Sunbrite Lighting System is rethinking how to implement aquarium LEDs
10 Comments
We’ve had a chance to follow up on the Sunbrite LED System which we first reported live from the MAX show and we are very keen as to how Sunbrite is rethinking how to bring viable LED lighting to the marine and reef aquarium. The blend of function and form is an interesting twist on the development of aquarium LEDs. To recap, the SunBrite LED lamps are the shape and size of the familiar T10 form factor yet they are filled with low power LEDs. Instead of trying to develop a few, highly efficient and powerful LED lights which pack a lot of punch, the SunBrite developers have opted to pack each foot of their lamps with 90 low power LEDs. The 1, 1.5, 2, 3, and 4 foot lamps come in single colors only and they are available in 420 actinic, 470 blue, propink, 10K, 16K, 22k and 65K flavors so you can mix and match them to suit your color rendition preference. The lamps have built in drivers and they are intended to be wired up directly to household current so if you want to use these in an existing fluorescent light fixture, you’ll have to wire around the included ballast. If you don’t want to futz with it, SunBrite also makes a light fixture in 20, 24, 36, 48 and 72″ lengths which include a built-in digital timer and a sturdy metal enclosure. The fixtures range in price from $180-260 but we are unclear on the exact breakdown of the bulb prices. SunBrite is looking for resellers of their fledgling aquarium product so if you’re interested, hit em up via sunbritelighting at hotmail. We’ve been gracioulsy allowed to review one of the two foot fixtures and we’ll be reporting back soon on how the reef is taking to the new lights. Make sure to follow the break for a demo video and more pics of the SunBrite LED System.
Does it have shimmer like a halide lamp would since its a bunch of point sources? Also I assume the 180 price for a 20 inch system is dealer cost, so probably somewhere around 350 consumer level?
April 14th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
PAR? PAR? PAR?
April 14th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
oops, nevermind…I just watched the video.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Gotta love a company who spells “hobbyist” as “hobbiest” in their advertising/promotion – makes you question how much quality control goes into the actual product. Come on people! Take some pride in how you present your product!
April 14th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Not to jinx it or anything but is this lighting system between the cracks of Orbitech’s patent, are we going to see another patent infringment lawsuit? I mean this just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what Orbitech does. The cat’s out of the bag, just makes me wonder how Orbitech couldn’t get enough funding for their system yet a little aquarium shop came out with one before they did. By the way how is the Orbitech-PFO lawsuit going?
April 14th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
I’m a bit skeptical of those PAR numbers and would like to see an independent test. The problems with using these 5mm LEDs are: 1. They generally don’t produce as much PAR as high power LEDs, 2. The useful life low power LEDs is much less than high power LEDs, and 3. Thermal management is harder as you can’t mate these up to a heat sink very easily and heat will reduce their useful life,
April 15th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
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May 1st, 2009 at 7:34 am
any updates on your review of this product. i am very interested to see what you guys have learned about this amazing development.
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
i ve already seen the product and was just about to order i find out that the price of $260 on ebay is SHIT….the reaon i say this is cause they sell the fixture for about $260 plus…. $170 PER BULB…. SO IF YOU ADD IT ALL UP IT COMES WITH 8 BULBS around the sweet cost of $1700 to $1900 dollars….how about that….
September 10th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I purchased a complete set of seven Sunbrite LEDs for my aquarium about a year ago. First of all, I would like to say “Don’t waste your money”. The White LEDs start fading after only about three months. I would estimate approximately a 30% loss in output over the three month period, which in LED terms, means they are spent. Over the last year, three of the LED bulbs (22000k, 16000k, and 12000k) have completely burned out. Only a few LEDs still light on those bulbs – these rest of the LEDs are burned out completely. The other two 6500K bulbs I purchased have dropped in output by about 50%, even though all of the LEDs still light up. The Blue (470mm) and Purple (440mm) both seem ok – there does not appear to be any drop in output and all LEDs still light up.
In general, I would say Sunbrite LEDs have some serious issues with their White LED Aquarium lights. Needless to say, the affect on my aquarium has not been good. I supplemented the lighting with some T5′s to keep everything alive. Just to see how long the Sunbrites would actually last. Without the T5′s all of my hard and soft corals would be dead. Well, I found out – the white Sunbrite LEDs really only last about three months, and are complete dead in about a year. The colored ones have been working fine for about a year. We’ll see how they hold up in year two.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:31 pm