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Black box leds are awesome!


Jorge

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6 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

lol. finally someone calls the stinking turd in the room a turd.

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He did it in such a nice way too. You can't argue the facts though. For me the biggest problem is the possibility of setting your home on fire. No thanks!

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photons are definitely photons.. the problem being the black boxes send then all to one isolated spot.

 

they work for sure, i mean, if you are happy with your tank then that is what really matters.

 

what i liked about the video is that it quantitatively showed they are far inferior to other lights in terms of coverage.

 

plus... non UL listed equipment hanging over a SALT WATER environment? I am the leaat risk adverse person you will likely ever meet but even I have my limits.

 

 

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So the blinding red flag I took away was not only do you get a non UL listed powersupply that while having a significantly low chance of catching fire, "Does" have a chance. To go one step further for even distribution you need "multiple" units "increasing" those chances..... Yeah that would be a hard no from me.

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I gotta watch this.  Just some initial thoughts as this should be a good discussion!

The first thing the skeptical reefer in me wonders is this:

Does BRS sell black boxes?  Or, only the other types?  

If not, I would be immediately biased that they themselves are biased :)

I have awesome results with Ocean Revives, I wonder if these are considered black boxes?  This is an OR lit tank.  I have seen some incredible tanks with these lights.

 

 

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22 minutes ago, TheClark said:

I gotta watch this.  Just some initial thoughts as this should be a good discussion!

The first thing the skeptical reefer in me wonders is this:

Does BRS sell black boxes?  Or, only the other types?  

If not, I would be immediately biased that they themselves are biased :)

I have awesome results with Ocean Revives, I wonder if these are considered black boxes?  This is an OR lit tank.  I have seen some incredible tanks with these lights.

 

 

Actually its not biased at all, Its taking a $99 black box, testing its PAR readings, disassembling it and essentially showing you what you get. It concludes with wildly uneven PAR distribution with the suggestion to buy multiple units for even spread, and discussing the non UL cheap power supply and poor lenses Is all. BRS does not sell Black boxes last time I checked. As for Ocean Revive that's not exactly what is being discussed. I think Ryan was focused on the No Name Chinese imports from eBay, FishStreet, and Amazon.

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yeah it looked like he definitely demo'd one of the super low quality black boxes. Im sure the ocean revives , photons, sb's, etc have much better build quality and par distribution. He should definitely demo against these upgraded versions also since i feel thats what the majority of the reefing community are using 

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I am really enjoying the BRS videos, skepticism aside on this one.

Their cheato lighting video was epic.  After watching it, it was clear Chaeto prefers allot more light.  

I put 2 D120s over my chaeto and now a 55 gallon sump is literally overflowing.  I really need to toss a bunch...

The results were impressive and I owe it to BRS investigations.

The golden rule of reefing for me is 'copy someone who is really good and willing to share'.

IMO if you know someone with an amazing tank running black boxes, it is worth considering how you value that.  Not someone over the internet, but someone you can go to their house and see their tanks!  That last part was key for me.   The internet is full of ahem.. 'opinions'

Personally I know allot of people with Ocean Revives with amazing tanks, cannot say I know a bunch running black boxes.  When I ditched my black boxes (including many custom builds, sb reef lights, stock, etc...), and switched them for Ocean Revives, things definitely started doing better.

So maybe there are some good points?

Just sharing one person's experience because this is a good discussion.

 

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You gotta watch the video, it's not biased in any way. I can't even look past the safety issue but that's just my personal opinion and experience. I saw a very popular rebranded chinese fixture go up in smoke in front of me at a LFS. I also thought it would be a good idea to try those little cheap led bulbs that change color for a refugium. It, exploded while I was home.

I'm just glad to see some activity on the forum even if it means stirring the pot a little :)

 

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27 minutes ago, Jorge said:

You gotta watch the video, it's not biased in any way. I can't even look past the safety issue but that's just my personal opinion and experience. I saw a very popular rebranded chinese fixture go up in smoke in front of me at a LFS. I also thought it would be a good idea to try those little cheap led bulbs that change color for a refugium. It, exploded while I was home.

I'm just glad to see some activity on the forum even if it means stirring the pot a little :)

 

 

Stirring the pot cmon now that's what I am here for :unsure: 

 

Not sure what it was but was down in Salem last year and hit one of the stores down there and something blew that was electrical......it smelled wonderful in there :laugh:

 

Oh and I had one of those magic black boxes it worked over my rock tank just fine ;)

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11 hours ago, Jorge said:

You gotta watch the video, it's not biased in any way. I can't even look past the safety issue but that's just my personal opinion and experience. I saw a very popular rebranded chinese fixture go up in smoke in front of me at a LFS. I also thought it would be a good idea to try those little cheap led bulbs that change color for a refugium. It, exploded while I was home.

I'm just glad to see some activity on the forum even if it means stirring the pot a little :)

 

It's almost ridiculous am weighing in but still have not watched the video!!  

 

Good discussion though:)

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Wow, finally watched the video.  I really like but, but have to also note there allot of mistakes here.

- None of these fixtures draw 165 watts, comparing that to the radion was silly.  BRS should have a kill-a-watt laying around there.

- Not naming which fixture used is almost ridiculous.  Does an SBReef light black box have the same spectrum or lenses as a mars aqua?  No way!

- They talk about how inconsistency is inherent in these, then only bought one to test with!!  Then it has one odd hotspot, go figure!

- Spectrum comparisons done with charts, it would have been nice to see a real spectrometer in use rather than what the manufacturers are claiming.

- No mention of what lenses are used.  That varies wildly among vendors.

- Quite a few black boxes actually are claiming to be UL listed.  So this part is fuzzy to me, but I am glad they are keeping people honest.  No fires here please!

I could go on and on..

All that said I did find it really interesting.

I ran 8 black boxes here for a couple years.  No fires, some amazing coral health, I posted allot of pictures over that time period.  

Allot of us poor saps ran the 100 dollar fixtures for one simple reason.  I could get 8 of these for the cost of one radion. 8 radions would have cost me 6,400.  That is out of the range of ridiculous by my estimation, YMMV!

Honestly though, running the Ocean Revives now, 7 of them.  I do like the way they look to me with human eyes, and I do feel the coral is doing better under them.

All in all pretty happy that BRS is sticking their neck out and reviewing all this stuff.  I will always remain a healthy bit skeptical of ANYTHING I hear on the internet though!

Get out and see successful tanks people!  Learn from the masters :).  Copy, rinse and repeat...

 

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