new popbloom rs90

[alain Bouchard]

Hi I am looking to change my old maxspect razor 420r (have 1 x 160w & 2 x 120w over 180gal mixed reef) and I was looking the popbloom rs90 (I know, chinese light) which looks a lot like the RS reefled90, but at half the price and without wifi (I dont need, once my light are programmed, I dont change it). anyone had the chance to try em yet? If the specs indicated are like indicated, it would be awesome at around 850$cad for 4 light.

 

[wookie77]

Hi I am looking to change my old maxspect razor 420r (have 1 x 160w & 2 x 120w over 180gal mixed reef) and I was looking the popbloom rs90 (I know, chinese light) which looks a lot like the RS reefled90, but at half the price and without wifi (I dont need, once my light are programmed, I dont change it). anyone had the chance to try em yet? If the specs indicated are like indicated, it would be awesome at around 850$cad for 4 light.

I wonder why nobody has touched this yet? I’m curious about them as well. I contacted them and they said quartz lens and proprietary LEDS. But other than taking their word for it, no real world testimony. I don’t make quite enough to toss around 800 without knowing exactly what I am buying.

 

[alain Bouchard]

@Oliver@DSunY If I buy 1 lamp with controller to test it under par meter and real life application with picture, would it be possible, if I am satisfied with the product, to buy 3 other lamp with no controller for the price a full package would have cost me?

 

[alain Bouchard]

ok, so I bit the bullet, I ordered 2 unit that I will test on my 180 mixed reef (24x24x72) and will get par results with my seneye reef. Units should arrive between january 5th and 11th. I will keep posted.

 

[macnets]

Looking forward to your review, I have a different Dsuny light and looking to upgrade to this one

 

[sevans]

ok, so I bit the bullet, I ordered 2 unit that I will test on my 180 mixed reef (24x24x72) and will get par results with my seneye reef. Units should arrive between january 5th and 11th. I will keep posted.

 

[sevans]

I also bit the bullet ordered three just before the new uk tax duty,
Hopefully they will cover my new 5 foot upgrade, if not will add some off
my older dsunys.
There being shipped to the uk now, will hit the shore in a week or two.
Got an extra 5 percent of for being a loyal customer.
Ive had dsuny lights over 7 years +.
The older blue white version 24" (now my backups) and the version before turing.
16" with fans (Running 4 years) My corals and nems love them, i have a nem army now!
Only ever had one psu go on me and all leds working well, just a little bit off silver paint flake around the leds in the middle and rusty screws. I do run a glass top though
which helps with water damage.
I cant fault them and they assured me the new lights
have better colour and intensity than the red sea 90s.
Trust is earned and from my experience i love there lights.
hopefully they wont be my first dissapointment.
I too will update.
Happy new year!

 

[alain Bouchard]

Just received the lamps from Shenzhen. Very fast shipping, I am impressed. Just had time to open the box, check equipement and power on the lights. Packaging is very good, lamps look very well built too, nice and sturdy. To be honest, I was expecting the lamps to be bigger, but in the domain of LED, size dont matter.I will install the lamp tonight so I can compare visually with a maxspect r420r 120w. Next weekend, I should have time to take some PAR measurement and open up a module and check its real power usage

 

[alain Bouchard]

 

[wookie77]

Is the power supply UL listed by chance? I remember hearing the Red Sea 90 had power supply issues. I’m hoping these run cool. I am pending the purchase of two based on your review here. Thanks for the posts!

 

[alain Bouchard]

@wookie77

 

[alain Bouchard]

did some comparison with my 120W razor R420R, with only blue channel 100%, on the right / and popbloom rs90 on the left.

only 1 rs90 have been installed. it is 12 inches from the left, and center from front to back.
I set at at 8 inches above water line, the same height as the r420r.

there are 4 channels on the popbloom.
first is white/yellowish
second is deep blue, probably around 440-450nm
third looks more around 470nm and this seem to be the channel with most power.
4th channel looks greenish, probably around 490nm.
didnt have time to setup the seneye yet.
(I am fighting a ugly dino problem right now, so please, dont judge my algaes...)

this one is chan 2&3 at 100%.

chan 4 at 100%

chan 1 at 100%

all 4 chan at 100%

 

[sevans]

That was fast postage!
Thanks for posting so quick.
Looks like it covers better than expected on your 72" for such a tiny light, can just see where it cuts off.
Cant wait for an update, things are looking interesting.
Dsuny also mentioned the newer controller had extra features for moonlight etc as i was going to keep
my old controller which i ran on auto sunrise to sunset, which works well as they dont have a generic day sunrise moonlight. Some nights are pitch black others are light moonlight as well as bright moonlight variants which is less generic and a little more thought out.

