Chinese lights

Pfleghaar · Jan 26, 2023

Are Chinese lights really that bad?I mean even the "good" brands are made over sead

thatmanMIKEson · Jan 26, 2023

Pfleghaar said:
Are Chinese lights really that bad?I mean even the "good" brands are made over sead

Get one let us know

Jekyl · Jan 26, 2023

Talking black box lights? Probably every light in the hobby is "Chinese"

Uncle99 · Jan 26, 2023

Pfleghaar said:
Are Chinese lights really that bad?I mean even the "good" brands are made over sead

5 years, 5 led, 3 florescent, all Chinese, $1000 bucks.
Never used anything but.
Same for all my pumps, Chinese, years old and run silent.

Derrick0580 · Jan 26, 2023

After replacing a lot of the white leds in my vipar unit the color is great. If you don’t need all the fancy 5-6 channels and such just get the black boxes and order some leds from ebay and mod it yourself!

nuxx · Jan 26, 2023

They work just fine.

Back in my day the biggest issue is that you couldn't control them with an APEX.

Also dimming / channels were controlled on the light with knobs.

Otherwise good.

Jekyl · Jan 26, 2023

They work. That's about their only strong point.

redfishbluefish · Jan 26, 2023

I'll put my "Chinese" black boxes up against any other lights. My corals grow like weeds. I currently have two SBReef Basic and one Mars Aqua with a SBReef board in it....and am extremely happy. I think they were around $120-$130 each. These basic fixtures are old school and aren't even sold any more. No fancy-pants controls....just dials to adjust the two channels.

Typhon · Jan 26, 2023

I agree. I used to have 6x black box units over my 525g reef and had no issues with growth. Only issue was limited options like controllable ramp up and down.

Jekyl · Jan 26, 2023

I never had a problem with growth using the black boxes. Just hated the coloration they gave. When I switched lighting it was like getting eye surgery at the same time. Everything became so much more detailed afterward.