super cheap LED

[jordan2496]

stumbled upon this LED for $60....any thoughts? I know it's ridiculously cheap...not really looking into buying it just wondering if anyone has tried it

 

[pegasus]

Never tried it... never will. If you want something to illuminate your tank, this light will probably do it. If you want something that'll grow coralline algae on your rocks and possibly some soft corals... this probably isn't it. If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably too true to be good. Good LED lighting doesn't come cheap...

 

[jordan2496]

Never tried it... never will. If you want something to illuminate your tank, this light will probably do it. If you want something that'll grow coralline algae on your rocks and possibly some soft corals... this probably isn't it. If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably too true to be good. Good LED lighting doesn't come cheap...

I have a significantly lower wattage light on my current tank, all my rocks are covered in coraline, all of my corals have grown significantly over the last 4 months....so what exactly makes this light crap?

 

[pegasus]

I don't have the time or desire to get into all the technical stuff, so I'll keep it brief. First of all, if there isn't a description of which emitters are used, then they're probably off-the-shelf, older generation crap. They certainly aren't Cree XT-E, XP-E, or Osram Olson's... that's for sure. $60 won't even buy these emitters. Then there's the issue of "Superior High Lumen Output- Much Brighter than others 3W LED lights". Either they narrowed the beams with small angle reflectors, or they're overdriving the white LED's. I'll give them the benefit of doubt and say all of the emitters are driven at 3W, and 48 LED's @ 3W = 144W. Won't be good color blending with those "spotlights". There is no mention of driver(s), which means it's probably cheap also. It's certainly not driven by Meanwell, so hitting the proper spectrum for each LED is luck of the draw. Cheap LED's and cheap drivers would also account for the "can be used at least 10000 hours" instead of 50,000 hours like the better fixtures. No specified warranty. No replacement parts. Judging by the broken Chinese-to-English description, I'm fairly certain there isn't any support available. Just little things like that make me dislike those lamps...

I'm glad you're getting good coralline and coral growth over the last 4 months. Sometimes people get lucky and get one that works. Just out of curiosity... what kind of corals do you have?

 

[jordan2496]

I don't have the time or desire to get into all the technical stuff, so I'll keep it brief. First of all, if there isn't a description of which emitters are used, then they're probably off-the-shelf, older generation crap. They certainly aren't Cree XT-E, XP-E, or Osram Olson's... that's for sure. $60 won't even buy these emitters. Then there's the issue of "Superior High Lumen Output- Much Brighter than others 3W LED lights". Either they narrowed the beams with small angle reflectors, or they're overdriving the white LED's. I'll give them the benefit of doubt and say all of the emitters are driven at 3W, and 48 LED's @ 3W = 144W. Won't be good color blending with those "spotlights". There is no mention of driver(s), which means it's probably cheap also. It's certainly not driven by Meanwell, so hitting the proper spectrum for each LED is luck of the draw. Cheap LED's and cheap drivers would also account for the "can be used at least 10000 hours" instead of 50,000 hours like the better fixtures. No specified warranty. No replacement parts. Judging by the broken Chinese-to-English description, I'm fairly certain there isn't any support available. Just little things like that make me dislike those lamps...

I'm glad you're getting good coralline and coral growth over the last 4 months. Sometimes people get lucky and get one that works. Just out of curiosity... what kind of corals do you have?

Thanks for all of the information I really appreciate it. Currently I have zooanthids, green star polyps, pulsing Xenia, toadstool leather, button polyps and what I believe to be a brain(?) coral...I am currently running the marineland "reef" LED, which was given to me along with my 55 gallon tank. it seems to be doing the trick for now, all of my corals have shown significant growth, I just wanted to get a better light in the near future to allow a wider variety of corals. Again, thank you for all of the information you provided!

 

[pegasus]

Again, I'm glad you're having luck with your LED lamp, especially with a Marineland "reef capable" lamp. I have the 24-36" one sitting on a shelf in my closet if you'd like another one. It has the timer and everything... except the proper light spectrum. Bright light? Definitely. Cool moonlights, too. The downside was I watched my live rocks stripped of coralline, and nothing thrived except for nuisance algae. Like you, I was able to keep a few "softies", but that was pretty much it. I didn't even wait until I began to become interested in other types of corals before retiring the Marineland. I couldn't afford the "good stuff" at the time, so I settled for tried-and-true T5 HO. Suddenly, everything (including glass) was covering with coralline algae, and my corals took off. I now have softies, LPS, and SPS... which never would have survived with the previous lighting. I certainly wouldn't have been able to keep Acros like I have now... lol! No, not all LED's are created equally, and if you want the good stuff, you'll have to dig deep. LED's are gradually becoming more affordable, but the lights that I would trust for my tank are still at the upper end of my budget... lol!!!