fishinthewall
New member
Par tested with a seneye, 900 at the surface, 500 about 12" deep. Sorry for not having a very extensive test. My tank is a 10g.
Mars Aqua Chinese LED review (Ebay)
- Thread starter Atomic081
- Start date
Any pics? And what type of reef are you running, Softies, LPS, SPS?
Oddly enough, I'm really narrowing down my search on the lights I want -- I'm at a dead even tie for RapidLED Onyx, AI Hydra 26HD, or a Mars Aqua fixture...
Obviously very different reasons between the Hydra/Onyx and the Mars Aqua.. But if it works and can last 2 years or so I think i'd get my moneys worth until I upgraded to a significantly nicer light / system
fishinthewall
New member
Having a hard time with pics, still trying.
fishinthewall
New member
ok! my tank is nothing special, it is only about a month old. I currently have one frag of birds nest, and one of star polyps. Both were recently added. I was actually off on my first post, i must have not had them at 100%.
The pictures are in order, so surface, 6"deep, and about 12" deep.
I have a feeling i wasnt getting an accurate reading at the bottom because of the live rock.
I have no idea why they are missoriented, i couldn't correct them
The pictures are in order, so surface, 6"deep, and about 12" deep.
I have a feeling i wasnt getting an accurate reading at the bottom because of the live rock.
I have no idea why they are missoriented, i couldn't correct them
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fishinthewall
New member
acropora213
Tenured Stick Grower
Hi Everyone. It's such an extensive thread that I'm going to ask or re-ask a couple
of questions please.
I just ordered Two of these units yesterday. Had my eye on them for a while.
I see now on RC many have as well!
As for my questions:
Where can you find the proper replacement diodes(bulbs) for these units?
I briefly see some of your discussions on colors in the unit, can I simply replace
a couple of them with the diodes with an actinic blue for instance?
Is it's difficult to replace burnt out bulbs or change colorations?
Am I looking for certain wattage or ampere's or size. Sorry I'm a bit ignorant
to electrical things and lighting in general.
It boils down to all of the same question I guess.
Where can we get them, and how can I change them?
Thanks in advance ~Tony
of questions please.
I just ordered Two of these units yesterday. Had my eye on them for a while.
I see now on RC many have as well!
As for my questions:
Where can you find the proper replacement diodes(bulbs) for these units?
I briefly see some of your discussions on colors in the unit, can I simply replace
a couple of them with the diodes with an actinic blue for instance?
Is it's difficult to replace burnt out bulbs or change colorations?
Am I looking for certain wattage or ampere's or size. Sorry I'm a bit ignorant
to electrical things and lighting in general.
It boils down to all of the same question I guess.
Where can we get them, and how can I change them?
Thanks in advance ~Tony
KevinsHVAC
Member
I just received my first 300w Mars lights and I must say it is definitely more than I was expecting. Its very well made, bright as all get out and the hangers are a little cheesy but I will use/make my own when I order the other lights. I wanted to just order one and check it out before I dropped 1500 in 10 of these. I would definitely recommend these.
acropora213
Tenured Stick Grower
I'd like to know ^^ when you all have a moment tonight. Thanks.
@acropora213 -
Search for "epistar 3W LED", sort through the list to your favorite auction site (the option I took) or storefront, and then search for the frequencies you want. I switched mine out to the following configuration:
This was the original:
PAR (for what it's worth) at about 80% power and 27 inches deep with lights mounted about 6 inches above the water is about 450. At the edge. Yep, I've bleached a bunch of acropora on the bottom. And they are recovering quite nicely now while I ramp up the lights a bit more slowly this time. A lot more color, too, which is nice.
Sigh.
There are a couple of notes in this thread about how to change the LEDs - it really is pretty simple if you can handle a soldering pen/iron and a set of tweezers. As you can tell from the layout pics, I managed to change out a bunch of them...and didn't burn down too much of the house. If you haven't handled a soldering iron or such before, ask someone to show you how and then practice a on few things first to get the hang of it.
The only thing I might do is drop a few more green in the fixture and remove the lens to increase spread/decrease intensity. This would provide a bit better color rendition for what our eyes see. That said, my main goal was to try to satisfy these requirements:
A little bit of Google time and you'll see why. I hope this helps with your adventures!
Have fun!
Cheers,
Ray
Search for "epistar 3W LED", sort through the list to your favorite auction site (the option I took) or storefront, and then search for the frequencies you want. I switched mine out to the following configuration:
This was the original:
PAR (for what it's worth) at about 80% power and 27 inches deep with lights mounted about 6 inches above the water is about 450. At the edge. Yep, I've bleached a bunch of acropora on the bottom. And they are recovering quite nicely now while I ramp up the lights a bit more slowly this time. A lot more color, too, which is nice.
Sigh.
There are a couple of notes in this thread about how to change the LEDs - it really is pretty simple if you can handle a soldering pen/iron and a set of tweezers. As you can tell from the layout pics, I managed to change out a bunch of them...and didn't burn down too much of the house. If you haven't handled a soldering iron or such before, ask someone to show you how and then practice a on few things first to get the hang of it.
