Chinese Black Box review after 4 years.

[NaasReefer]

I've been using the chinese black box LEDs for about 4 years now, the model I have is the marsaqua 165w and I run 2 units on my 4ft reef tank. Overall the lights are quite good considering the cheap price tag. I have been successful in growing softies, LPS and SPS corals under these lights. I have a torch that started with two heads now has over 30, my hammers are the same, started with two heads now have 3 colonies with 30+ heads. On the sps side plating monti grows like a weed and I had an acro colony grow from fist size to open hand size (this was directly under the centre of the leds). The spread on the lights is not great, it's very focused directly under the unit.

I would recommend these lights or similar ones, they go by many names on ebay and amazon, but if you can afford better lights then I would recommend you get better ones. I will be upgrading when I can afford a high end light unit but for now these work just fine. Here's a link to a video review that I did if anyone is interested:

https://youtu.be/nSGKMH7jzsI

 

[Nanorock4]

Raising the lights up more could reduce the focus. The trade off would be light spill into the room. BRS just did some light testing and showed how you can reduce the hot spot in the middle and get better full coverage of the whole tank depending on the height and spread of your lights. Looks like you have done well with these lights regardless, your corals are doing great.