Mars Aqua Chinese LED review (Ebay)

Quick question, I am going to be purchasing a 180 gallon tank and was wondering if these lights would work. I would be going with the 300w, my question was will 2 of the 31" lights be enough to light a 180? Or do I get 2 31" and one smaller sized one?

2x 300w and 1x165w would be ideal for that tank, but 2x 300w with optics removed would cover your tank at minimal...
 
I was searching for some info regarding dimming these to zero; there was some talk about it for a while and then it just seemed to fizzle out and I cant find where/if it picked back up. I'm running an RA+ to control them (currently only down to ~10%). Was this ever successfully done?
 
So I messaged a seller on eBay about the Mars aqua lights dimmer and got this response. Anyone bought one recently and know if this is true? Want to connect it to my apex but I thought everyone had to use the converter to hook it to their apex.
eae20671802524a2c8344a49230dc0b3.png



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I getting ready to mod my 2 - 165W units. I am gonna swap out the 3500k with 20k and the 7500k with 460nm blues and UV violets.

Do the red and green provide any value?

If no, what color would you add? 20k, 460nm, or UV violets, or something else?

BTW I have a LPS dominant tank, thanks.

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I removed the lenses and got a better spread and corals are loving it now I've been running them for 4 months now everything's doing great
 
So I messaged a seller on eBay about the Mars aqua lights dimmer and got this response. Anyone bought one recently and know if this is true? Want to connect it to my apex but I thought everyone had to use the converter to hook it to their apex.
eae20671802524a2c8344a49230dc0b3.png



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some of the them are capable of PWM or analog dimming now.
 
I getting ready to mod my 2 - 165W units. I am gonna swap out the 3500k with 20k and the 7500k with 460nm blues and UV violets.

Do the red and green provide any value?

If no, what color would you add? 20k, 460nm, or UV violets, or something else?

BTW I have a LPS dominant tank, thanks.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Chlorophyll C has some peak absorption rates in the 580 and 630 range so there is some value for green and red LEDs IF they're around this spectrum. Red will also visually enhance some colors.
 
Mars Aqua Question

Mars Aqua Question

Hi, I'm new to the forum and have read most of the posts in this section. My tank is 60"x24"x18" and I was thinking of using 3 of the 165W lamps turned sideways and about 9 inches apart. Since the lights are 15.7" and my tank is 18" across, I thought this would work. 2 of the 300w lights would be too long.

One other question is about installing them in my light hood. It's entirely enclosed and the lights would sit about 7 or 8 inches above the water. Would this work? Would things get too hot? Would I need cutouts in the top of my hood for ventilation? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. I am going to have soft corals and some fish in this tank. Thank you.
 
Hi, I'm new to the forum and have read most of the posts in this section. My tank is 60"x24"x18" and I was thinking of using 3 of the 165W lamps turned sideways and about 9 inches apart. Since the lights are 15.7" and my tank is 18" across, I thought this would work. 2 of the 300w lights would be too long.

One other question is about installing them in my light hood. It's entirely enclosed and the lights would sit about 7 or 8 inches above the water. Would this work? Would things get too hot? Would I need cutouts in the top of my hood for ventilation? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. I am going to have soft corals and some fish in this tank. Thank you.

The heat shouldn't be a big factor (a fan could be placed behind the hood to push fresh air in if need be) but the distance from the water probably will be. You'd need to remove the optics for better coverage but you're still going to get "spotty" light leading to the disco ball effect. I was in a similar situation and ended up removing my canopy. Debating on building a taller canopy or just using this as an excuse to turn the current 75g DT into a sump for a 2-300g DT.

My advice, 10" or higher is needed for adequate coverage. Three lights mounted above the tank in the configuration you mentioned would work well and may mitigate some of the spotty coverage.
 
I have had 2 of these installed for about 7 months and I don't seem to see growth that I read about. I know there is alot of things that play into this.

As far as the lights go I run blues @ 100% for 12 hours and run the whites at lowest setting (so what's that 20%) for 8 hours. Starting to wonder if this may be my problem. Note: they are 14" off the water surface with a 18" tank depth.

What percentage and amount of time do you guys run at?

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Are you feeding multiple times per week? I started out not feeding when I first began using a Chinese box and I didnt see any real growth. But once I commenced 2x week feeds, things took off massively. I run my box at 20/70, 8" off the water, 18" tall tank.
 
New Tank

New Tank

I am about ready to pull the trigger on the Mars Aqua LED's. My tank is 60"x20"x24"(deep). The tank has an enclosed hood that I was planning on installing them in (would this get too hot?). The lights would be about 6" off the water. I also have 2 new 12" power compacts (white and actinic) and 2 new 20" power compacts (white and actinic) that I could use to supplement the LED's (would like opinions on that, is it overkill? Any benefit?). I was thinking 3 - 165W lights spaced about 8 inches apart. I could then put the 12" PC's, turned long ways, in between, like this:

8" LED 12" PC 8" LED 12" PC 8" LED

The only other option I thought of was to use 2 - 165W lights turned long ways, like this. In fact, I could use the 2- 20" and the 2 - 12" in this configuration.


20" PC
15" LED 12" PC 15" LED
20"PC
12"PC

I hope this isn't confusing. Bottom line, should I go with 3 LED's only, or 3 LED's with PC's, or 2 LED's with PC's? Thanks for thinking about this and giving your opinion. I am going buggy trying to determine the best configuration. BTW, it's going to be mostly soft corals and a few fish.
 
I personally wouldn't bother with the PCs. Bulb replacement and heat would turn me off

i agree about the PCs. they wouldnt be that valuable on a 24" tall tank and thats before raising the lights for your LEDs. i would personally go with either T5 or VHO to help fill in the shadows. T5 for par and VHO for color....
 
So I just received my light in the mail, and the first thing I did was take it apart and take pics of the inside.

Here's the model I purchased:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281959175427
 

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