chinese led lights

[mwminer]

In previous post I tried to include the quote of Dojic60 (post 508) but it didn't show up. Sorry if I confused anyone.

[convict3]

Ok so my wife blew my lighting budget on a new bedroom set so if i want leds i heve to get the little black box. Aquariumled.com is sold out till march 31 is tjere any other trusted place to get a 14 k version

[mwminer]

Hi! This is Mrs. mwminer....good for your wife...it will make your life more interesting , hopefully for you. On the other hand I love the tank as much as he does. As a matter of fact I'm the one who bought him the 450 we are putting up. While she may have blown the LED's that you want [with the bedroonm set] From what I can see if you can choose the right LED's for you at a more reasonable price you found the best of both worlds!

Honestly from what I see and can compare to the Black Boxes can be every bit as good and efficient as the "Big Names". I am really consdering a chinese LED for my 450 which as you know shouldn't spare a dime...they [the Chinese manufacturers] are the ones building the lights with soeone else's design with tieir logo...but they still have the prototye that they are building on themselves.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by convict3

Ok so my wife blew my lighting budget on a new bedroom set so if i want leds i heve to get the little black box. Aquariumled.com is sold out till march 31 is tjere any other trusted place to get a 14 k version

Welcome to married life. For years me and my wife disagreed on what was a higher priority and she wills out 95% of the time.

This is what got me into doing a lot of my Aquariums on a DIY level. There was a point where I had over 100 tanks in my basement and my wife wanted them out. That is when I opened a store front and then had 100 tanks at the store and only 60 at home.

since going to DIY I found that with a little effeort you can build something twice as good for usualy 1/2 the money. And LED lighting is an ideal place to start as it is simple, does not take a lot of time, and the cost difference is realy extreme.

[TropTrea]

Removed.

[GroYurOwn]

Just wanted to update on my non-waterproof lights. I contacted aquariumleds.com and he offered to send me two replacement transformers for free, I just had to pay shipping. I thought that was pretty fair, but i took the thing apart and dried everything out and it all works now. One of the two fan drivers got fried (the one that comes on with white lights) but luckily the other fan driver has a spare plug, so i plugged in to that and i am good to go! Awesome customer service!

[BigAirHarper]

Originally Posted by GroYurOwn

Just wanted to update on my non-waterproof lights. I contacted aquariumleds.com and he offered to send me two replacement transformers for free, I just had to pay shipping. I thought that was pretty fair, but i took the thing apart and dried everything out and it all works now. One of the two fan drivers got fried (the one that comes on with white lights) but luckily the other fan driver has a spare plug, so i plugged in to that and i am good to go! Awesome customer service!

Wow! Impressive on both customer service and that the light works. Congrats.

[tntneon]

For my new system i bought chinese leds because i tested it on my nano and they where/are great .
And with the money saved i bought a German royal exclusive returnpump

greetingz tntneon

[IZZY'SREEF]

Hi,all! Enjoying this thread. I'm seriously thinking of getting back into the hobby with a 29 gal nano. I would really like to use one of the black boxes over the tank with minimum spillover. What would anyone recommend(wattage, optics et.) for a tank of this size(30x12x18h)

[BigAirHarper]

Originally Posted by IZZY'SREEF

Hi,all! Enjoying this thread. I'm seriously thinking of getting back into the hobby with a 29 gal nano. I would really like to use one of the black boxes over the tank with minimum spillover. What would anyone recommend(wattage, optics et.) for a tank of this size(30x12x18h)

I'd check out eshine. The problem with the black boxes is they have no optics so they have a 120 degree light emission angle. With eshine you would be able to get a comparable fixture to the $165 black box (bridgelux instead of Cree) for almost the same money and these fixtures have optics to point the light down and decrease spillover. For your dimensions i would say a 36x3W with 90 degree optics would be plenty.

[mwminer]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

I do not want to get into politics here but that comment urks me to no end. 90% of the problems this country is facing is because of unemployment. High unemployment forces more government spending on welfare programs. Where have the jobs gone but to countries that use slave labor. Us companies spend millions of dollars on research and development and getting there products and ideas patentend. Yet some of these countries steal our ideas and make poor replicas of our devices so American companies start loosing profits as people buy the cheap imitations.

