novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Well, I done it. As a few of you know, I decided to risk a test and see how those "aftermarket" chinese LEDs look. I got my first one in a couple days ago, so I snapped some pics and thought it would be worth posting.
First of all, it's worth noting that yes...this sucker is BRIGHT. "120" watts of LED is a good sight brighter than the 130w pc, even punching down to a 29 inch deep tank.
Here's the unit unpacked:
The exterior seems sturdy enough. The hanging brackets are secure, the rheostats are in good shape, and nothing feels loose or flimsy. Of course, the shiney black case can hide a lot of crap. So......
....let's see what's inside.
Overall, fairly clean and well laid out. Most of the connections are secure, and there doesn't look to be many areas that might cause problems. Not too sure about this, though:
Couple of the hots are wrapped in electrical tape instead of heat shrink, and even those that are seem to end a little short. Not too sure I feel comfortable with that amount of exposed metal with 120 volts running through it. This is coming from the 120v input, with leads running out to the LED transformers and the 12v transformer that runs the fans.
The LEDs are mounted directly to this plate. It's fairly thin aluminum, about 1/4 inch. Not much of a true heat sink in my opinion. If those fans go, the lights themselves won't be too far behind. Good thing that muffin fans like these pretty much last forever anymore.
And here it sits in the stand.
Now, the original plan was going to involve testing this out over the seahorse tank, since the horse tank has a similar depth and is well-loaded with coral. Unfortunately I couldn't do that without some major modification to the canopy, so I went ahead and placed it in the main tank instead. I expect I'll have a bit of work to do in order to hang it properly, and I'll just have to see how that green rose coral does. I wish I knew someone with a PAR meter; it would go a long way to helping ease my worries about this being enough useable light for the coral.
Last look.....just blue:
First of all, it's worth noting that yes...this sucker is BRIGHT. "120" watts of LED is a good sight brighter than the 130w pc, even punching down to a 29 inch deep tank.
Here's the unit unpacked:
The exterior seems sturdy enough. The hanging brackets are secure, the rheostats are in good shape, and nothing feels loose or flimsy. Of course, the shiney black case can hide a lot of crap. So......
....let's see what's inside.
Overall, fairly clean and well laid out. Most of the connections are secure, and there doesn't look to be many areas that might cause problems. Not too sure about this, though:
Couple of the hots are wrapped in electrical tape instead of heat shrink, and even those that are seem to end a little short. Not too sure I feel comfortable with that amount of exposed metal with 120 volts running through it. This is coming from the 120v input, with leads running out to the LED transformers and the 12v transformer that runs the fans.
The LEDs are mounted directly to this plate. It's fairly thin aluminum, about 1/4 inch. Not much of a true heat sink in my opinion. If those fans go, the lights themselves won't be too far behind. Good thing that muffin fans like these pretty much last forever anymore.
And here it sits in the stand.
Now, the original plan was going to involve testing this out over the seahorse tank, since the horse tank has a similar depth and is well-loaded with coral. Unfortunately I couldn't do that without some major modification to the canopy, so I went ahead and placed it in the main tank instead. I expect I'll have a bit of work to do in order to hang it properly, and I'll just have to see how that green rose coral does. I wish I knew someone with a PAR meter; it would go a long way to helping ease my worries about this being enough useable light for the coral.
Last look.....just blue:
