Cheap black box vs more expensive LED's question

[Reefermadness89]

If saltwater leds are anything like fpv drone parts, I’d say that the Chinese stuff does perform similarly, for a shorter time (sometimes) because of quality control in production. Now I’ve had a few things Chinese branded that are bomb, and I’ve certainly had more
Initial failure from the big branded drone stuff than Chinese stuff.

 

[Backreefing]

I chose the light for spectrum and 24” long , and 60 degee lens ( its a tall aquarium ) .
And hot spotting is in all bb, yes wider lenses may help but it’s there . Wider lenses = less penetration. For a tall aquarium.

 

[Backreefing]

I don’t know my PAR as that gauge is expensive. A lux meter puts my hoeky B.B./t5 at about 90,000 lux
Center is most powerful tapering off towards the ends .

 

[Backreefing]

Not to ramble along but bb are a ok- good option for us reefers. Power , ok spectrum , affordable . They really fill a void that would make this hobby harder without them .

 

[Brian_68]

This is my only concern, they catch my house on fire. I watched the BRS video on these and they were saying that the components are very cheap (I already knew this) and they can catch on fire which is scary. So is there a higher quality black box with better-made components?

Are the Radions UL or equivalent safety approved for the actual light, not just the power supply? I have not confirmed that, yet the black boxes indicate the appropriate approvals.

 

[cvrle1]

It’s like comparing a regular Walmart speaker to a Bose sound system. Apples to oranges . Will both do their job? Yeah absolutely . Can you tell and see the difference ? Oh yeah , you bet !

Not to derail this thread, but Bose is not high end. It middle of the ground at best. Bose has great marketing strategy and spend a lot more money on marketing than on their actual products they sell. They are worse than these high end LED manufacturers because these LEDs at least perform well, have good R&D and you actually get something for your money, Bose, you pay for expensive sticker on a speaker, thats about it really. No highs, no lows, must be Bose

 

[ineption]

Just wanted to share this with all of you since we are on the topic of black boxes.
I purchased 2x vipar spectra (Chinese led black box) but this are much better quality.
I decided to a lot of research in to optimal coral spectrum, looking at what other major manufacturers use for there lights spectrum led chips.
After looking at orphek, radion kessil & redsea I found a trend. The main spectrum we are looking for is 470 along with a little bit of purple - uv I. E 420nm all the way down to 380. Then we are looking at some at 660 red & finally whites I combined 5000k with 20000k worm white with cool white for better colour rendition. One thing I did is remove all the led lenses, this gives a much better colour blend & also give much much wider spread, reduce hot spots which is what Chinese leds are known for and it will reduce par, sps still growing so all goood
I am happy with the results let's just say.

 

[phil bevilacqua]

I had 3 Sb reef light black box. Had problems with lights going out. Then flickering. Used them about a year switched to Radion and my tank exploded. In my eyes there is a difference. Not to mention all the black boxes that burned up. Just my opinion

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

I had 3 Sb reef light black box. Had problems with lights going out. Then flickering. Used them about a year switched to Radion and my tank exploded. In my eyes there is a difference. Not to mention all the black boxes that burned up. Just my opinion

Burned up? Do you mean LED burnout or boxes physically catching fire? If the latter, I would be very interested in seeing when/where that occurred, if you'd be so kind as to post a source.

 

[paleoreef103]

I saw a couple of things that might have influenced your results. 1) Lack of shared filtration. My understanding is your kessil+T5s are on a canister filter and your black box is sumped with a skimmer? That can be a MASSIVE difference in water quality. I could have got that wrong though. 2) How long ago did you change your lights and how much did you fiddle with the settings after getting the kessil? SPS in particular is sensitive to changes in intensity and spectrum. If you set and forget your lighting schedule on the kessil for a couple of months then you could make a more fair comparison. One thing I will tell you is that if you replace your T5+Kessil with a blackbox tomorrow the corals will look worse next week.

Hope this gives you something to consider.

 

[djray77]

Yes the 75 has a canister and the 40 has a sump with skimmer. Heres my ATI tests on both tanks please check them out and if anything pops out at you let me know. Thanks! I would love to get the 75 to grow and have colors like the 40.

 

[djray77]

My 40 is overloaded and I need more room but soon as I put anything in the 75 I notice a huge change in colors and not for the better.

