IceCap has a new LunarLite LED retrofit and its coming in December
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IceCap has a new LunarLite – Blue LED Retrofit that will be available soon. This should work in nicely with their new Reef illuminations light fixture that was released at MACNA. IceCap had this to say on their website:
The LunarLite LED tubes have the same look of a standard T5 tube, but they are powered by a low voltage transformer, not a fluorescent ballast.  The T5 form provides better spread of the light over the entire aquarium. Encasing the LED’s inside a T5-style tube protects them and their circuit boards from the harsh, salty, humid environment that is your normal saltwater aquarium. The IceCap LunarLites have an aluminum heat sink on the back side of the tube to dissipate what little heat they generate.
LunarLites are highly efficient and very reliable but we know the reason you’ll want them is what they will do to the appearance of the corals. They are designed to excite the green fluorescing proteins in corals. They particularly bring out yellows, oranges, and greens. If you think your corals look good under actinics, you haven’t seen anything yet! Mushrooms, zoanthids, Ricordea, and most any fleshly large polyp stony corals look amazing under the LED’s.
The LunarLite retrofits ship with mounting clips to secure the LED Tubes to a canopy, commercial hood or existing fixture. The weight should not be an issue because the 2-foot unit is only 4 oz.   Power connection to the LunarLite is a power tail with a quick connect to a low voltage power supply, no hand wiring required.
While working with the Reef Illuminations fixture, these also will work in other T5 fixtures so you aren’t forced into buying an IceCap fixture if you wish not to. These will begin to ship in mid-December with an MSRP not yet announced.
I spoke to the agent in China for these last night, as we had the same interest for GHL users, but were told they provide no benefit for growth lighting.
BUT assuming they are for looks only i.e moon LED I can see the potential with these for sure.
If a dimmable interface was also added then the potential becomes a lot more interesting
November 24th, 2009 at 11:54 am
I don’t understand.
On one hand it says “they are powered by a low voltage transformer, not a fluorescent ballast.”
Which means they come with a power adapter.
But, at the end of the article it says “While working with the Reef Illuminations fixture, these also will work in other T5 fixtures so you aren’t forced into buying an IceCap fixture if you wish not to.”
So I don’t get it, if they are powered by an adapter how will they “work in other T5 fixtures”?
November 24th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Damnhor2, you are correct. The LunarLite LED arrays come with their own power adapter. In our fixtures, there are two pins on each end of the LED’s. The LED’s come pre-installed in the fixture and the endcaps are clearly marked for the LED’s. To prevent people from buying these retrofits and jamming the “bulbs” into standard T5 fixtures, we changed the pin configuration. We moved the pins to four on one side and none on the other to prevent people from improperly putting them into their existing fixtures.
As to the RB comments, I am guessing they were suggesting that you could add these retrofits to existing fixtures. You cannot swap this LED lamp for a T5 fluorescent lamp, but you probably could find space to squeeze in and add this LED array to some brands of fixtures.
November 25th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Interested to learn more about pricing…
November 25th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I got the new IceCap MH/T5/LED combo. You are correct. It is a 40 watt dc adapter to a modified t5 socket. The led’s are oddly bright for moon light. I get actinics effect when run alone. I’d prefer a dimmer moon light and run of an ac jr for now. I’ll get use to it though and absolutley no growth value from these.
November 29th, 2009 at 3:00 am