I just received my LED lights from China.
The unit is a 120W 1:1 blue/white fixture of 1W LEDS
(excuse the photos, they were taken on my Nokia)
My first impressions are that the fixture is well built. It is very solid. I didn’t take it apart but looking through the slots you can clearly see a large aluminum heat sink, grounding wires and the power supplies. The light has 2 switches, on for the white and one for the blue. I am not sure how they wired it but the lights seem to slowly progress out in a about 3 seconds after the button is pushed.
There is a warning sticker that says “no submerge in water” and considering the vents on the side are just slots, I would heed their advice.
The fans are super-super quiet. I requested “quiet fans” and said OK but I figured they would just send me whatever. (According to the Aussies, the fans were quite loud.) The fans I received are quiet. About 3 times more quiet than my Red Sea Prism skimmer and a whisper compared to my Coralife fixture.
There are 3 fans in total which coupled with the heat sink should provide excellent cooling.
The fixture has been running for 12 hours and it is room temperature, the bottom seems to be giving of no heat.
The company was very helpful and you can customize anything. It isn’t like here in North America where you get it how it’s made and any special requests are met by angry sales people who don’t want to help you out. In China anything is possible (as I have found since I bring in stuff from alibaba.com quite often).
You can customize the LED layout, the colours, the amount of power chords, whether to have a timer or not, the colour, the fans (apparently).
The light is bright; it creates a nice shimmer effect in the tank. My only regret is that I didn’t have a 2:1 white/blue ratio since the light is a little too blue for my liking, but it is really making the colors pop in some of the corals.
As for cost, with duty, wire transfer fees, tax, brokerage fees and shipping it came to $352. The light has a 3 year warranty and according to the guys at Australian Reef they actually honour it. (somebody’s power supply broke so they sent them 3 for free.)
Here is a giant 37 page thread on the LEDS
http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewto...er=asc&start=0
As for Par, i don’t plan on testing it. Many people who bought the light have already done so:
http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewto...9183&start=180
Judging by their reading, it seems pretty good.
I built a special canopy (that still needs stain) that the light can rest on (frankly, I do not trust shady hanging systems). This will make it so only the acrylic lens over the light is exposed to the water.
In conclusion, I and very happy with this lighting system. I have only had if for a day so I will see how long it lasts. Even if it only lasts the extent of the warranty I will still be uber happy. Since my tank is 30long, I feel that one is adequate. Any longer, I would suggest 2. Since the light is 16 inches long (total) 2 would be perfect over a 36 and 3 over a 48.
If you would like any more information feel free to PM me.