chinese led lights

[BigCountry74]

Originally Posted by Shells4

Let me start by saying I know NOTHING about lighting. I am starting to do some research to update my lights in a 120g, 6' long tank. I currently have 2 pathetic T5's. It is mostly a tank for my tangs with some softies and low light corals. I currently do not have a canopy (although we may attempt to build one in the future). I am torn between T5/MH combo vs. LED. I would prefer LED simply because I wouldn't have to replace the bulbs + trying to avoid the added heat. My budget it $500-$600. Do you think that 3 of the LED's that you put on your tank would be enough for a 6' tank? I really am not interested in keeping corals that need high light. Moderate should be sufficient for me. Thanks for any input you have.

I am sorta in the same boat Shells. 135g tank, 6' long by 2' deep. Lighting budget is $500

Looking at getting 3 of the black boxes off Ebay for $165 shipped which would be $495.

At this point I cannot find enough negative feedback to avoid them. It's either 3 of those are a cheap Odyssea MH/T5HO from aquatraders,

http://www.aquatraders.com/72in-Meta...ht-p/54269.htm

Which I know will blow ballasts and I will have to replace the bulbs they give me in a few months....but on the flip side will be enough light to grow anything...

It's funny, LED lighting is FINALLY at a price point where people can look into it....but we are all SCARED to death trying to trust it....LOL...tough decisions...

[BigAirHarper]

Glad to see all these great LED pics. For those who are buying the eBay LEDs, I'm just curious what made you choose the eBay retailers over aquariumleds.com.
http://www.aquariumleds.com/products...Watt-LEDs.html

They seem to be The exact same thing just didn't know if there was a reason why you chose one over the other. Glad to see what this thread has evolved to and keep up the FTS for those of us still deciding.

[leemanz28]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/60W-CREE-LED...item2319c8468b

I have 2 of these on my 55 ... They have the dimmers for both white and blue side and 2 power cords on them .... I have seen good things out of this light as well.

[Tonynlo]

I ordered 3 of the ebay (e-shoponline I think was the seller) LED's. They will be arriving 2/17. I don't have a heavy stock list, but do have some SPS and yellow torch that I am excited to see under them. Will post pictures this weekend when I get them set up.

[BigCountry74]

Originally Posted by BigAirHarper

Glad to see all these great LED pics. For those who are buying the eBay LEDs, I'm just curious what made you choose the eBay retailers over aquariumleds.com.
http://www.aquariumleds.com/products...Watt-LEDs.html

They seem to be The exact same thing just didn't know if there was a reason why you chose one over the other. Glad to see what this thread has evolved to and keep up the FTS for those of us still deciding.

I could order from them versus Ebay. Looks like the same light. I guess that would make more sense.

[bigkenny76]

Originally Posted by BigAirHarper

Glad to see all these great LED pics. For those who are buying the eBay LEDs, I'm just curious what made you choose the eBay retailers over aquariumleds.com.
http://www.aquariumleds.com/products...Watt-LEDs.html

They seem to be The exact same thing just didn't know if there was a reason why you chose one over the other. Glad to see what this thread has evolved to and keep up the FTS for those of us still deciding.

I looked at these also , i have heard horror stories that people switched to the higher3 watt lights and ended up cooking their corals that were high on the rocks, i went with the ebay LEDs because of the 3 watt LEDS being driven at 2 watts, IMO it was a good choice for my tank, i have a softie dominated tank with large leathers right below the surface of the water (well 2-3" ) the lights from aquariumleds.com are nice lights , but i did not want the 1 watt leds and i did not want the full 3 watts . and also figured at 2 watts maybe they would last a little longer. And since all three were less than 500 shipped and it was time to replace bulbs, it was a no brainer for me.

So thats how i rationalized my purchase in my crazy head,

But i can say i LOVE the new leds and im glad i switched

[RDHDDRAGON]

Originally Posted by Silkyslim

For those who have used these LEDs. How long did it take for the corals to adjust to the new lighting? And what is your lighting schedule.

I went from MH/pc to leds on my 220. Everything went pale in my tank, not completely bleached out but very pale. After a week they started to color back up.

I have a 7ft 220 gal tank. I have the 120 watt 1 watt led 56 blue/56 white fixtures (4). The par at the bottom of my tank is 180. I cant keep mushrooms or cabbage coral except in the shade of the rocks, its too bright.

If you go back to page two and three of this thread you can see my pics, specs and link to sps growth.

[biecacka]

Does anyone know if they can converted to dimmable?
Corey

[BigCountry74]

Probably. You would need the driver. But that at point you might as well DIY the whole box? Since you would be losing money on the non-dimmable driver it comes with?