 

[phil bevilacqua]

Burned up? Do you mean LED burnout or boxes physically catching fire? If the latter, I would be very interested in seeing when/where that occurred, if you'd be so kind as to post a source.

Man over the years I have read tons of horror stories… Australia even had a band at one point in time on the Chinese black boxes because of fires… I’m not sure if they still are not and I’m not necessarily trying to prove anything… If you want to grow corals under black box then go ahead… I grew mine hundred black boxes and when I got better lights my corals took off and their color went 10 four minimum ... I went black box until I could afford a better light ... here is one I remember because I remember the fire extinguisher sprinkler system putting it out ... lol. Cheap Chinese electronics mixed with salt water and salt water humidity could cause a problem .

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Man over the years I have read tons of horror stories… Australia even had a band at one point in time on the Chinese black boxes because of fires… I’m not sure if they still are not and I’m not necessarily trying to prove anything… If you want to grow corals under black box then go ahead… I grew mine hundred black boxes and when I got better lights my corals took off and their color went 10 four minimum ... I went black box until I could afford a better light ... here is one I remember because I remember the fire extinguisher sprinkler system putting it out ... lol. Cheap Chinese electronics mixed with salt water and salt water humidity could cause a problem .

Doesn't seem to be a "black box" as he mentions that "both were 30w", hard to tell without more information on the light used. There aren't any 30w black boxes. At least not among those that are typically used in reefing (165w and 300w variants) and that are discussed here.

 

[phil bevilacqua]

Doesn't seem to be a "black box" as he mentions that "both were 30w", hard to tell without more information on the light used. There aren't any 30w black boxes. At least not among those that are typically used in reefing (165w and 300w variants) and that are discussed here.

Cool man. There is plenty.
I don’t use them anymore.

 

[Brian_68]

Doesn't seem to be a "black box" as he mentions that "both were 30w", hard to tell without more information on the light used. There aren't any 30w black boxes. At least not among those that are typically used in reefing (165w and 300w variants) and that are discussed here.

Yes he said they look like flood lights as well, not what we are talking about. The ones from Mars are agency safety approved. I have not yet confirmed the alternative expensive ones are yet and they do not say on their website.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Cool man. There is plenty.
I don’t use them anymore.

That is all well and good. Freedom to choose is a beautiful thing.

Just trying to keep misinformation from being propagated.

 

[phil bevilacqua]

That is all well and good. Freedom to choose is a beautiful thing.

Just trying to keep misinformation from being propagated.

It’s not misinformation.. it’s facts if it happened one time it’s real. Don’t try to shut it down. Just google a few different searches and they are there. It’s ok though. Cars catch fire too, people still buy them. planes crash and we still fly. But denying it as miss info doesn’t change the fact that they have caught fire and have been banned before in Australia. Peace won’t be commenting any more.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

It’s not misinformation.. it’s facts if it happened one time it’s real. Don’t try to shut it down. Just google a few different searches and they are there. It’s ok though. Cars catch fire too, people still buy them. ✈ planes crash and we still fly. But denying it as miss info doesn’t change the fact that they have caught fire and have been banned before in Australia. Peace ☮ won’t be commenting any more.

What would you call it then? You came into a Blackbox LED light discussion, said they catch fire, then provided a source where some kid used some "flood lights" from ebay and set his dorm on fire.

I have yet to find a single source where someone posted their experice where a Blackbox caught fire. And I'm not talking about, "I heard from this guy, that read a blog, about this lady's dog that bought some light on ebay and it burned her house down." Because of posts like yours, Blackbox fire rumor still gets passed around as fact and needlessly steers new reefers toward a $600 light because they think their house is going to burn down.

Good bye and I wish you the best in life and hobby.

 

[EMeyer]

Because of posts like yours, Blackbox fire rumor still gets passed around as fact and needlessly steers new reefers toward a $600 light because they think their house is going to burn down.

This. I'm personally still waiting on a single actual first-hand report of a black box catching fire. Just one.

I'm not saying its impossible. All machines break, without exception. But I've learned to mistrust things that are repeated by lots of people without evidence.

I *have* seen dimmer switches burn out, but that just means you have to replace the dimmer switch, its not literally burning anything.