Chinese Black Box LED or Expensive LED?

[paphater]

I use sb reef lights over both my tanks. they grow/ color just fine if not better than the kessils I had. I get way more par/spread than i did with the kessils. I do tun two t5s just to add a little lore blue to the tank but all in all I do grow sps on bottom of my tank and this is a 180 gallon tank. I highly reccomend them as the sb reef lights seem good quality for he money!

Initially I was really happy with my sb reefs but over the last few months that has changed. I have two 16" and one 30" and fairly early on I could tell that one of the 16" was noticeably dimmer than the other two. Now I feel like the other two have started to dim as much as the first one. I added t5s to help with a visual appeal but I've decided to just build my own leds to go with the t5s I already have.

 

[DancingShark]

I am sure you haven't actually measured it with a par meter. Just going with feeling.

 

[paphater]

I didn't measure the par but when the lights are side by side it is easy to tell. It was a common complaint when I was on the sb Facebook group.

 

[rcpalmer1]

The problem is when you say black box that could be any of a number of different lights. Some are going to be better than others. I have one tank that is 30in wide and 30in deep. Put a $65 BB on it. I grew soft coral, lps, sps, and zoas. It was darker on the edges so I put on another on. I run them on a $15 timer power strip. I have another tank that is 48in wide and 24in deep. It has a Kessil AP 700. Cost over $900 with mount. The Kessil has a cool app. I can change the color and ramp up and the the intensity. You use your Google Id and password to log in. Last week I logged in and it logged into someone else's profile. I contacted Kessil and did not get any customer service. The Kessil lights are closer to the water. 6in below the surface the BB have over 150 more PAR.

Don't get me wrong. The Kessil is I higher quality light but if you are 14 and don't have that kind of money get you the BB. I have seen them in many LFS. If they work for commercial use they will work for you.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

My viparspectra led came with a 3 yr warranty so for £129 I was quite happy with that as t5 bulb replacements would cost me that if not more over 3 years.

 

[Amado]

I get my corals from local hobbyist that grow coral out of their garage. In nj they have a bunch of them. One thing all these people have in common they all use Chinese leds. They don’t care about fancy lights. They just need the light to grow frags so that business can keep growing. I purchased the current led and they are not expensive and they work. I am now using the kessil 360 with my current lights. I plan on doing a frag tank out of a 40 gallon breeder as soon as the $1 per gallon sale starts. I will definitely use a Chinese black box on my frag tank.

 

[Vin's Reef]

I currently run a sunpower with 6 T5's. I am switching to 5 AI Hydra HD's. I hate the look of T5's and the only one who love them is my Maxima clam. I feel the corals will be better with more of a fine tuned spectrum.

 

[kevlow]

I am a believer that husbandry>lights. Most lights will grow coral and have their traits,pluses, and minuses.
That being said.
My Radions grew coral just fine but their puck design induced shading left me unhappy.
Switched to SB Reeflights. Their design gave me better coverage and higher par over a bigger area. Coral looked even better. No complaints here. Better looking coral for $300.00 then the shaded corals for $1600.00.

 

[Will Perry]

Hi guys,
I have used a Chinese black box led and it seems to have worked great. Recently my led fell in the water :( so I had to get t5's which haven't been working well so far. My question is, are the cheap black box leds better than the expensive kessils and or radions? The black box for me have been great and worth the money. Tell me what you think!

Get an SB Reef Light. They are amazing and offer great customer support. They replaced parts when I bought one used on R2R, but under warranty.

Sent from my Pixel using REEF2REEF mobile app

 

[mandi29221]

Aqua mars 165w. I have 2 amazing cheap lights

Sent from my SM-S903VL using REEF2REEF mobile app

 

[FloatinBy]

I love my pair of sirius xlt led lights from reefledlights.com. i did the diy kit and i knew nothing about wiring and such but its fairly easy if u have patients and the look fantastic. For 300ish a piece i have 2 on my 100gal tank and i saw a ton of growth in my corals within a couple of months. Plus the owner is super friendly and would take the time to walk me thru steps if i called him. He has pre-made ones but youre looking at 600ish a piece then. If on budget and want fantastic lights look into the diy kit from him. You wont regret it

 

[FloatinBy]

I love my pair of sirius xlt led lights from reefledlights.com. i did the diy kit and i knew nothing about wiring and such but its fairly easy if u have patients and the look fantastic. For 300ish a piece i have 2 on my 100gal tank and i saw a ton of growth in my corals within a couple of months. Plus the owner is super friendly and would take the time to walk me thru steps if i called him. He has pre-made ones but youre looking at 600ish a piece then. If on budget and want fantastic lights look into the diy kit from him. You wont regret it

I also got the Stormx(r) controller to run both of them...programed once and never touch it. Its a super easy controller to use and very very user friendly in my opinion....im a psych nurse and have little knowledge in the stuff and i figured it out. Took me maybe 8hrs to figure out but i had to modify my canopy and hid the wires well.

