New LED fixture 3w. Green Element EVO Reef LED Light Fixture

[RuGlu6]

OK here is an update, someone posted a review on aquatraders web site:

http://www.aquatraders.com/EVO-36-LE...ht-p/56233.htm

Sorry to be bearer of bad news April 24, 2012
Reviewer: Trevor from Chandler, AZ United States
I guess I am the first to do this review. It arrived last night. I set it up. The lighting last a nice glow to all of the corals.
LIKE: Nice glow to it
DISLIKE: Each bulb casted a direct beam straight down to the bottom, thus, from a distance, one can see where the blues are and where the reds are.

Unfortunately, four of the bulbs did not light up. I called customer service this morning and was told that there's no warranty. I need to ship it back at my own expense and they will try to fix it for me.

I don't know why this person did not use Aquatraders own policy see below, if there were problems on arrival. they say that within 48 hrs if there is a problem they can fix it. May be it was past 48 hrs.

http://www.aquatraders.com/Returns.asp
Here it is

Damaged Shipment, Incorrectly Shipped Item(s), or Non-Working on Arrival
If in the event that the item(s) is damaged during transit, incorrectly shipped, or non-working on arrival, customer should notify AQUATRADERS.COM within 48 hours of arrival. Please submit your report on-line through the Contact Us section in our site. 30-Day Return Policy will override any claim of damage, incorrectly shipped, and non-working on arrival if we receive the report after 48 hours of arrival.

In certain cases, customers are able to fix the issues without going through a claim or an exchange. Simply contact our customer service for the replacement part you need. Otherwise, customer will be issued a RMA number. Return the item(s) in accordance with the return procedure stated below. If the item(s) returned does fall under the categories, "Damaged Shipment", "Incorrectly Shipped", or "Non-Working on Arrival", a replacement will be shipped.

Free items are not eligible for return or exchange under any circumstances.

Chris88 did you end up getting one?.
.

[chris88]

I was really excited to order them but I was turned off by the lack of knowledge aqua traders and the eBay sellers had about the product. No one could tell me anything about them. Nothing about the heat sink or LEDs or lens. I know the price is great but I didn't really want to gamble.

[arash53]

Yeah ,So disappointing!

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by chris88

I was really excited to order them but I was turned off by the lack of knowledge aqua traders and the eBay sellers had about the product. No one could tell me anything about them. Nothing about the heat sink or LEDs or lens. I know the price is great but I didn't really want to gamble.

Originally Posted by arash53

Yeah ,So disappointing!

Yep, same here, i am so hesitant and more so now when this guy had been Not properly serviced even though their own web site states that non working on arrival items will be replaced.
When i called them (a month or so ago) i talked to Asian woman and unfortunately she was no help at all.

At any rate there is yet another new LED fixture there "quad" which is a double from previous one.
These new LED fixtures are keep coming ...and price is good ....hmmm

[mikeclarke]

Do you think that the Quad is the best value for an LED light? Will it keep corals happy?

[mike31154]

To chime in on some of the earlier questions... While I don't have a controller either, since switching to my DIY LED fixture I'm inclined to consider something other than a timer or manual dimmer to control the lights. One of the great advantages of LEDs is the flexibility in power & colour choices. A controller allows for automatic blending of the various colours for the look that you personally like provided you also consider your coral's requirements. With many of the cheaper fixtures, you are stuck with the colour options built into the light with no way of fine tuning that other than replacing LEDs or supplementing with other lights.

In addition to timing options & water parameter monitoring, most controllers out there these days also offer analog and/or digital dimming signals to fine tune LED lighting. This is the feature that allows automatic, gradual dimming & options like cloudy days, moon phase tracking, lightning etc. While I could care less about the lightning feature, the ability to automatically tune my LEDs in almost infinite steps throughout the daily photo period is a good reason to consider either getting a controller or building one.

With respect to Cree LEDs vs the competition, it's generally accepted that currently the Cree emitters provide more lumens per watt. This means they are more efficient & theoretically you could get away with fewer Crees for a build than the less efficient LEDs. Hard to say form one build to the next whether it's more cost effective to go Cree over another brand, that's something pretty much each individual has to do the math on. My DIY LED fixture is made up of multi-chip 10 watt generic LEDs from Asia. Although it's been up & running for almost a month, there are a few more tweaks & modifications I need to do, automatic control being one.

I have no experience with these EVO fixtures. The price is certainly attractive, but it appears the after sales support is not the greatest & based on the lack of information coming from the suppliers, I'd hesitate to spend the $$s on one.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by mikeclarke

Do you think that the Quad is the best value for an LED light? Will it keep corals happy?

No i don't think Quad is the best because there are a lot of people running their LED at less the 50% intensity (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=85801)
So based just on that even IF i would concider Evo LED from Aquatraders i would buy two instead of one quad. At least this will give you some flexibility. Unless of course there are separate cords or switches to get half of the fixture illuminated. It says "2 external high power transformers", so may be there are two cords. In that case $239 for Quad is better then 2 48" fixturesx159.90=319.80

One this is clear that LED's get cheaper by the month, who knows what price will be next year, maybe AI sols will sell for $300 instead of $900 who knows?

Originally Posted by mike31154

To chime in on some of the earlier questions... While I don't have a controller either, since switching to my DIY LED fixture I'm inclined to consider something other than a timer or manual dimmer to control the lights. One of the great advantages of LEDs is the flexibility in power & colour choices. A controller allows for automatic blending of the various colours for the look that you personally like provided you also consider your coral's requirements. With many of the cheaper fixtures, you are stuck with the colour options built into the light with no way of fine tuning that other than replacing LEDs or supplementing with other lights.

In addition to timing options & water parameter monitoring, most controllers out there these days also offer analog and/or digital dimming signals to fine tune LED lighting. This is the feature that allows automatic, gradual dimming & options like cloudy days, moon phase tracking, lightning etc. While I could care less about the lightning feature, the ability to automatically tune my LEDs in almost infinite steps throughout the daily photo period is a good reason to consider either getting a controller or building one.

With respect to Cree LEDs vs the competition, it's generally accepted that currently the Cree emitters provide more lumens per watt. This means they are more efficient & theoretically you could get away with fewer Crees for a build than the less efficient LEDs. Hard to say form one build to the next whether it's more cost effective to go Cree over another brand, that's something pretty much each individual has to do the math on. My DIY LED fixture is made up of multi-chip 10 watt generic LEDs from Asia. Although it's been up & running for almost a month, there are a few more tweaks & modifications I need to do, automatic control being one.

I have no experience with these EVO fixtures. The price is certainly attractive, but it appears the after sales support is not the greatest & based on the lack of information coming from the suppliers, I'd hesitate to spend the $$s on one.

Thank you for sharing your experience.
Can you describe your tank please WxLxD, what corals do you keep and how long and under how many LED at 10W per LED since you are not using Crees, your LED's can be close to EVO product although there is no way of knowing obviously.
Regarding more lumens per watt seems like non issue right now as many pple do Not run LED at 100% (link above) anyway.
That is why Aquatraders fixtures are so attractive, i can get two fixtures for less then $300 (my tank is 36" so its $149.90 each) and if (that is the big IF) they have half decent LED's corals should be OK. Personally i don't care about fancy $900 controllers. I am ok with $8 timer.
They say that individual lenses are replaceable (good) but they don't say anything about lens angle and led itself other then it white and blue, and customer service sucks. (not so good).