Reef Radiance - worth looking into?

[Peanut_Power]

I went into a LFS in Nashville today, and for the first time saw some Reef Radiance lights. They had them on all their tanks, growing softies to acros.

I was intrigued, as I'd never seen them before. They seemed friendlier on the budget, and seem programmable still. So I starting doing some research, and there isn't much on them since about 2014 in the form of reviews.

Does anyone use these lights?

Have they updated/upgraded the lights since 2014?

Any cons/pros to using them?

 

[xRAWRx28]

I've used them for about a year before I went a different route good solid lights but I think reef breeders is a better bang for the buck and they've "updated" them a few times but they seem like the same exact same light with a different name lol

 

[Bpb]

They're just eBay black boxes through a US distributor who claims to be the unique designers, exactly like every other company that sells them. eBay black boxes are absolutely fine and can grow anything under the sun. It's insulting though that the individual distributors try to pass them off as something they are not


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[Bpb]

Some examples

The reef breeder photon v1

The reef radiance

Mars Aqua

SB reef LEDs

Viparspectra led

Sunspect led

And there are many more to be found on eBay and Amazon for varying prices for essentially the exact same product. You're getting basically the same heat sink, drivers, housing, controller/manual dimmer option, and diode sourcing with each one. They all come from the exact same factory in china. The Evergrow led company. The only difference is each one will have a somewhat negligible variation in how the colors are placed in their array. So I would honestly either find which one you like the color layout of most, or just find the cheapest one. A couple of those companies may give an extra year on the warranty but that's about it


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[Peanut_Power]

Wow, that's all basically the same light? Ha!

The Reef Breeder does look more sophisticated.

These only available through amazon/eBay?

36 x 24 x 24 would need two or one of these?

 

[Ron Reefman]

And I'd shy away from Reef Radiance. I got one of their fixtures (32") and it has a controller problem. I bought it from a friend and I have the receipt but they refused to even offer help. I got a new controller from Ocean Revive and it works fine.

BTW, many of these fixtures are made by EverGrow in China. It can be a well made fixture, but so sellers want the cheap version and EG will swap out good fans for cheap ones or a real heat sink for a sheet of aluminum. So pay attention to the details, the warranty and if they have a US based service center. Oh, and Reef Breeders is the best of this whole category of Chinese black box fixtures as far as service goes.

 

[Peanut_Power]

Thanks, I'll look into the Reef Breeders variety.

If you put two units on a tank, and their spread overlaps, is it more intense/amplified in the area they cross over?

 

[Bpb]

Depends on the amount or cross over. Due to the beam divergence at the periphery the PAR will drop off anyway naturally so while there is overlap, the light won't be as intense as say directly under the light. But that also depends on hanging height, and degree of overlap. Par meter is really the only way to definitely know


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