How much better are the known brands of LED compared to the generic ones?

[mig.]

I've continued to play around with the Noops and the Temu's and I think my initial assessment was incorrect.

The Noops are not as good as the Temu's, In fact the Noops are now turned off and all my tanks are back to running exclusively on a combination of Royal Blue and Ice Blue Temu's. And I've just ordered more of them along with an LED driver to improve their performance and encouraged members of my local reef club to try them out too.

The Ice Blue lights btw look close to T5's.

My plan now is to build an Aquarium light using the Temu's with the Royal and Ice blue's on a different circuit to give me the range of colors that make my various corals pop. I'm also going ot organize them in way to maximise the pop of the actinic activated corals, the colors of the SPS and others that aren't as actinic and positive and negative lighted areas (yes let's bring some planted tank technique to reefing)

And that's the other characteristic I like about these lights - because I can determine how each part of my 22 gallon is lit and how much its lit by moving these light bars around, my Tank doesn't have any harsh bright areas that 2x Noops throw off, and is not evenly lit either like a Walmart with no regard to what's actually being lit, and what lighting they need. I don't think anyone wants to buy lingerie for example under 6,000k LED tubes, and now does anybody want to buy their fresh produce under dim Victoria's Secret lighting.

I'll do my best over the coming weeks to compare them to other lights in the hobby as I meet up with others in the club and post back here my thoughts. I will get a par meter at some point to show the output and, an orange filter so I can post pictures of the difference as well.

The minimum Temu order is $10. Its hard to go wrong.

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

They say you get what you pay for, and I think that’s true, especially in this hobby.

Buy once, cry once. I try to buy equipment that can grow with me.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

started out with 5 radions paid crazy money to set it up on a 200 gallon and ended up going back to metal halide with a night and day difference on improvement to coral. I won’t be going back to led

 

[Devisissy]

Almost all led lights are made in the same factory. Someone on youtube, and I can't find the video now, of course, took a tour. So what it really comes down to, is brand of led in the fixture, customer support/warranty, user interface. If the none of these matter to you, get the cheapest you dare.

 

[Devisissy]

You also have to remember, there is a reason certain lights are more expensive; companies like Kessil and AI are paying for research, innovation, phone apps, etc etc. These Chinese companies that release these black box bombs dont care about that. Thats why they're ugly and as basic as can be.

Oh how they want you to believe this, and apparently it works cause here you are stating it. I can't speak for AI but I can tell you that Kessil is using us as their research then compiling what works and what doesn't then making tweaks on their models. I'm not even convinced they are going that far. When there are off brand lights that look just like the A80 but have been out many years before Kessil came out with theirs. So who is copying who? That is why I have never seen a long term successful reef tank under just Kessil without supplementation of T5 or other led.

 

[mig.]

Almost all led lights are made in the same factory. Someone on youtube, and I can't find the video now, of course, took a tour. So what it really comes down to, is brand of led in the fixture, customer support/warranty, user interface. If the none of these matter to you, get the cheapest you dare.

I think I saw this, and you pay for the quality and consistently of the diodes in the batch. Yes then you pay for the quality and research of everything else that goes into the final product

But none of that really matters if they don’t produce the right wave length(s), and PAR

 

[smitten with ocean life]

I've always been on the cheaper side of this hobby. I diy everything that I can and because I am cheap most of my equipment is cheaper brand. I use the cheap Viparspectra lights and they have worked well for me. I'm in the opinion that light of the correct spectrum and intensity is the same regardless of who makes the diode or the fixture that it's in. I am in no way saying the high end lights aren't nice, because they are. They're better build quality and way more controllable, but I don't think that upgrading lights would make any difference to how much growth I have in my tank.

hey! i have those same lights! what do you have yours set at?

 

[mig.]

I've always been on the cheaper side of this hobby. I diy everything that I can and because I am cheap most of my equipment is cheaper brand. I use the cheap Viparspectra lights and they have worked well for me. I'm in the opinion that light of the correct spectrum and intensity is the same regardless of who makes the diode or the fixture that it's in. I am in no way saying the high end lights aren't nice, because they are. They're better build quality and way more controllable, but I don't think that upgrading lights would make any difference to how much growth I have in my tank.

110% with you!

 

[Gtinnel]

hey! i have those same lights! what do you have yours set at?

In the three years since that post I have actually changed to a different brand (still budget friendly) of light. I only switched so I could get lights that allow for control of ramping the lights up and down.
I used to keep two 300watt viparspectra lights over a 6 foot 125g tank. If I remember correctly I kept the blue channel around 40% and the white around 10%.

 

[coralboi56]

Anyone looking for a good LED light for a nano tank? I wanted to share this one that I got 3 months ago. I am happy with the results on my LPS and softies, but I wanted opinions. How much better let's say a Kessil or an AI Prime would perform? Is it worth the extra money?

Here is the link to the one I got: https://amzn.to/3s26M9P

Thanks everyone and happy reefing!

Telegraham on YouTube test exactly this. He tests budget friendly reefing options with name brand options. His results are usually you're only paying for the name of a brand when it comes to equipent. It seems all equipment has the same output. But you can view his channel for yourself

https://www.youtube.com/@telegraham/videos

 

[strich]

@mig. really interesting stuff about those temu lights you're using, thanks! Can you go into more detail? It'd be nice to see what setup you have!

A quick look at the temu link seems to show the lights as having a colored filter on them, is that true?

