LED Showdown Round 2 — The Sweet 16

The 2012 LED showdown is moving along and we have our first round of winners slimming the field down from 32 to 16 lights. The Sweet 16 round begins today and we’ll keep voting open over the weekend. We’ll close…

Aquatronica LED light fixture ready for the spotlight

Aquatronica was showing off their new LED fixture at Interzoo 2012, and it looks like they finally have finalized the design and are ready for production. Like the model shown off at Interzoo the new Aquatronica LED fixtures offer a…

Alpheus made to order LED lamps have some serious research behind them

There seems to be a common theme in the French reef aquarium industry of very high standards. Using blue lights to sell corals for example is highly frowned upon and virtually isn’t done. Similarly, the makers Alpheus LED have put…

AquaInno water-cooled concept LED system recaptures heat to warm your tank

As every reefers knows, the efficiency and longevity of LEDs largely depends on the temperature the chips are ran at. Cooler chips are more efficient and last longer, while hotter chips are less efficient and have shorter lifespans. For this…

Radion XR30w Pro now available

After being teased with the Ecotech Marine Radion XR30w Pro LED fixture for the last few months, we were happy to hear it is finally available through Ecotech retailers and online. In 2011, the Radion hit the market and in…

Fireflies inspire LED coating that gives a big boost to light output

Apart from glowing, fireflies and LEDs don’t seem to have that much in common but even if the source of their luminance derives from different physics, there’s still a trick one can learn from the other. Fireflies have been around…

Cree XLamp MK-R LED reaches for the 200lm/w barrier

The just-announced Cree XLamp MK-R is an all new product that has some impressive specs behind it, one of which being a maximum output of 1769lm @ 85C. Cree just can’t seem to take a break. With the various updates to their…

XM-L2 is Cree’s new highest performing LED ever

Cree has been on a tear of late updating their workhorse LEDs to silicon carbide substrates, and while the efficiency gains of LEDs like the XP-E2 and XP-G2 have been incremental, the new XM-L2 takes things to a whole new…

Onyx LED light is Rapid LED’s first venture outside of DIY

Rapid LED was one of the first companies to see the value in DIY LED kits, and is still a great and popular DIY LED source for many. Now however they’ve decided to venture a bit outside of the DIY…

Metal halide, T5, LED, plasma…FIPEL? The new light on the block

A few years ago, we were excitedly talking about plasma lighting and discussing the impact the lawsuit against PFO would have on the hobby. Fast-forward a few years and we have LEDs making a huge impact on the hobby and plasma struggling…