Atomikk
SPS OG
Never ever deal with anyone from China on Alibaba. They are all crooks. Trust me, I paid that mistake.
chinese led lights
- Thread starter stevercleeze
- Start date
- Status
Never ever deal with anyone from China on Alibaba. They are all crooks. Trust me, I paid that mistake.
GroYurOwn
New member
just wanted to give a bit of an update.
I received a purple encrusting from bluezoo about one week ago. When I received it, it looked pretty brown, I initial had placed it very close to the top of the tank, but had to move it to the sand bed because of space issues. So it spent several days at the top, and about the same amount of time at the bottom. It is now MUCH more purple. I have very good polyp extension. Time will tell in terms of growth, but as of now the monti seems to be very happy. In the same shipment I received a browned out orenage encrusting monti, after about one week it looks more orange, and even fluoresces a bit in the actinics.
Check this thread out for pics of the tank. My BTA loves these lights also.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2135317
As a reminder, I have two 120 watt units, with 3 watt leds from aquariumleds.com
I received a purple encrusting from bluezoo about one week ago. When I received it, it looked pretty brown, I initial had placed it very close to the top of the tank, but had to move it to the sand bed because of space issues. So it spent several days at the top, and about the same amount of time at the bottom. It is now MUCH more purple. I have very good polyp extension. Time will tell in terms of growth, but as of now the monti seems to be very happy. In the same shipment I received a browned out orenage encrusting monti, after about one week it looks more orange, and even fluoresces a bit in the actinics.
Check this thread out for pics of the tank. My BTA loves these lights also.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2135317
As a reminder, I have two 120 watt units, with 3 watt leds from aquariumleds.com
BigAirHarper
New member
Thanks for the update groyurown and everything is looking good.
really nice pics... i have a nice camera but cannot take pics like that for the life of me. Is it a special lens or mode you use to shoot macro like that? sorry not to be off topic
ccolt1
Member
Nice Pics! After reading this and thinking of adding leds to accent my 2 250w DE MH I am now thinking of buying 2 120w leds and upgrading. I have a 60g tank and was wondering if 2 would be enough for it. I have a mixed tank with LPS, softies and clam and would like to try SPS someday but I am worried if these would take care of those corals. Thanks!
There are several people who say they do great and others who don't like them but there have been several people in this thread including myself who love them. i have 2x120w pendats above my 90 and have several lps and sps and so far they are all doing great and look great. i doubted how strong they were till i put them on my tank. i posted pics yesterday i believe in this thread you can see what the lights look like on my 90 and some other guys have had some great pics as well.
GroYurOwn
New member
ccolt1- two over a 60 should be MORE than enough, esp if you get the 3 watt lights. My tank is about 18 inches deep and 36 inches long. My biggest problem was TOO MUCH light in such a small tank. I had to mount them vertically (perpendicular to the front of the tank) so that there would be less light on the sides for things like shrooms and to acclimate things to the light. i completely lost a bright pink monti cap frag and a bright green digital and i think it is solely due to not acclimating them to the ultra bright LEDs. I think these are a great buy and I think aquariumleds.com stands by their product. The fact that he was going to ship me parts for free (i pay shipping) to fix something that was completely my fault is awesome.
Have to go to work, will right a bit about the pictures in a bit
Have to go to work, will right a bit about the pictures in a bit
GroYurOwn
New member
I just created a thread with some tips for photos http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19983581#post19983581 , didnt want to hijack this thread.
TropTrea
New member
I have a Nikon and it drove me crazey as well. Everything just turned up blue. If your camera has a lighting adjustment you want to sett it to highest K temperature under florescent it will go to. This is usualy on either light source or withe adjustment.
The other thing is using photo shop if you have it do an automatic gray adjustment. This pulls any remaining excess blue out of the picture.
TropTrea
New member
Some general thoughts:
When picking a fixture find out what kind of LED's and what wattage each is actualy running at.
1 Watt LED's usualy give about 60 lums per watt great for moon lights.
3 watt leds Crees are giving off 90+ Lums per Watt now.
5 Watt LEDs Cree's are now pushing 110 Luums per Watt and they just broke under $10.00 per chip.
10 Watt LED's Crees are pushing 120+ watts per LED but they are not yet available in the Star mounts.
But just think it you needed 1,000 lums total
10 watt leds = 8.5 watts on 1 LED
5 Watts leds = 9 Watts on 2 LED's
3 Watt LED's = 11.1 watts on 4 LED's
1 Watt LED's = 16.6 Watts on 17 LED's
All giving out the same amount of light. This is based on Cree LED's and most other manufacturers have older designs that are not quite hitting these numbers and in some case are way off of these numbers.
When picking a fixture find out what kind of LED's and what wattage each is actualy running at.
1 Watt LED's usualy give about 60 lums per watt great for moon lights.
3 watt leds Crees are giving off 90+ Lums per Watt now.