 

[Gtinnel]

Telegraham on YouTube test exactly this. He tests budget friendly reefing options with name brand options. His results are usually you're only paying for the name of a brand when it comes to equipent. It seems all equipment has the same output. But you can view his channel for yourself

https://www.youtube.com/@telegraham/videos

Yep he has really in depth reviews. It was his evaluation of the Noopsyche lights that convinced me to get them.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Almost all led lights are made in the same factory. Someone on youtube, and I can't find the video now, of course, took a tour. So what it really comes down to, is brand of led in the fixture, customer support/warranty, user interface. If the none of these matter to you, get the cheapest you dare.

I think I saw this, and you pay for the quality and consistently of the diodes in the batch. Yes then you pay for the quality and research of everything else that goes into the final product

But none of that really matters if they don’t produce the right wave length(s), and PAR

This is 100% correct. It's all made in China now. What they do is use similar technologies/functions/leds etc, but they can't make it as nice as the 3x more expensive name brand that you pay for. They basically make their own brand with same parts, it's just not as nice, maybe doesn't have an app control etc.

I paid $325 for a Red Sea Reef Wave 25, because I like having app controls.... its made in China, and now I realize that I have it cranked all the way up, and don't even need the app, just the controller...so I should have gotten the Jebao at fraction of the price...heck...even my LFSs are using them in farm tanks.

Same with Hipargero lights...great light honestly, but the timer is ridiculously stupid and complicated to figure out. I have 2 Ai Prime 16hds now, love the app etc, but it's 3× the price.


I tell people like this...as this is exactly what's happening in the hobby of aquariums.

I'm an avid bike rider, mountain biking to be exact... there are brands called Motobecane, Gravity, etc, that you can buy for hundreds to thousands dollars less than the name brands...Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc.

Here's what they do...each year, or cycle of new style and brands, they only manufacture it for the name brand, then after 6mos to a year, they make a Motobecane/Gravity Version...it's 100% same bike...all the new Shimano Gears, Brakes, light weight frames, pedals, seat, you name it. But instead of buying the specialized brand bike for $3k...you get the Motobecane for $1k.

It's 1 factory in Taiwan. It's literally insane how they do this, but I guess that's the contract agreement they have with the name brands.

 

[strich]

Indeed it is very much the same across the entire electronics industry. The most common is TVs and phones - The vast majority of LED screens are manufactured by a few main manufacturers. Companies like LG, Samsung, Sony, etc pay a slight premium to get the highest quality binned parts as there is variation in quality yield, and the rest go to those cheap brands. In addition, they will try to differentiate by software stack and build quality.

In some cases like TVs it can be worth it to get the higher cost and higher quality product. However I must say that in the few months I've been researching and participating in the reef community here I am very surprised with the ridiculous pricing and lack of genuine quality difference some of these "high end" brands are managing to get people to pay and even advocate for.

As an experienced IT professional maybe I'm just more naturally exposed to and able to see what's going on, but seeing people paying x3 on already expensive lighting that amount to basically an app on your phone is blowing me away.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Indeed it is very much the same across the entire electronics industry. The most common is TVs and phones - The vast majority of LED screens are manufactured by a few main manufacturers. Companies like LG, Samsung, Sony, etc pay a slight premium to get the highest quality binned parts as there is variation in quality yield, and the rest go to those cheap brands. In addition, they will try to differentiate by software stack and build quality.

In some cases like TVs it can be worth it to get the higher cost and higher quality product. However I must say that in the few months I've been researching and participating in the reef community here I am very surprised with the ridiculous pricing and lack of genuine quality difference some of these "high end" brands are managing to get people to pay and even advocate for.

As an experienced IT professional maybe I'm just more naturally exposed to and able to see what's going on, but seeing people paying x3 on already expensive lighting that amount to basically an app on your phone is blowing me away.

In fact, TCL tvs, which are great TVs, also is the same company Samsung uses for their high end stuff, they do exactly the same as I said in my above post about mountain bikes.....make high end stuff for Samsung, then have their own brand at a fraction of the cost.

 

[mig.]

In fact, TCL tvs, which are great TVs, also is the same company Samsung uses for their high end stuff, they do exactly the same as I said in my above post about mountain bikes.....make high end stuff for Samsung, then have their own brand at a fraction of the cost.

This fridge - the construction is literally 20 years old and has been used by everyone from IKEA to Viking. All the do is change the door skins. The rest is the same. They don’t bother to change anything internally. The price ranges from just under $1k to over $5k. It’s still available from all of these “manufacturers” today.

 

[X-37B]

Any decent led will work regardless of the price, if you know what you are doing, lol.

 

[mig.]

Any decent led will work regardless of the price, if you know what you are doing, lol.

That’s right - but you gotta find ‘decent’ and I have at <$1. They bring out all the colors

@mig. really interesting stuff about those temu lights you're using, thanks! Can you go into more detail? It'd be nice to see what setup you have!

A quick look at the temu link seems to show the lights as having a colored filter on them, is that true?

No - they put out actinic royal blue light right from the LED

They seem to have current regulating chips in them too. 12v to activate the LED and I’ve driven them from 1 milliamps all the way to 10 ma with no change in brightness. So any 12v transformer will do - we all have those - and no LED driver seems to be needed. I have 8 of them running in parallel and no thermal issues. I don’t know if they are dimmable but suspect they are.

I have one transformer running royal blues and one running ice blue - they are T5 equivalent in color and I have them on a simple separate wifi switches so I can enjoy the coral without the ice blues on.

I’ve ordered some other types of Temu to see if they do the same.

Their minimum buy is $10 to cover the shipping so that is your outlay to try them. I spent $150 on Noop Mini’s and used them for less than a week. The Noops have LED’s that aren’t ‘decent’ enough. My zoas aren’t as vibrant under them.

 

[mig.]

How they ship - these are the ice blue

And this is the royal blue - the wires broke off - they do come with wires!