evergrow led fixture 165w or 120w

So I am going to get a pair of these for my mixed reef 75 gallon tank which is 48". It seems like the are both dimmable and around the same price on ebay.. does anyone know if one unit is better than the other?

Manual dimmable, every time u need to dim u have to go over to your tank & dim it.

Careful with cheap led fixtures if you have coral


Chris

I already own a ReefBreeders LED unit which do come from china like the rest of them. they just have a usa warehouse they sell out of or something. anyways don't listen to the people that try and scare you off the cheaper ones. I have an sps tank going strong for over a year on Chinese LED's and love it way more then the 6 bulb t5 I had over the same sps tank for the 2 years prior. however there are steps up and down In the Chinese LED world. I own the 32 inch programmable unit with makes life so sweet because its all programmable. then non programmable would be the next step down which is in the class your looking. I actually just order one of the exact units your looking at on ebay in the 120w version for $84 to go over the frag rack in the sump. Something to watch out for that I noticed about the 165w is that the optics are some weird hybrid checker pattern style between the 90 and 120 degree optics. I don't know anything about a hybrid optic so I stayed away. I think those optics are for pot growers... I mean plant growers. lol. I personally like the 120 or the 90 degree optics that come on the 120w version. but the tell you the truth I think that both units are the same. a lot of Chinese LED's on ebay list the watts because the think that each LED is being driven to the full potential of the LED when in real life they build them to run a 3w LED at only 2w's. That's how a 55 LED system is said to run in the 165w or so but if you put that same light on a watt-o-meter it will really only read about 120w. this is due to weird Chinese manufacturing that im not going to pretend to understand. so in short one listing on ebay is being honest and the other is not. that simple. I will caution you to never buy the super crappy marineland LED units that only run 1 watt LED's. there are Chinese versions of those out there too and can be spotted by the small crappy looking LEDs on them. those will give you color but not growth. maybe good for a refugium or a fish only setup. I am waiting on delivery of the 120w version and will let you know how it turns out once I get it.

Thanks so much for the info chris! I will go ahead and order it now. I have mostly soft coral but would like to try a few sps so hopefully a pair of these will work.

I ordered this one a day ago.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141369127540?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

They are the same. One seller calls it 165w because there is 55 three watt leds, another seller calls it 120w because that is the actual power. Calling it a 120w is more accurate, because even at 100% the leds are only being driven at about 2w.

I went ahead a ordered them as well... can't wait to try them out. Thanks for all the info guys!

well I got mine today in the mail and by first impressions I would say they are exactly the same thing as the reefbreeder I already own. the build of it looks the same. possible a different heat sink inside but I think that's because the size difference between a 32 inch and a 16 inch. its super bright and I see no problems with it being able to produce the same growth I got of the reefbreeders. the only negative I noticed is that the fans on this do not kick on until 50% but if you think about it 50% of 2watts is 1watt so it probably does not need to be on that low. I do wish it came on at lower settings though. I think reefbreeders fans kick on at 10%. now I got to figure out how im going to hang it in the sump area for the sump frag rack lol. it does come with a hanging kit but it will not work in the space I have for it.

so got mine hung over the sump frag rack and it looks pretty good. its kinda crazy having that bright LED light in the stand, the light glows though the crack of the doors lol. but it has great color and will be my frag rack light for a very long time now. and it will grow the chaeto in the sump good too

Awesome! Good to hear.. I will have to put the canopy back on and the screw the lights into the canopy. Don't really know of any other way to hang the lights over the tank.

it would be easy to use a piece of pipe to make a bent bracket over the top of the tank and hang from that. google it there is a lot of people that do that.

I hanged mine like this they seems to work really well it's a stand





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^^looks like you need another light.


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I did, I already upgraded that was when I had started reefing


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also looks like one small bump and you kill your tank with 120volts. I would hang it over the tank not balance it on the tank.

It's really sturdy, and it's a tight fit it doesn't slide. But I see from the picture it does look fragile.


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well a least its stable, but consider hanging it for better eye appeal. white pvc is so 1998 lol

I was but I don't trust hanging stuff with my sealing. So I am looking for a metal stand or spray painting the pvc but not sure if the chemical will leach once it's wet and have found water proof paint for PVC application.


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I just installed my lights and used some conduit pipes to hang it over the tank. They look pretty good and I only spent about 19 on materials for the hangers and took me about 1.5 hours to install...I'll post some pics in a bit...What percentage did you guys start on with the lights. I'm coming from a 4 bulb t5 fixture.