chinese led lights

[Travis1787]

Well I really can't tell ya lol when I was considering buying these the a4s weren't big yet noone had bought them in usa yet everyone was going with the d120 so there was no reviews for me on the a4 to want to go buy it but there was many people who had gotten the d120and loved it... And it was cheaper so I went with it.

But I don't think you can go wrong either way. I do give the a4 an edge because its actually has a heatsink which is awesome and most parts are easier to switch out with new parts if need.
I got my d120 with 30 blues 21 whites and 4 violets I think I woulda done 31 blues 20 white and 4 violets if I knew then but It wouldn't have made a big difference anyway but a tad more blue woulda been perfect and I'm also running a all blue reef brite on my tank so if ya like blueish look ya may wanna go with 34 blues 17 white 4 violets if you don't have any supplement blues to run with it.

If I was gonna get at a4 id prob do 28 blues 17 whites and 3 violets.... Id use the violets very sparingly cause they do make purpleish look so a little goes alonggg way

[ghrorick]

So travis u would recommend the violets? I was going to have 6 added to my a6 then decided against it, now I may just have to have them added.

[WinnipegDragon]

Originally Posted by pwreef

Newer design!? You guys crack me up Underneath that white cover bhazard has taken apart is a circuit board that is used to make these lights:
http://www.rapidled.com/12-led-par38-bulb-actinic/
Well similar ones, since the ones Rapid sells are Cree, but they make these boards for "bridgelux" emitters in China by the million I am sure.
So they took 4 of them, slapped them on some heatsinks inside a powder coated steel box and found the least expensive driver. Presto - new design. And oh wait what does it look like? Lets see two round pucks of LEDs, black box... Ecotech Radion! WOW! So they are basically 6 months behind on it. iPhone -ZiPhone - same thing, right?
BTW the above bulbs are dimmable via regular triac dimmer you can buy at HD. So buy a track light fixture, screw in these bulbs, add a dimmer. Voila - new amazing design. I am not affiliated with Rapid LED, Echotech or Cree. Void where prohibited. LOL

Tell me where you can get 4 12-LED PAR38s, a case, power supply with dimmer and fans for $230. Delivered.

[Travis1787]

My thoughts exactly winnipeg. I don't care if these unit are ten years behind lol they work and there half the price.

@ghrorick I would recommend them just not to many I believe the a6 has 72 leds I think? So I think 6 is perfect that's exactly what id do ... Id prob do 44 blues 22 whites 6 violets
Switch 1. 20 blues 4 violets
Switch 2. 24 blues 22 whites 2 violets

[Travis1787]

To be honest though it hard to tell what the violets do to the look of it cause I can't simply just turn them off and back on themselves but I like the look I got with them in there I just strong advise to use them very sparingly.

No more then 1 per ten leds... So tech I coulda went with 5 in my 55 led unit but I didn't want to risk it so I did one by every ten leds total and then took one out. Same as I said with the a6 72 leds so 7 violets take one off just to extra under shoot it and came up with 6 ..plus there is 6 clusters so one per cluster seems perfect.

[Travis1787]

how long per day is every one running there units at full power?

And how often did you increase the dimmers to let the corals get used to it? Daily? Weekly?

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by WinnipegDragon

Tell me where you can get 4 12-LED PAR38s, a case, power supply with dimmer and fans for $230. Delivered.

Yeah seriously. So pw, you're basically saying the Radions are about $520 overpriced for what they are? I thought so too, which is why I went this direction. The Bridgelux leds aren't bad at all, and they just use more LEDs in a high voltage, low current design over the more efficient but more expensive crees here. $55 shipping is even built into the price! Someone making a DIY fixture couldn't even build one similar for $110 or $180. Each Bridgelux led from led sellers are $2 each, so that's $96 alone right there. Since the 55x3 model uses 55, that's already the cost of the fixture in LEDs.

I'm absolutely convinced this is a great alternative to DIY now, and a great way to avoid overpriced fixtures that are currently on the market.

These fixtures already have pots for dimming. I'm looking into changing that into 0-10v for my apex with new drivers. Even after that, it's still $500 less than a Radion.

[kbell2433]

I think these led's are a great deal, i just don't want people being mislead thinking the nova is a new design.

I have the 120w 55 leds dimmable grid design and it works great over my 29g.

[WinnipegDragon]

Didn't hear back from Colleen yet about those drivers. Is she going to put up a link on AliExpress?

