Mars Aqua Chinese LED review (Ebay)

Was thinking about grabbing a single 165, or the 300 for my 40b. Does anyone have a image of what LED's their swapping out for what? Seems most people were removing the red and green LED's and all or most of the soft whites?

Also there is a newer version that has Wifi, timers, and light cycles. But it seems like they have a different LED arrangement. I'm not sure if it would matter if I were going to replace a bunch of the LED's though. I guess if I were going to add a controller eventually those features wouldn't matter.
 
the one I linked above from ebay doesn't need any leds changed. Even the gold standard Ecotech marine g4's have red lights. You need some....but they need to be well blended. Thats where the diffuser modifications come into play. It needs to be in the spectrum without you being able to see it. Again get a good one meant for reefs (again like the one on ebay above) and it won't even come with the yellow or green lights.
 
Yeah I saw your video but idk if it was the camera or what just didn't look as nice as some of the MarsAqua setups I saw.
 
Also, the MarsAqua + extra LED's to replace will still cost less than those lights. I'm setting up a whole new reef tank and already spending 600 bucks this weekend which is basically my budget for this set of orders lol. I don't even think I'm going to get the wifi model.

I'd likely have to get 2 of those that you listed, where as one MarsAqua for 85 bucks + 20-30 bucks in LED's will get me everything I likely need.
 
Nevermind I think I'm going to try this one, the LED colors seem spot on, and it's pretty dang cheap. I imagine it should be able to be modded like the MarsAqua and run on a controller as well.
 
Same seller has a single one with controller for 150. And once you get the controller you can chain them for 100 more each.
 
I just got one for now. But most of the white LED's are Cool white 12000k to 160000k.

Channel 1:18 x Cool white(10000-16000K), 6 x Neutral whites(6500-7500K), 2 x Green 520nm and 2 x Deep red 660nm
Channel 2:14 x Royal Blue 450nm, 9 x Blue 470nm, 2 x Violet 420nm and 2 x UV 400nm

The one you listed there actually has more warm whites (6500-7500k) than the one I bought. The greens may have to be swapped out idk, the layout and LED colors were apparently developed on reefcentral according to another listing for nearly the same light just a bit more expensive and a different name on it. Has the exact same LED layout though. There are only 2 green LED's though, and I didn't really want to wait for a light to come from China.
 
So after starting this thread 3 years ago I need some help from people who know alot more about the mars lights than I do.....



Im planning a new build this fall in a new house ill be moving to. My plan is to use the Mars aqua on my new display tanks. Im going to have two 6'long x4'wide x30"Tall tanks.



Im thinking that I want 3 of the 30" fixtures over each tank. Is that enough or will i need 4?

Is there anyway to connect them now to a Apex?


Thanks!!!!
 
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@Atomic081 - thanks for starting this thread, I've gotten some good ideas from it and found these fixtures not only good out of the box, but also extremely "mod friendly," as I think you'll see if you see what folks have done with them.

I'm actually pretty comfortable with using a pair of these perpindicular to the back of my aquarium for every two feet. This gives me plenty of room to play with PAR/PUR all the way to the gravel bed, and provides front to back coverage for three feet (I'm running a 300 gallon deep dimension). I would pretty much recommend a similar layout, especially with a 30" depth (my DD is only 27"). So that would be six fixtures per aquarium, and it won't provide coverage for the full 4' X 6' footprint, but more like a 3' X 6' footprint with even and high PAR/PUR. Depending on your aquascaping ideas, that could be a boon for some LPS/low light/softies in the areas that aren't well covered.
My two cents' worth, man.
Here's the view from the recliner at "low tide" (main system turned off for feeding) on 13May:

That big smudge at the bottom left is my "pet" acropora aspera that's growing against the front glass, and I kind of like the 3-dimensional feel it gives to this reef. So yes, we can still successfully grow, long-term, acropora at 27"+ inches with these fixtures (it's one of many I have on the bottom of this reef).

Cheers and have a fun time with the new setups!
Ray
 
So I got my light and it seems pretty good so far but I'm curious, a lot of people like taking the lenses off for better blending of the LED's but my light has cutouts for each led on a metal bottom instead of a full sheet of acrylic. Will they even blend with that?

IMG_20170523_221226_zpscxhlvevw.jpg
 
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