[BigCountry74]

Originally Posted by bigkenny76

I looked at these also , i have heard horror stories that people switched to the higher3 watt lights and ended up cooking their corals that were high on the rocks, i went with the ebay LEDs because of the 3 watt LEDS being driven at 2 watts, IMO it was a good choice for my tank, i have a softie dominated tank with large leathers right below the surface of the water (well 2-3" ) the lights from aquariumleds.com are nice lights , but i did not want the 1 watt leds and i did not want the full 3 watts . and also figured at 2 watts maybe they would last a little longer. And since all three were less than 500 shipped and it was time to replace bulbs, it was a no brainer for me.

So thats how i rationalized my purchase in my crazy head,

But i can say i LOVE the new leds and im glad i switched

Why not just raise the lights then? I like the 3w since they throw 182 PAR at 24" deep. That's enough to grow a Maxima clam in my tank, which is what I would like to do someday.

Here is an interesting debate though, which light?

http://www.aquariumleds.com/products...Watt-LEDs.html

or

http://www.aquariumleds.com/products...Watt-LEDs.html

Both same PAR readings. The difference is the # of LEDs and watts/LED.

Do you think for 50 dollars more the 119 LED box is better? I say this because it might last longer, more durable with the simple 1 watts?

[bigkenny76]

Originally Posted by BigCountry74

Why not just raise the lights then? I like the 3w since they throw 182 PAR at 24" deep. That's enough to grow a Maxima clam in my tank, which is what I would like to do someday.

Here is an interesting debate though, which light?

http://www.aquariumleds.com/products...Watt-LEDs.html

or

http://www.aquariumleds.com/products...Watt-LEDs.html

Both same PAR readings. The difference is the # of LEDs and w/LED.

Do you think for 50 dollars more the 119 LED box is better? I say this because it might last longer, more durable with the simple 1 watts?

I totally understand, i did not have the option of hanging my lights from the ceiling , and we wanted to keep the canopy to minimize the light spillage...........so i couldnt raise them up , if that was a option the 3 watt would have been my choice from aquariumled, nice light at a very good price. keep in mind the spread on those two fixtures, the 1 watt has a larger spread , BUT the 3 watt has more concentrated light in one area, i guess it just depends on the application and what you have in your tank, i am pleased that my frogspawn is loving it halfway up the rock work and my chalices are not needing shades on the sand bed.

[BigCountry74]

Yeah I have nothing in the tank right now. So I guess I am trying to determine which set of 3 lights would be good for a "general" coverage of the tank in whole. It's a 6' long tank, 18" wide 2' deep.

I will be hanging the lights. Not from the ceiling though - wife put the ax on that...it's bad enough I have "butchered her kitchen decor" with this tank as it is...lol

Leaning towards the 3w I guess since they might give me more options on what I can grow I suppose....

[Plumbcrazy]

Originally Posted by BigCountry74

Yeah I have nothing in the tank right now. So I guess I am trying to determine which set of 3 lights would be good for a "general" coverage of the tank in whole. It's a 6' long tank, 18" wide 2' deep.

I will be hanging the lights. Not from the ceiling though - wife put the ax on that...it's bad enough I have "butchered her kitchen decor" with this tank as it is...lol

Leaning towards the 3w I guess since they might give me more options on what I can grow I suppose....

At a depth of 2' I would go with the 3w over the 1w. IMO less bulbs less chance of something going wrong.

[salsipuedes]

wouldn't the 3 watt leds give more of a shimmer effect as well due to the higher intensnity single points of light from each led?

[BigCountry74]

Yeah it's weird. The 3 watts are 50 dollars cheaper than the 1 watts. Weird huh? Is it because of the price of the actual LED?

[BigAirHarper]

Originally Posted by bigkenny76

I looked at these also , i have heard horror stories that people switched to the higher3 watt lights and ended up cooking their corals that were high on the rocks, i went with the ebay LEDs because of the 3 watt LEDS being driven at 2 watts, IMO it was a good choice for my tank, i have a softie dominated tank with large leathers right below the surface of the water (well 2-3" ) the lights from aquariumleds.com are nice lights , but i did not want the 1 watt leds and i did not want the full 3 watts . and also figured at 2 watts maybe they would last a little longer. And since all three were less than 500 shipped and it was time to replace bulbs, it was a no brainer for me.

So thats how i rationalized my purchase in my crazy head,

But i can say i LOVE the new leds and im glad i switched

Thanks for the reply. I'm curious tho, do we know 100% that the 3W aquariumleds fixture is being driven at 3W each? I've heard that most companies put out a light saying 3W but it's commonly driven at 2W. Any ideas if this is the case with them as well?

Oh and bigkenny you get a chance to snap some pics of your new lights?

[birdsandsoap]

Quote from BigCountry74: "I will be hanging the lights. Not from the ceiling though - wife put the ax on that...it's bad enough I have "butchered her kitchen decor" with this tank as it is...lol"

Bwahahaha!

