The differences between these products depend on your individual lighting needs. The aquaLUMix provides a compact and highly powerful solution with all the light colors needed for an appealing daylight simulation. It also includes an integrated mount and the ability for heat recovery.

If you prefer a tailor-made lighting solution, then eco+ or PRO² might be a better option. These modular systems allow additional control over the arrangement, quantity, and length of individual LED bars. The choice depends on your vision of perfect lighting, whether you opt for the ready-made solution (aquaLUMix) or prefer a customizable system (eco+/PRO²).

The cable length for the eco+ and PRO² LED bars is 150cm. In order to extend the cables of the LED bars (150cm), which may be too short (to the installation site of the control unit), I recommend the extension cable by the metre with the solder connectors. 

For the aquaLUMix, powerBEAM and multiBEAM products, the cable length is 250cm and should not be extended.

A maximum cable length should always be kept as short as possible. There is a purely physical reason for this: the longer the cable, the higher the voltage drop, the less efficient the lighting. In addition, long cables behave like an antenna; the susceptibility to interference increases massively with the length of the cables. More than 3 m should therefore be avoided if possible.

The cable length of the power supply units is approx. 50cm on the input and output side.

Yes, LED bars do generate heat during operation. This heat arises because the LED chips convert energy into light, and some of that energy is released as heat. However, our LED bars are equipped with specially designed aluminum profiles that effectively dissipate this heat. This ensures that the bars operate safely and efficiently.

We have tested RGBs extensively. The light produced, especially the white, which is probably mainly used, looks very unnatural or cold and artificial, usually with a blue tinge. You need to know that white light in RGBs is produced by mixing red, green and blue colours. Thus, the colour rendering quality and especially the light output falls far behind that of single-colour LEDs.

The fact that white light within an RGB chip is generated from the primary colours red, green and blue leads to another disadvantage. An RGB chip can only reproduce one light colour at a time. Example: White light for main lighting and a slowly appearing reddish light for a sunset are not possible. With RGB, all the light would turn red...from white to pink to red. With single-colour LEDs, you can have red, blue or white LED bars shine as you like, simultaneously or overlapping at different times.

LED bars are typically not available longer than 140 to 144cm as this is the maximum physical length. The reason for this is related to voltage drop: The longer the LED bar, the higher the voltage drop, and the less efficient it becomes. Therefore, anything over 140cm would hardly be economical. To create longer lighting solutions, one can combine various shorter LED bars, such as 2x100cm, 2x80cm, 80+100cm, etc.

As you probably already know, LEDs are sensitive to heat. A high luminous intensity inevitably also leads to a high LED operating temperature, which in turn has a direct effect on the service life of the LED. For this reason, a crucial and indispensable consideration in the design of LED products is how they cope with heat.

Ideally, the LEDs should be mounted "bare" on a good cooling body. The area of use – in aquariums – also makes it essential for the LEDs to have a watertight seal. There are three materials available for achieving all this: Epoxide (synthetic resin), polyurethane (PU) adhesive and silicon.

Most waterproof LED bars available on the market are sealed with epoxide, which means they are very inexpensive. However, from a technical point of view they are not the best choice because they quickly discolour and become brittle.

ClearSealing is a special production process in which a special high-performance silicone gives the LED bars a watertight seal. UV and temperature stable! Although this process results in longer production times and higher manufacturing costs, the characteristics it produces cannot fail to impress:

Temperature:

• Our silicone has a much higher thermal conductivity than epoxide or PU and therefore has almost no effects on the service life. Our LED bars have the big advantage that the LEDs are permanently and directly attached to the cooling body. Thus the heat they create is directly and efficiently conducted away.

Left: LEDs in epoxide after 3 and 5 months respectively, right: LEDs in silicone after 6 months

External influences:

• The chemical properties of epoxide and PU make the materials highly sensitive to external influences such as heat and moisture. Therefore they can quickly become very hard, stiff and brittle, which adversely affects their role as sealants. Our silicone is much more stable and retains its properties.

Transparency:

• Our silicone is highly transparent, whereas epoxide and PU increasingly reduce the luminous intensity.

Beam angle:

• The production process is specially designed for the materials used and their properties. Thus we are able to achieve a beam angle of almost 160° with ClearSealing technology. And we do that completely without reflectors or lenses!

UV stability:

• Our silicone is much more UV stable. Epoxide and PU go yellow by comparison after just a few months even with a low proportion of UV light.

Left: LEDs in silicone after 1 + 3 months, right LEDs in epoxide after 1,2,3 months respectively.

Yes, all our LED bars (eco+, PRO², and aquaLUMix) as well as the spotBEAM and powerBEAM pendant lights are dimmable.

