Chinese LED Lights

[latinyoungn]

Bhazard,
glad to see you got power back. I am in new york also but still without power. I've been boiling water every night to put in the tank to keep the temperature up. fish look ok but scared. coral is all closed most likely dead. ...

[ChadRaay86]

Originally Posted by Travis1787

Does ever grow still do the nova a4 or a6?

Yes they do. We just got quoted for them along with the A8s. You can email Sunny and she can provide you with the quote. PM me if you want, I still have the email here somewhere

[Travis1787]

So I guess the newer 24" and 36" units are only for sale to resellers like reef breeders and such... I think im just gonna stick with the d120... I can get 2 for 360 2 a6 I'm looking at 600 2 it120s is 640.... can't beat that d120 deal

[Fish_Freek]

Originally Posted by Travis1787

So I guess the newer 24" and 36" units are only for sale to resellers like reef breeders and such... I think im just gonna stick with the d120... I can get 2 for 360 2 a6 I'm looking at 600 2 it120s is 640.... can't beat that d120 deal

I agree... D120s are your best bang for the buck!!!!

[livingseas]

Originally Posted by ChadRaay86

Does anybody have a review of their IT2040 with the bugs fixed? I'm debating whether or not to shell out the extra cash, the features look well worth it, if they work that is

I'm also trying to figure out my layout,not knowing enough regarding spectrums and such is there a "new standard" out there? I want to focus on covering all of the spectrums necessary for new growth.

Thanks!

They just shipped my replacement lcd's today. Should have them next week some time. I'll let everyone know if the kinks are worked out..

[Wretch]

Has anyone had problems with the iron casing on the twilight fixtures or did everyone upgrade to the aluminium one?

[mlott132]

Is anyone running their lights at 100%? I have mine at 50% right now, to get everything acclimated to the new lights, and they seem bright enough as they are.

[Fish_Freek]

Originally Posted by mlott132

Is anyone running their lights at 100%? I have mine at 50% right now, to get everything acclimated to the new lights, and they seem bright enough as they are.

I've been running mine at 50% power as well since I've had them. I'm getting good results and like the color. I don't see the need to go to 100% at this time.

[giztok]

I have got 2 layouts for D120 light, what do you think?

[rldcpa]

I am confused. Let's say you get 2 or 3 d120's, how do you control them for sunrise to sunset and/or dimming or do you just use them on and off with a separate timer or contrller.

[Dapg8gt]

50% here too.. Tried ramping them up slowly and SPS just started losing color.. Mine is super close to the water though on my small frag tank. About 3" away

[mlott132]

Thanks for the feedback. Think I will keep mine maxed at 50% as well. If they are this bright now I can't even imagine what they would look like at full power. Probably have to wear a welding mask to sit in my living room so I don't go blind.

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by Wretch

Has anyone had problems with the iron casing on the twilight fixtures or did everyone upgrade to the aluminium one?

I'm not sure if Ever grows are aluminum either. The d120 isn't but the IT120 might be.

No issues with any of them. As long as the coated paint remains, it won't rust.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by mlott132

Thanks for the feedback. Think I will keep mine maxed at 50% as well. If they are this bright now I can't even imagine what they would look like at full power. Probably have to wear a welding mask to sit in my living room so I don't go blind.

If you slowly ramp over time, and move frags from the bottom to top, you can use 100% just fine.

At 100%, the Chinese lights is about 50% of my Cree setup, and I run those at 80%. I've fried some sps by not putting them in the sandbed first and acclimating right. I can hit 1400 par at the top of my tank

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[Wretch]

Originally Posted by bhazard451

I'm not sure if Ever grows are aluminum either. The d120 isn't but the IT120 might be.

No issues with any of them. As long as the coated paint remains, it won't rust.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks for the info. I am looking at getting a couple twilight LED units and the lady said that you cant use optics if you upgrade to the aluminium case as it was bad for the PCB board and life span of the unit as a whole.

Then I got worried about the rust and just generally got confused as to what to do.

[bobafett]

I just want to share my experience with these cheap LED lights. I have been following this thread since the beginning and decided to try them out. I purchased three units from the alibaba site that included the white/blue/red/green/uv bulbs. At first I was impressed with the lights but that didn't last long. After using them for only two months one of the units failed. The white LEDs were blinking like a strobe light. After two weeks of going back and forth with the vendor via email and trying everything they suggested I asked them to send me a few leds to swap them out thinking that was the problem. Their answer was that shipping the leds alone would be very expensive and asked if i were to purchase one of their newer style lights they would throw the leds in when shipping the new lights.

Are you kidding me!!!!- Your light fails after two months and you want me to buy more from you. After an angry email reply they agreed to send me the LEDs. Luckily I'm pretty good with a soldering iron otherwise i would be stuck with a $200 boat anchor. Once I got the LEDs i spent over two hours trouble shooting the light. In the end I wound up pulling all the diodes off the board and the LEDs then lit up. There was never anything wrong with the LEDs, only the diodes. Why werent their engineers able to tell me this.

Now it comes to today, 5 months after using the lights, I notice thsome of the LEDs were not that bright. After further investigation I found that ALL of the UV LEDs are burnt out. I dont mean not working but litterly burnt out as if they caught fire. I knew these lights were cheap but this is rediculous.

Bottom line- These lights will not last, the warranty is useless because its too expensive to send back to china for repairs, save your money and buy a quality product.