5 Watt LEDs Cree's are now pushing 110 Luums per Watt and they just broke under $10.00 per chip.
10 Watt LED's Crees are pushing 120+ watts per LED but they are not yet available in the Star mounts.
But just think it you needed 1,000 lums total
10 watt leds = 8.5 watts on 1 LED
5 Watts leds = 9 Watts on 2 LED's
3 Watt LED's = 11.1 watts on 4 LED's
1 Watt LED's = 16.6 Watts on 17 LED's
All giving out the same amount of light. This is based on Cree LED's and most other manufacturers have older designs that are not quite hitting these numbers and in some case are way off of these numbers.
Still can get good pic on my camera but i have had a, believes its called a pinkish devils.finger leather, for over a year that has looked.like.a. sad melted gumdrop. And after 1day with these ebay leds is finally opening up.
On a side note my white hammer has its mouth fully open. So about 60% of the head is mouth. Is it a problem . Shoult i moveit down. It is mid way in the tank and about 14 inches from.the light
On a side note my white hammer has its mouth fully open. So about 60% of the head is mouth. Is it a problem . Shoult i moveit down. It is mid way in the tank and about 14 inches from.the light
TropTrea
New member
Most of the Soft corals are what I call low light durable corals. They usualy can take a real beating and still look great which is great for beginners. I'm not sure if the open mouth means it is looking for more or less light but possibly more food. With a Softie moving it to a lower light area should not hurt it. If it needs more light it will eventualy reach up to the light itself. Unless you realy put it in the dark.
jrp1588
New member
Just got my black box ebay lights today.
Positives
1)They look nice, good solid construction
2)Very bright
3)The shimmer effect is interesting, I've always used T5's so it's new to me.
4)Colors are almost on par with my old ATI sunpower, reds aren't quite as strong though
5)Peeking through the cooling grates you can clearly see a good sized heat sink. Combined with the fans the unit stays very cool.
6)When all the blues are on by themselves the fluorescence is unbelievable. WAAY better than all ATI Blue +
Negatives
1)The hanging system is garbage. They are designed to hang from a single point. This allows the fixture to rotate around too easily. Both my fixtures are cocked at about a 20* angle, but all it'll require to hang from 2 points is another caribeaner. (Just wish I had considered this before I drilled into the ceiling. In the future I may modify an ATI hanging kit to work with it.
2)The LEDs are BRIGHT. I don't have a canopy, so if I accidentally look up at them, it's blinding.
3)Fans slightly louder then ATI sunpower, then again there are 3 of them per fixture vs 2 on the sunpower. They look like standard PC case fans though, quieter ones could probably be found for a few bucks each and easily installed.
4)shimmer effect confuses my eyes a little bit sometimes.
So far the corals seem happy, but that doesn't mean anything yet. I'll get pictures tomorrow after I properly mount the fixtures from 2 points.
Positives
1)They look nice, good solid construction
2)Very bright
3)The shimmer effect is interesting, I've always used T5's so it's new to me.
4)Colors are almost on par with my old ATI sunpower, reds aren't quite as strong though
5)Peeking through the cooling grates you can clearly see a good sized heat sink. Combined with the fans the unit stays very cool.
6)When all the blues are on by themselves the fluorescence is unbelievable. WAAY better than all ATI Blue +
Negatives
1)The hanging system is garbage. They are designed to hang from a single point. This allows the fixture to rotate around too easily. Both my fixtures are cocked at about a 20* angle, but all it'll require to hang from 2 points is another caribeaner. (Just wish I had considered this before I drilled into the ceiling. In the future I may modify an ATI hanging kit to work with it.
2)The LEDs are BRIGHT. I don't have a canopy, so if I accidentally look up at them, it's blinding.
3)Fans slightly louder then ATI sunpower, then again there are 3 of them per fixture vs 2 on the sunpower. They look like standard PC case fans though, quieter ones could probably be found for a few bucks each and easily installed.
4)shimmer effect confuses my eyes a little bit sometimes.
So far the corals seem happy, but that doesn't mean anything yet. I'll get pictures tomorrow after I properly mount the fixtures from 2 points.
GroYurOwn
New member
I agree, the shimmer is strange, if you stare at it on the sand to intensely it may actually cause a seizure. I had to raise my lights up off the water due to my fear of them falling in again, and now the shimmer is still there, but much more faint, nice but not too intense.
Being that i had to disassemble mine after dropping it in the tank i can confirm they are indeed computer fans, and would be VERY easy to replace, in fact I immediately thought about doing it once i opened the unit. Now especially since after dropping the one in the tank one of the fans is much louder. If i do it i will post here with results and parts used.
Being that i had to disassemble mine after dropping it in the tank i can confirm they are indeed computer fans, and would be VERY easy to replace, in fact I immediately thought about doing it once i opened the unit. Now especially since after dropping the one in the tank one of the fans is much louder. If i do it i will post here with results and parts used.
- Status
