Spectra is the holy grail of reef lighting and will be for many years. The best of all fixtures in terms of compact design and quality light offered to any reef system, specially with SPS corals. The heat can be managed by simply placing a good fan between the fixture and the water surface. That way the heat won't reach the tank. Some people say their tanks have no chillers and they still can run the Spectra for 10 hours a day with cooling fans. Halides are still the very best we can find to resemble the sun over a reef system with a complete spectrum like no other aquarium lighting system can offer. Great PAR distribution is only a small part of the wonderful qualities this fixture has. Great built with German signature, with a design that will last for decades virtually without maintenance besides changing the bulbs. Love it! Thanks for the video, BRS!
I have a 72" Spectra and love it, thanks for this review, I run my light 10 inches above the tank rim, lowered it to 8 inches and burned a strawberry short cake mounted near the top about 6 inches below the water. This review helped me understand why, whole lot of PAR at the top Thanks Guys
I had the Spectra on my 105g tank. It was an impressive light fixture. I could grow acros even on the sandbed. My monti plates had color and stalactite-type growth underneath.
Guys according to this 8x24W (192W) Sunpower provides more PAR that Giesemann Spectra 250W + 4x24W (346W total), and also better water penetration than halide. I find it really hard to believe... You must have used some low output bulbs on your Spectra test...
Yes I remember that they wrote on some forum that they used Radium bulb in this test :D Jaysus with Radium you can simulate moon phases not grow Acros. But this is their thing in US with this blue light obsession. But on Sunpower they used Coral+ with Blue+ which are the strongest bulbs you can get out there. Halide with normal 10k-14k bulb would leave Sunpower behind or be at least a match. Not to mention 400W version.
Easily one of the best lights ever available for the hobby. LEDs are STILL trying to replicate this setup. Some of us actually benefit greatly from the additional heat that a halide brings. Just means my heater runs far less. Every tank has a minimum amount of watts needed to keep that tank at a certain temp. Whether that comes from lights, pumps and/or heaters doesn't matter. If you save 100w with LEDs but your heater runs twice as much, what did you really save?
Not everything is a perfect 1:1 but if you severely reduce the heat from one source and your tank needed some of that heat, something else will have to produce that heat. Usually a heater :) I have used almost every source of light we have available over my tanks. While LEDs didn't heat the water as much, they did heat up the room to a degree. People can say what they want but LEDs need fans and heatsinks for a reason. Personally, I need the heat that a halide produces for my tank and room since the tank is in the basement that never goes over 68F.
One thing I am interested and I know I'm not alone is see you guys test are the off brand lighting units like the MARS lights or the new EverGrow Intelligent series lights. I say this because not everyone can afford lighting systems that cost $500 - 3K and have to go with other much less expensive lighting options that claim (and have hundreds of positive reviews confirming these claims) to produce coral color and growth results similar to the high end systems.
Porpoise Hork I agree! Although it is unfortunate that BRS will most likely not do it because it would basically be advertiseing lights that they don't carry.
Vincent Taylor too true. However some of the latest off brand lights are listing as having Cree and other high end led's in them. If the quality of construction and reliability is there it could open up a big market for them in quality less expensive lighting options.
I think everyone can understand the legitimate reasons BRS has to not sell any "black box" fixtures. However, if there was a video that explicitly said "Use at your own risk," yet you gave these consumers an idea of what kind of power percentages they should be setting their "risky" fixtures at, it would be super beneficial and would eliminate any miscommunication about a bias that BRS might have I myself decided to forgo buying a Chinese LED light and bought a Kessil from your online store, but I used to be one of those people that wanted to hear from an expert on the ideal way to use a cheaper and "riskier" fixture.
i have the coralife lunar hoT5 it has 2 10,000k daylight T5 HO 31 watt and 2 actinic blue HO T5 31 watt is this a good light for a 36gallon tank 30x12x22 ? i have mostly lps and softies but i would lile to know if ita good for sps of i evee went this route ?
I'm curious about the energy efficiency aspect, yes halides make a lot of heat no denying that, but LEDs aren't exactly cool to the touch, there's a reason why they need to be mounted to beefy heat sinks and often have fans. Just wondering if there's someone who ran numbers for how much PAR you get per watt used. While I'm sure LEDs are better than MH lamps, I'm not quite sure they are that much better, plus lumping all LED fixtures into the same category is a foolish thing to do since the actual efficiencies of LEDs vary so widely from one brand to the next.
Mm, x1 of these for $880 vs. x3 Aqua Illumination Prime HDs for $675... all things considered including PAR, coverage, heat, bulb replacement, controllability and power usage, the latter is still looking better to me. Conversely part of this conclusion could depend on the average life expectancy of AI's units, since replacing a whole unit now and then could equal the cost of more frequent T5/Halide bulb replacements over time...
Nice .. thanks for the content .. its not Friday until its BRS TV
Spectra is the holy grail of reef lighting and will be for many years. The best of all fixtures in terms of compact design and quality light offered to any reef system, specially with SPS corals. The heat can be managed by simply placing a good fan between the fixture and the water surface. That way the heat won't reach the tank. Some people say their tanks have no chillers and they still can run the Spectra for 10 hours a day with cooling fans. Halides are still the very best we can find to resemble the sun over a reef system with a complete spectrum like no other aquarium lighting system can offer. Great PAR distribution is only a small part of the wonderful qualities this fixture has. Great built with German signature, with a design that will last for decades virtually without maintenance besides changing the bulbs. Love it! Thanks for the video, BRS!
