Getting a new LED!

I decided to take the plunge and get an LED unit from Orphek. I'm getting a PR-156 with a twist. I'll definitely get a review up here with pictures when I get it. Is there anyone else here who's run one? I'm wondering how high they have to be mounted to spread out well.

 

What size tank are you putting this over?

 

I'm not sure yet. I'll probably try it out over my 40 breeder first and then play with it on a bunch of other tanks.

 

I would say since that tank isnt that deep maybe at the most 12" above the tank running it parallel above it.

 

Perfect. That's right inside my hood. Do you have one?

 

No I don't. But I did the research on that light as I was going to put it on my 225 before my upgrade. That light is designed for up to 48" deep tanks and 36" wide.

 

Yeah, it's pretty big claims and nobody has confirmed it yet. That's part of why I'm diving in to it. Kind of the opposite shopping technique of what you should do, but someone's gotta do it.

 

Yea that Mike dude was giving that company a bad rep and they were shooting the other led sponsors down but you never hear any complaints about their performance either.

 

I hear it is VERY focused. For your test mike I would recommend getting something 30"+ deep to see if their claims stand up.

 

I have all confidence that the fixture will put down very respectable PAR at 30". I never tested the PAR of the fixture over water but if I recall the peak PAR at 33" through air was approx 350 ppfd. I did not test over water because I was limited on time and was testing and comparing multiple LED fixtures to a Metal Halide fixture. Remember PAR number is peak and there is no magic involved. Due to narrow angle optics, it achieves massive peak numbers. The downside is that it acheives this by sacraficing spread, although it's 24" length makes up for this in some ways. This is the reason why they advise it to be mounted high off the water to get the desired spread.

Mike, do you have a PAR meter? It would be cool if you can map out the PAR results of your tank. Other than that we should have Sanjays PAR and light spread results in the middle of October.