So this past November while I was in Toronto I had the fortune of meeting up with the fine gents at MadJelly Corals. We hung out and they showed me around town. Thanks to them I got to see A LOT of different reef setups from vendors and hobbyists. One thing that stuck out with me during the entire trip was how nice everyone's corals were. They had this amazing rave look to them. Quite simply, they
POPPED! Upon further discussions I was convinced that what I needed to add POP to my tank were LEDs. So I asked the guys what LEDs they recommended. Tony's mouth was full of ginger beef at that moment. He mumbled something and all I could make out were the words "bright" and "reef" as he continued to stuff his face.
Once I got home from my trip I proceeded with my research on these "Bright Reef LEDs". Let me tell you guys, they were not easy to track down! I did however mange to find a vendor after an extensive trek through the googles.
As you can see here they came in this cool tubular packaging. I don't think I've ever received anything this long before. Anyway, here's some product and promotional shots of the packaging.
I was kinda hoping they would mention something about coral POP.
The whole kit actually came in two packages. One very long tube for the lights themselves and another reqular package for the power supply.
Speaking of the power supply, here's what it looks like in case you were curious.
You can see here that they are fully certified with all the appropriate glyphs. Michael will be happy about that. As I continued to sift through the various bits and bobbles I came accross another nice surprise. The LED unit also came with a state-of-the-art bilt-in timer. SCORE!
After sorting out all the pieces, I finally cracked open the tubular box to check out these sweet LEDs. I have to admit, I was a bit startled when the LEDs virtually exploded out of the packaging. This thing was PACKED full of LEDs!
As I slowly pulled on the LEDs it became apparent to me that I was getting a **** load of LEDs here. And as it it turns out I ordered two of these so I'm actually getting twice the **** load of LEDs. More on that later..
Just to test them out I decide to hang just one set in my canopy. They were surprisingly easy to mount.
Please note that I've only got half the channels on here. That's why some of the LEDs are off. I didn't want to shock my corals.
So, my first impression of these lights as I fired them up was, WOW! These things look super cool! And by cool I mean 'neat-o', not cool as in 'blue'. You can clearly see here that I have the 6400K LED modules installed as they are quite yellow. The nice thing about this LED unit is that you can purchase an expansion pack of replacement LEDs to get a virtually infinite colour combination! I plan to hit up Canadian Tire this weekend in fact, to pick up some Red, Green and Blue LEDs to get the whole full-spectrum thing going. I'm not really a fan of the purple.
So after I hung up half the lights (from one package) I started to ponder what I would do with the rest of the lights. Did I mention that there were a **** load of them?? I wasn't sure if I wanted to add more heat to my tank by stringing up more LED lights inside my canopy, so I came up with the brilliant idea of stringing them outside of my canopy instead.
I know that traditionally LEDs run fairly cool but I didn't want to take any chances. I decided that running the LEDs outside of my canopy would be better for my tank in the long run.
So, have I mentioned yet that I've got a **** load of these LEDs?? I only had one out of two packages of LEDs open and the tank already looked great! I thought that maybe I would just return the other package. As I contemplated this for a bit my 4 year old suggested that I should just throw caution to the wind and hang up
all the lights. So that's what I did.
I have to admit, I do like that it adds a bit of needed flare and
POP to the whole tank and not just the corals.
Final Thoughts:
WOW! What an amazing set of lights. I would highly recommend these lights to anyone who is looking to add a bit of POP to their tank. These lights are so versatile and affordable. They are so easy to install with their flexible wire frame design. They are expandable with a dizzying array of colour temperature options.
And of course, thanks again Tony and Long for suggesting these lights. They're a keeper!
Thanks for looking.