chinese led lights
- Thread starter stevercleeze
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BigAirHarper
New member
Hmm she gave me 600x320x60mm for the 40x3W.
stiltman
Active member
I love it! Blace is my favorite kolor. I'm thinking about throwing some of these bad boys over a 75 or a 90. Let us know what you think please!
Plumbcrazy
New member
I've been running the aquariumleds 14k 120w leds and here is the pictures of the growth and the look. Sorry bout the crappy pics.
green plate was almost dead from the tank crash
some chalices
tabling acro was 1 1/2 when i got it
ly stg growth ring can be seen on the edge
red planet can see where its growing onto the rock frag plug is gone
duncans only bought 4 heads
my acans
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac16/bethjoel4453/new%20tank/IMG_1303.jpg
[IMG]http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac16/bethjoel4453/new%20tank/IMG_1301.jpg FTS
I'm sold on these lights
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac16/bethjoel4453/new%20tank/IMG_1303.jpg
[IMG]http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac16/bethjoel4453/new%20tank/IMG_1301.jpg FTS
I'm sold on these lights
BigAirHarper
New member
Ooo could you post some pics of your tank?
Also, how does the controller feature work for you? Are you able to successfully slowly increase the intensity of the lights? Thanks!
Oh and Plumb, your lights are looking real good.
donald altman
New member
There is no perfect spectrum.. The LED systems limit you on the spectrum you can have over your tank period. However each bulb in a "traditional style fixture" can be used to custom tune to your coral and to your viewing preference.. an LED system cannot do this.. once you purchase it and turn it on thats what it is. IF I had to limit my whole tank to only two spectrums scratch that one kelvin temp and have some blue moon lights added in I'd be sad
Plumbcrazy
New member
!2" off the water.
Plumbcrazy
New member
There is no perfect spectrum.. The LED systems limit you on the spectrum you can have over your tank period. However each bulb in a "traditional style fixture" can be used to custom tune to your coral and to your viewing preference.. an LED system cannot do this.. once you purchase it and turn it on thats what it is. IF I had to limit my whole tank to only two spectrums scratch that one kelvin temp and have some blue moon lights added in I'd be sad
That is not what the thread is about. It was started to see if anyone had experience with lower cost leds. You are correct with a "traditional" light you can pick what colors look more appealing to the eye. Leds are a lot like mh, pick the color appealing to your eye and run with it. Good luck with the heat. If you run t5, now your talking $$$ for bulb replacement. Just look at leds as going green!
Detroit_306
New member
How deep is your tank?
BigCountry74
New member
Is that 2 or 12? I hope 12....I was planning on mounting mine 10. If I have to to 2" that screws up everything..lol
for the price that evo fixture looks like a no go, i would get 3 of these $160 ones efore i dropped $500 on a fixture that uses 2w LED's.
Heres my pics of the 120w running 30 blue and 25 white LED's.
link to fixture http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquarium-Co...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item68c94c7950
Nova Extreme Pro 6x30w
Ati Blue+
Ati Blue +
Ati Purple +
Ati Aquablue Special
Ati Blue +
Ati Blue +
LED fixture White and Blue on
Led fixture Blues only (the colors pop like crazy my camera just wont pick it up)
update on these lights, Growth is good, color is better than t5's. and im getting some pink/red hues popping up in corals that had none before.
Corals on corners of tank on sandbed also showing signs of growth.
No problems with the fixture at all, and it's still running pretty quiet. This this is INTENSE!
donald altman
New member
The heat on a t5 system? LOL
My reply was to a question made in this thread.
Spectrum and color choices in LED lighting is totally relevant.
These systems haven't been used long enough to give a good long term opinion of how they perform.
I personally would be interested in LEDs with multiple kelvin ranges within the same panel.
The bulbs might last but the rest of these fixtures IMHO is going to do like all the rest of the cheap plastic stuff made in China.
...I don't seet buying a light made in China that was shipped to the US as being "green". Sure it might be cheaper to operate, I'll give you that, but a true "green" one would be made here in the US out of mostly post recycled material. I guess every bit helps though.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against LEDs.. I just don't think they are the answer for MY tank YET.
Eventually all the LEDs will be better quality and might make great lights, we've already seen a fair amount of advances. You can get affordable optics and dimmable LEDs now... I've seen that you can get color shifting LED bulbs now as well for other things maybe they will make their way into our hobby. I'm sure alot more of these features will be standard before long. When they are fully proven I'll have some over my reef.
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To all you guys that are against these "china" LED's
How much does it cost to buy budget MH fixture, now how often do you have to replace the bulb(s). twice a year. thats about $100-$120 a year just on bulbs.
I could replace this LEd fixture every 2 years for that price and i'd still be saving money.
As for the color, you still have to supplement MH lighting, so why not supplement LED?
Or even solder in a couple diff color LED's in place of blue or white that come with the fixture.
Running this fixture for a bit over a month now i can easily say theres really nothing on the market that can touch these fixtures for price, color, growth, size, and availability.
Prove me wrong.
How much does it cost to buy budget MH fixture, now how often do you have to replace the bulb(s). twice a year. thats about $100-$120 a year just on bulbs.
I could replace this LEd fixture every 2 years for that price and i'd still be saving money.
As for the color, you still have to supplement MH lighting, so why not supplement LED?
Or even solder in a couple diff color LED's in place of blue or white that come with the fixture.
