Quote:
Originally Posted by kien
Cost of entry is definitely high, but there are good LED units that are quite reasonably priced. For example, you can get an AI Sol unit for roughly $400. In my mind that's pretty reasonable. Of course you can easily go up in cost from there to the Mitras at $1200 (retail) per unit. Not everyone needs a $1200 Mitras though. There are plenty of people (as we've seen in this thread) doing quite well with their $400 AI Sols :-)
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Keep in mind you'll need 2 sols for 1 Mitra so really comparing $800 to $1200 which isn't as big of a gap. Then when you compare features like built in controller, full spectrum and so on you may conclude the Mitra is also pretty reasonable
There are lower cost units that get the job done but ultimately you're getting what you paid for. Like the D120s, I had to open the fixture up to change the power cord orientation. Doing so I discovered it's basically just a thin aluminium plate with LEDs directly mounted to that, wired to two basic power supplies with a dimmer and three noisy cheap fans. Pretty obvious why they are so cheap but they do work and whatever I put under them seems to do really well but it's a shallow tank so the output is really low, not sure I'd trust the cooling capabilities at full power.