Is this led fixture good?

If you don't mind having a Chinese product with only blue and white light and no control between the two and can live with the fact that you have no idea how good that warranty is or if the seller will even be in business two years from now, then it is probably a decent light.
 
Some are using them and reporting OK results. Most report pale sps and lack of growth. I would stay away form LED especially china LED lights. LEDs need to come along a bit more and the price needs to go down. Radion is the only LED worth a dam IMO.
My father in law has one of these and the first on he got only worked for like 5 min then it died. The fans are really loud and IME 120w of LED is not enough. You need at least 300w with those type of LEDs. That fixture only drives the LEDs at 1.3-2w each.
I like how the reef tank in the pic on Ebay does not even have that LED over it.
 
It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. It's not a light that I would have any use for.
 
Tx, read up on the lumens needed for a reef. Fortunately your product gives that info. The lumens from watts is different for LEDs. Also I know a man who measured the par and found LED was greater than even MH (he did know how to do these measurements).

I personally have 72 1 watt leds on my 55gal (dont know the lumens but wish I did) and have no trouble with having enough light for birds nests. Sir is correct in there being a limitation on only having blue and white lights. Ive found that some corals dont do well under my led lights now that did just fine under lower powered fluorescent bulbs. Im sure there is a wavelength they need thats missing but have no idea what it is. Be prepared to move your corals around a bit I *believe* you will find that the LEDs will bleach some things that did fine high up in the tank with standard lights.

Cant comment on quality but if I were making the purchase I would not be afraid to attempt a clam under that light. (prefaced of course with IMO)

All in all I love my LEDs even if I dont understand them well.
 
Building your own DIY LED light is another world all together and a much better way to go. I have seen good results with DIY LEDs a friend of mine as one. The only LED fixtures work looking into are the ones with mixed LED colors and are 3w LEDs. It seems that adding UV, purple and red LEDs to the mix really benefit the corals. I have seem some great first hand before and after of the AI nano and Radion and the Radion vastly improved the health of the sps in the tank with no other changes.
 
What do I need to look for?

What do I need to look for?

I'm very new to the hobby. I have a 65 gallon tank that is 36" long ready to get started..yes that new. I eventually want to be able to keep a few corals and anemones and make it a reef tank. The aquarium came with a florescent light fixture but it is very basic and cheap and I know that it isn't good enough to provide the light needed to properly maintain a reef system. I was looking into the Marineland Reef Capable LED light fixture, but I have seen good and bad reviews on it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to what I need to look for in regards to lighting or what I should opt to buy. I can't afford the more expensive ones that can go upwards of $500 but I do realize that sometimes the better products are more expensive. I was hoping not to spend more than $300 on my lighting. ANY suggestions or comments will help. Thank you!!
 
AJ and TX(if you are interested). IMO* allsps has an excellent point for his* advanced tank. I have a pink cats paw and a green birds nest that have done extremely well under my LEDs. My light puts out light in the blue and white WL which you can see hits most of the peaks if you look at the diagrams on this page (just for one example). http://reefledlights.com/led-my-tank-for-geeks/ . More specific sps could very well have significant chlorophylls not in the narrow bands of my LEDS (455nm blue and 550 K white http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=407). (my corals that are not doing as well probably have that same situation).

That being said *IMO* starting off with a $200-$300 LED setup is just fine. Buy a coral and if it doesnt thrive trade it for another one. Some of them do extremely well with cheap LEDs. The 455 blue/550K white LEDs will let you keep anemones (bubbles and condys IME, cant say for others) and montipora, green encrusting acros, pink cats paw and green birds nest for sure. All my softies do well (except for the taro tree and I have no clue on that) but the zoas grow slower. Although slow growing zoas in not necessarily a bad thing.

If you are doing something high end then DYI with multiple colors would be a good idea but you would need to find out what wavelengths your corals need and match the LED to that. Otherwise you will be putting out light no one can use.

This is my personal experience based on running LEDs on my tank for about 2 years. They are small, dont pull anything approaching the power of a MH and do not put any burden on the AC ($$$).

IMO/IME :)

It depends on how advanced you want to be.
 
