Chinese black box most bang for your buck

[flyline]

I’m starting a new tank and I have read a lot of light reviews I’m on a budget and it seems like Chinese black boxes might be ok. Now it being 2019 what is the majority of people using? I would like to keep anemones, zoas, and the like maybe even a clam thanks for the help everyone

 

[Bryson.bobby]

I’ve heard good things about viparspectra.

 

[cvrle1]

Mars Aqua, Viparspectra, Bloomspect, SB Reef Lights, Noopsyche, Reefbreeders Photon V2+ would all be good choices, depending on your budget and what options you like your light to have.

 

[rfischer]

I’ve had two Viparspectras for around three years and have had no problems with them. Mine aren’t dimmable, but I have a two-bulb t5 retro kit that is.

 

[Garold R Seifert]

I have a Viparspectras 165w. The only problem I had was the fixed brightness, meaning you can't ramp up the lights to the peak and then ramp down at night. But I was able to fix this for $15-20 using reef pi. Now I'm able to fully control each channel and have the lights turn on low and gradually ramp up to maximum.

Viparspectra light controller / reefpi

Hey all, Thought i'd pop this in here, I love everything about my lights, except for the fact they don't ramp up, just on and off with inbuilt timers. The Vipar run from 3.3v PWM signal, which, as it happens, is the native PWM signal from the two inbuilt PWM channels on a Raspberry Pi - happy...

www.ultimatereef.net

This is the thread I used to mod mine and probably shows it better then I can explain it.

 

[Derek siskey]

I was looking at the black box leds but decided to just go old school and went with the odyssea t5 and my corals are huge after only a few weeks

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

Yes well done, it not always easy on a budget, you can’t always have state of the art gadgets.
Good luck

 

[EW_Fish]

Black boxes grow sps,clams,zoas,and lps... people will say they are junk which they can be but I can also share pictures of nice colorful sps "black box grown" not my photo and would tag them member but cant find them

 

[flyline]

Thanks everyone for the replies

 

[crusso1993]

Many great answers above for you!

The link below is to a black box study that was started last year by @Manose . It has a lot of really good and valuable information. Hopefully, it will not further confuse you on which light(s) to buy but, rather, help you make an informed decision.

The real Black Box light study

Some things that I have learned in reef keeping is the expense involved. One of the most important and most expensive things we purchase is our lights, and having many options to consider from such brands as Kessil,Radion,AI,Geisman and a few others. These are the big boys in the lighting...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

MARS and VivaSpectra are the ticket. This is a tank I had under Mars Lighting if there is doubt on Blackbox technology:

 

[kjmsmith]

The Ocean Revive T247 have been a good choice for me. Built in timers for both channels and dimmable. Just no ramping which is fine with me.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I now have TWO 32" mars lights for sale

 

[FishyDP]

Following, would like to hear some recent experience and opinions on mars aqua and viparspectra, and other black boxes.

 

[Amboss72]

I’ve not had the positive experience of many that have posted here on black box Chinese lights. I’ve used several different 165 watt brands that I purchased off Amazon. I have used these on client’s tanks who were on a budget. On two different occasions these lights replaced Giesemann metal halide t5 fixtures. My experience is that my clients corals haven’t really grown much at all. The nems in these tanks stay hidden in shaded parts of the tank. I have a very old and very large squamous in one of the tanks and to keep it healthy and happy I had to supplement the black box leds with a t5 fixture. I simply haven’t been happy with black box lights. Nice to hear others have had a good experience.

 

[fuelman]

i have 8 of the viparspectra, i recently upgraded the led panel to sb reeflight replacement panel & noticed a huge response from my coral they love those lights, & it was still cheaper than just buying the sb reeflights to start with. the viparspectra did work very good & my frags had noticeable growth in the qt tank. but from day 1 with the sb reeflight upgrade they were puffy fat unlike before & had their sweepers out most of the day they really didn't do that before changing the led panel.

 

[Auquanut]

I'm currently running 4 second hand black boxes over my 72 inch 125. They don't even have a brand name on them, but I get very good growth out of all of my corals from softies to acros. They are dimmable, but I can't ramp them up or down. The corals don't seem to mind. The lights seem to have good penetration to the bottom of the tank, but there is some color seperation. Again, the corals don't seem to mind. Eventually I intend to upgrade, but they've sure been doing the job so far.

 

[FragileReefer]

I don't anyone can argue that black box LED can grow coral.

But I have a bigger issue with them. They are not UL rated. It's a testing process done on electronics to deem the wiring safe. Now just threatening that it may cause a fire is assuming a lot. And I'm sure their catastrophic failure rate is less than 1%. But I'm sure my home owners insurance does not cover fires caused by electronics that are UL rated. It's a liability.

My kessil has the same chance of burning my house down as a black box. But I know my insurance will cover my kessil and not a black box. If you think your wives are mad about a few corals. Just wait till you get the whole bill for a fire.

Silly but hopefully it saves someone

 

[Auquanut]

^ Absolutely something to consider.

 

[flyline]

I did read mars was ul rated on amazon description but the others I looked and did not see that advertised