 

[FloatinBy]

I also got the Stormx(r) controller to run both of them...programed once and never touch it. Its a super easy controller to use and very very user friendly in my opinion....im a psych nurse and have little knowledge in the stuff and i figured it out. Took me maybe 8hrs to figure out but i had to modify my canopy and hid the wires well.

And customer service wise is top notch. Took longer then expected d/t back order and he upgraded the driver and gave me a 2nd one free so i can easily expand if needed

 

[sc_reefer]

I'm running 4 black boxes you can check it out on my YouTube page SC Reefer. I'm switching to T5 Led mix Ai primes. The black boxes are ok but my coral growth is was to slow.

 

[Ryanbrs Verified Sponsor]

I get my corals from local hobbyist that grow coral out of their garage. In nj they have a bunch of them. One thing all these people have in common they all use Chinese leds. They don’t care about fancy lights. They just need the light to grow frags so that business can keep growing. I purchased the current led and they are not expensive and they work. I am now using the kessil 360 with my current lights. I plan on doing a frag tank out of a 40 gallon breeder as soon as the $1 per gallon sale starts. I will definitely use a Chinese black box on my frag tank.

It’s been my experience that one of the great equalizers of any led light sorce is to mount them really high over the tank. When the lights are 2-3 feet over the tank the spectrum blending and spread/hotspot issues dissipate quickly. This makes this a solid affordable option for upstart propagation facilities. While mounting high is really easy to do on a propagation system it is certainly less attractive in many living spaces because of the light spill and blinding effects.

IMHO the answer to this age old question is the same . The black boxes will grow corals, anyone who says otherwise is not being honest. However more advanced products will come with form factor improvements, visual (in tank) improvements, increased success rates through spectrum blending and spread improvments, additional mounting options, additional functionality and longevity improvments which allow for a longer warranty.

It’s not about is one better than the other because anyone can see that is the case . It’s identifying a budget, list of desires or goals and finding the best option that meets both. This combo will always be different.

My only real assistance when sorting through the sea of different black boxes is read the reviews not just the stars. Real reefers experiences matter the most. these reviews tend to be less biased because they come from people who inherently have a similar budget and list of desires. With many of the better options a 4 star review is a mix of 4 and 5 stars where most people are happy. With others a 4 star rating is a mix of 5 and 1 which means 1 in 5 reefers are pretty unhappy. I’d also look for age and amount of reviews because the bad ones often take the product down and reupload once units start to fail over time the negative reviews get overwhelming. With a bit of effort you can find high value black box options for sure.

 

[pickupman66]

Im not normally one to get in on these discussions but I have used just about every light "type" out there. I started back in the Power compact-VHO days. Wow it has been a long lighting road. with regards to the black boxes, i have ran them with limited success. I didnt see the growth I wanted from the one I had. Yes it was nice but color inside the tank could never match what I now have in my Ai Hydras. yes, there are good and bad BB lights out there. as stated by @Ryanbrs look for those with real reefer reviews and learn from their experiences. IMO, a BB will do the job but a higher end light will do a better job given other factors are the same.

 

[pickupman66]

Im not normally one to get in on these discussions but I have used just about every light "type" out there. I started back in the Power compact-VHO days. Wow it has been a long lighting road. with regards to the black boxes, i have ran them with limited success. I didnt see the growth I wanted from the one I had. Yes it was nice but color inside the tank could never match what I now have in my Ai Hydras. yes, there are good and bad BB lights out there. as stated by @Ryanbrs look for those with real reefer reviews and learn from their experiences. IMO, a BB will do the job but a higher end light will do a better job given other factors are the same.

 

[jcmental]

I run a few viparspectra over my 5ft tank, I grow Zoa and SpS. I can say the SPS grow like a weed and the zoa have tripled in volume ever since adding these lights, I run them at CH 1 55% and CH 2 28% no where near the full intensity. The only thing I have noticed is I dont get much Caroline growing as I did with the T5's I used to have but oddly the corals have flourished under the viparspectra's

.

 

[Animal Chin]

I run 3 black boxes on my mixed reef. I like them ok. I'd like a better spectrum as far as the way they look but really for $300 i can't complain...

 

[sawdonkey]

I run a few viparspectra over my 5ft tank, I grow Zoa and SpS. I can say the SPS grow like a weed and the zoa have tripled in volume ever since adding these lights, I run them at CH 1 55% and CH 2 28% no where near the full intensity. The only thing I have noticed is I dont get much Caroline growing as I did with the T5's I used to have but oddly the corals have flourished under the viparspectra's

.

I’ve run LEDs only (ocean Revive) for three years and I’ve noticed the same.....I literally get no coraline algae. Corals do great though.

I recently upgraded to Orpheks, so I’m excited to see how they compare to the cheaper lights.