Bridgelux 45w par38

[jenny_rs]

I just recently ordered one of these for my 12 g jbj nano, does anyone have experience with these? I got it for around 25$ so even if I don't use it now I can always either sell it or save it for a larger tank later down the road. Here's a picture of the bulb

 

[IanReefer]

Those seem to be really good, but in my experience, they run really hot (~150°F) and degrade really fast. The PAR levels seems to drop off after about 1 year as well. So even though they light up, they won't output near what they did when new, and you can't file reduced output under warranty.

32 lumens per watt is really low too. T5 bulbs even run at 80+ lumens per watt. My Steve's LEDs fixture over my refugium outputs 125 lumens per watt, 4 fold what that bulb does.

For what it's worth.

 

[jenny_rs]

Those seem to be really good, but in my experience, they run really hot (~150°F) and degrade really fast. The PAR levels seems to drop off after about 1 year as well. So even though they light up, they won't output near what they did when new, and you can't file reduced output under warranty.

32 lumens per watt is really low too. T5 bulbs even run at 80+ lumens per watt. My Steve's LEDs fixture over my refugium outputs 125 lumens per watt, 4 fold what that bulb does.

For what it's worth.

Hmm thanks for the help. I've never used par38 before and my corals seem to be suffering with the lights I have now (also leds but not enough) as they are reaching for the light now. I suppose I could use this light for now until I can save up enough money to get better lighting for my 12 g. You wouldn't happen to have any suggestions on what would be good lighting choice for my jbj that isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg? [emoji28]