There was time you could buy an American made refigerator that would last you 30 to 40 years. Today you cannot find one that will last you 10 years and where do 80% of the parts for that refregerator come from?

I don't disagree with you at all, I was just making the point that some of these lights could be just as good as the big brand names.

Honestly I have Maxspect G2-230 and G2-160Lights on my 165 and really like them, these are made in China and they are very good lights. But they were not purchased direct from the manufacturer, I bought them through a US distributor. So on this purchase I added to the economy of the distributor who made a very healthy profit on each piece. When I bought them I didn't really think about they were made in China. They were just as expensive as any of the other US brands.

What I did find out however while researching these chinese lights is that there is a very large markup. While I will not mention the brand of these lights anyone who really wants to know PM me. They are being pre-order sold right now and priced very high. They have all the features you can imagine, sunrise/sunset, cloud mode, timers, dimmers anyway I sent a request for pricing and I can actually purchase these lights which are being sold online for $500 LESS per light! I need 2 so I would be saving $1000...that's a lot of money

Which brings me back to what Phishguy said "...At least buying from China directly saves people money to purchase other things inside US..."

Yes I would have to pay around $300 for shipping BUT they are shipped DHL which is now a division of UPS (an American Company) so I am still giving to the US economy and with the $1000 that I save on the lights I can put that back into the economy.

This whole topic is a double edged sword.

With that said, let's get back on topic...Back to our regular programming!

[clownfool]

Last night I ordered a 120 Watt Aquarium LED 14K 1 Watt LEDs from aquariumleds.com

I had read this thread from the start a couple of weeks ago and from what I read I thought the 120 Watt Aquarium LED 14K 1 Watt LEDs would be OK.

After I ordered I read the 3-4 pages that were made since the couple of weeks ago.

I don't know a whole lot about LEDs and thought the 1 watt would be ok for my
28g JBJ NanoCube. Then I read that the 3watt would be better because there driven at 2watts. So my question is are the 1watt ones driven too high in wattage and will burn out sooner?

Since I'm using them for my 28g NanoCube wouldn't the 1watt ones be bright enough since it's so shallow? And how high off the top of my tank water level should I hang them?

[submersible]

Originally Posted by clownfool

Last night I ordered a 120 Watt Aquarium LED 14K 1 Watt LEDs from aquariumleds.com

I had read this thread from the start a couple of weeks ago and from what I read I thought the 120 Watt Aquarium LED 14K 1 Watt LEDs would be OK.

After I ordered I read the 3-4 pages that were made since the couple of weeks ago.

I don't know a whole lot about LEDs and thought the 1 watt would be ok for my
28g JBJ NanoCube. Then I read that the 3watt would be better because there driven at 2watts. So my question is are the 1watt ones driven too high in wattage and will burn out sooner?

Since I'm using them for my 28g NanoCube wouldn't the 1watt ones be bright enough since it's so shallow? And how high off the top of my tank water level should I hang them?

The general consensous is that they are not strong enough. Although people have had success using them....

One person who posted in this thread with a link to pictures of growth:

Originally Posted by RDHDDRAGON

I have had the "Hong Kong" lights on my tank for almost 7 months now. I have four fixtures each with 56 white and 56 blue about 13" over my 220 gallon. I also have two of the same fixtures over my 95 gallon wave tank. So that is 112 1watt chips in each fixture.

In the 220 gallon my old fixture had 3-250 watt MH and 4-96 watt pc.

Par went from 580-880 at 1" under surface and 80-180 at the bottom.

I have lost some of the red in my acans, but not my chalices. THe acan went from red to orange, so still beautiful. My pizza face chalice is just as red as when i bought it. The greens have gone from green to nuclear-glowing out of the tank- green. ALL of my corals are growing like mad. I've had devil's armour polyps go from 2 to 10 in under two weeks.

