Product Review - Unique LED Lighting's refugium fixture

When speaking with Christopher at Unique LED Lighting about their product line, I expressed interest in a LED fixture for my refugium zone. The refugium is 58" long and 6.5" wide, and the sump's Eurobracing covered half of that width. Chris quickly stated that he could fabricate the perfect fixture to fit my needs. I requested daylight for the macro algae to grow quickly, and he told me the LEDs would provide 6500K light.

Within two weeks, he contacted me again to let me know it was ready. This fixture uses 24 CREE LEDs, and measures 48" long by 3.5" wide by 2.25" tall in a waterproof casing.





I noticed it had no cooling fans nor vents of any kind, but Chris pointed out to me that it contained 1.5 pounds of aluminum heatsink per foot. When I turned it upside down to see the LEDs later, I saw what he meant. The entire light is all heat sink, six pounds' worth!. Each LED is spaced 2" apart, in groups of six.







These aren't the type of LEDs we grew up with. Tiny dots of light!



The other request I had was an adjustable light kit to raise and lower it as desired. Chris had a great idea for that as well, using stainless steel aircraft cable, a roller pulley and some S-hooks, as well as some angled aluminum track. A cable pulley system worth emulating.

Left side


Right side


Together we installed it over the refugium a few weeks ago. After drilling all the holes for the S-hook connection, they were carefully measured and aligned with the front of the tank to make sure that each adjustment was smooth. Here are some close ups.









To change the light's height, I can lift up one end to release the tension on the cable to move the S-hook to a different hole, then do the same at the opposite end. The reason for adjusting the height was to give myself access when I need to clean the refugium or cull macro algae to encourage more growth.

Here are three pictures of the fixture at different heights. First down against the sump. You'll notice that the right end is about 1/2" lower than the left end - I've not done anything to correct this yet. At this height, the salt spray can spatter up the surface of the fixture, but the room isn't as brightly lit during the wee hours of the night.



The middle or preferred height is where I keep it.



When I need some space, I'll raise it up this high. This also allows me to clean off the fixture.



In most of these pictures, you'll notice I have a piece of black sign material to help curtail light shining onto the protein skimmer since it encourages algae growth within. It isn't big enough to cover all the gear adequately.

The back side of the fixture has both product information and the serial number.



It is powered with a large power supply. When I measured the power consumption using a Kill-o-watt device, it read 68 watts. At my current rate of 9.4 cents per kilowattHour (kWh), it will cost $1.88 to power this light each month, or $22.56 annually.





For a size comparison, it is the one to the right of the Vortech power supplies.



To control when the fixture comes on and off, it can be plugged into a grounded timer. I prefer to use my Aquacontroller 3, and use a x-10 module to power it on and off according to schedule.



When my controller reaches 10pm, it communicates with a module that speaks to this one and within half a second, the light comes on. At 6am, it turns off. It has turned on and off perfectly since the installation. And if I want to turn it on when guests come over, I use my iPhone 4. Aquanotes allows me to enable any device with a single touch.



This fixture retails at $499 and comes with a two year warranty.



More importantly, does it work? Can plants grow under LED lighting? Absolutely. Here's an iphone picture from the first night, about three weeks previously. In those three weeks, the macro algae growth easily quadrupled, and I didn't have the light running 24 hours a day. Some macro was pulled to share with others, and some died during the dark period the way Caulerpa is known to do.



At 9" beneath the fixture, the PAR measurement was 100. Just beneath the surface, it was 90, and at the substrate 16" from the LEDs, it measures 50 PAR. According to Unique LED Lighting: "It has 24 CREE XP-E 6.5K White LEDs driven at 700mA emitting a minimum of 180 Lumens each using our proprietary circuitry."

And finally, what I like about this light spectrum is that the colors are true. While it is stated 6500K, it really does look more like 10,000K to my eye. Here's a picture without any color correction. With this light, if I felt the need to place a couple of corals in the refugium temporarily, I'm sure they'd do fine. I could also lower the fixture to increase that PAR. But for what I need, this light is doing a superb job that is obvious to anyone that sees it.



According to Chris, this fixture is completely enclosed for use in high humidity areas. And I'm glad it is. My skimmer has overflowed a few times in the past couple of weeks, and even though the cup is several inches away, it got spattered a couple of times and once I saw a puddle of water running across the top of my new light fixture! Fortunately, it was easily wiped away. I can't tell if the acrylic box was bonded with Weld-on or silicone, or both. Regardless, I'm glad it didn't get wet internally from the nearby skimmate volcano.

You can learn more about their products here:
http://www.ledreef.com/
http://www.uniqueledlighting.com


For legal reasons, I must state that this fixture was provided free of charge for this product review.