Can I simulate daylight with your LED products?

Absolutely! We offer devices for automatic light control and daylight simulation. Our eco+ and PRO² LED bars have several color combinations , which are ideal for daylight simulation. You can also add  effectcolors such as RED (dawn) and ROYAL BLUE (moonlight). The aquaLUMix already have a suitable light combination, and the same applies to powerBEAM & spotBEAM. Further details can be found in the product description.

The lifespan of LED bars is about 40,000 operating hours under optimal conditions and proper care. This includes measures such as: regular external cleaning, using the CleanCover, avoiding heat build-up, avoiding persistent excessive wetness (not humidity), etc. Water cooling with the PRO and aquaLUMix products can be helpful but is not mandatory if there is sufficient ventilation.

Yes, of course, you can create your desired lighting effect with a mix of eco+ and PRO² LED bars. Our mains adapters and controls are compatible with both models (12V DC). In the choice of your LED bar holders, we would draw your attention to the instructions in the product descriptions. For example, the PRO² LED bars are compatible with only the "solo" version of our T5/T8 holders. The lamp housings can be configured either with a maximum of 4x eco+ or 2x PRO² and 1x eco+ LED bars.
The aquaLUMix can also be electrically combined with the eco + or PRO² LED bars in one system, but the fastening is done separately.

Yes, of course, but the following must be taken into account.
Compared to fresh water, seawater is an extremely aggressive medium and only very few materials can withstand direct and permanent contact. In order not to unnecessarily shorten the service life of the LED bars, appropriate precautions should be taken when using them in seawater. In addition to the CleanCoverns, an additional glass or acrylic pane on the aquarium is highly recommended to keep seawater away from the LED bars.

Depending on the size of the aquarium, our first recommendation is always aquaLUMix, spotBEAM or powerBEAM SEAWATER. With this lighting, you get an ideally balanced spectrum on the one hand and a lot of power on the other. To achieve an even more dominant blue peak in the spectrum or even in the UV range, these lights can be wonderfully combined with the eco+ ROYAL BLUE or the PRO² with UV.

To achieve the same performance values with only the individual eco+ or PRO² LED bars, a large number of units would be necessary, which complicates the entire handling up to the control unit.

The following applies to the eco+ and PRO² LED bars: The light colours REEF (11,000K) and CORAL (50% white, 33% blue, 17% red) together with the light colours POLAR (7,500K), MARINE (13,000K) and ROYAL BLUE (460nm) form a wide range for the best possible lighting of marine aquariums. Depending on the requirements of the stock, an individual light mixture can be selected in this way. You would have to determine the final number yourself; depending on the requirements of the stock, a corresponding number of LED bars are used. As a rough guide, at least 50% of the conventional light output should be selected in LED. So, for example, if you used to use 100W tube lighting, you should now use at least 50W LED lighting.

If the aquaLUMix or PRO² LED bars are chosen and the heat recovery function is to be used, we strongly recommend using the TITAN extension.

Yes. Our LED lamps are so effective and bright that they can be used for terraristics. LED lighting with the PLANT-GROW, among other things, is recommended, especially with a view to the planting.

However, since an enormous variety of different animal species can be considered for a terrarium, the stocking should be given special consideration when selecting and purchasing the LEDs. For technical reasons, normal LEDs quickly lack the UVA range completely, so it makes sense to use an additional light source if your terrarium or animals need to die. For this purpose you will find the PRO² LED bar in the MIX variant UVA ✚ SKY-GROW - full spectrum 2.0. This is perfect for use in terraristics, please note the product description!

Advantage in addition to the power consumption: LEDs only develop a small amount of waste heat, whoever uses them as additional lighting does not have to pay attention to additional heat development in the terrarium. Thanks to the special sealing of our LED strips (protection class IP67), use in high humidity is also possible without any problems. The CleanCover is also strongly recommended here.

We use an extremely efficient 5630 SMD LED with an excellent colour rendering index of up to 90 Ra (CRI)! These LEDs are perfect for use in aquariums, which demand very good colour rendering.

Why 5630/573 SMD LEDs?

• High brightness combined with low electricity consumption
• Very good colour rendering
• Long service life
• Very good price/performance ratio

Here is an overview of the SMD LEDs available on the market and their characteristics:

SMD stands for Surface-Mounted Device: In contrast to other LEDs, SMD LEDs are not connected by wires but are soldered directly onto the printed circuit board.
 
Advantages:

• Very low heat emissions
• Low voltage and current requirements
• Compact size
• More tolerant of mechanical vibration loads
• Low terminal resistance and impedance
• Low weight due to the absence of connecting wires