New LED fixture 3w. Green Element EVO Reef LED Light Fixture

[chris88]

I was really excited to order them but I was turned off by the lack of knowledge aqua traders and the eBay sellers had about the product. No one could tell me anything about them. Nothing about the heat sink or LEDs or lens. I know the price is great but I didn't really want to gamble.

[arash53]

Yeah ,So disappointing!

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by chris88

I was really excited to order them but I was turned off by the lack of knowledge aqua traders and the eBay sellers had about the product. No one could tell me anything about them. Nothing about the heat sink or LEDs or lens. I know the price is great but I didn't really want to gamble.

Originally Posted by arash53

Yeah ,So disappointing!

Yep, same here, i am so hesitant and more so now when this guy had been Not properly serviced even though their own web site states that non working on arrival items will be replaced.
When i called them (a month or so ago) i talked to Asian woman and unfortunately she was no help at all.

At any rate there is yet another new LED fixture there "quad" which is a double from previous one.
These new LED fixtures are keep coming ...and price is good ....hmmm

[mikeclarke]

Do you think that the Quad is the best value for an LED light? Will it keep corals happy?

[mike31154]

To chime in on some of the earlier questions... While I don't have a controller either, since switching to my DIY LED fixture I'm inclined to consider something other than a timer or manual dimmer to control the lights. One of the great advantages of LEDs is the flexibility in power & colour choices. A controller allows for automatic blending of the various colours for the look that you personally like provided you also consider your coral's requirements. With many of the cheaper fixtures, you are stuck with the colour options built into the light with no way of fine tuning that other than replacing LEDs or supplementing with other lights.

In addition to timing options & water parameter monitoring, most controllers out there these days also offer analog and/or digital dimming signals to fine tune LED lighting. This is the feature that allows automatic, gradual dimming & options like cloudy days, moon phase tracking, lightning etc. While I could care less about the lightning feature, the ability to automatically tune my LEDs in almost infinite steps throughout the daily photo period is a good reason to consider either getting a controller or building one.

With respect to Cree LEDs vs the competition, it's generally accepted that currently the Cree emitters provide more lumens per watt. This means they are more efficient & theoretically you could get away with fewer Crees for a build than the less efficient LEDs. Hard to say form one build to the next whether it's more cost effective to go Cree over another brand, that's something pretty much each individual has to do the math on. My DIY LED fixture is made up of multi-chip 10 watt generic LEDs from Asia. Although it's been up & running for almost a month, there are a few more tweaks & modifications I need to do, automatic control being one.

I have no experience with these EVO fixtures. The price is certainly attractive, but it appears the after sales support is not the greatest & based on the lack of information coming from the suppliers, I'd hesitate to spend the $$s on one.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by mikeclarke

Do you think that the Quad is the best value for an LED light? Will it keep corals happy?

No i don't think Quad is the best because there are a lot of people running their LED at less the 50% intensity (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=85801)
So based just on that even IF i would concider Evo LED from Aquatraders i would buy two instead of one quad. At least this will give you some flexibility. Unless of course there are separate cords or switches to get half of the fixture illuminated. It says "2 external high power transformers", so may be there are two cords. In that case $239 for Quad is better then 2 48" fixturesx159.90=319.80

One this is clear that LED's get cheaper by the month, who knows what price will be next year, maybe AI sols will sell for $300 instead of $900 who knows?

Originally Posted by mike31154

To chime in on some of the earlier questions... While I don't have a controller either, since switching to my DIY LED fixture I'm inclined to consider something other than a timer or manual dimmer to control the lights. One of the great advantages of LEDs is the flexibility in power & colour choices. A controller allows for automatic blending of the various colours for the look that you personally like provided you also consider your coral's requirements. With many of the cheaper fixtures, you are stuck with the colour options built into the light with no way of fine tuning that other than replacing LEDs or supplementing with other lights.

In addition to timing options & water parameter monitoring, most controllers out there these days also offer analog and/or digital dimming signals to fine tune LED lighting. This is the feature that allows automatic, gradual dimming & options like cloudy days, moon phase tracking, lightning etc. While I could care less about the lightning feature, the ability to automatically tune my LEDs in almost infinite steps throughout the daily photo period is a good reason to consider either getting a controller or building one.

With respect to Cree LEDs vs the competition, it's generally accepted that currently the Cree emitters provide more lumens per watt. This means they are more efficient & theoretically you could get away with fewer Crees for a build than the less efficient LEDs. Hard to say form one build to the next whether it's more cost effective to go Cree over another brand, that's something pretty much each individual has to do the math on. My DIY LED fixture is made up of multi-chip 10 watt generic LEDs from Asia. Although it's been up & running for almost a month, there are a few more tweaks & modifications I need to do, automatic control being one.