Below is my link to my milli growth under these leds. The growth has been amazing as far as i am concerned. I have another milli and two acros that are growing just as well if not better. I know 7 months isn't the year everyone is looking for, but in 7 months i think the coral would have suffered and/or died if the lights were bad. Just my opinion, but I absolutely love these lights!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2072657

One word of warning though- When I first put my LED on my tank, everything went pastel. I thought I had screwed up and bleached everything. About a week later they started getting color back and after two weeks everything was brighter than before. I also started with them about 10" off the tank and moved them up.

And this guy who had them for 20 months and sold these frags:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2048765


So either the pics are photoshopped, or they can actually grow corals.

[clownfool]

Originally Posted by clownfool

Last night I ordered a 120 Watt Aquarium LED 14K 1 Watt LEDs from aquariumleds.com

I had read this thread from the start a couple of weeks ago and from what I read I thought the 120 Watt Aquarium LED 14K 1 Watt LEDs would be OK.

After I ordered I read the 3-4 pages that were made since the couple of weeks ago.

I don't know a whole lot about LEDs and thought the 1 watt would be ok for my
28g JBJ NanoCube. Then I read that the 3watt would be better because there driven at 2watts. So my question is are the 1watt ones driven too high in wattage and will burn out sooner?

Since I'm using them for my 28g NanoCube wouldn't the 1watt ones be bright enough since it's so shallow? And how high off the top of my tank water level should I hang them?

Does anyone have the 1 watt LED lights from aquariumleds.com and seem to have coral growth with them?

[IZZY'SREEF]

Originally Posted by BigAirHarper

I'd check out eshine. The problem with the black boxes is they have no optics so they have a 120 degree light emission angle. With eshine you would be able to get a comparable fixture to the $165 black box (bridgelux instead of Cree) for almost the same money and these fixtures have optics to point the light down and decrease spillover. For your dimensions i would say a 36x3W with 90 degree optics would be plenty.

Thanks, BigAir! I want to keep mainly softies ( Rics and Zoas) and a few LPS) I want to go LED mainly for for the energy saving and not having to change bulbs As long as I get good growth and color I'll be happy.

[BigCountry74]

Originally Posted by clownfool

Does anyone have the 1 watt LED lights from aquariumleds.com and seem to have coral growth with them?

I think on a 29g you will be fine.

[BigCountry74]

TropT is all over it.....good stuff man.

[BrianD]

Drop the political talk immediately or accounts will be closed.

[ganjero]

Ok, so I read most of the thread and I didn't see a follow up about this lights not having a heat sink. Do they have it or not? What are the LEDs attached to? Do the spectrum really shifts when the lights get warmer?

[BrianD]

Posts deleted. Patience wearing thin.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by ganjero

Ok, so I read most of the thread and I didn't see a follow up about this lights not having a heat sink. Do they have it or not? What are the LEDs attached to? Do the spectrum really shifts when the lights get warmer?

If you look at Crees data on LED's you wil;l see that various LED's do have shifts to various extents by thermo warming. But even more important is how heat shortens the life span of a LED. Many of the Cree LED's can be run well above there rated currents however there lifespans are drasticly reduced becaus regardless of the size of the heat sink it could not pull away the heat fast enough.

A while back I saw a chart from another LED manufacturer that gave heat sink requirements for there 3 watt LED's They recommended for running at a full 3 watts each LED should have 25 square inches of surface cooling. With a LED running at 2 Watts 16 square inches were recommended and with 1 watt they recommended 12 square inces of cooling. This is without fans and with the addition of fans you can decrease the surface area by up to 70% dependent upon the flow from the fan. It is only when you get into the small mili-watt LED's that cooling is not needed.

Now if you look at some heat sinks they have the appearance on an E only with multiple fins. ?These fins are designned to increase the surface are to provide cooling. A typicial 1" thick and 2" wide heat sink will have fins that are 1/8 thick and 7/8 tall and 1/8" apart. So over the 2 inches of width you have 8 fins and a total of 16 square inches of surface area per inch of lenght. So on a heat sink of this design you could technicaly put a 3 watt LED every 1 5/8" apart without having to worry about fans.

