The BluRay from GNC Italia is one of the most uncompromising reef aquarium LED light fixtures when it comes to creating a bright and uniform light field. Unless you live in Europe or better yet Italy, the BluRay is one of the more exotic high end aquarium lights but this is one beast which is worth some long distance attention.
Rather than focus on a multitude of colors and control channels, GNC Italia’s approach is to use a veritable blanket of light emitting diodes to fill every nook and cranny of the aquarium with light. By using medium output instead of high output LEDs, the BluRay reaches very high PAR but with none of the hotspots associated with any kind of primary or secondary lenses.
The other benefit to using these spread out medium output LEDs is that their heat is natively spread across the heatsink, leading to great thermal management and no fan! While the BluRay has been available for some time from GNC Italia they’ve just announced the new smaller BluRay M to pack all the fun of the original light into a smaller form factor.
The BluRay M is designed to light up an aquarium around twenty four inches square and although the light is hardly 12 inches by 10 inches in area, it packs in a whopping 294 miniature LEDs! That’s 168 whites, 98 blues and 28 deep reds just to balance out the color for good measure. It may produce only 65 watts but these are the most efficient possible configuration for getting the most lumens/PAR per watt of any aquarium light.
The list price of the BluRay M is 549€ ($636) but it is on special for 489€ ($566) for the next week only. With so many aquarium lights following the same trends and looking the same both in form and in function, the BluRay series from GNC Italia is an exciting new direction for creating a bright & silent LED light that looks good both on the tank and inside of it. GNC Italia
