garygonzales
Member
wow thanks for the info....you did this too.... how are you liking the colors,,..did it make a difference in overall appearance??
Mars Aqua Chinese LED review (Ebay)
- Thread starter Atomic081
- Start date
wow thanks for the info....you did this too.... how are you liking the colors,,..did it make a difference in overall appearance??
Isaacs55
New member
Go back on page 14 and see the difference. You should really go back on about page 10 and read from there.
garygonzales
Member
yea ive been following this from the beginning...just wanted to know if your liking it so far....
firebirdude
User and Abuser
Just got the fixture over my tank. Haven't soldered on the violets yet. I've got the 300W version over a 40B. Right out of the box, yes, there was some shadowing on the far sides of the tank. Nothing serious, but I was looking for it and it wasn't hard to find. So the fixture came back down and I opened it up to remove the optics. The optics appear to be hot glued in place. A tiny amount of effort and they pop right off. I was incorrectly assuming the little plastic/glass dome over the actual emitter was the optics, since that's all I seemed to see in all the pictures. But it has basic bridgelux style optics over them. Once I reassembled the fixture, it was MUCH MUCH better. Honestly, I couldn't even spot the red/green LEDs on my rockwork or anything. I do wonder why they spaced the reds and greens the way they did on the 300W though. Two reds off the far left side, then two more on the far right side. Why wouldn't they stagger them like they did the greens? I just thought it was odd.
Lastly, how do you guys keep your fixture from spinning or getting crooked when it's hanging? Mine is hanging from the ceiling. If I hang the power cords just right I can get it pretty close to dead center, but was just wondering what you guys were doing.
I'll post up before and after pictures when I install the violets.
Isaacs55
New member
I love my fixture so far! After I switched the diodes out to my liking it's way better and I can't imagine going back lol the unit is cheap in itself and I would buy it every time just to switch out some leds for what I prefer.
firebirdude
User and Abuser
I'm trying to keep it as full spectrum as possible. I've been down the LED road years ago and left disappointed and a touch angry that I had so much $$$ invested in a clearly inferior design. So I'm not going to change too terribly much. I'll probably keep all the cool, neutral and warm LEDs right where they are, as they give off a wide range of wavelengths. And I cannot even tell a difference between the Blue and Royal Blue LEDs. lol But it's nice to know they cover a slightly different wavelength. Anybody got any experience with Cyan LEDs? Something 480nm-500nm? That's an area not really covered by the MarsAqua lights that are still in the chlorophyll zone. I might consider those. This is an area that "ice white" ~10k-12k MIGHT help. I say might because all the charts I see for every "white" emitter have them all tapering off heavily at the exact same point (~480nm) regardless of overall color temp. Seems like cool, neutral and warm white emitters all output the same level around ~480nm.
That said, the research the masses have done seems to show that a ton of red wavelength is not really beneficial to a reef tank other than maybe algae. And hey, I'm no biologist. Algae is one of the simplest forms of life and a building block to a more complex ecosystem. Maybe those red wavelengths play a higher role than we give them credit for. LED lighting IS STILL very young in the hobby. Who knows. But I'm thinking that ditching two of the four red emitters in my fixture won't lose me anything. Plus by swapping them for violets, picking up a little lower wavelengths that were previously not covered can only be advantageous. And coral health aside, I'm thinking the violets will give me more viewing appeal. Which is always nice.
I guess I'm just making sure the corals are happy rather than tuning the fixture to MY personal taste.
EDIT: Guess we'll find out. I just bought some.
That said, the research the masses have done seems to show that a ton of red wavelength is not really beneficial to a reef tank other than maybe algae. And hey, I'm no biologist. Algae is one of the simplest forms of life and a building block to a more complex ecosystem. Maybe those red wavelengths play a higher role than we give them credit for. LED lighting IS STILL very young in the hobby. Who knows. But I'm thinking that ditching two of the four red emitters in my fixture won't lose me anything. Plus by swapping them for violets, picking up a little lower wavelengths that were previously not covered can only be advantageous. And coral health aside, I'm thinking the violets will give me more viewing appeal. Which is always nice.
I guess I'm just making sure the corals are happy rather than tuning the fixture to MY personal taste.
EDIT: Guess we'll find out. I just bought some.
Last edited:
koestech
New member
Hello everybody,
I plan to switch from T5 to LED with the Marsaqua 165W Boxes.
My main Tank (as a room divider) has the following size: 51" x 31" x 23" (Water Depth).
I have quite a lot of SPS (in the center of the reef), LPS + Soft Corals (on the bottom and and on the outsides of the tank.
