New Chinese LED fixture

[StirCrazy]

The PAR output seams to be about 1/2 of a good 3 watt system, but havign said that if your not keeping SPS and you have a tank under 16" deep it should be good.

Steve

[mseepman]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

The PAR output seams to be about 1/2 of a good 3 watt system, but havign said that if your not keeping SPS and you have a tank under 16" deep it should be good.

Steve

Steve, do you have one as well? Is it just the generic one shown in this thread?

[Ron99]

Wish you had asked about these before buying one. They are not well built. The heatsinks are very thin and barely adequate for the job, hence running three fans for such a small unit. These units run on the ragged edge of thermal reliability and if your ambient temperature gets to high or a fan goes out or they start to plug up from dust you can easily overheat the LEDs reducing their output and shortening their useful life.

Also, the driver circuitry is not very good AFIK. I believe these are voltage driven rather then current driven which is a less reliable (but probably cheaper) method of doing the job but can also make these prone to early failure.

But I guess they are inexpensive I wouldn't compare these to Maxspect. The Maxspect are much much much better then these.

[ReefOcean]

Originally Posted by Ron99

Wish you had asked about these before buying one. They are not well built. The heatsinks are very thin and barely adequate for the job, hence running three fans for such a small unit. These units run on the ragged edge of thermal reliability and if your ambient temperature gets to high or a fan goes out or they start to plug up from dust you can easily overheat the LEDs reducing their output and shortening their useful life.

Also, the driver circuitry is not very good AFIK. I believe these are voltage driven rather then current driven which is a less reliable (but probably cheaper) method of doing the job but can also make these prone to early failure.

But I guess they are inexpensive I wouldn't compare these to Maxspect. The Maxspect are much much much better then these.

I assume you owned one?

Yes, heat sinks are thin, the fans could get jammed with dust but so could any fan. As far as current/voltage goes that is over my head but wjhen i was researching a dIY LED fixture I was under the impression that all LEDS ran on current.

Seeing how i have never held a maxpect i cannot comment. i was just linking the country of origin of the 2 fixtures.

But yes, it is a cheap unit. This is why i bought it. I have heard good things about the company and their product. So far i cannot complain. I don't have the cash to blow on a Vertex or an aqua Illuminations. Frankly, I can't see myself ever spending 1500 plus on a lighting system when there are cheaper alternatives to try.

...I have a feeling this fixture will be Odyssea MH fixture of the 2010's LOL. I am waiting for the fire.

[mseepman]

haha....well only time will tell. I hope that you've found a diamond in the rough for yourself.

I'm looking into doing LED on my new build but can't come to grips with the ugly pricing. The Maxspect looks decent but I haven't heard back from Eric on what he thinks I need in terms of units for the size of my future tank. I would also be interested in what the Cree version of the Maxspect costs.

The Key LED's don't look as polished as the Maxspect but at half the price and with CREE XP-E LED's...they don't sound terrible either. The Pacific Sun units look awesome but their pricing (even with the sale that is on right now) is still way out to lunch. I think everyone agrees that the AI units are also amazing but I'm not planning a second mortgage just to get lighting for my tank.

[ReefOcean]

Originally Posted by mseepman

haha....well only time will tell. I hope that you've found a diamond in the rough for yourself.

I'm looking into doing LED on my new build but can't come to grips with the ugly pricing. The Maxspect looks decent but I haven't heard back from Eric on what he thinks I need in terms of units for the size of my future tank. I would also be interested in what the Cree version of the Maxspect costs.

The Key LED's don't look as polished as the Maxspect but at half the price and with CREE XP-E LED's...they don't sound terrible either. The Pacific Sun units look awesome but their pricing (even with the sale that is on right now) is still way out to lunch. I think everyone agrees that the AI units are also amazing but I'm not planning a second mortgage just to get lighting for my tank.

I heard good things about the aqua illuminations. I havent looked at them for a while but last time they were sitting at 650 a fixture. you get free firmware updates for the timers when the do upgrades. I have a box of LED supplies in my closet. I was planning on a led build but got lazy. but yeah, the XREs and xpgs are definately the best....but Im rambling.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by ReefOcean

...I have a feeling this fixture will be Odyssea MH fixture of the 2010's LOL. I am waiting for the fire.

bah, I don't see a fire in the future, but hey. while it may be a lower output unit, you can still use it. just keep an eye on things and be honest with yourself when making the desisions.

now don't be so honest like I was that you end up spending over 10K on lighting in 3 years

Steve

[ReefOcean]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

bah, I don't see a fire in the future, but hey. while it may be a lower output unit, you can still use it. just keep an eye on things and be honest with yourself when making the desisions.

now don't be so honest like I was that you end up spending over 10K on lighting in 3 years

Steve

I think I was being pretty honest with myself. I have never heard of a par rating of 400 at the depth you mentioned. Maybe I was looking at odyssea data when I was making my pre purchase comparrisons... maybe I am retarded..who knows. all I know is that the par seemed pretty good when remembering the other data I have seen over the years.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by ReefOcean

I assume you owned one?

