My Reefbrite LED's - update... 1 unit failed

[Slick Fork]

Hi there,

This may be the first review for these suckers on a Canreef. I should start by saying thanks to the guys at Oceanic Corals, this was my first purchase from you guys and based on this experience it won't be the last, that spills over to to "Reef Wholesale" who shipped the lights to me directly, they arrived 4 days early!!! Really happy with the whole experience

Now, on to the lights:
My camera battery is still dead from the weekend and tomorrow is my wedding anniversary but I WILL get some pics up and posted by Friday but for now you'll have to be happy with my written first impressions. Besides, there's lots of pics of the lights out of the box already!

The fixtures I received were the 24" all white, and the 24" 50/50

So, first impressions are really good. The light strips are MUCH heavier then I thought they would be, build quality seems good they aren't some flimsy made in china contraption. The mounting brackets appear sturdy enough. No instructions were to be found with the lights but really, if you can't figure out how to hook these up you shouldn't be allowed to wander unsupervised.

The all white is quite yellow. The guys on reef central say 8500k but it looks yellower then that to me. The 50/50 seems to have a mix of a nice crisp white and a (maybe royal) blue. And WOW are they bright. I expected them to be bright but this surpasses my expectations. I had originally thought to get an all white and an all blue, but after reading some reviews on RC from a couple of people who got the all blues and really didn't like the "black light" effect I decided on the 50/50 instead. I think now, that I maybe should've gone with the all blue but time will tell I guess!

My plan for these lights is to incorporate them into a 4 bulb tek light. I am torn between trying to add them onto the sides and thus having 4 t5s and 2 led's or replacing 2 of the t5 bulbs with the LED's. Right now, replacing 2 of the T5s seems to be winning because A: it will look cleaner, B: my tank is only 12" front to back so there's not THAT much extra space to work with and C: I think I will have more then enough light with just two T5s supplementing the LED's.

I'll have to cut the reflector to get the strips in. If I massacre it correctly it will look like this:
-front-
T5- ATI AquaBlue
Reefbrite 50/50
Reefbrite All-white
T5-ATI Blue+
-Back-

I'll probably go through a half dozen or so T5 bulbs until i get the colour that I like!

[Chaloupa]

tagging along to see what you think..and to see pics....:biggrin:

[Slick Fork]

Ok

I'm bad for promising pic's and taking weeks to deliver but life has been just crazy for me lately.

Got the LED's into the T5 fixture last night and put it up over the tank. Here are some shots of the retro...

Before:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/Kayaking021.jpg

After
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/Kayaking023.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/Kayaking024.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/Kayaking025.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/Kayaking027.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/Kayaking028.jpg

My first impressions of the strips are very positive. The above shows them with an ATI pure Actinic and an ATI blue+ I think I will have to do some playing around with the t5's to get the colour I'm after... Shimmer is back :) , but not like MH shimmer. It's visibly different but I'm at a loss for words to describe how it's different.

The amount of light is tough to judge... The tank itself seems dimmer but stuff IN the tank seems brighter if that makes any sense? I have shadows again like I'm used to with MH's and everything looks crisp. The actinic Pop of the 50/50 is not quite as drastic as the all blues that I have seen but is still a noticeable effect.

I will try to get some pic's with them on the tank sometime soon

Cheers

[Milad]

how much were they?

[rstar]

Tagging along, would like to see some pictures of the light over the tank!

[Slick Fork]

how much were they?

The first one was an arm, second was a leg... :lol:

I picked them up from Oceanic, here's the link. Very satisfied with the customer service throughout the purchase process.

http://www.oceaniccorals.com/store/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=139

I will try to get some shots of them on the tank tomorrow night but no promises!

[lockrookie]

tagging for future retrofit.. i like it

[Slick Fork]

One thing the pic's don't show very well is how nicely these sit in the tek fixture. Looking at it from the side they are almost flush, sticking out less then a 1/4" from the bottom.

I will try and get some shots of the tank tonight

[Slick Fork]

So it's been a while but in my defense I was moving...

Anyways, here's the long overdue shots over the tank

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/2010004.jpg

This Next one is with all the lights on, Daylight and 50/50 LED Plus the T5's
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/4dec02.jpg

Next is T5's plus the 50/50. It's very blue, I am thinking about replacing the actinic bulb with a fiji purple. But we will see.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/4dec04.jpg

Finally, the 50/50 all by itself. I can't seem to get the white balance right on this one. It is purpley like that in real life but not quite THAT purple.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/4dec06.jpg

Overall I am very pleased with the lights so far. Keep in mind when looking at the shots that the LED's are a full foot shorter then the tank (6" on either side) so I think they do quite a good job of lighting everything up. The few Corals I do have under there seem to be faring quite well with the exception of the zoanthids and I have recently moved them as they may have been getting too much light.

[Slick Fork]

In case anyone wanted to see the "shimmer" that the LED's produced, this little video shows it better than the photo's

This was with the T5's and the 50/50 LED on.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/th_Dec2010003.jpg (http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e244/chrisandheather/misc%20stuff/?action=view&current=Dec2010003.mp4)

[Slick Fork]

So, after slightly over a year of running the all-white unit has crapped out. One bank of LED's only running at about half the brightness. Retailer tells me they can't/won't do anything for me since I'm out of the warranty period, even though it's only by a matter of weeks.

To say I'm disgusted is an understatement, I get that things fail, but to have something this expensive fail so soon after the warranty is up and then have them say "tough luck" stinks. For that reason alone I would NOT recommend these to anybody.