But the important thing to remember is the biggest cause of electronic devices to fail is heat. LED's are electronic devices. So the more cooling they get the longer they will last. And yes LED's do get hot especialy the higher wattage ones but newer designes are getting better and better every day giving a better light to heat ration from the power they are using.

[ganjero]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

If you look at Crees data on LED's you wil;l see that various LED's do have shifts to various extents by thermo warming. But even more important is how heat shortens the life span of a LED. Many of the Cree LED's can be run well above there rated currents however there lifespans are drasticly reduced becaus regardless of the size of the heat sink it could not pull away the heat fast enough.

A while back I saw a chart from another LED manufacturer that gave heat sink requirements for there 3 watt LED's They recommended for running at a full 3 watts each LED should have 25 square inches of surface cooling. With a LED running at 2 Watts 16 square inches were recommended and with 1 watt they recommended 12 square inces of cooling. This is without fans and with the addition of fans you can decrease the surface area by up to 70% dependent upon the flow from the fan. It is only when you get into the small mili-watt LED's that cooling is not needed.

Now if you look at some heat sinks they have the appearance on an E only with multiple fins. ?These fins are designned to increase the surface are to provide cooling. A typicial 1" thick and 2" wide heat sink will have fins that are 1/8 thick and 7/8 tall and 1/8" apart. So over the 2 inches of width you have 8 fins and a total of 16 square inches of surface area per inch of lenght. So on a heat sink of this design you could technicaly put a 3 watt LED every 1 5/8" apart without having to worry about fans.

But the important thing to remember is the biggest cause of electronic devices to fail is heat. LED's are electronic devices. So the more cooling they get the longer they will last. And yes LED's do get hot especialy the higher wattage ones but newer designes are getting better and better every day giving a better light to heat ration from the power they are using.

Great info on LEDs, Thanks. Do you know if these "Black Boxes" do not have a heat sink? If they don't, I see all that you explained applies to these fixtures and will be a major disadvantage. Also, what surface are they using to put the LEDs together?

[submersible]

Originally Posted by ganjero

Ok, so I read most of the thread and I didn't see a follow up about this lights not having a heat sink. Do they have it or not? What are the LEDs attached to? Do the spectrum really shifts when the lights get warmer?

The ebay "taotronics" fixtures do not have traditional heatsinks, they use "kinetic theory of air" lol. The leds are mounted on an aluminum sheet, with THREE fans blowing directly on the opposite side, and air exiting out of the sides of the fixture. I would think this should be adequate to dissipate the heat? One of those infrared temperature guns would be nice to see how hot the leds are running.

The eshines fixtures do have heatsinks.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by submersible

The ebay "taotronics" fixtures do not have traditional heatsinks, they use "kinetic theory of air" lol. The leds are mounted on an aluminum sheet, with THREE fans blowing directly on the opposite side, and air exiting out of the sides of the fixture. I would think this should be adequate to dissipate the heat? One of those infrared temperature guns would be nice to see how hot the leds are running.

The eshines fixtures do have heatsinks.

This could work and I have considered building on an Alumnium plate. It all depends mainly on how much wattage they are running the LED's at, how close the LED's are to each other, And how effective the fans are. If there realing pushing the edge of max effectiveness of the fans then I would say.

1 Watt LEDs 2 1/4" apart
2 watts 2 3/8" apart
3 watt 3" apart

I know from tests we did on cooling transistors it only took a little more of heat sink to realy extend some cycle time capabilities but then when you a point doubling and trippling the heat sinks only delivered a small % of additional cooling.

When I did my planning using a flat sheet I looked at a 120 gallon tank with
1,152 squar inches of surface area for the plate size. Using 3 Watt LED's I would be limited to about 90. But did I realy want a Plate covering the whole tank and I was questioning if that would even give me enough light. From what I know now though it would more than enough light.

[tntneon]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

... LED's do have shifts to various extents by thermo warming.....

-Do say whites thend to shift to more red or bleu , when they heat up ?

greetingzz tntneon