I feel for your wife. After MANY debates, my husband finally convinced me that an aquarium would be a fun hobby that would add to the aesthetics of our home. I've had to fight tooth and nail to keep this beast from turning our home into a fullblown "bachelor pad," and we're just getting started (If he starts bringing in leather sofas and black lacquered furniture, it's over.lol.)
The compromise is that I'm building a stand to match our (my) decor, and there will DEFINITELY be a canopy up top. I would die just thinking about wires and suspension systems detracting from my artwork and creating an eyesore (no offense folks, it's not for everyone).

So far all I have to say is- I had no idea this was such a pricey hobby! But we've jumped in with both feet and are gleaning so much from this site!

Thanks SO MUCH for this thread. I've been trolling ebay all night and came over here before I made any quick decisions ( I get "the fever" when it comes to auctions). Between this thread, and a convo with my local fish guy, it sounds like LED's are starting to make the curve from "not there yet" to "worth it." But man they are expensive, even the cheap ones! Like I said, I guess I wasn't prepared for the cost of reefkeeping.

I've been cruising a couple of the DIY LED threads looking for a way around the $, and I think my brain is going to explode trying to figure out how to learn the electrical skills to make that happen. However, I did come across an ebay auction that is somewhere in the middle:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280825159887...84.m1438.l2649

I don't mean to hijack the thread or anything. Anybody feel like chiming in on this one? It's not completely from the ground up, doable for myself.
If I can't make this happen, I think I will most definitely go with the 3W units on ebay.

I've bought tons of stuff direct from China over the years, and my feeling is that if it comes from China, it's all the same. I rocked my Orkley Sunglasses with confidence and no one was the wiser. I bought my husband the knock-off version of Brookstone's $400 foot massager for a 1/3 of the price and the only difference was the decal (five years later and she's still going strong). Tao-Tronics will be my new best friend too.

If we went with tube lighting, we would be replacing bulbs and ballasts on a semi-regular basis so I hope we would come out even investing in the LEDs first. And the energy efficiency lower temps are a plus too. Not to mention how crisp the lighting seems. I think the only downside as mentioned is the choppiness that appears in the reflection as opposed to the glow you get from a solid light source. These off-brand prices make it worth taking a chance! I love ebay, and I know how hard those sellers try to keep a stellar 100% feedback rating, along with a 3 year warranty, I feel good about the purchase.

[bigkenny76]

Ok guys i ended up having to post the cell phone pics, looks like my digital camera is shot for now, im guessing the 6 and 7 year old boys took it for a spin since there was a peanut butter and jelly fingerprint still on the lcd screen, oh well, here we go, at least it gives you an idea, the color is alot crisper in person and has a blue tint.(sorry about the glare and the crappy pics)

also everything was starting to close up

This is how they are setup above the tank



And here is the right side (kinda)

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/x...21-22_2261.jpg

Left side

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/x...-14-26_958.jpg

Middle,

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/x...-14-33_477.jpg

[Phishguy]

That looks like great coverage bigkenny! How far above the water are they? How has your most light demanding coral on the sandbed reacted to the new light?

[bigkenny76]

Originally Posted by Phishguy

That looks like great coverage bigkenny! How far above the water are they? How has your most light demanding coral on the sandbed reacted to the new light?

Thanks Phishguy,

They are about 10" above the water, every thing is doing good , i have a large green brain on the sand bed and its puffed up nicely and loves it, but mostly i have chalices and my war coral right on the sand, everything looks like it loves the new lights , i have one leather that's a little mad right now, but it gets mad when i clean the glass and deflates for a couple of days , so i guess we will see how it does in a week or so.

[BigCountry74]

How do you get in and out of the tank?

[allsps40]

Are the fans on these loud? My father in law has one for growing things other than corals from the same maker but the fans are really loud. I may also add the first one he got only worked for about 10 min then died. The replacement is working nicely.

[bigkenny76]

Originally Posted by BigCountry74

How do you get in and out of the tank?

Well BigCountry74, when my wife has not decorated the top its not that bad, the whole front of the hood has 2 hinged sections one is for just the front to lift and if you keep lifting the top 6" fold back also , BUT as you can see at the moment if i have to do anything other than feed , then i have to take all of the crap off of the canopy, but the lights are not effected bty the hinges, it will open without bothering them.

[bigkenny76]

Originally Posted by allsps40

Are the fans on these loud? My father in law has one for growing things other than corals from the same maker but the fans are really loud. I may also add the first one he got only worked for about 10 min then died. The replacement is working nicely.

allsps40,

The fans are louder than the ones in my last fixture, they are noticeable but not too bad, but they do push/pull a lot of air, so much that when you are standing in front of the tank , you can feel the slight "breeze" from the side vents on your face.

[want2reef]

My LED's fans are on the loud side.