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Cheap Chinese reef lights (1 Viewer)

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mikster

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I was on the bus tour and met a BoD (don't remember the name) that said he uses cheap Chinese lights to grow his coral. Could that person or someone on here give me a link to order some please? Thanks
 

steveb

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I use the mars aqua. I think @Cody uses the viparspectra.

I will say at the moment I am not happy with the 300w mars aqua units. On 3 different units now 1/2 the blue channel has gone out now.
 

Cody

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You have a Link to the good ones off eBay?
The brand changes with each batch or modification that's made. The secret is to look at actual watt consumption. They all advertise 165w, but they typically actually push about 90-110 watts. You're looking for the ones that are 120 actual watts. On ebay, you can scroll down and get the details to the specs. That's where it will say actual wattage consumption.
 
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mikster

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It looks like these lights do not have mounts? They are hanging kits only?
 
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mikster

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The brand changes with each batch or modification that's made. The secret is to look at actual watt consumption. They all advertise 165w, but they typically actually push about 90-110 watts. You're looking for the ones that are 120 actual watts. On ebay, you can scroll down and get the details to the specs. That's where it will say actual wattage consumption.

For the viparspectra brand, they are all 105 watts consumption. I don't see any hitting 120. For the Mars I see 120. I like the viparspectra remote though. Do they not have ones with 120w?
 

Cody

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For the viparspectra brand, they are all 105 watts consumption. I don't see any hitting 120. For the Mars I see 120. I like the viparspectra remote though. Do they not have ones with 120w?
I'm not sure. I personally don't see the point of the remote. Once your lights are dialed in, you're rarely, if ever, going to adjust them.
 
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So this whole conversation got me to thinking about the actual power consumption of these lights versus company defined power consumption. So I sacrificed an old monitor cable and used a Calibrated multimeter to measure the amperage of both the blue and white channels of both lights as well as the voltage of the exact outlet used.

The outlet measured an average of 123.9 volts and using the formula Watts=Amps X Voltage got the numbers below.
Light 1
Blue - .49A = 60.711 Watts
White - .49A = 60.711 Watts
Combined = 121.422 Watts
Light 2
Blue - .49A = 60.711 Watts
White - .48A = 59.472 Watts
Combined = 120.183 Watts

Now I know that there are other components running in the light assembly such as fans but the bulk of the consumption is the LEDs. 1B47FB54-F2CA-4854-BFB3-083EAEC75F73.jpeg
 

Tangs

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I got a set of led's from Allibaba around 5 years ago. They seem to be working fine buttt they got wet some how and only the white work now. I am only into basic corals so they still do the trick. I use an old blue t5 set if I want to show off the tank to somebody.
 
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