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

[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.