Illuminarium was on hand at BAYMAC showing off its Trident LED striplights giving you an affordable way to add some LEDs to your current aquarium as either supplemental lighting or for your main aquarium lighting. The Illuminarium Trident LED striplights come in four color flavors and four lengths — from one to four feet.
The Trident series is available in an all white version being marketed towards freshwater (8,000K appearance) and three versions aimed at the reefing crowd. For your daylight applications there is the 50/50 mix of white and blue giving you a 16,000K look, for you Smurf blue lovers the cool blue will give you a 20,000K look by spacing out the diodes in a 1:1:1 ratio with a blue-white-royal blue-white configuration. There is even the all blue mix that is perfect for actinic supplementation with the mix of blue and royal blue LEDs.
Available in 1, 2, 3 and 4 ft. lengths using 1W LEDs fitting in nine LEDs per foot so your 1 ft. Trident strip packs 9W of LED punch (2 ft. 18W, the 3 ft. 27W and the 4 ft with 36W). According to the specs on the Epileds used on the Trident strips, the white LEDs have a 10,000K – 12,000K look with the royal blue LEDs peaking in the 450nm – 460nm range and the blues in the 460-470nm range.
Featuring an aluminum housing the Trident lights use the entire housing of the light as a heatsink with very low ridges to add some more surface area. Granted there is not as much surface area for cooling as you would have with more aggressive fins we see on other fixtures but with the low energy and heat output the design will still function well. The LEDs are also encased in IP68-rated epoxy so the entire fixture is resistant to dirt and water intrusion making cleanup simple and safe.
These strips are nothing new in the hobby with Wingo LED bringing these in from China earlier but Illuminarium is giving details and specs on the LEDs used in the strip. Illuminarium opted to go with Epileds giving decent power and performance at a budget-friendly price. Sure Cree LEDs are great at producing copious amounts of light but they can also add a premium to the price often costing three times as much as similar LEDs from mid-market companies.
LED striplights are becoming more commonplace and while these may not win any sexy design awards, they should function quite well in any application and setting. The pricing is right on line or less than comparable strips including the CurrentUSA TrueLumen and TrueLumen PRO. Illuminarium is selling the fixtures for $100 for the 1 ft. version, then $140, $170 and $200 for the 2 ft., 3 ft. and 4 ft. models respectively.