Running this fixture for a bit over a month now i can easily say theres really nothing on the market that can touch these fixtures for price, color, growth, size, and availability.
Prove me wrong.
TropTrea
New member
I will disagree with LED's not being tunable to your color preference. But unfortunately most commercial ones are not unless you spend big money.
On a do it yourself fixture you can easily tune the lighting to your personal taste and even change it if you get boared with a particular look. There are Neutral White LED's that create a 5,000 K effect as well as both Blue and Royal Blue LED's. Besides this there are also Near UV Leads that duplicate the old Atinic 420 nm light bulbs. Running a ration of about 1 Neutral White to 6 Royal Blues will give you an effect similar to most commercial 20,000K light bulbs. If you put the Royal Blues on a dimmable driver you can reduce the amount of blue you have have even get back down to the 6,500K level. Another thing you can do is run a 1 to 1 ration of royal blues to neutral whites but put the neutral whites on a dimmable driver. Then when your lights come on you have a very dramatic all Royal Blue effect but slowly increase the intensity of the white as the tank gets brighter it slowly will move through the Kelvin spectrum to give you a 10,000K look at mid day.
Yes you can do wonders with LED's even things you could not do with conventional lights. I have a pre-dawn post dusk strip of Royal Blues that are on the front of my tank angled at a 45 degree angle to the rear. In the pre dawn hours it creates a shimmer look as it amplifies ever disturbance on the water surface throughout the tank. Try doing that with T-5's, or even Metal Hides.
With some extremely tall tanks you have multiple options with lenses on your LED's as well. One big issue with most lighting is that on the surface you could be burning your corals while on the substrate level of a tall tank you may barely have enough light to grow soft corals. With lens you can reduce the difference in lighting levels fantastical with the use of lenses.
Every day LED's are improving. The LED's Cree produced 2 years ago are obsolete today. New more powerfully and more efficient LED's are being released almost a daily bases right now. Commercial manufacturers have to go through periods of testing and market evaluations before they make them available to us. But the Do it Yourselfer's have the newest technology available to them today. And when something newer and better comes out they can simply modify there existing system rather than have to buy a whole new system to take advantage of the savings.
To me what it gets down to is how much do value your time? Are you willing to spend spend 4 hours to build your own lighting system or $300 that exceeds anything out there on the market today that would cost your $600 to $1,000 for a large tank. Sure if your talking a small 20 gallon tank the savings are not as drastic but but your still going to be ahead of the commercial market.
TropTrea
New member
If your comparing them to T-5's and Metal Hides yes your right. But when you compare them to home built LED system your completly playing in an oblolute ball park. With the new LED's out there today you build a home made system with 30 LED's that will put out more light than any comercial system could 6 months ago with 90 LED's. There are LED's out there today that pu oput 120 lums per watt and can be safely run at 5 Watts while most comercial fixtures are using leds that produce 60 to 70 lums per watt and are running in the 2.5 Watt range per LED.
Look at this fixture <http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/LED_Lighting/AquaIllumination_Sol_LED_Light_Systems/48_inch__Sol_Blue_4xModule_LED_Light_System_w!_Controller_(Black_Body)_by_AquaIllumination> It would no problem creating something simular today for a fraction of the cost.
Tonynlo
New member
My quick review:
Picked up 3 of the $160 taotronics models for my 125. I'm not sure if it's the nature of LED lighting, but I had a 6x54 sunpower over a 6 ft tank and it was brighter looking. I have not tested the par yet. Coral all seems to be doing well and have noticed growth decent PE on some of my SPS. The actinic lighting from the LED is impressive! The fixture itselt feels cheap, power cords don't plug in all the way and if they wiggle a bit you can lose the connection. If you are hanging them, good luck trying to keep them straight. They spin and blow around because of the fan and the stiff power cords. Be careful when you are installing the lights. After I hung the light up, I plugged in the blue sides of each fixture to see what it looked like. There seems to be a connection between the plugs. I plugged the cord into the white socket on the fixture and when i grabbed the plug to put it into the wall, I caught 110V. My shoulder still hurts... Keep in mind that you really are getting what you paid for. An entry level, disposable light.
Picked up 3 of the $160 taotronics models for my 125. I'm not sure if it's the nature of LED lighting, but I had a 6x54 sunpower over a 6 ft tank and it was brighter looking. I have not tested the par yet. Coral all seems to be doing well and have noticed growth decent PE on some of my SPS. The actinic lighting from the LED is impressive! The fixture itselt feels cheap, power cords don't plug in all the way and if they wiggle a bit you can lose the connection. If you are hanging them, good luck trying to keep them straight. They spin and blow around because of the fan and the stiff power cords. Be careful when you are installing the lights. After I hung the light up, I plugged in the blue sides of each fixture to see what it looked like. There seems to be a connection between the plugs. I plugged the cord into the white socket on the fixture and when i grabbed the plug to put it into the wall, I caught 110V. My shoulder still hurts... Keep in mind that you really are getting what you paid for. An entry level, disposable light.
Dennis I agree with you on building your own and I do have the time and could do it easy. But to do it for 300? Show me where. Ive called around and to build it out of the nice cree's and make it tunable etc. Just to cover my 62 by 18 by 27 tank every one tells me its like 1000 to 1400 bucks.
Show me show me show me where I can get this stuff for 300!
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