Another LED thread

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ThatNewFishGuy

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May 4, 2010
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Seeing as I just can't afford to make another mistake with lighting, I have to bother you guys with yet another LED topic.

So my tank is a 92 gallon corner, mixed reef(will be someday, no sps as of yet). I have really narrowed it down to 2 affordable fixtures.

The first one is an made by evergrow

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Evergrow-Di...092?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d0b33cd6c

And then this one is I guess a taotronics brand of some sort, which SubRosa has bought and approved of :thumbsup:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160930000778?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

They both are dimmable, 55x3 watt Bridgelux LEDS.

The main difference looks like the Evergrow fixture varies the color spectrum a little bit with the greens and reds, which I've heard is beneficial to the corals (honestly, I havn't researched into why yet). The evergrow fixture is about 30 bucks more expensive which I dont mind if the varied spectrum is actually worth it.

Also, my tank is 24 inches deep. I'm not sure what kind of lens angles I should be looking for.

On a miscellaneous note, it looks like there is an extra year of warranty on the taotronics unit which is always nice.

Help a fellow reefer out guys ;)
 

TL1000RSquid

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I've been running the Evergrow(well the one distributed by ReefBreeders) for a week now, so far I'm pretty pleased with it, everything looks good under it corals seem happy, I don't even have it dialed up all the way. My BTA moved lower down in the tank. Reefbreeders includes a 2 year warranty as well and they're $179 shipped, maybe cheaper if you get in on a group buy the only downside to my order from them was it took like a month to get but I ordered during the chinese new year and and apparently in the middle of a big group buy that was going down.

When its time for new bulbs over my other tank I will probably pick up one of the photon series from them.

http://reefbreeders.com/bridgelux_value.html
 

ThatNewFishGuy

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Wow thats awesome. I like the 2 years of warranty but i sure hope it doesn't take a month for to ship if I do go with them!
 

greech

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No direct experience with either. I would strongly suggest that you buy one with a US warranty so it will be serviced here. My LFS bought some type of Chinese fixtures (look similar to these). Drivers went out almost immediately on all of them and their only recourse was to literally ship them to China at a costs of almost equal to the fixtures themselves. They ended up fitting Meanwell drivers to the tops of the units so they work fine now but still not something you want to deal with.

If you are going with one unit you will likely want 120 degree optics to better the chances of getting the light spread you want. The tighter the optic the higher you may need to hang the fixture. Even if you buy 2, I would probably still go with 120 optics unless you plan on a lot of clams and SPS near the bottom. I know the taotronics lights are fairly popular so you may google some forums to see what optics are being used (successfully) for various depths and coral types.
 

TL1000RSquid

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Reefbreeders warranty is handled in here in the U.S. in Ct I believe, multiple threads about them over on Reef Central, haven't heard of anyone having any driver problems with them. I think the wait time is a week or two they're starting to get caught up.
 

ThatNewFishGuy

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:eek:
Thanks for pointing that out greech. I hadnt really thought about that. Thats pretty fortunate that they were able to repair themselves though. I have the technical expertise of a 9 year old girl so id be S.O.L in that situation.

Thankfully, it looks like both fixtures are handled in the US.

Anyhow, it seems like atm we got SubRosa backing the taotronics and Squid backing the reefbrite fixture.

Greech I kno u dont have personal exp with either but u should break the tie :) on paper which one would u lean towards?
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SubRosa

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I don't see much of a difference between the two fixtures, other than the actual LED emitters. Same number of emitters running the same wattage. The one thing I would look into would be the potential for banding with the Evergrow. Banding is where you can actually see individual beams of light from each emitter. A narrower beam angle would make it more noticeable, as can height of the fixture. A friend is running 3 AI Sols on his 180, and when he first got them he hung them in a hurry, and you could see all kinds of red and green banding. Raising the fixtures eliminated it. With what angle optics and how high are you running yours Squid?
 

TL1000RSquid

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I'm running the default 120 degree optics at about 10" above the water. Haven't seen any banding with my setup.
 

ThatNewFishGuy

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^Wow so it seems really really even still. Squid, does the reefbrite fixture look really different color wise than a standard tank lit by blue and white?

Also how deep is the tank that you have the reefbrite with 120 optics, 10 in above the water on?
 

TL1000RSquid

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Since the channels are adjustable you can tune it to be more white or more blue if you have both dials in the same setting I'd say its slightly bluer then t5 fixture with 2 actnics and 2 10k bulbs. You also get some shimmer like you would with halides.

Its a 29g so 18" or 19" tall.
 
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