DaveFason's Nano Box Reef 12" LED unit

[DHaut]

I've lurked off and on here for a couple years now and recently noticed this LED subforum. Wanted to share my experiences with a new entrant into the LED world: DaveFason and his Nano Box Reef units. I've been in the hobby close to 4 years now and have used PC, MH, T5, and now LED lighting over my tanks, and I have never been happier with a unit or a lighting type than I am with Dave's 12" LED fixture.

From Dave's site:

"12" Custom CNC Housing
12 Rebel ES LED's
Active Cooling
Nano Box Driver

I also included the Ryujin controller which allows for sunrise/set, clouds, and storms, plus color mixing.

The craftsmanship on this thing is superb. I feel like i could hit it with a hammer and it wouldn't skip a beat (but I'm not trying!). The fan is quiet, and the Rebel LEDs render color better than any I've seen (I've used a couple different Cree LED units over my tanks before - this is way better). Couple pics:

Reefbuilders did a feature on the units recently: NanoBox 12 LED reef light is a cute little package from NanoBox Reef, and Dave has his own youtube channel with some nice action vids: YouTube - ‪DaveFason's Channel‬‏

I took one vid of my tank with cloud sims. My crappy iphone 3 camera doesn't do the color changes justice:



I highly recommend Dave and his LED units. They are high quality, and his customer service is some of the best in the hobby. A couple more shots under different color mixes:

Cyph under all blue:

Blasos during the day:

 

[DHaut]

For the nerdy types interested in a spectral analysis of Cree vs. Rebel LEDs:

The fight of the night! Rebel vs. CREE. With so many people debating over which LED is better my friends Matt and Joe put the two to the test with a spectroradiometer provided by UNCW.

In the left corner we have the CREE Neutral White XP-G paired with two CREE Royal Blue XP-E's. In the right corner and the underdog we have a Rebel Neutral White paired with two Rebel Royal Blue's. The winner is.... well you check it out ;)

Rebel Combo

Cree Combo

The amazing part about this is the Rebel LED's that they tested were OLDER style Rebels and not the new Rebel ES that Nano Box exclusively uses. Overall you get a more accurate color and a higher output.

We really hope this helps you out when choosing your LED's. We are one of the few companies that carries the Rebel ES that does not cost an arm and a leg. Plus they are not mounted on those dreadful stars!

 

[Hahnmeister]

Something doesnt sound right, but its possible. Luxeon blues have always been class leading for the spectrum and output in that royal blue range. They put out a deeper blue than cree's, and are more efficient, but are also limited to 700mA, and getting your hands on the real nice ones (1100mW ones) is impossible.

I dont get what is so bad about stars though...

 

[DFason]

Sorry for the delay in response.

The Rebels are not limited to 700mA. Amber/Red are the two that are limited but using the new Rebel ES @ 1A is no problem. Majority of the time people never run them at 1A ( 500-700mA ). The charts above were also with older style Rebels and not ES. I agree, the 1100mW are very hard to find but if you have the right connections you can get yours hands on them ;)

The design of the star was more of a prototype that stuck around. When LED's were first being shown at trade shows and conventions they put the LED on the star to show a single LED. For some odd reason the design stuck and everyone followed. Having something with so many terminal pads and can be easily shorted is a terrible design. Leaving empty pads is never ok, when you have so many people not familiar with electricity it can be unsafe.

-Dave