in love with ebays mars LED fixtures!

[reeferbuddy215]

now many people will disagree but ive been growing corals from sps, lps, and softies for over a decade. now if you have no budget I would say go buy a new $800 unit but if you on a budget for now but still want to grow and maintain an expert level of husbandry you have to work with what is out there that is affordable and I must say the $100 per unit 165watt mars aqua model which is have 3 of them over my 125gal reef tank. ive tried all forms of light from T5, metal halide, and LED. my fav feature is u can control the blues and the white,green,red, etc with an on/off switch but what I love is their dimmable and currently I have just lps and softies so it allows me to fine tune the intensity of like and for the $100 per unit its a great buy. I'm planning on starting another frag tank and any advice on if these lights will be sufficient.

 

[happyhourhero]

They will be fine for a frag tank. If i rank the black boxes as good, better, best- I would say the mars Aqua are in the better category with the assortment of random eBay boxes being good and SB Reef Lights being best.

 

[redfishbluefish]

First off, I agree with you.

I was around when these Chinese boxes first hit the street. I'm terrible with time, but I'm going to guess 2007-2008. When first introduced, they were 500 bucks, that quickly dropped to 300. I picked up a TaoTronics for 300. They weren't built well....the heat sink was literally a piece of aluminum foil. Over the years quality improved while price dropped. I now have a Mars Aqua over my tank that I purchased for 78 bucks. I'm impressed with the quality and the extra thick aluminum finned heat sink. Very nicely made. FYI, I grow everything, like weeds.

 

[Ryan Espinoza]

How long have you had them running. I am afaid to buy these and they burn out in a year.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I installed mine in May, 2015.....still going strong. For the $78 I paid, I wouldn't be upset if it died now....but it won't. I just think back to when I was replacing six T5 bulbs every year for around $130.

 

[Jason mack]

I've just bought one for my 90g , I love it , I plan on getting 2 more too put over it . I'm growing sps and lps ..

 

[fishbox]

I just put one on a 20l I just set up. I'm loving it so far. Is there better?? Sure!! But these things do great for the budget minded reef addict like myself!! As far as longevity goes, there's plenty of users that have been running these in the 3-5 year range. At the price range I'd say that's great. Yes, SB Reeflights is the best of the blackbox's but they also sell replacement LED boards for Mars Aqua units with their spectrum which I plan on trying. I'm happy and plan on using these over the 40B I'm working on.

 

[cnote2991]

I've been thinking of putting one of these over my frag tank. I currently run 4x24w t5 on it. I am still trying to figure out how to incorporate the Mars with the t5s. It's good to hear the they last longer now.

 

[reeferbuddy215]

I'm using 3 and my sps love it if have them dimmed way down too, definitely a great frag tank light whivh is which I'm doing next.