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by kbell2433

I think these led's are a great deal, i just don't want people being mislead thinking the nova is a new design.

I have the 120w 55 leds dimmable grid design and it works great over my 29g.

Newer design as in for the Chinese fixtures and that company, compared to the standard black box. The design itself is not new, should have been more clear.

[ghrorick]

Thanks for the advice Travis. I was going to go with
dimmer one :12 blue + 6 royal blue + 6uv,
dimmer two :30 white + 6 blue + 12 royal blue
but I think I am going to take 6 royal blue off of dimmer 2 and add 6 violets.
Looks like I will have to get ahold of Hendy again.

[Travis1787]

Well don't change it cause of me I don't know what you like everyone is different .... I normally would say put all the violets on the blue switch like you have it but with it being only 24 on that switch that's a lot of violets for 18 blues but I could be wrong but blue switch has 27 and 4 are violets.... You combo isn't bad at all its close too 50\50 I just like a bluer look so I might do less whites and more blues but that's just my opinion you might not like what I do

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by WinnipegDragon

Didn't hear back from Colleen yet about those drivers. Is she going to put up a link on AliExpress?

Probably won't hear anything until Sunday night. I bought via a Proforma Invoice and Paypal.

[pwreef]

Originally Posted by WinnipegDragon

Tell me where you can get 4 12-LED PAR38s, a case, power supply with dimmer and fans for $230. Delivered.

Just a quick search. I am sure you can get these even cheaper on alibaba, because that's where the amazon seller gets them from I am 99% sure!
http://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-Power.../dp/B004KW1T2C
You don't need fans, power supply or case. Just a few regular light bulb sockets. You guys don't need to get all defensive. These Chinese lights are fine for what they cost. You will probably be pretty happy growing corals with them. Just don't expect them to be like fancy LED lights for 1/5 of the cost. In the end if you buy a Kia do you expect it to be just like Mercedes? No. As for Radions, of course the parts that go in them cost a lot less than $750, but so does iPhone, your big screen TV and... the lights that you bought. If these guys were not making money on them, they would not be in business. Its R&D, warranty, people, factory, machines. For both Ecotech and the Chinese guy you are buying from. Happy reefing!
P.S. I bought some 'bridgelux' emitters from Aquastyle in HK. Then I got curious and e-mailed the Bridgelux sales guy here in USA. He told me that there is no 100% way to tell if the emitters I have really came from Bridgelux factory. So in the end they could be no different from what Satis sells for $1.50 or the next guy for $2.30. It is not this way with Cree or Luxeon. When you see Cree or Luxeon emitters, you know what they are. With XT-E now selling for $3 each on stars and probably $2 in lots of 1000 a lot of fixtures are going to get a lot cheaper as years go by.

[Travis1787]

So if there fine and grow corals fine why should I car about how fancy they are? To turn more heads cause of the name brand? No thanks

Sure the kia might not have the same luxuries as a mecedes but if the kia still gets the job done and last just as long.... Then ill keep the extra 100 grand in my pocket

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by pwreef

Just a quick search. I am sure you can get these even cheaper on alibaba, because that's where the amazon seller gets them from I am 99% sure!
http://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-Power.../dp/B004KW1T2C
You don't need fans, power supply or case. Just a few regular light bulb sockets. You guys don't need to get all defensive. These Chinese lights are fine for what they cost. You will probably be pretty happy growing corals with them. Just don't expect them to be like fancy LED lights for 1/5 of the cost. In the end if you buy a Kia do you expect it to be just like Mercedes? No. As for Radions, of course the parts that go in them cost a lot less than $750, but so does iPhone, your big screen TV and... the lights that you bought. If these guys were not making money on them, they would not be in business. Its R&D, warranty, people, factory, machines. For both Ecotech and the Chinese guy you are buying from. Happy reefing!
P.S. I bought some 'bridgelux' emitters from Aquastyle in HK. Then I got curious and e-mailed the Bridgelux sales guy here in USA. He told me that there is no 100% way to tell if the emitters I have really came from Bridgelux factory. So in the end they could be no different from what Satis sells for $1.50 or the next guy for $2.30. It is not this way with Cree or Luxeon. When you see Cree or Luxeon emitters, you know what they are. With XT-E now selling for $3 each on stars and probably $2 in lots of 1000 a lot of fixtures are going to get a lot cheaper as years go by.

I wanted to go the PAR38 route, but with a lot of bulbs you're getting Crees running at around 1w each if they are 12w-18w bulbs. Spotlighting becomes an issue as well.

