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

I recently purchased this light for a new reef tank. The remote control stopped working and I reached out to Viparspectra and the unit was replaced in a timely manner and I must say the customer service was top notch with great communication and also a follow up to insure I received the replacement.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’The light work great, best setting is 18inches above the water and white set to 30 and blue set to 100. these lights make my corals and fish popOkay so I haven’t used these on my tank yet. We’re setting up an upgraded tank so it’s gonna be a bit. I am however very impressed so far! I ordered these around 11 a.m. yesterday and it is currently 10 a.m. and they have already came in. I took them out of the box and plugged them in just to make sure they work and they are BRIGHT so definitely gonna have to figure out the light settings before moving my corals to the new tank! I know in the information it says that one remote won’t control both but I used the same remote for both and it worked, I don’t know if it would control both at the same time but it did work for both individually. Going a bit further, I noticed where one reviewer said they ordered two and one set of cables was not the same. I took both of mine out to check so I could comment on that and they are identical. The lights are heavy so make sure you hang them on something sturdy or from a sturdy beam of hanging from the ceiling (I will not be hanging them from the ceiling). All around impressed so far! I will update on how they are for my corals after everything is set up and moved to my new tank.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.It’s bright :)I ordered three of these light back in January for a 120 gallon saltwater aquarium I was going to set up in the near future. 6 months later I finally got this aquarium set up. The only problems is I lost one of the hanging kits and contacted customer service and explained my situation in hopes that I would be able to buy another one to replace the one I lost. Not only were they very responsive to my request, but they sent me a new light hanging kit at no cost to me. Needless to say, I would do business with them again with no hesitation, and as for as the lights go, I love them, just what I wanted.As with most things in the saltwater/reef tank hobby, it is best to just spend the money, as you will have to eventually anyway. I have a 6 month old 40 gallon cube tank. I was running the Fluval Marine light. I had lost 2 BTAs and had no growth from my corals (zoas, GSP, hammer). The second BTA I lost completely crashed my cycle too, so I went to my LFS for help. They said the reason this was happening was because of my light and recommended this one. I purchased it, and am already seeing growth in the GSP and zoas. I have not tried my hand at another nem yet, but I assume that will be better as well. The only downside is that I now have hair algae, as the light is now sufficient to grow algae. I bought some turbo snails and a bicolor blenny and they cleared that right up though.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....