I have no experience with these EVO fixtures. The price is certainly attractive, but it appears the after sales support is not the greatest & based on the lack of information coming from the suppliers, I'd hesitate to spend the $$s on one.

Thank you for sharing your experience.
Can you describe your tank please WxLxD, what corals do you keep and how long and under how many LED at 10W per LED since you are not using Crees, your LED's can be close to EVO product although there is no way of knowing obviously.
Regarding more lumens per watt seems like non issue right now as many pple do Not run LED at 100% (link above) anyway.
That is why Aquatraders fixtures are so attractive, i can get two fixtures for less then $300 (my tank is 36" so its $149.90 each) and if (that is the big IF) they have half decent LED's corals should be OK. Personally i don't care about fancy $900 controllers. I am ok with $8 timer.
They say that individual lenses are replaceable (good) but they don't say anything about lens angle and led itself other then it white and blue, and customer service sucks. (not so good).

[arash53]

The other thing I didn't like about my Reefbright LED was the lens angel, my fixture was covering just about its size maybe couple inch more. also the colour temperature was too yellowish so it cant be uses without actinic T5.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

Thank you for sharing your experience.
Can you describe your tank please WxLxD, what corals do you keep and how long and under how many LED at 10W per LED since you are not using Crees, your LED's can be close to EVO product although there is no way of knowing obviously.

My tank is a 77 gallon Hagen, 4' long, 16" sides & 24" deep. I have a DIY LED build thread going that provides plenty of details regarding the components I'm using.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...t=82206&page=2

To summarize for those not wishing to slog thru the whole thread, the fixture consists of 27 LEDs, all 10 watters. They are arranged on three aluminum rails with approx 5 inch spacing between each 10 watt array.
-Two outer rails each have five 10000K White & four 452-455NM Royal Blue,
-Center rail has five 460-470NM Blue & four 6000-7000K White

So potentially I have 270 watts of LED power over my tank. I've been running the fixture for a month now at 8 inches above the water surface & haven't even come close to running it at full power. Cost for components to this point is just under $600 & I'm reasonably confident the fixture will blow either of the EVOs out of the water. By comparison the 32 LED EVO will give you around 100 watts & the quad 200 watts at full power. How that translates into lumens per watt is anyone's guess, but I'm quite pleased with my DIY effort. For coral I have mostly softies but also a hammer & several sps, but not sps heavy. Everything's doing very well following the transition from my 2x250 watt MH, T5HO combo.

[tang daddy]

I have read through your post, have you checked out the maxspect lighting? Those led fixtures aren't bad, another one is the E shine if youre trying to keep costs down.... Ideally 2 ai sol blues with a controller would be great for your tank but I am buyest because I own 2. I am wondering if you mount it high enough and cut your center brace if you could get away with 1 AI and no controller. That would keep costs down and you could run the fixture at full 100%, just a thought!

[RuGlu6]

Mixed reviews are coming in on these evo lights.
48" quad
http://www.aquatraders.com/EVO-Quad-...ht-p/56237.htm

Fantastic Fixture! May 3, 2012
Reviewer: Ryan from Westminster, CO United States
If you are looking for an inexpensive, amazing LED light fixture for your reef, this is it! I own both the normal version of this fixture and this quad version, and the quad really gives great light to my entire tank (72 bowfront.) Great color, awesome shimmer and the unit is well constructed and looks nice.

Bottom line, tons of light, full tank width coverage and very inexpensive. Buy it!
.
72" inch on 125 Gal FOWLR
http://www.aquatraders.com/EVO-72-LE...ht-p/56236.htm
.
Plenty of Good and Some Bad April 20, 2012
Reviewer: Ryan from Westminster, CO United States
I just replaced my 6 x 65watt CF fixture, with this on my 125 gallon FOWLR. First off, I love the color and the shimmer effect is amazing! It gives a very natural look to my once, super bright tank. The fixture as a whole, seems to be well made and feels like decent quality materials.

On the negative side, this fixture does not even come close to covering the full width of a mere 18" tank, so you have to choose which half of your tank you want dark, unless you buy 2 of these fixtures. I also question the 3w claim, as there are not nearly as bright as I would expect for being that high power of an LED. I also think this fixture could use some diffusion, as the transition from white light to actinic is very noticeable, with the end actinics looking like a blue spotlights.

Overall, you can't beat the price, but if you want equal lighting coverage to other lighting solutions, you will need 2. I also question whether these would provide enough light for a reef.