Now I am not sure what I'm going to do, I don't have the cash to replace it or the knowledge to try to fix it.

I need this like I need a hole in my head :frown:

[mike31154]

That's unfortunate, but seeing as they were costly it would likely be an idea to try & find out what the problem is. Each stick features two banks of 3 watt LEDs, correct? Are they dimmable. In all likelihood it's a driver/power supply problem. Could also be one LED gone open circuit & taking out the remainder, depending on how they're hooked up to the driver. I'm guessing each bank of six LEDs has one driver. Since it's out of warranty, no harm in opening these puppys up to have a look see. Could be relatively simple, even cheap fix. It would be a shame to let these things start gathering dust.

[Milad]

If you were near by I could troubleshoot and maybe fix it for you. Coming to van anytime soon?

[Slick Fork]

Mike: Yes, there are two banks of 6 LED's per side... Non-dimmable as far as I know. I tried swapping power supplies and the problem remained with the all-white so I know it's an internal problem.

Milad: I appreciate the offer, wish I was in Vancouver

[Myka]

Jeez, this sounds like Solaris all over again. I wonder if other people are having troubles with this particular brand/model. Sorry to hear about your experiences. :(

[mike31154]

Jeez, this sounds like Solaris all over again. I wonder if other people are having troubles with this particular brand/model. Sorry to hear about your experiences. :(

I'm not sure this issue is comparable to the Solaris fiasco. They appeared to have poorly designed power supplies for the size of the fixture and the patent lawsuit finished them off.

I was at bkelly's place yesterday and he has a Reefbright on his tank for supplemental lighting. It's a relatively simple fixture with no dimming or other fancy features, not even a built in timer. Kind of makes me wonder why the price is so high. Just two banks of LEDs run by a 24 VDC wall adapter. Must be good quality LEDs, so certainly worth trying to fix.

If the power supply is working, the next thing to look at would be the driver(s) inside the light stick itself and the individual LEDs. One bank of six is working at half brightness & the other not at all if I got the diagnostics right. Could be just a loose connection, or a single bad LED taking out one bank of six & affecting the power to the other. Someone with a multimeter and knowledge of how to use it might get it going again fairly quickly.

Pop it open and post a few pics, I'm curious to see what the guts look like, build/soldering quality, how the LEDs are mounted etc. I'm still fence sitting with LEDs as my primary lighting choice, waiting for further development & price drops.

[gobytron]

sorry to hear but seriously, thanks for sharing the experience.

[Hustler]

Tough call, Is this a common occurance?
I have a 4 bulb T5 4 foot fixture thats 6 months old and 1 fixture is dead... changed 3 bulbs and still nothing... bought at big als....dont have the reciept but it was a high end unit and costly and still isnt what i figured it would be.... I have shop lights 20 years old that have been hit with heavy objects that still work like the day they were made lol...

[Slick Fork]

I'm not sure this issue is comparable to the Solaris fiasco. They appeared to have poorly designed power supplies for the size of the fixture and the patent lawsuit finished them off.

I was at bkelly's place yesterday and he has a Reefbright on his tank for supplemental lighting. It's a relatively simple fixture with no dimming or other fancy features, not even a built in timer. Kind of makes me wonder why the price is so high. Just two banks of LEDs run by a 24 VDC wall adapter. Must be good quality LEDs, so certainly worth trying to fix.

If the power supply is working, the next thing to look at would be the driver(s) inside the light stick itself and the individual LEDs. One bank of six is working at half brightness & the other not at all if I got the diagnostics right. Could be just a loose connection, or a single bad LED taking out one bank of six & affecting the power to the other. Someone with a multimeter and knowledge of how to use it might get it going again fairly quickly.

Pop it open and post a few pics, I'm curious to see what the guts look like, build/soldering quality, how the LEDs are mounted etc. I'm still fence sitting with LEDs as my primary lighting choice, waiting for further development & price drops.

Hi Mike,

I will try to pop it open later this week, next few days are a little hectic.

Gobytron: No problem on the sharing... I should note though that the other is still going strong, I get that things fail but am really disappointed that the manufacturer would tell me to pound sand so close to the warranty being up.

Hopefully once I crack it open someone will be able to say "OH, there's your problem!"

[Slick Fork]

Thought I'd share an update and give credit where it's due.

After reading about my issue I got a PM from Pfoster at Reef Wholesale stating that he had never been approached by the retailer about this issue and offering to replace the defective unit. So, I sent him the broken one and got a brand new one in the mail.

Gotta say that I'm really impressed with the customer service from Reef Wholesale.

[reefgirl189]

Thought I'd share an update and give credit where it's due.

After reading about my issue I got a PM from Pfoster at Reef Wholesale stating that he had never been approached by the retailer about this issue and offering to replace the defective unit. So, I sent him the broken one and got a brand new one in the mail.

Gotta say that I'm really impressed with the customer service from Reef Wholesale.

That's very impressive. Not too often do you hear about good stories like this one.

[RuGlu6]

Thought I'd share an update and give credit where it's due.

After reading about my issue I got a PM from Pfoster at Reef Wholesale stating that he had never been approached by the retailer about this issue and offering to replace the defective unit. So, I sent him the broken one and got a brand new one in the mail.

Gotta say that I'm really impressed with the customer service from Reef Wholesale.

How is it going so far any up dates?
thx

[Slick Fork]

How is it going so far any up dates?
thx

I ended up taking it down, the T5/LED combo worked great for LPS and softies as well as SPS in the top 6" of the tank and added some really nice shimmer. My wife bought my an AI Sol setup as an early birthday present though so that's what I'm running now!