RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

[Victoss]

Yes it has been done by yours truly, I found a <a href="http://www.rapidled.com/12-led-par38-bulb-mixed-color-with-uv/">RapidLED 12 LED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)</a> in it's natural habitat.

Sorry for a the hype ;D it's just when I was looking into buying these I could not for the life of me find a picture of them on (the ones with uv, not the older ones).
As for the review part of this, so far I'm liking them. They are easy to install (as with all PAR bulbs) and do not have the human factor of DIY if I were to sell them in the future (wires all over the place/fire hazard :?). I did initially notice that they seemed dimmer then my other tanks and I believe the reason is that most of the LEDs are probably running at half their maximum current because the UVs can only run at 600-700mA and the whites/blues can go up to 1300-1500mA. The 19W suggests this theory too. I still believe they can grow SPS but I may need to have the corals up higher (which you can see my frag rack is set up for).

The 2 Neutral Whites and 2 Cool Whites are a nice touch to this bulb instead of 4 of the same and you can see the difference in the first picture. The bulb could use some more full spectrum colours to satisfy my taste but as a regular coloured bulb they do the job. For $90 they are a good buy for 12 LEDs but in the future I may consider one of the full spectrum bulbs that are starting to become popular (this is just a frag tank though so not really that important).

(Oh and don't ask about the stick in my amazing fixture):?

 

[copperkills]

Re: The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

Whats with the stick?

 

[Duke]

Re: The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

Whats with the stick?

it looks to be keeping the distance between the two bulbs

 

[Victoss]

Re: The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

Ya I had a MH fixture up there and the hooks were too close for these bulbs, so instead of having a nice clean straight down wire on each side I had to use the stick.
Doesn't really matter any ways, didn't need to look good plus now I have the wire bundled up there too so I can't get drips into the extension cord outlets.

 

[Duke]

Re: The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

Ya I had a MH fixture up there and the hooks were too close for these bulbs, so instead of having a nice clean straight down wire on each side I had to use the stick.
Doesn't really matter any ways, didn't need to look good plus now I have the wire bundled up there too so I can't get drips into the extension cord outlets.

looks pretty darn good to me, I really like the frag rack you built, nice and organized looking.

 

[nexusnight]

Re: The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

any updates on these bulbs? how well are they growing out your frags?

 

[Victoss]

Re: The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

All the softies and zoas in the frag tank are doing good but I can't seem to get my sps to do much in the tank. This might be because i'm lazy and use the water from my biocube for the waterchange in this tank  so I don't really blame the lights.

 

[reeffreak]

The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

This might be because i'm lazy and use the water from my biocube for the waterchange in this tank

You change out dirty water and replace with more dirty water ??? Seems very  counter productive to me.

 

[unibob]

The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

[quote author=Victoss link=topic=3747.msg1#msg1 date=1363732518]
This might be because i'm lazy and use the water from my biocube for the waterchange in this tank

You change out dirty water and replace with more dirty water ??? Seems very  counter productive to me.
[/quote]

Guilty of doing this after selling frags from other tank lol

 

[daleomilla]

Re: The rare and elusive photo of a 'live' RapidLED PAR38 Bulb (Mixed Color with UV)

you can get them on ebay for like $40

 

[Victoss]

Ya there are many versions of these available now, I know there are a few retailers in Ontario that have par bulbs now too and some with fuller spectrums or bluer depending on your tastes. I just love the simple concept they bring to the table as long as their on smaller tanks.
As for the water changes I know it's not the best but i'm lazy and have 2 other tanks to really worry about, I don't see me growing out much sps in the tank anyways. I know the water I change out is not too dirty so it will just hover at a slightly lower level of 'clean' 

 

[Poseidon]

Ya there are many versions of these available now, I know there are a few retailers in Ontario that have par bulbs now too and some with fuller spectrums or bluer depending on your tastes. I just love the simple concept they bring to the table as long as their on smaller tanks.
As for the water changes I know it's not the best but i'm lazy and have 2 other tanks to really worry about, I don't see me growing out much sps in the tank anyways. I know the water I change out is not too dirty so it will just hover at a slightly lower level of 'clean' 

i do the same thing with water changes,

30g water change on my main tank every 2 weeks, 10 of it goes to frag tank, (frag tank also gets 20g new water), 20 goes to pred tank,

its not 'dirty' persay, its just not clean enough to grow the harder stuff like sps

 

[chief hill]

I was thinking of buying one of these.  But I'm cheap and want to wait till the prices fall on them. 
They seem to be doing good though.  Prices have fallen under 100 bucks now so that's a start.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

 

[chuckm]

you get what you pay for................experience taliking for w/ these

 

[Boga]

Update? Still happy with these bulbs? Do you think that easy SPS could survive 8 weeks under these bulbs?

 

[Victoss]

I've only had these on a small 20g that was originally a frag tank, then slowly turned into a softie tank and now only holds a few frags on the bottom with almost no rock. Eventually will be taking the tank down but might use it for quarantine when I get some more fish for the new tank. I could never really find the sweet spot with these lights, i had a few sps pieces on top of the rock and they seemed to do good but everything else in the tank was more or less stagnant for growth. If I were to blame it on something though it would have to be the lack of fish in the tank with almost no nutrient import. They would probably work well on a real tank.

 

[Boga]

Thank you. I am thinking to have one or two of them on a 20+gallon QT tank for corals. Softies and LPS will be OK for lighting. I don't expect growth for easy SPS. All I need is survival (maintaining) for 8 weeks in QT. Thoughts?

 

[Victoss]

They should be fine, all the corals I have in their right now are doing good but like I said I never saw much growth but I also never added food to this tank and there is no fish or inverts (except some snails) in there.

 

[Boga]

One more question and I promise I will end, or open another thread. LOL

Do you think one would be sufficient, of course considering less area covered, or do you think in your system they significantly help each other for coverage?

 

[Victoss]

these lights are very directional and I could tell that corals did better when centred under the light so I wanna say 2 but if only for softies you maybe able to get away with one