Well, I just ordered some new black box LEDs from eBay. I had been contemplating it for some amount of time and for no reason I just grabbed my computer 5 minutes ago and ordered them. I know a decent amount of members on here enjoy them and have had good results. I'm sure my current LEDs wouldn't grow any SPS, so this might be the door into that part of the hobby. I guess only time will tell. Can't wait until they arrive!
New LED Lighting
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Crabs McJones
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Black boxes can definitely grow coral. Just a tip when you get them, turn them down very very low. Those lights are a powerhouse of focused down light and can fry corals if turned up to quickly. Best bet would be if you gave access to a par meter or a lux meter to measure what you're putting out 
Thanks for the advice! That's the plan, they'll definitely be giving out much higher readings than I'm accustomed to.Black boxes can definitely grow coral. Just a tip when you get them, turn them down very very low. Those lights are a powerhouse of focused down light and can fry corals if turned up to quickly. Best bet would be if you gave access to a par meter or a lux meter to measure what you're putting out
ZoWhat
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The eBay LEDs are great....bc all LED bulbs are all made in China anyway.
Even Highend USA Mfgrs all buy the LED bulbs from China and solder the China LED on their circuit board....and try to upsell you on MADE IN THE USA
BULLXXXX...... a 460nm blue led is usually the same led bulb used in 100s of different fixture...
Coming out of Chinese factories within blocks of each other
The real problem with Ebay LEDs are the power supplies inside the fixture. Most convert a 120v AC signal into some DC voltage/amperage to power the light fixture.
Problem is these power supplies usually burn out around the 2-3 yr mark...with the LEDs still having a good 8yrs left on thrm.
Get with the Mfgr on if the power supplies can be bought as a service replacement part.....cause you'll eventually need them
Even Highend USA Mfgrs all buy the LED bulbs from China and solder the China LED on their circuit board....and try to upsell you on MADE IN THE USA
BULLXXXX...... a 460nm blue led is usually the same led bulb used in 100s of different fixture...
Coming out of Chinese factories within blocks of each other
The real problem with Ebay LEDs are the power supplies inside the fixture. Most convert a 120v AC signal into some DC voltage/amperage to power the light fixture.
Problem is these power supplies usually burn out around the 2-3 yr mark...with the LEDs still having a good 8yrs left on thrm.
Get with the Mfgr on if the power supplies can be bought as a service replacement part.....cause you'll eventually need them
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ZoWhat
10K Club member
Im going to hijack this post to use it as a training session....
See the two outer black rectangle boxes inside the LED fixture pictured below?
Those are the power supplies that eeeeeeasily go bad way before the led bulbs have reach their end-of-life-cycle. One is for powering the White channel. The other is for powering the Blue channel.
They are easily replaced by clipping into two matching pairs of cables per power supply. But which cable gets clipped to what cable?
You gotta mark each cable with tape and a handwritten note as you take the dead power supply out.
The outgoing cable ALWAYS leads to the circuit board....see the white cables drooping to the lower silverbacked circuit board? That's your outgoing power to power the lights and where you clip the "outgoing power" coming out of the power suplly.
Then obviously the 2nd cable coming out of the power supply is for the "incoming" 120v ac feed.
Problem is getting your hands on the proper power supply voltage/amperage wise
See the two outer black rectangle boxes inside the LED fixture pictured below?
Those are the power supplies that eeeeeeasily go bad way before the led bulbs have reach their end-of-life-cycle. One is for powering the White channel. The other is for powering the Blue channel.
They are easily replaced by clipping into two matching pairs of cables per power supply. But which cable gets clipped to what cable?
You gotta mark each cable with tape and a handwritten note as you take the dead power supply out.
The outgoing cable ALWAYS leads to the circuit board....see the white cables drooping to the lower silverbacked circuit board? That's your outgoing power to power the lights and where you clip the "outgoing power" coming out of the power suplly.
Then obviously the 2nd cable coming out of the power supply is for the "incoming" 120v ac feed.
Problem is getting your hands on the proper power supply voltage/amperage wise
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Learn something new everyday. I'll hold onto that picture and description. And I'll start looking into proper replacement wires. Thanks for all the help!See the two outer black rectangle boxes? Those are the power supplies. One for the White channel. The other for the Blue channel.
They are easily replaced only clipping into an incoming-power cable.
Then the outgoing cable ALWAYS leads to the circuit board....and.... see the white cables drooping to the lower silverbacked circuit boards? That's your outgoing power to power the lights
Problem is getting your hands on the proper power supply voltage/amperage wise
