Last Revised 1/7/2019
TMC has released their newest high end offering of LED Lighting.
The picture to the left demonstrates the difference between the 2012 Reef White 1000 and the new Reef White 2000.
This Reef White 2000 borrows much from the Ocean Blue NP 1500 in that it uses the same exact emitters with one important difference. These emitters are lensed which make them focused for more depth penetration.
This is kept from the 1000 series tiles which the 2000 series is set to replace.
The 1500 series are meant to have a wider footprint of 24 inches by 24 inches from an 8 x 8 tile. The 2000s project a 18″ x 18″ light footprint from a standard/common mounting height of about 6 to 8 inches above the water.
As before with the 1000 series and this Reef White NP 2000, it’s the better choice for for a deeper aquarium over the Ocean Blue NP 1500.
As a generalization, the Ocean Blue NP 1500 would be the choice for wide light spread or an aquarium under 20 inches. The Reef White NP 2000 would be suggested for any depth where very concentrated light is needed, such as a high light requiring sps coral or in a general reef aquarium from 20 to 30 inches or even much deeper with correct specimen placement.
To the left is the Osram Oslon “Nature Perfect” blue reef emitter spectrograph.
One important feature the 2000 borrows from the 1500 Ocean Blue is the Osram Oslon NP Blue emitters.
These are the first emitters developed specifically for the use in Reef aquariums which provide the best over all PUR for your reef inhabitants. Early results also have shown less undesirable algae growth with the use of the Osram Oslon NP Blue emitters too.
It’s important that I noted PUR and not PAR as PUR is the photosynthetically useful radiation (useful light) versus PAR which can still have plenty of useless light energy, especially if yellow, green, or warm white emitters are used (& to a lessor degree, cool white emitters).
This is common with most aquarium LED fixtures since while they utilize Cree and other quality emitters, these are still from common general emitter bins that are not specifically designed for aquarium use. In fact aquarium use is but a minor use of these emitter bins and why multiple color emitters are required in a shotgun approach to achieve a good color balance. This results in wasted light energy in nanometers that are not of optimum PUR.
This is the case in some of the more popular but often over rated LEDs on the market.
Please reference these articles:
PUR versus PAR in Aquarium Lighting
Aquarium Lighting; Complete Information
QUOTE from the first article:
“Here are three examples using PAR reading directly under the lights:
* SB Reef Light PRO 32. This is rated at 363 watts input energy with a PAR of approximately 881 (100%) at 400mm of air.
This comes to .41 watts of input energy per 1 PAR
* Kessil A150. This is rated at 90 watts input energy with a PAR of approximately 325 (100%) at 400mm of air.
This comes to .27 watts of input energy per 1 PAR
* AquaRay Reef White NP 2000. This is rated at 30 watts input energy with a PAR of 380 at 400mm of air.
This comes to .08 watts of input energy per 1 PAR
* Finnex Planted 24/7 20 inch model. This is rated at 15 watts input energy with a PAR of 61 at 400mm of air.
This comes to .24 watts of input energy per 1 PAR”
What TMC also now doing as far as construction of their LEDs is standardization of lighting types and dropping a few less popular lights such as the Marine White 1000.
TMC’s reason stated by people I know in the industry, is lower prices while still maintaining the quality of the world leader in LED aquarium lights.
As well, TMC is continuing to utilize the best possible drivers and PWM (“pulse width modulation”) technology which is superior to “current reduction” which most all other LED controllers use.
With PWM, there is NO change to the spectral output when changing voltage either up or down (dimming or ramping up your LEDs).
Specifications:
Please note that these specs are preliminary. As of the time of posting this article, I will update this article should there be any more changes.
- Utilizes these emitters
- (4) x 9,000K extremely high output NEW patented Ocean White XT-E LED
- (2) x “Fiji Blue” XT-E LEDS (deep blue),
- (4) x NEW “patent pending” NP full spectrum Blue (“Nature Perfect” from Osram Oslon) LED emitters
- PAR 380 uEinsteins/sec/m2 @15 inches
- Overall Color Temperature 20,000 K
- Total Power Consumption 30 watts @ 700 mA
TMC AquaRay Reef White 2000 PAR
Professionals say you only need 150 PAR with high PUR LED lighting. Keep clams, grow sticks, SPS… Grow anything you want! Plug and play right out of the box with no adjustments.
PAR ratings were taken from Pacific Northwest Marine Aquarium Society Forum (PNWMAS) official PAR tool.
The difference from PAR vs. PUR
The ONLY ONLINE FULL SERVICE Seller of this industry leading LED (beware of a clearance seller out of a home with an official sounding name and URL):
Reef White 2000 LED from AAP
OTHER SUGGESTED READING/PRODUCTS:
*Reef Aquarium Chemistry Maintenance
*Use of RO, DI, Softwater in Aquariums
*How UV Sterilizers Work in Aquariums & Ponds
*Aquarium Sponge Filters
*Premium Reverse Osmosis Aquarium Filter; AAP RO System, TDS Meter
Copyright 2019
By Steve Allen
Aquarium Article Digest 