I have a 72" Spectra and love it, thanks for this review, I run my light 10 inches above the tank rim, lowered it to 8 inches and burned a strawberry short cake mounted near the top about 6 inches below the water. This review helped me understand why, whole lot of PAR at the top Thanks Guys
are you running 250 or 400 bulbs? im considering the 72" over a 300 gallon deep dimension.
You learn so very much from these. Thanks for the vid!
I had the Spectra on my 105g tank. It was an impressive light fixture. I could grow acros even on the sandbed. My monti plates had color and stalactite-type growth underneath.
Awesome video! Thanks for the info. This makes purchasing this unit very enticing.
Would love to see you run these tests on an ATI Hybrid LED/T5 unit :-)
Could you guys do a review on the Giesemann Aurora as well?
Guys according to this 8x24W (192W) Sunpower provides more PAR that Giesemann Spectra 250W + 4x24W (346W total), and also better water penetration than halide. I find it really hard to believe... You must have used some low output bulbs on your Spectra test...
Yes I remember that they wrote on some forum that they used Radium bulb in this test :D Jaysus with Radium you can simulate moon phases not grow Acros. But this is their thing in US with this blue light obsession. But on Sunpower they used Coral+ with Blue+ which are the strongest bulbs you can get out there. Halide with normal 10k-14k bulb would leave Sunpower behind or be at least a match. Not to mention 400W version.
Easily one of the best lights ever available for the hobby. LEDs are STILL trying to replicate this setup. Some of us actually benefit greatly from the additional heat that a halide brings. Just means my heater runs far less.
Every tank has a minimum amount of watts needed to keep that tank at a certain temp. Whether that comes from lights, pumps and/or heaters doesn't matter. If you save 100w with LEDs but your heater runs twice as much, what did you really save?
Not everything is a perfect 1:1 but if you severely reduce the heat from one source and your tank needed some of that heat, something else will have to produce that heat. Usually a heater :)
I have used almost every source of light we have available over my tanks. While LEDs didn't heat the water as much, they did heat up the room to a degree. People can say what they want but LEDs need fans and heatsinks for a reason. Personally, I need the heat that a halide produces for my tank and room since the tank is in the basement that never goes over 68F.
Awesome! Keep it up!
I'm curious if acrylic would reflect the light differently than glass?
You mention MH bulbs have "10's of thousand of tanks behind them" is that a WAG number or something backed up by your sales #'s?
Ryan, was this unit running 250 or 400W bulbs?
What was the bulb/ballast combo? I'm guessing this was a 250w bulb?
One thing I am interested and I know I'm not alone is see you guys test are the off brand lighting units like the MARS lights or the new EverGrow Intelligent series lights. I say this because not everyone can afford lighting systems that cost $500 - 3K and have to go with other much less expensive lighting options that claim (and have hundreds of positive reviews confirming these claims) to produce coral color and growth results similar to the high end systems.
Porpoise Hork I agree! Although it is unfortunate that BRS will most likely not do it because it would basically be advertiseing lights that they don't carry.
Vincent Taylor too true. However some of the latest off brand lights are listing as having Cree and other high end led's in them. If the quality of construction and reliability is there it could open up a big market for them in quality less expensive lighting options.
I think everyone can understand the legitimate reasons BRS has to not sell any "black box" fixtures. However, if there was a video that explicitly said "Use at your own risk," yet you gave these consumers an idea of what kind of power percentages they should be setting their "risky" fixtures at, it would be super beneficial and would eliminate any miscommunication about a bias that BRS might have
I myself decided to forgo buying a Chinese LED light and bought a Kessil from your online store, but I used to be one of those people that wanted to hear from an expert on the ideal way to use a cheaper and "riskier" fixture.
BulkReefSupplyCom Well said BRS. I agree.
BulkReefSupplyCom good to hear! I look forward to that video.
hey BRS team are you guys are going to Republica this year in New York
i have the coralife lunar hoT5 it has 2 10,000k daylight T5 HO 31 watt and 2 actinic blue HO T5 31 watt is this a good light for a 36gallon tank 30x12x22 ? i have mostly lps and softies but i would lile to know if ita good for sps of i evee went this route ?
If the tank is painted black back side has more efficient is that correct? And can we say blue light grows corals better then the other lights?
BulkReefSupplyCom thank you 😊,, you are best 👍👌💪,,, without BRSTV youtube is boring 😁
I've recently rolled back to T5 only, but I wouldn't mind a free LED. haha
Great light ;)
How about a test on Chinese black box Led's VS overpriced kessil and radians?
You need to do an Aurora review to compare
I'm curious about the energy efficiency aspect, yes halides make a lot of heat no denying that, but LEDs aren't exactly cool to the touch, there's a reason why they need to be mounted to beefy heat sinks and often have fans. Just wondering if there's someone who ran numbers for how much PAR you get per watt used. While I'm sure LEDs are better than MH lamps, I'm not quite sure they are that much better, plus lumping all LED fixtures into the same category is a foolish thing to do since the actual efficiencies of LEDs vary so widely from one brand to the next.
Can you do one for a 8 bulb ati t5 at 24 inchs Thanks
Mm, x1 of these for $880 vs. x3 Aqua Illumination Prime HDs for $675... all things considered including PAR, coverage, heat, bulb replacement, controllability and power usage, the latter is still looking better to me. Conversely part of this conclusion could depend on the average life expectancy of AI's units, since replacing a whole unit now and then could equal the cost of more frequent T5/Halide bulb replacements over time...
the heat is a deal breaker...
I love my spectra with a 400watt radium 😁
Can't go wrong but too hot for me
Fans will do great with this fixture and any other halide system.
First comment 😃
too hot and energy leech. no thanks to halide...