chinese led lights

[GroYurOwn]

Here are some shots from my recently installed 46 gallon. These are the aquariumleds.com 120 watt fixtures @ 20k. The color is VERY blue, hard to take good pics, luckily with some fiddling with my D700 i was able to get a very close color rendition. I will be a good test subject since i have basically no corals besides a few ricordea and some zoas. My pink ric yuma and pink zoas opened immediatley and look very happy from day one under these lights, ric floridas seem to be openning nicely as well. I have a lobo frag and a blasto frag that have not been very happy, but i think that had to do with some water quality and placement issues. they seem to be making a recovery now.

[BigAirHarper]

Gro your lights are looking good and your corals really pop. I'm debating trying one of the aquariumleds 14K over my 57G rimless. It's either that or a unit from eshine but I'm worried about them getting damaged from china upon shipping like many people have had problems with.

[GroYurOwn]

Thanks BigAir!

I have had a lot of dialogue with the owner of aquariumleds.com, you can email him and you will usually get a fast response. He said he tests each unit prior to shipping to the end user, and has parts on hand to repair if necessary. He also said that if there is an issue with the item he can replace and request credit for himself from the manufacturer. I have ordered two and my bro-in-law ordered two, both came beautifully packaged and in perfect working order. i will post some pics of when i opened the box.

[BigAirHarper]

Originally Posted by GroYurOwn

Thanks BigAir!

I have had a lot of dialogue with the owner of aquariumleds.com, you can email him and you will usually get a fast response. He said he tests each unit prior to shipping to the end user, and has parts on hand to repair if necessary. He also said that if there is an issue with the item he can replace and request credit for himself from the manufacturer. I have ordered two and my bro-in-law ordered two, both came beautifully packaged and in perfect working order. i will post some pics of when i opened the box.

Good to know!

[Tony B (UK)]

Interesting thread, I'm hoping that some more sps keepers will document their experiences with photos, I'll be interested to see the tank at 6 and 12 months.

[jeffesaurusrex]

I think its worth a mention that one of my LFS has a older black box style led, the ecoray 60d, on one of his tanks. He has two of them in a canopy about 5in from the water on a 75, 48x18x20 is what it measures I believe. He's had a maxima clam on the sand bed since I started going there about 10 months ago. He also has good growth on the softies he usually keeps. He's been getting more into LPS and SPS lately and has had a few acro frags on the sand for a couple months now. Its hard to tell growth on those because they were just added recently but everything else does great. One thing I notice is there isn't a lot of coraline on the glass.

He sells them for 300, and they are available online for that price also. I wouldn't buy them though because these 120w fixtures from aquariumleds.com look a lot better and they're almost half the price.

[pompeyjohn]

Originally Posted by salsipuedes

display tank yes, frag tank - no. Mother colonies shall be in the display tank The frags will go in the 25 gallon tank I have, and I want them to grow as fast as possible for trading in for store credit at my lfs, selling locally / online. I'm tired of my tank looking all crowded with a frag rack, and plugs in the sand, etc... I'm running out of space in my 92 corner. A dedicated frag tank is def the next step. I'd go with a larger setup but i already have all the equipment for the 25 except for lights.

My only fear is bleaching corals with one of the 120 watt panels that can't be dimmed over 25 gallon a tank that's 16 inches high if these things are as powerful as everyone says they are, and the canopy i have right now will place the fixture about an inch above the waters surface so raising them higher is out of the question. I'm looking to frag mostly sps (birdsnest, montis, torts, and acros) so all intense light loving corals.

Also, now that I think of it, I'd have the same amount of LED watts over a 25 gallon tank as a 92 corner tank. Does that seem odd to anyone else besides me? And is there that big of a difference from bridgelux leds to cree leds that save 120 watts of bridgelux might not burn corals but 120 watts of cree might?

It makes me think either one 120 watt panel over a 25 gallon tank is overkill and will bleach everything. I mean look at tntneons tank, thats only 60 watts and it looks like quite a bit of led power to me and everything looks like its flourishing.

On the other hand, maybe 120 watts of dimmable cree leds on a 92 corner isn't enough and I should go with 3 units to keep a mixed reef of SPS, LPS, Clams, softies, etc, especially if I want to keep sps and clams in the bottom 1/3rd of the 92 corner. Any thoughts or comments before I pull the trigger and blow another paycheck on this hobby?

And thank you to everyone who has chimed in on this thread, its definitely very informative on a subject most people shun for apparently no good reason.

