The real Black Box light study

[dantimdad]

What was the material?

It was some kind of plastic photography filter.

To me it looked like you took acrylic and sanded it with 400 grit.

 

[Manose]

posted some tested lights for sale here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lights-360x-ai26hd-black-box.548967/#post-5652665

 

[D.train]

What are the results on the lumini pixie 150?

 

[Manose]

What are the results on the lumini pixie 150?

I will post them when I get my laptop back from the shop as I left it down there :mad:

 

[Why-Me]

Would love to see one of THESE tested as well.
Keep up the good work @Manose

 

[Manose]

Would love to see one of THESE tested as well.
Keep up the good work @Manose

I would love to test those but they are abit pricey ;Greedy I think they are really cool looking tho.

Matt

 

[Diggem]

Some things that I have learned in reef keeping is the expense involved. One of the most important and most expensive things we purchase is our lights, and having many options to consider from such brands as Kessil,Radion,AI,Geisman and a few others.
These are the big boys in the lighting business and they make a good quality product with the downside, "They can get pricey".
As prices increased many hobbyist went the diy route or buying used lights from other people, while fine and a good way to do things,we do have another choice, Chinese made lights that are way cheaper
than the big named brand lights and offer very competitive output and growth.
A bout a year ago a video was done that examined "A" Black box light that produced some underwhelming results. I feel like the results were not good because the light chosen was a bottom of the barrel light and not one of the many respectable Chinese lights out on the market.
Not ALL Black Box lights are created equal...
1. many lights are well wired
2. many use good quality heatsinks
3. many are not a tinderbox waiting to explode or catch your house on fire when you take the family
on a vacation
I have chosen to do a study on various black box lights with my own money and time to better help us decide on what are the good and the bad among these particular lights.

***Results So far***

Kessil 360x



Noopsyche K7 ProII

Hydra 26hd

Radion XR15w

Viparspectra

Mars Aqua 165w

Aquarium System Solutions ASML-02

​

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@noopsyche has a sub forum you can visit here https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/noopsyche.1066/
Please visit and show your love to Matt at The Coal Reef for supplying the space,tanks and systems we need to make this happen- https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/the-coral-reef.828/




I will be purchasing various lights from China or where ever I can get the best samples from.
The testing equipment will be a Seneye par meter and a 30-60 gallon cube tank.
(I would like to thank Sustainable Aquatics for letting me use the par meter)

There will be a variety of tests conducted by myself along with @Dr. Reef who has done some very informative work with his bacteria in a bottle studies. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacteria-in-a-bottle-myth-or-fact.403226/

This will be a long process just because of the amount of lights and money it takes to get them.
So please be patient on results and updates.
All lights will be sold after the study so as to recoup some of the money spent.
Please feel free to give some suggestions on what kinds of tests would be beneficial to this study.
****REMEMBER****
This is going to be a very polite discussion and testing thread so no bashing of any company please!

The viparspectra does the timer only turn the 2 channels on off or can you set different intensity hour to hour

 

[Manose]

The viparspectra does the timer only turn the 2 channels on off or can you set different intensity hour to hour

You can set the intensity for certain times during the day

 

[Diggem]

You can set the intensity for certain times during the day

So I can set it to gradually get brighter and low as the day goes on, and way down for night to do this with timer

 

[Mrx7899]

The viparspectra do not ramp up and down you can only turn them on and off with the timer.

 

[Diggem]

The viparspectra do not ramp up and down you can only turn them on and off with the timer.

So you can't set an intensity for one hour and different intensity for other hours it's just set one intensity and on and off times

 

[Mrx7899]

So you can't set an intensity for one hour and different intensity for other hours it's just set one intensity and on and off times

That is correct

 

[Diggem]

That is correct

Thank you I see a couple of the wifi wifi one do. Do you have any recommendations was looking at the lightimetunnel wifi have herd anything good or bad about this one

 

[Mrx7899]

No I haven't used any of the wifi black boxes. But I have the viparspectra lights and they are very good light I have no problems growing acros with them.

 

[Diggem]

No I haven't used any of the wifi black boxes. But I have the viparspectra lights and they are very good light I have no problems growing acros with them.

What's your schedule with it

 

[Mrx7899]

What's your schedule with it

I have 3 of them over my 225. They are 8 inches off the water the blues are set at 27 percent and whites are set to 1 percent. The blues are on for 10 hours and the whites are on for 8 hours. I also run 2 60 inch ati blues plus t5s for 6 hours.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Great info thanks. How long have you been using them?

 

[Mrx7899]

Great info thanks. How long have you been using them?

A year

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Where in the thread is the comparison?

 

[mshonk]

I have 3 of them over my 225. They are 8 inches off the water the blues are set at 27 percent and whites are set to 1 percent. The blues are on for 10 hours and the whites are on for 8 hours. I also run 2 60 inch ati blues plus t5s for 6 hours.

What is the furthest depth you have your acros.