 

[alain Bouchard]

had some time to open the box and do some more testing while baby was sound asleep.
electronic looks exactly like I love em, simple and efficient. Only thing I can see is I would have made it more water thight, like putting a narrow gasket between the heatsink and the electronics, but thats just me being OCD.

 

[alain Bouchard]

took some more pics of the light directly by channels.
aperture 1/750
ISO 50
light on 1%
channel 1

channel 2

channel 3

channel 4

 

[sevans]

had some time to open the box and do some more testing while baby was sound asleep.
electronic looks exactly like I love em, simple and efficient. Only thing I can see is I would have made it more water thight, like putting a narrow gasket between the heatsink and the electronics, but thats just me being OCD.

Not even installed the second light and its in pieces,
brave man!.
Im Looking forward to updates and hopefully good news as
my three are on route.

 

[alain Bouchard]

numbers look very promising. mostly on par with what is advertised on the documents.

I started to test par on all channel individually, but realised chan 1 & 4 only gives about 30-50 PAR each, directly under the lamp, while chan 2 (moonlight) gives less than 30 PAR. So, I did all 4 chan @ 100%.
Here is my setup. T5HO and middle R420r are off.
circulating pumps are off, but return pump is still running, giving minimal water agitation.
Lamp is 8 inch above water, 12 inch from front, back and side.

Thats my top/center reading.

(I put down the maximum number I was able to get at each spot)

Due the that ugly birdnest taking all the place on this side of the tank, I was only able to take front readings. But, they are almost exactly what is advertised.
I will install the second lamp this weekend and take some more readings.
But I must admit they look like very good lamps for the price. They do not offer wifi, but IMA, its a prety much useless feature for lighting for the number of time I change their settings...

 

[blasterman]

The big variable with these chinese lights is how they look when all channels are cranked up to full. It doesn't do you any good to have lets say 120watts of total output if half of it is out put by white LEDs. Most of us want deep blue tanks with actinic pop, and the real PAR number that matters is how the light can be turned up and keep that preferred color. That's where we want to measure max PAR and good job here doing that.

Ideally I really, really wish we had a channel that was warm white or just red. Don't need much, but it makes a dramatic difference when it comes to red or pink corals being able to dial in just a bit of red. The white LEDs by themselves don't do this.

Looks like a good bang per buck though and solid evolution on the off brand lights.

The Red Seas are over priced and only have one useful color balance.

 

[sevans]

numbers look very promising. mostly on par with what is advertised on the documents.

I started to test par on all channel individually, but realised chan 1 & 4 only gives about 30-50 PAR each, directly under the lamp, while chan 2 (moonlight) gives less than 30 PAR. So, I did all 4 chan @ 100%.
Here is my setup. T5HO and middle R420r are off.
circulating pumps are off, but return pump is still running, giving minimal water agitation.
Lamp is 8 inch above water, 12 inch from front, back and side.

Thats my top/center reading.

(I put down the maximum number I was able to get at each spot)

Due the that ugly birdnest taking all the place on this side of the tank, I was only able to take front readings. But, they are almost exactly what is advertised.
I will install the second lamp this weekend and take some more readings.
But I must admit they look like very good lamps for the price. They do not offer wifi, but IMA, its a prety much useless feature for lighting for the number of time I change their settings...

Separate moonlight channel? My old controller does not have that feature. I am hoping it still has the different moonlight settings when on auto sunrise to sunset mode. Different nights have a selection of varying Moonglows, Where different leds are used and sometimes none at all where you have a dark night. This feature seemed very good and not a generic on off with the blues.
Great review so far thanks for doing this.
I am looking forward to see what two look like on your massive tank. What will the cover be and will you get another two? Thanks to you i am a bit more
at ease with my purchase.
All the best

 

[alain Bouchard]

I installed second lamp this weekend, and worked on cutting a bit of the birdnest......... ended up with removing about 90% of it...(will be good media for CArx) will do more complete measurement this weekend. As for adding 2 more to my setup, it is the plan. I spoke with the seller, Oliver, and he assured me I could buy only the lamps as add-on, without the controller; it will probably wait for late summer though. I will go more into the controller too. It seams to have a wide variety of possible configurations: going from seasons simulation, moonlight time offset, algae elimination, acclimation, and so on. One thing to know, on the controller, is that even though you can have 4 lamps on it, it will not control a lamp individually. So if you want stronger light for some SPS on 1 side of the tank, and less light for softies on the other side, you would need different controllers.