VIPARSPECTRA 165W Dimmable LED Aquarium Light with Timer - Full Spectrum for Coral Growth, Reef Marine Fish Tank (LPS/SPS) - Perfect for Saltwater Tanks & Aquatic Plant Cultivation

I purchased two of these lights to put over my 65g reef. Following advice online I cracked the units open and 'hacked' them to remove all of the lenses except around the outer perimeter to give better spread. (The lenses on the inner side of both fixtures, where they're next to each other, were also removed.) I was impressed to see that there're some decent measures taken to prevent salt creep from invading through the plexi window at the bottom of the light from splashes -- there's both a bead of silicone and a gasket. However, you'll still be out of luck if you drop the thing in the tank.With the bottom of the fixtures about 10" above the surface of the water and the light set at 75/30 I was getting PAR of about 275 mmol about 8 inches down, and about 125-185 on the sand (with the highest levels at the bottom in the middle of the tank where both fixture's coverage overlapped.) With the lenses removed discoballing is reduced and more light reflects back off the sides of the tank internally, giving better light to otherwise shadowed areas. However, the top of my tank is fully enclosed by a hood; keeping the lights this high with no lenses might be intolerable otherwise, if I didn't have something to block the light-spill.The lights are easy to program using the included remote, but a bit of a pain if you want to turn them on during a time when they're set to be off. It would also be nice to have a soft-start that ramps the lights up from 0 over a period of a few seconds, if only to not startle the fish -- but I now have a screen on the top of my tank, so it's not an issue. The whites at 1% are very bright and may provide a tank that's too white for some users even at this level -- however, personally, I found the whites provided at 70/30 to be pleasing.These lights are extremely bright in terms of PAR when put on full, particularly if you keep all the lenses on. The use of a PAR meter to map out the light coverage of your tank is highly recommended when adding these lights to a tank, particularly if your previous lights were on the dimmer side. I have been acclimating my tank to the new light over the past two weeks and am most of the way to where I want to be; coral growth has already taken off compared to my previous, underpowered light.With the way that I mounted my lights, I was easily able to adjust both of them at the same time using a single remote, if some care was taken with the angles. While the onboard clocks can indeed drift apart, it's very simple to adjust the time on the light to get them back into synch.I'm also impressed by their customer service. Through my own ignorance I screwed up one of the hangers; they responded to my inquiry promptly and went above and beyond helping me out.Ultimately, you get what you pay for, but I consider these to be a fantastic value. These are no-frills lights, but they seem to be built decently well and with quality LEDs, and are more than sufficient to grow corals well, and -- though this is completely subjective -- I find their spectrum pleasing. Viparspectra put their money and effort on the things that really count, and pretty much on nothing else.I will likely pull out the LED drivers and replace them with 0-10v versions so that I can use my Apex to dim them, but that's a low priority upgrade. However, given the light's construction, it should be relatively simple to do so.So far, I've purchased three of these lights. With the first two, I was able to adjust the blue and white channels in increments of one; i.e. 40%, 41%, 42%, etc. However, with the third unit, I can only adjust the channels in increments of ten. I'm on 40% and then suddenly it jumps to 50%, 60%, and so on. The clock is also different. The first two utilize "military time" or a 24-hour clock which is fine. The third one though goes by a 12-hour clock. The clock on the latter also doesn't display constantly like the first two, you need to push a button on the remote for it to pop up.Not sure what accounts for the differences as their respective manuals both show the same model number. Rather annoying when you're aiming for uniformity with respect to PAR and what not. I need to order a fourth so it'll be interesting to see which one I get. :/I am in the process of upsizing my 20g nano reef tank to a larger 50g. I found this light and thought it would be suitable since the new tank is much bigger and my current light is an AI Prime that is pretty small.When I collected the package from my front door, I noticed this package was heavy and felt solid. Upon opening, I learned the light was much larger than I anticipated, so I was very excited.I immediately plugged it in to test it and did it with the light side facing up. This blinded me, but it’s my fault for being dumb and staring into this artificial sun.While wandering around and bonking into walls due to my temporary blindness, my phone called. Squinting didn’t help much, and the caller ID just said, “Space”When I answered it was one of the astronauts on the ISS. He told me to stop doing whatever I was doing because I had blinded them. In space. 