The light I ordered doesn’t have moonlights so I ordered an 18 LED moonlight off ebay for less than 10 bucks. I’m actually curious how this inexpensive thing will work out. I’ll let you know when I get it.
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Paul’s petit réservoir d'eau salée
- Thread starter redfishbluefish
- Start date
18 LED moon lights on a 28 cube? The fish will need to sleep with sunglasses!
Dance Brian, have no fear, these are not high powered Cree LED’s or the like. The total wattage for all 18 LED’s is 1.1 watts. Even at that, I’m sure it will still be on the bright side. Dance
My new full spectrum Chinese light arrived today. The only thing I can say is that I’m impressed.
My son has a TaoTronics (older version Chinese fixture) that has the blue and white LED combo. Here are my complaints about this fixture:
1.) Fans only come on when whites are on. If you are running blues only, no fans.
2.) No aluminum heat sink.
3.) Unknown LED's.
Well this new light, one fan comes on when half the LED's are lit and the remaining two fans come on when the other half is lit. Not only that, they are also tied into the pots, and adjust their speed with the intensity of the light. Cool! In addition, it has a full aluminum plate and a finned cooling plate as well. Here’s a peek through the slits in the side of the fixture:
Now here are pictures of the LED’s when turned on. Note that the crap camera I have doesn’t even come close to capturing the colors of these LEDs. In addition, the only way you could see the colors with the camera was when the pots were turned just to the point where the LED’s first lit.
ALL LED’s ON
WHITES, REDS, GREEN and VIOLET ON
BLUES ON (Note that this is actually an intense blue to the eye)
And did I mention that they are Bridgelux LED’s with 90 degree optics.
I’m a happy camper. Dance
My son has a TaoTronics (older version Chinese fixture) that has the blue and white LED combo. Here are my complaints about this fixture:
1.) Fans only come on when whites are on. If you are running blues only, no fans.
2.) No aluminum heat sink.
3.) Unknown LED's.
Well this new light, one fan comes on when half the LED's are lit and the remaining two fans come on when the other half is lit. Not only that, they are also tied into the pots, and adjust their speed with the intensity of the light. Cool! In addition, it has a full aluminum plate and a finned cooling plate as well. Here’s a peek through the slits in the side of the fixture:
Now here are pictures of the LED’s when turned on. Note that the crap camera I have doesn’t even come close to capturing the colors of these LEDs. In addition, the only way you could see the colors with the camera was when the pots were turned just to the point where the LED’s first lit.
ALL LED’s ON
WHITES, REDS, GREEN and VIOLET ON
BLUES ON (Note that this is actually an intense blue to the eye)
And did I mention that they are Bridgelux LED’s with 90 degree optics.
I’m a happy camper. Dance
There is no "brand" on the fixture. It is a Chinese fixture. Although shipped from a US location, it arrived at my house still in the box from China. I purchased it off Ebay HERE for $172.50. I've now noticed that this seller now has a minimum (174.99) on these lights. You're welcome to stop by and see it.
Paul, I might come by one of these days to go and see the lights. I am torn between these Bridgelux fixtures and the higher end SOLS/Fathoms. The price just cant be beat and the number of success stories of these lights from other reefers is something you can't ignore. If I go with these fixtures, it will definitely save me some $$$$.
I have a similar fixture, only it's white + blue. I really liked it when I first got it, I much prefer the high-watt LED + external optics vs the cheaper (older?) lights with hundreds of tiny 1w LEDs.
Three things: 1) the dimmer on my blue channel went flaky, so that it sometimes flickers between 10% and 100%, give or take, and if it's at 10% turning the knob doesn't fix it. Weird.
2) the dimmer on the white channel is stuck @ 100%, or clicked off. So white doesn't dim.
3) this light has way more power than I expected. I have it 24" above my frag tank, and it will cook just about anything I put centered directly under if I have both channels on.
I now just run the whites, which looks ugly but grows things great. Then when I want to see how things could look, I kill the white channel and run blue.
I opened it up, but it doesn't have especially commodity drivers based on their specs.
Even with the issues, I'm happy with them for the price I paid.
Three things: 1) the dimmer on my blue channel went flaky, so that it sometimes flickers between 10% and 100%, give or take, and if it's at 10% turning the knob doesn't fix it. Weird.
2) the dimmer on the white channel is stuck @ 100%, or clicked off. So white doesn't dim.
3) this light has way more power than I expected. I have it 24" above my frag tank, and it will cook just about anything I put centered directly under if I have both channels on.
I now just run the whites, which looks ugly but grows things great. Then when I want to see how things could look, I kill the white channel and run blue.
I opened it up, but it doesn't have especially commodity drivers based on their specs.
Even with the issues, I'm happy with them for the price I paid.
Judeo, you’re welcome to stop by whenever. Just let me know when you’d like to come. I’m not far….Sayreville.
Jason, why not just replace the busted pots? I’m sure these are standard three-wire linear pots….common and easily found.
And Pete, how long have you had your current lights?
Jason, why not just replace the busted pots? I’m sure these are standard three-wire linear pots….common and easily found.
And Pete, how long have you had your current lights?
John, I don’t have the newer adjustable Apollo’s. I have the older, steel box, non adjustable models that are no longer available. (Wait one minute....didn't I buy one off of you?) So I say this with the aforementioned caveats…..these new lights appear to be built a little better…..much larger aluminum cooling fins than my old Apollo’s…..same LED’s (Bridgelux)….same steel box. If I had to pick between the two, I’d go with these full spectrum Chinese babies. But again, I’m comparing to the old Apollo’s.
Paul, I had another Chinese version ( just blue and white like jpelzer) when I started the 55 in May 2012. Worked great had 120 degree optics. The latest has 90 degree optics with color pattern similar to yours and has been going since nov 2012. Overall I like it better and the sps do as well. I only run @ 90% on sps dominant half and 80% on zoa,softie,lps half. I have color I never saw before and on others lost some. My issue now is figuring cal/ alk consumption. I ( opinion only) feel photon and color spectrum are what they are and not because of brand. The problem is figuring coral placement for best results......
Thanks Paul! Sometime this month most likely. I'm driving myself nuts trying to figure out which fixtures to settle on and maybe if I see your fixture, I can finally make a decision. I'll probably make a trip to visit ultimate corals after i stop by. lol
I might have to take you up on that offer. I just added some new LEDs to my Chinese fixture to make it "full spectrum"
I have taken them apart, they use six-wire pots if I remember correctly, I think one set of three is the dimming, the other for the fans. I'll probably fix them once they die altogether. Until then, running @ 50%.
Paul, didn't notice this thread until someone just bumped it, lol. I've been following your DIY threads though so I pretty much knew most of this was going on.
Was just curious though... do you still have the two old JBJ28 hoods? I might be willing to buy the HQI one from you if you want to sell it. Let me know.
Was just curious though... do you still have the two old JBJ28 hoods? I might be willing to buy the HQI one from you if you want to sell it. Let me know.
The only things I’ve done are throw a very large Mexican turbo in to eat the hair algae and blast aptasia with boiling water. I'm not going to do anything with this tank until I've gathered all the equipment i want, and finish the new stand. However, the two MaxiMinis continue to color up. The one that was originally all white, seen here:
Now looks like this:
The one that originally had some color and looked like this:
Now looks like this:
Not a problem. Are you sure you don't both hoods.....a stand.....a chiller.....and I'll even through in the original skimmer!