I am in the same boat - similar frag tank. Not sure to go with 120w or not. Did you make a decision?

[salsipuedes]

Originally Posted by pompeyjohn

I am in the same boat - similar frag tank. Not sure to go with 120w or not. Did you make a decision?

Not yet, the t5s just went out in my 92 corner tank, trying to decide how to go about replacing the lights in my main system first, then worry about the frag tank later.

[jmzak_]

I just ordered two of the "blace" colored ones from here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/150726029374...#ht_5696wt_984

Looking forward to setting them up on my 75.

[Boxfish]

Anyone seen this unit yet good price and its dimmable.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250999788183...84.m1423.l2649

Talked to the guy they are 3W leds running at 2W. The brand of the bulbs are Konwin which I don't know anything about. They seem to be a rather large company that manufactures leds.

[jmzak_]

They look identical to the TaoTronics ones.

[want2reef]

Fan grills are different.

[salsipuedes]

Originally Posted by Boxfish

Anyone seen this unit yet good price and its dimmable.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250999788183...84.m1423.l2649

Talked to the guy they are 3W leds running at 2W. The brand of the bulbs are Konwin which I don't know anything about. They seem to be a rather large company that manufactures leds.

Guy has limited feedback (2)... and I dunno anything about that companies LEDS.... hmmmm...

awefully tempting though

[Vince]

Konwin leds made by epistar. I might try one.

[BigCountry74]

Originally Posted by Boxfish

Anyone seen this unit yet good price and its dimmable.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250999788183...84.m1423.l2649

Talked to the guy they are 3W leds running at 2W. The brand of the bulbs are Konwin which I don't know anything about. They seem to be a rather large company that manufactures leds.

Now that is interesting. Never seen a dimmable driver offered at that price! wow...if that is legit he needs to find an American distributor asap! lol

[Oppee]

Hey guys i have a 180g wide with 2 cross braces and its time again for a bulb change on the t5 12 39w, i do not have heavy stocked tank of coral just few sps lps, my question is i am very tempted to give the TaoTronics module a try. With the tank braces it has 3 openings of @ 18" square and tank depth to sand bed is @ 18", so do you think 3 modules one for each opening would be comparable or would it be allot dimmer? Thanks for your opinions!

[GroYurOwn]

Oppee - I have bought 4 120 watt units from aquariumleds.com, i think they are they same item, but I have had very good customer service through aquariumleds.com, they respond to my emails really quickly, and seem like they are really trying hard to treat customers well. Just my 2 cents, i have had a great experience, love my lights, and am happy with interaction with these guys, so if you are looking to buy check them out, one less unknown.

[BigCountry74]

The aquariumleds are fully 3w supplied. The taotronics are 3w LEDs but supplied by 2w. That was my understanding at least. Aquariumleds ship outta Niagra Falls NY also (Canada lol), so their 1 year warranty is going to be easier to access if something goes wrong versus having to ship back and forth to China. That was the main reason I went with them.

[Mrs Smith]

And the main advantage of 2W over 3W is bulb lifespan? Someone mentioned this before somewhere in this thread and now I can't find it.

I also have to admit that I would prefer dealing with a company in the US and am leaning towards AquariumLEDs, but whether it is better to drive at 2w vs 3w is the thing I am stuck on.

(My tank is 24" deep)

[BigCountry74]

I think your ok as long as you do not do the reverse - drive 3w thru a 2w bulb, 3w thru a 1w bulb etc.

To my knowledge (could be wrong) that is what Marineland did on their first gen reef boxes (why so many individual LEDs were failing for people).

[Boxfish]

I also am leaning toward Aquariumleds but man I wish they were dimmable to really tweak what you want. Thats why when I saw this it was very enticing.

[BigCountry74]

The one thing fishy about that dimmable ebay (besides the 2 user feedback lol) is "Good after-sales service, 2 years warranty". Heck that's insane, literally too good to be true. Which makes me lean towards it being a false product.

[Boxfish]

Well I dont know about that either. He says replace parts and whole unit if necessary. I checked on the guy that bought one and sent an email to him with no response. Also the guys that have given him feedback have only bought stuff on ebay from hongkong and alot of different led light stuff. I wonder if they are just starting an ebay presence here and are pumping their feedback.
Ah I see someone just took a bite and bid on it. Well hopefully someone from here.

The guy said he would give me a bit of a discount for multiple units also.

[pompeyjohn]

Kinetic Theory of Air.

That is awesome.

[BigCountry74]

haha I read that as well and was like ?!?....