1-0: LightI decided to be defiant (at this point, I’ve already irritated NASA, why not?) and try to instead adjust the brightness.The remote control was confusing and didn’t help much. The instructions were about as helpful as deciphering hieroglyphics, and I am clearly not smart enough to comprehend a device like this.2-0: Light.I reviewed this with five stars because it seems to be a true quality product. I cannot speak to longevity, but this light should be more than adequate for all of your aquarium needs. In fact, this light is bright enough that if humanity daisy chained 20 of these and held it over the Mariana Trench, we would probably be able to see all the way down to the bottom.Great light, not for me.Edit: Amazon is asking what kind of pet I bought this for. I am selecting ‘dog’This light is more than sufficient for any reefer to adequately light a softies, LPS, or SPS dominated tank. Having played around with the intensity, I can attest that this light is VERY powerful and you will likely not need to get anywhere near 100% power, even for corals with the highest of lighting demands. I have this light on an LPS/Softies tank and I tend to not go over 10% on the Blue Channel. With 10% Blues and 0% whites I get a beautiful actinic glow and have noticed substantial growth in my blastos, hammers, mushrooms, toadstool leather, and GSP.This is definitely the best Black Box LED Reef Light you can get.My only complaint is that the White Channel is overwhelmingly bright and white, even at only 1%, unless the Blue Channel is up quite high to compensate. That said, I have to keep the whites at 0% and run only blues because at only 10% blues, any level of whites would make the whole tank look as if it were white light alone. That's fine for me though, as the spectrum is excellent and I get great fluoresence, coverage, and shimmer with blues alone. There's also no dimming timer, i.e., it's either on or off with no sunrise/sunset possible. This can easily be remedied by adding a small dimmable light like a fluval nano marine to compensate before/after the black box starts/stops.Cumple la función. Esteticamente es un 100. Estoy retomando los corales y estos han estado muy bien bajo esta luz. La funcionalidad de poder ajustar la salida de luz desde 1% hasta 100% me ha resultado muy util pues mi acuario no es muy grande (29 galones) y he podido ajustar poco a poco a los corales a esta iluminación. Los peces se ven muy bien, incluso salen mas a la parte abierta. La luz azul ilumina de forma excelente a los corales y en el caso del gobio de fuego pues tiene ciertos tonos que resaltan muy bien durante ese rato. Inicie el proceso de adaptación de mis corales con un 5% los primeros dias, luego pase un 10%, quedo así un par de semanas y acabo de subir al 15%. Por el tamaño de acuario, posiblemente no pase del 20 o 25%.En mi caso la instale utilizando rieles de aluminio para closet los cuales fueron fijados con tornillos a la base de madera. A los mismos les agregue una mensula a cada uno de las cuales pude colgar la lampara. Lo único que tuve que agregar fueron los candados (dorados) que se ven fijados a las mensuales por que el candado que viene con la lampara esta muy grueso para entrar en el agujero que viene prefabricado en la propia mensula. Incluso utilize el propio riel para esconder el cable de alimentación eléctrica lo cual agrega un toque estético a la instalación (ver 2nda foto).Detalles que podrían ser mejor: En las instrucciones no se aclara cual canal es el azul (Ch 1) y cual el "blanco" (Ch 2) lo cual puede resultar confuso a la hora de programar. Algunos usuarios se quejan de que la intensidad no es ajustable para un efecto de amanecer y atardecer, pero creo que es un detalle menor en relación a lo que cuesta la unidad.En cuanto a la programación, es un poquito confusa pero tampoco nada del otro mundo. Ya se me ha ido la electricidad en un par de ocasiones, apagones muy rápidos y no se ha desprogramado, ignoro cuanto tiempo tiene que pasar para que se desprograme completamente.Espero en los próximos 12 meses adquirir un acuario mas grande y definitivamente una segunda unidad sera una compra segura.Just picked this up today. Definitely one of the better black box LEDs. I really like the purple and blues together. It makes a nice difference.The one thing I don't like is how white 1% is on the white channel. It's crazy bright for 1%. This would be very ideal for even a planted tank. Right now I have it set at 60 blue 1 white and its lighting my tank nicely. I believe the light could use some more blues or lighter blues to help with the over powered whites.Corals seem to like it already and well all know this light will definitely put out enough par to grow some high demanding sps corals.But at the end of the day this light is gold for the money. You won't find this kind of power/quality for any cheaper. All in all its a really great light.I've had a pair of 165w Viparspectras over my 60 gallon tall mixed reef aquarium for two years, and could not be happier.If you like the idea of a pronounced shimmer effect, wifi settings, ramping up/down, sure this light doesn't do any of it, and the item description says it outright.More importantly, if you want a light that will produce spectrum and par levels that allow you to grow soft coral, LPS coral, and YES SPS coral, this light is up to it, and you can see examples of all in my aquarium.An awesome entry level light that doesn't need to be replaced or upscaled for different coral.A great light when you just want it to work, and save you a little $ to spend on bigger coral.These lights are an awesome cost-effective alternative to many of the more expensive options out on the market for reef lighting. They have all of the functionality and spectrum required to support a healthy marine system. my corals are doing great under them. if one is willing to sacrifice some of the superfluous features the more expensive lights carry, like computer controllers and thunderstorm settings, then these are the lights you want. Extremely happy with them after 4 months of daily timed use on a 12 hour cycle. I am considering buying a couple more units for my other tanks as well...Great Product, Great Lighting!!!Arrived with all lights working, easy to install, easy to set timer (Read older threads and I am confused on how they have not figured that out). Amazing features and for a DUAL fan system, this is very quiet.. I am insanely impressed. Now... If they could figure out a way to create a Dawn & Dusk type slow type illumination, this would be the product of the decade. I am thoroughly impressed and that takes a lot for me....