aqua World 4 fan unit and it's working great.

The reference to the high cost of the fixture is legitimate,but good reflectors and quality electronic ballasts are expensive. I believe the product warrants the price. You actually could spend quite a bit more. I looked at the Sfiglio fixtures and they are a lot more expensive. I have a friend that put together this type of light configuration together and mounted everything himself and he spent well over $1000 with no fixture included.

I am also curious why no one else has posted their experience with the fixture. It's been out for over a year and Mike at Reef Specialty said he sold a lot of the fixtures.

[DogueDeBordeaux]

Hope to see some detail pics of this fixture over an aquarium.
What has your experence been with this fixture? Any regrets? Would just mounting these as seperate halides/pendants have been better?

[thysrof]

Dogue,

Please read my post I'm giving my feedback on the fixture from having it up 3 weeks.

Question " Would you buy independant components and put them together yourself" No I needed a fixture to hang above my rimless. I don't have a canopy.