Also remember, watts are not a good indicator with LEDs. Par is optimal especially if know someone who can measure it for specific wavelengths. If not, lumens is your next best measures. Or you can do like me and guess on the watts and get lucky. 72 watts on my tank has fried a couple of corals so it is not underpowered. Its just missing some wavelengths and not every coral is bothered by that. IMO
 
I've been running LEDs for over 6 months and like tom said some acros do great and some just stay alive and never seem to grow,but my acans, chalices and montis seem to thrive and are growing like crazy! I amm running 4 AI fixtures over a 48 inch 75 gal tank so the coverage is really good and that helps a lot.
 
Maybe I look at this wrong, but why would any one want lights at had limitations on what would be healthy under them? There is a lot more to growing corals than just growing zooxenthellae, which can also be achieved by raising nutrients but leaves sps a nice brown color. The coloration of sps depends on a balance of the zooxanthellae and light and nutrients, not just the wavelength of light, many people have noticed a change in sps coloration under LEDs, and that doesn't seem like a good trade off. I have found no limitations under my halides or the T5's I have used before. There are LED fixtures that employ other colors and so far appear to not have that color change issue, and if you look at the spectrums listed under that Reef led lights article, they do not match up to the halides that are shown, and those halides have had no troubles growing any corals. Claiming that they are using some, but with peaks that are different doesn't really help much.

LED will be the future of the hobby, but I have not seen any fixture yet to make me give up what works, I have faith that it will happen, but LED for a reef setup is still a work in progress, and not a solid replacement yet. Limiting the spectrum to blue and white is not a success if you are limited to what will be healthy and retain its color. Maybe I just look at it wrong, but I don't want my light to be the limiting factor for success or have to make excuses for why I can't keep certain corals.
 
And after all LEDs are just another valid option. I run a travertine barebottom tank and I love it. Other people wouldnt dream of having a tank without a DSB. As long as you are happy with your tank that is all that matters.
 
Yes that light will work fine over a 45g. CHeck out the chinese led light thread under Lighting, Filteration and Other Equip.
 
I bought the same stuff that big country has. The units seem very nice for the price, but I haven't got the tank wet yet though, so I can't pass judgement on their effectiveness.
 
Maybe I look at this wrong, but why would any one want lights at had limitations on what would be healthy under them? There is a lot more to growing corals than just growing zooxenthellae, which can also be achieved by raising nutrients but leaves sps a nice brown color. The coloration of sps depends on a balance of the zooxanthellae and light and nutrients, not just the wavelength of light, many people have noticed a change in sps coloration under LEDs, and that doesn't seem like a good trade off. I have found no limitations under my halides or the T5's I have used before. There are LED fixtures that employ other colors and so far appear to not have that color change issue, and if you look at the spectrums listed under that Reef led lights article, they do not match up to the halides that are shown, and those halides have had no troubles growing any corals. Claiming that they are using some, but with peaks that are different doesn't really help much.

LED will be the future of the hobby, but I have not seen any fixture yet to make me give up what works, I have faith that it will happen, but LED for a reef setup is still a work in progress, and not a solid replacement yet. Limiting the spectrum to blue and white is not a success if you are limited to what will be healthy and retain its color. Maybe I just look at it wrong, but I don't want my light to be the limiting factor for success or have to make excuses for why I can't keep certain corals.

I agree, having built 3 LEDS system both Cree and Bridgelux, I believe UV to be a huge factor and people need to incorporate a much higher ratio of those LEDS. I do however disagree with the use of Red, but that could have been just my corals not responding well to them.

Currently using a 120 LED setup with UV, RB, and whites. I am seeing an Acro plana that was very brown finally showing some color that I have not seen before. I look forward to seeing what the final color make up with this specific piece turn out to.

My breakdown was 40 RB, 10 UV, 10 420nm, 30 4500k and 30 6500k.

In the near future I can see myself adding another 20+ UV's since they don't seem to alter the overall color scheme and get better coverage through out the tank.
 
Also to answer the OP's question I have seen these used in a local fish store, and he had very good coral response to the light. Was it ideal for a home use or your setup that would remain to be seen but if you are on a budget and do not have a skill set to build your own this seems like a viable option.
 
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