The only thing I might do is drop a few more green in the fixture and remove the lens to increase spread/decrease intensity. This would provide a bit better color rendition for what our eyes see. That said, my main goal was to try to satisfy these requirements:
A little bit of Google time and you'll see why. I hope this helps with your adventures!
Have fun!
Cheers,
Ray
acropora213
Tenured Stick Grower
Wow!! Thanks so much Ray. That does help immensely.
As you stated, I'm not skilled at all with soldering by any means.
Should I simply disconnect a couple of the green ones until I can have someone
assist me in soldering in the different ones?
Or, are they like Christmas lights on one circuit. If you pull out one, they all shut off??
Thanks.
As you stated, I'm not skilled at all with soldering by any means.
Should I simply disconnect a couple of the green ones until I can have someone
assist me in soldering in the different ones?
Or, are they like Christmas lights on one circuit. If you pull out one, they all shut off??
Thanks.
KevinsHVAC
Member
@acropora213 -
Search for "epistar 3W LED", sort through the list to your favorite auction site (the option I took) or storefront, and then search for the frequencies you want. I switched mine out to the following configuration:
This was the original:
PAR (for what it's worth) at about 80% power and 27 inches deep with lights mounted about 6 inches above the water is about 450. At the edge. Yep, I've bleached a bunch of acropora on the bottom. And they are recovering quite nicely now while I ramp up the lights a bit more slowly this time. A lot more color, too, which is nice.
Sigh.
There are a couple of notes in this thread about how to change the LEDs - it really is pretty simple if you can handle a soldering pen/iron and a set of tweezers. As you can tell from the layout pics, I managed to change out a bunch of them...and didn't burn down too much of the house. If you haven't handled a soldering iron or such before, ask someone to show you how and then practice a on few things first to get the hang of it.
The only thing I might do is drop a few more green in the fixture and remove the lens to increase spread/decrease intensity. This would provide a bit better color rendition for what our eyes see. That said, my main goal was to try to satisfy these requirements:
A little bit of Google time and you'll see why. I hope this helps with your adventures!
Have fun!
Cheers,
Ray
This my friend is awesome!!!!! So when the rest of my lights arrive can you do this to mine? There will be 10 of the 300w lights....lol :uhoh3:
toothybugs
New member
Holy snackpacks - 1 of these will be a good supplement to my 75 then! I won't need any more than that!
Your mileage may vary (the PAR may be due to my custom configuration), but please ramp up slowly starting at a bit below 50% and watch your corals and whatnot. Increase in 10% increments weekly should be fine. Watch your peak level (try to keep the water from boiling...) by monitoring the animals. If any bleaching occurs, ramp back a notch.
Cheers, Ray
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Cheers, Ray
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
fishbox
New member
6" is pretty low! Did you remove the optics?@acropora213 -
Search for "epistar 3W LED", sort through the list to your favorite auction site (the option I took) or storefront, and then search for the frequencies you want. I switched mine out to the following configuration:
This was the original:
PAR (for what it's worth) at about 80% power and 27 inches deep with lights mounted about 6 inches above the water is about 450. At the edge. Yep, I've bleached a bunch of acropora on the bottom. And they are recovering quite nicely now while I ramp up the lights a bit more slowly this time. A lot more color, too, which is nice.
Sigh.
There are a couple of notes in this thread about how to change the LEDs - it really is pretty simple if you can handle a soldering pen/iron and a set of tweezers. As you can tell from the layout pics, I managed to change out a bunch of them...and didn't burn down too much of the house. If you haven't handled a soldering iron or such before, ask someone to show you how and then practice a on few things first to get the hang of it.
The only thing I might do is drop a few more green in the fixture and remove the lens to increase spread/decrease intensity. This would provide a bit better color rendition for what our eyes see. That said, my main goal was to try to satisfy these requirements:
A little bit of Google time and you'll see why. I hope this helps with your adventures!
Have fun!
Cheers,
Ray
Sent from my 6045O using Tapatalk
toothybugs
New member
I'm planning to pop the lenses for a wider angle, but I have a PAR meter anyway so I should be good. I just want to boost my surface PAR to 4-500 for the high-light corals. My current peak is barely 300 immediately under the surface. The bottom is good, around 200 at peak, but if I can get in a 4-6 hour midday "high sun" period I'd prefer to. My only concern is spotlighting against the halides. Maybe adjusting the color temperature will hide it well, or the inherent dim appearance of LEDs will be overpowered by the brightness of the Radiums.
Nope. Deep aquarium. Probably will remove the red and green optics, though. I run these perpendicular to the back of the aquarium, side by side for maximum surface coverage. Two of the 32" cover a two foot by three foot section quite well. With corner overflows I used a 165W and 32" for max coverage. No need to illuminate the overflow boxes...
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
acropora213
Tenured Stick Grower
If I unplug one led of Choice, will the entire light shut down, per a running circuit
like Christmas tree lights ??
like Christmas tree lights ??