I ask myself, if two 165W Modules would be sufficient or if i need 3 Modules.
My propagation tank has the following size: 48" x 20" x 16" (water depth). For this tank I ask myself if I should go with 2 165W Modules or one 300W Module.
Regarding switching some of the LEDs, I plan to swap the red and green LEDs with 420 nm LEDs and the 6 warm whites by 10.000 LEDs.
Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Christian
I plan to switch from T5 to LED with the Marsaqua 165W Boxes.
My main Tank (as a room divider) has the following size: 51" x 31" x 23" (Water Depth).
I have quite a lot of SPS (in the center of the reef), LPS + Soft Corals (on the bottom and and on the outsides of the tank.
I ask myself, if two 165W Modules would be sufficient or if i need 3 Modules.
My propagation tank has the following size: 48" x 20" x 16" (water depth). For this tank I ask myself if I should go with 2 165W Modules or one 300W Module.
Regarding switching some of the LEDs, I plan to swap the red and green LEDs with 420 nm LEDs and the 6 warm whites by 10.000 LEDs.
Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Christian
Yes, I yanked all my "warm 6500, my greens and 2 reds(left 2)" and put in 8 10k, 6 pure white, and 4 violets in each of the 4 fixtures. When the blues are off, it has a slightly whiter look than the tinge of yellow it had. With the blues on it gives more of the 14k look which I like
Swope2bc
New member
For your main tank I would use either 3x165w or 2x300w and for your propagation tank I would go with 2x 165w.
Isaac or one of the other guys can chime in about changing diodes out.
Have fun!
firebirdude
User and Abuser
That would be my suggestion as well. Probably 3x165W might give you a bit more spread to ensure you're covering 51". 2x165W on the prop tank is great, but I'd take the lenses/optics off it no question. That'll help give you the coverage (which I think will be hurting on 48" length tank), since you don't need the penetration with only 16" water depth.
firebirdude
User and Abuser
Hey question for all you owners. Did your lights come with violet colored LEDs? Ignore the description and just look at the LEDs. Do some of them look purple and some look blue?
Those are all for sale and in every single description it just says Blue and Royal Blue. Nothing about violets or purple anything. And then sometimes I see pictures like this:
http://www.reef 2 reef.com/attachments/1419274965286-jpg.204962/
(you'll have to remove the spaces, RC doesn't like links to R 2 R.)
Where they're clearly all "blue" colored. Mine is like the last picture at R 2 R. All the same blue. Does your guy's fixtures have obvious violet LEDs?
Those are all for sale and in every single description it just says Blue and Royal Blue. Nothing about violets or purple anything. And then sometimes I see pictures like this:
http://www.reef 2 reef.com/attachments/1419274965286-jpg.204962/
(you'll have to remove the spaces, RC doesn't like links to R 2 R.)
Where they're clearly all "blue" colored. Mine is like the last picture at R 2 R. All the same blue. Does your guy's fixtures have obvious violet LEDs?
koestech
New member
Thanks a lot. I will order two for the propagation tank and three 165W modules for the main tank.
In which direction/orientation would you put the 3 modules over the main tank?
(longer side of the modules parrallel to the long side of the tank or the long sides of the modules 90 degree to the long side of the tank?)
The lenses I should take away on all lights? (prop tank as well as main tank?)
Thank you.
In which direction/orientation would you put the 3 modules over the main tank?
(longer side of the modules parrallel to the long side of the tank or the long sides of the modules 90 degree to the long side of the tank?)
The lenses I should take away on all lights? (prop tank as well as main tank?)
Thank you.
DrawnToBeaches
New member
Those "violets" are royal blue, color distortion from the camera
firebirdude
User and Abuser
Tough to say on the display. Not only is the tank long, it's wide. I suggest playing with them for a bit. Try keeping the optics on at first. But if you cant get the coverage, then yeah, pull em off. It'll cost you PAR down low though.
On the prop tank, lengthwise with no optics. No question.
paullondon
New member
I have my fixture for almost a year now and I used 2 heavy duty flower basket hangers and chandelier chain from home depot... depends how your hood is and the whole setup... I just have a very small tank... 40g
but you can easily adjust the height this way....
paullondon
New member
What I am really curious... is there a programmable dimmer for the 300W fixture?
garygonzales
Member
hmm making me think that i should take off my optics..i have mine over a 46 gallon bow.....so your saying you got better coverage..?...as far as keeping my fixture from moving ..mine sits on top of my canopy ..then when i need i can zip it up and get in my tank ...