3 of these 36w bulbs at $90 each would work well actually. Throwing 3 of these on a dimmer would be awesome for my nano. If I didn't get an Apex controller, this would have been a perfect setup, and easily changeable in the future.

http://www.ocreef.com/ocreef_par38_c..._aquarium_lamp

My problem is, I want Apex sunrise/sunset control, and don't need a fixture with a built in controller. There is nothing on the market that can do this, minus its own controller, at a good price, so I would end up paying hundreds more for something I didn't need. Those AI SOLs just don't do it for me.

Anything I would make in a DIY setup would be ugly as sin too, since I don't have a canopy and aren't exactly artistic. This fixture, plus a driver swap, satisfies all my needs.

Or just save all the headache and get a $165 black box and be done with it

[Travis1787]

I must say on day 1 of seeing my new led unit. I'm so in love with it!

And its only running at like 20 or 25 percent. I wish I could get pics too look right I know people want pics but its so not what it really looks like... Ill still post some though for SnGs. If anyone has any tips for better pics lemme know

And will some answer me for how long there running there units at per day? At full power? And how much should I increase the dimmers? And how often

[legg_man]

Originally Posted by Travis1787

I must say on day 1 of seeing my new led unit. I'm so in love with it!

And its only running at like 20 or 25 percent. I wish I could get pics too look right I know people want pics but its so not what it really looks like... Ill still post some though for SnGs. If anyone has any tips for better pics lemme know

And will some answer me for how long there running there units at per day? At full power? And how much should I increase the dimmers? And how often

Pictures will be hard to get with even the best cameras. LED's have a spiked spectrum that is difficult to capture even with a good digital camera. Or at least any good camera I've tried.

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by Travis1787

I must say on day 1 of seeing my new led unit. I'm so in love with it!

And its only running at like 20 or 25 percent. I wish I could get pics too look right I know people want pics but its so not what it really looks like... Ill still post some though for SnGs. If anyone has any tips for better pics lemme know

And will some answer me for how long there running there units at per day? At full power? And how much should I increase the dimmers? And how often

I just got new frags, so I ramp my lights up about 10% each day. Nothing has bleached or died so far from it. If you were running a MH, 50% is fine for now, and ramp up about 10% each day unless you see signs of stress.

After acclimation, run the leds at full intensity just as you would if you had a Metal Halide fixture on a timer. I normally do 8 hours.

[biecacka]

I don't have an apex I have the acjr so I can't control the lights from it anyway

Corey

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by biecacka

I don't have an apex I have the acjr so I can't control the lights from it anyway

Corey

It's really not needed. I just figure that if I have it, I might as well use it.

Just being dimmable alone is great. Compared to having to place a screen over my tank or keeping new frags on the sand for a week using Metal Halides, being able to dim the lights at will is really useful.

[Travis1787]

ok guys although they suck here is a pick of how it looks fully on but first some pics of how it used to look. which due to the crappy way the led pics look these old pic with my halide look waaay better

this one is pretty exact to how it used to look under my halide. REMEMBER THIS IS MY OLD LIGHT NOT THE LED


another one of how it used to look but this one this better lol REMEMBER THIS IS MY OLD LIGHT NOT THE LED


the unit mounted in canopy with 2 4 dollar brackets from home depot and zip ties instead of the hangin wires they give cause they have to much slack


and lastly this is the leds on full power but the pics is horrid and ya cant tell at all youd think it was insane blue with how bad this came out but its really not

[newe70]

This is a super great thread and lot of useful informations on these led fixtures. Keep the pictures and reviews coming guys.

[newe70]

Originally Posted by Travis1787

ok guys although they suck here is a pick of how it looks fully on but first some pics of how it used to look. which due to the crappy way the led pics look these old pic with my halide look waaay better

this one is pretty exact to how it used to look under my halide. REMEMBER THIS IS MY OLD LIGHT NOT THE LED


another one of how it used to look but this one this better lol REMEMBER THIS IS MY OLD LIGHT NOT THE LED


the unit mounted in canopy with 2 4 dollar brackets from home depot and zip ties instead of the hangin wires they give cause they have to much slack


and lastly this is the leds on full power but the pics is horrid and ya cant tell at all youd think it was insane blue with how bad this came out but its really not

I am sure the pictures do not provide any justice, but in person it will looks a million times better. Nice tank Travis

[Travis1787]

Thanks man welcome to RC