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DIMMABLE Chinese LEDs

fatoldsun

fatoldsun

NJRC Member
Well, it was just a matter of time right? It was inevitable…, but for $160. What do I do with the DIY stuff I've started to accumulate? Well, they're not CREEs so quality control is probably a crapshoot and PAR could vary widely from one unit to the next but still, $160
This is a HARD decision

OK, I digress....of course I don’t know anything about these – someone on "that other board" posted this link…

http://www.ebay.com/itm/250999788183?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

from the RC post:
"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. "
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I think that’s a tremendous deal!

I contemplated purchasing these “Chinese” fixtures, but caught a deal on a used Apollo. I think they are a really good deal. I looked at it this way….what do you pay on yearly bulb changes; and how quickly could you recoup the cost of the fixtures in what would otherwise go to new bulbs. I was spending around $130/year on new bulbs….so my “payback” would be about 2 ½ years, and we haven’t even talked about electrical savings.

Here are my comments:

They don’t have aluminum heat sinks, so longevity is a question. However, Feng has had his going for a good time (I’m guessing….2 years??).

The “dimmable” feature is a manual potentiometer….turn a dial. These are not controllable by a reef controller. I ended up with two non-dimmable Apollos, and my feeling is that no other lights I’ve had could be dimmed, so why start now. I think dim-ability would be nice to have to acclimate the tank, or if you know you won’t use them “wide open.”

I’m not overly concerned about the brand of the LED. These have been out long enough to prove themselves.

I would think that two units would do your tank.

The only thing I don’t see in this ebay add are the numbers of blue to white LEDs. But what I believe is 16K-20K light (they say “White: 16000k-20000k”), they have to have a good number of blue LEDs to get to that Kelvin.

I also think there was some words lost in translation. I liked this one……..”Use kinetic theory of air to solve the heat problem,” must mean, Uses fans to solve heat problems.


Bottom line, I’d go for it!
 
shipwrecked

shipwrecked

Interesting to see this post.Yoou beat me to it.Im thinkin on these units too.Waiting on a co member friend to bring one over to see if 1 unit per "bay"(I have a 125 6'tank) will do the job.I was told in the past that I would need 2 each bay.In any case I think you cant beat the price on these and if they work,we're in ...gd luck if ya decide to go with these.
 
shipwrecked

shipwrecked

Sorry for the mix up I was actually looking at the Taotronics 120W they seem close to the same price but not dimmable,maybe you could check those out
 
Tazmaniancowboy

Tazmaniancowboy

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
fatoldsun said:
Well, it was just a matter of time right? It was inevitable…,
Click to expand...
I agree. It has been a wild ride for LEDs and we haven't seen the end. It is amazing how fast things are happening/changing now. I would like to switch soon, and have wanted for a while, but the question is when do we do it! LOL
redfishbluefish said:
I think that’s a tremendous deal!

They don’t have aluminum heat sinks, so longevity is a question. However, Feng has had his going for a good time (I’m guessing….2 years??).
Click to expand...
Not saying that he does it, but Feng has the capability of replacing or fixing any fixture he needs to and we'd never know!

It is still a good deal from what I see, every day there is more temptation!
 
fatoldsun

fatoldsun

NJRC Member
redfishbluefish said:
I think that’s a tremendous deal!

I contemplated purchasing these “Chinese” fixtures, but caught a deal on a used Apollo. I think they are a really good deal. I looked at it this way….what do you pay on yearly bulb changes; and how quickly could you recoup the cost of the fixtures in what would otherwise go to new bulbs. I was spending around $130/year on new bulbs….so my “payback” would be about 2 ½ years, and we haven’t even talked about electrical savings.

I also think there was some words lost in translation. I liked this one……..”Use kinetic theory of air to solve the heat problem,” must mean, Uses fans to solve heat problems.


Bottom line, I’d go for it!
Click to expand...

well these are a "bid" so they are starting at 160 - I'd need 2 and no way I want to win 1 and then have to bid out against someone for the second - i agree about the dimming and the fact that I've been fine without dimming until now but I'm looking for a way to acclimate to whatever I end up with and the mess of doing it by raising the lights sounds like a PITA - a deal on Apollos would have been nice.

and yes I enjoyed the creative creative way of describing (or translating) fans - kind of like the garbage collector being a "sanitation engineer?"
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Check and see if there is a buy now option on eBay many vendors now have this along with quantity.
 
AJ1080

AJ1080

Id be willing to bet you can email him and haggle with him and get the two you need for a good price.

As long as you use paypal your protected, whether its on ebay or not.
 
NyteGTI

NyteGTI

true, but in the shiopping it says ships to united states so I think it means outside the US as "internatuional" even though it's coming from china
 
NyteGTI

NyteGTI

Here's the reply I got from him:

Hello Sir

Thanks for your email reply.
We are the manufacture in China for the led aquarium lighting.
You can visit www dot ledbell dot com for more details.

Pls let me know how many pcs of this 120w dimmable aquarium light you want to order.
So that I can give you a better price for you.

Best regards!
RICHARD


- lpintezqh
Click to expand...
 
NyteGTI

NyteGTI

joeyhatch11 said:
Here's the same thing sold in the US coming from Cali. $160 free shipping. Id like to see pic of this over a tank. ANyone buy this unit yet?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquarium-Co...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item68c94c7950
Click to expand...

That's the non dimmable version though which is all over ebay for around that price.

Jim - Downbeach has a unit like this that a lot of us saw at the last meeting. seems pretty solid but I want to be able to dim white to blue to get the color I'm looking for.
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Very cheap for a dimmable LED. These things (dimmables and non-dimmables) have become pretty popular due to the cost and people are saying they get positive results with corals. But, you get what you pay for:

- Doesn't look like these have any optics on them. (These help a lot with focusing the light spectrum on your tank as opposed to out the side of the glass or worse if the light is say 1' above your tank where it can shine in your eyes at certain angles)
- No heatsink (meaning overheating can reduce the half-life of the bulbs significantly)
- LED bulb brand is a potential issue (as someone else mentioned not having the quality control as say Cree does might mean different spectrums from 1 fixture to the next)
- Manual dimmers work ok and are certainly better than none at all, but can't be automated via a controller. (You'll need to put these on a timer as you would any other light you currently have. Setting a max intensity will be good for acclimation and/or to adjust preferred color look but you won't have sunrise/sunset, lightning, cloud cover, etc effects if those interest you... granted that's not that important in all reality, but is a drawback to some.)
- Made overseas, so if it breaks you're either paying a fortune to ship it back or buying a whole new unit instead... not to mention the risk of having it lost in customs or something. (Probably the biggest issue to most people.)

Anyway, didn't mean to rain on your parade. For that price it's probably worth taking the risk if having all the bells and whistles doesn't matter to you.
 
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