To start with IMO you need two for a 10 to 20 gal tank one will have to much fade.
Light 3" above water surface water depth 8" Par @ bottom of 10 Gal
The Bulbs
OC Reef PAR38 6 Blue, 4 White, 2 UV 3W Cree emitters driven at 2W for a 24watt output .
Max 250 avg. 150
$109.00
Orphek PR25UV 6 Blue, 4 White, 2 UV Orphek custom run emitters 24 watt output
Max 340 avg. 240
$240.00
Rapid LED 3 Royal Blue, 1 Blue, 2 Cool White and 1 Warm White CREE XR-E LEDs output 17 watts
Max 410 avg. 320
$89.00
Opinions: Best color, OC Reef has a 16K look, Orphek is like a 18K and Rapid LED is like 10K with a orange tint mixed in.
For a shallow tank and temporary tank setups I think the OC Reef Bulb will work just fine and give good color
for a fixture over something deeper then 10" or if you need more then 8 to 10 inches of spread then you would want a higher par bulb, maybe use a couple of OC Reef for color and UV and add a high Par bulb from Led Pacific, sorry have not had a chance to test them yet, but they sure do look like they would be able to pump out the Par.
So according to your testing, the Cree LEDs have more PAR for less money.Two par38 bulbs would cost $218. How about just raising the CREE fixture up some to get better spread and a little lower par reading and save $129. And if you want a bluer look, just add more blue LED’s. Plus you are using less watts. IMO, a no brainer.
Not exactly, the OC Reef bulbs are using Cree emiters also and have the lowest Par.
These are PAR38 Bulbs and you can not just change emiters out like a module so no way to add more blue without using another bulb.
So Hudz, you say the OC par38 is dimmer than the equivalent Orphek PR25, even though they seem to have the same watts and similar color LEDs?
When i hung my orphek pr25 over a dark frag tank, it only lit 1/4 section, and left the corners and edges dark. not extremely bright, like my HQI 150s, but a nice color. I guess the OC PAR bulb doesnt perform as well. I was looking at their 60 or 72 watt 16-24 inch strip lights. i wonder how they do with their 3 watt LEDs, drivers and dimmers? judging from their product line they are going through a rapid learning curve on the various models.
I really think it’s all in how they have the internal driver set, really don’t understand why they make them dimmable and then under drive them and then you have Ecoxotic 5 emitter bulbs that are not dimmable and are over driven to 21 watts. I mean they are 3 watt emitters so just driving them to spec would be 36 watts, which would really pump out the par and allow you to put on 90º lens and get 16" + of spread with good par, The only thing I can think of is maybe they can’t manage the heat with 12 emitters in the small area.