[Dapg8gt]

So did all the units fail? Or just 1? What brand is it? That sucks that that happened. I have been running mine for about 4 months with no issues...... Bad apples come with even the expensive ones. A friend had a radion swapped out due to faulty drivers that fried FWIW

Originally Posted by bobafett

I just want to share my experience with these cheap LED lights. I have been following this thread since the beginning and decided to try them out. I purchased three units from the alibaba site that included the white/blue/red/green/uv bulbs. At first I was impressed with the lights but that didn't last long. After using them for only two months one of the units failed. The white LEDs were blinking like a strobe light. After two weeks of going back and forth with the vendor via email and trying everything they suggested I asked them to send me a few leds to swap them out thinking that was the problem. Their answer was that shipping the leds alone would be very expensive and asked if i were to purchase one of their newer style lights they would throw the leds in when shipping the new lights.

Are you kidding me!!!!- Your light fails after two months and you want me to buy more from you. After an angry email reply they agreed to send me the LEDs. Luckily I'm pretty good with a soldering iron otherwise i would be stuck with a $200 boat anchor. Once I got the LEDs i spent over two hours trouble shooting the light. In the end I wound up pulling all the diodes off the board and the LEDs then lit up. There was never anything wrong with the LEDs, only the diodes. Why werent their engineers able to tell me this.

Now it comes to today, 5 months after using the lights, I notice thsome of the LEDs were not that bright. After further investigation I found that ALL of the UV LEDs are burnt out. I dont mean not working but litterly burnt out as if they caught fire. I knew these lights were cheap but this is rediculous.

Bottom line- These lights will not last, the warranty is useless because its too expensive to send back to china for repairs, save your money and buy a quality product.

[Travis1787]

Yea mines been running for 6 months or so and I have no problems at all....

One thing I noticed recently is that my violets are blackish at the tip of the led but they still are lit up seems like there burning out possibly? I dunno its weird but its only with the 4 violets and nothing else

[bobafett]

1 of the 3 currently running had the issue with the blinking LED. A different one has the UV LEDs completely burnt out. There are smoke stains on the reflector from where the bulbs actually blistered open. The others have working UV LEDs but they look browned out when turned off. I only noticed this today since I'm doing tank maintenance before the lights turned on and I realized one of the lights looked different (they are blindingly too bright to look at normally when lit plus the UV is barely visible to begin with). I dont expect these to last much longer and will replace them with white and blue LEDs when I have the time. As I mentioned before they have only been used for 5 months. These units are a PIA to take apart because they siliconed the reflector to the circuit board. If these lights work for you, great since they are a fraction of the price of name brands but if you are not handy with tools I would stay away since you have to fix them yourself or pay almost as much as the price of the light to return them to china.

[bobafett]

I dont remember the brand but they look like all the rest of the generic LED boxes sold on ebay (rows of LEDs, not pucks). All the other LEDs look fine. It is only the UV (Violets) that look burnt out or have already burnt out. Looks like Travis is having the same issue. I forgot to mention earlier that these were supposedly built with Cree LEDs but I highly dowbt that now.

[mlott132]

Originally Posted by bhazard451

If you slowly ramp over time, and move frags from the bottom to top, you can use 100% just fine.

At 100%, the Chinese lights is about 50% of my Cree setup, and I run those at 80%. I've fried some sps by not putting them in the sandbed first and acclimating right. I can hit 1400 par at the top of my tank

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

How high are you running your new Evergrow unit?

[dviper150]

I got in 3 IT2040 fixtures from EG. I had 2 of them with optics sitting about 7 inches above my 24" deep 65 gallon tank. Now I am moving them to my 6' 21" deep 125 gallon tank. They will be sitting about 3" from the water surface.

Should I remove the 90 degree optics on them or will it be okay with the optics? I left the optics on them for the 24" deep tank and now that they are going to a 21" deep tank and sitting lower, not sure if I should leave them or take them off.

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by bobafett

I dont remember the brand but they look like all the rest of the generic LED boxes sold on ebay (rows of LEDs, not pucks). All the other LEDs look fine. It is only the UV (Violets) that look burnt out or have already burnt out. Looks like Travis is having the same issue. I forgot to mention earlier that these were supposedly built with Cree LEDs but I highly dowbt that now.

Brand is important. Some are built much better than others. I would throw a fit if I got a board siliconed to the reflector.

Cheap UV LEDs that are advertised as 400-405nm are prone to burning out. 420nm are normally fine.

The best thing to do is buy these lights through a US reseller that will service them, as you won't have to send the units back to China if they fail. Reef breeders resells Evergrow, but I don't know the us resellers of other brands

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[bhazard451]

Originally Posted by dviper150

I got in 3 IT2040 fixtures from EG. I had 2 of them with optics sitting about 7 inches above my 24" deep 65 gallon tank. Now I am moving them to my 6' 21" deep 125 gallon tank. They will be sitting about 3" from the water surface.

Should I remove the 90 degree optics on them or will it be okay with the optics? I left the optics on them for the 24" deep tank and now that they are going to a 21" deep tank and sitting lower, not sure if I should leave them or take them off.

Try it both ways. They only take seconds to remove once the fixture is open

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[dviper150]

Originally Posted by bhazard451

Try it both ways. They only take seconds to remove once the fixture is open

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Would the fixture still give off good par to grow corals on the sand bed with the optics off if I liked that look better?