Yes, heat sinks are thin, the fans could get jammed with dust but so could any fan. As far as current/voltage goes that is over my head but wjhen i was researching a dIY LED fixture I was under the impression that all LEDS ran on current.

Seeing how i have never held a maxpect i cannot comment. i was just linking the country of origin of the 2 fixtures.

But yes, it is a cheap unit. This is why i bought it. I have heard good things about the company and their product. So far i cannot complain. I don't have the cash to blow on a Vertex or an aqua Illuminations. Frankly, I can't see myself ever spending 1500 plus on a lighting system when there are cheaper alternatives to try.

...I have a feeling this fixture will be Odyssea MH fixture of the 2010's LOL. I am waiting for the fire.

I don't have one but did have a look at them when i first got interested in LEDs. EvilC66 over on nano-reef (a major LED guru) has had a look at them and their build and commented about the poor thermal management and the driver circuitry. Can't remember exactly when he posted, maybe 5 or 6 months ago.

There may be nothing wrong with this fixture for a fish only tank or one with low light softies and LPS but I suspect SPS will need to be very near the top of the tank leaving little room for a nice looking colony to grow out. They will likely grow fairly slowly and the colours may lean towards the browner end. Generic Chinese 1 Watt LEDs without optics simply cannot throw out the PAR that a good 3W SemiLed, Edison Opto, Cree or LuxeonRrebel can. My own experiments comparing generic emitters to Cree XR-Es using the exact same driver etc. show the Cree has something like 3x greater PAR output. Once you throw optics into the mix it makes even more of a difference. Without optics you will have a very rapid drop off in PAR at depth. May not be an issue in a very shallow tank but once you get past 12 inches or so in depth it can become important.

I wouldn't spend the money on a Vertex or many other commercial fixtures right now. They are generally overpriced for what you get. You can DIY a fixture as good or better for half the cost. The AI is about the only one I think is not grossly overpriced for what it is. The Maxspect looks to be decent for it's price range too and they have made many improvements to their lights recently (individually replaceable LEDs, optics options).

Also, I wouldn't worry about fires but mainly about relatively low output from the 1W LEDs and rapid degradation in output due to overheating of the emitters. You may find your PAR has decreased significantly in just a year or two with these.

[ReefOcean]

Originally Posted by Ron99

I don't have one but did have a look at them when i first got interested in LEDs. EvilC66 over on nano-reef (a major LED guru) has had a look at them and their build and commented about the poor thermal management and the driver circuitry. Can't remember exactly when he posted, maybe 5 or 6 months ago.

There may be nothing wrong with this fixture for a fish only tank or one with low light softies and LPS but I suspect SPS will need to be very near the top of the tank leaving little room for a nice looking colony to grow out. They will likely grow fairly slowly and the colours may lean towards the browner end. Generic Chinese 1 Watt LEDs without optics simply cannot throw out the PAR that a good 3W SemiLed, Edison Opto, Cree or LuxeonRrebel can. My own experiments comparing generic emitters to Cree XR-Es using the exact same driver etc. show the Cree has something like 3x greater PAR output. Once you throw optics into the mix it makes even more of a difference. Without optics you will have a very rapid drop off in PAR at depth. May not be an issue in a very shallow tank but once you get past 12 inches or so in depth it can become important.

I wouldn't spend the money on a Vertex or many other commercial fixtures right now. They are generally overpriced for what you get. You can DIY a fixture as good or better for half the cost. The AI is about the only one I think is not grossly overpriced for what it is. The Maxspect looks to be decent for it's price range too and they have made many improvements to their lights recently (individually replaceable LEDs, optics options).

Also, I wouldn't worry about fires but mainly about relatively low output from the 1W LEDs and rapid degradation in output due to overheating of the emitters. You may find your PAR has decreased significantly in just a year or two with these.

Fair enough. I am going to take your guys advice and move the coral higher in the tank. As it stands, it is about 9 inches from the light. I will try to get it within 6.

I would LOVE a Cree based light but as it stands it isn't in the cards. About 4 months ago I bought so initial supplies from LEDsupply (10 royal blue XREs and 10 cool white XPGS, a few dimmable buck pucks (350ma but i probably shouldhave got 750ma) , 2 power supplies, some optics in varying degrees, wiring, etc)..about 350 dollars worth but after considing the light I would truely want to make, it would cost me about 600 just for the LEDS. Not to mention, it would be uber ghetto, with wires hanging all over the place etc. I still needed a canopy, an extruded heatsink, more buckpucks, a soldering gun, solder, more lenses, the list goes on. I since abandoned the project but am holding onto my supplies. Perhaps, when my light fails I can use the housing as a canopy for a DIY. The height of it would be perfect for the standard height heatsink found at heatsinkusa

But thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate them.