Another Taotronics light review.. The Good and Bad

Ok keep in mind I am no expert.. I ordered the lights to save some money as I had priced out rapdiled and ledgroupbuy prices and these were far less than either of those...

I ordered the dimmable version of ebay for 400 shipped.. Had a estimated delivery date of 3-4 weeks. Item came directly from Hong Kong. I actually received the lights 7 days after ordered. Came well packaged in plain brown box.

I am tired so I am going to speed through the rest...

I replaced a 6' aquapro light that had 4 x150w mh and 4x 96w actinics. I only bought 2 of the LED as that seemed to be what others with a 125 were ordering.. Yes they are bright but not near as I expected. Nor are they anywhere as close to as bright as my other light. The blue is pretty and makes the coral pop like I had hoped... I prefer the white at 60-70% and blues 70-80%... I had to hang, rehang. rehang and on and on to find the best position to get optimal and equal lighting to entire tank... I tried level, high, low, lower, higher, angled, straight and on and on.. I finally found that hanging them in a "V" shape with ~4" gap between the 2 lights provided the best coverage and least amount of shadows. I will add some pics of how they are hung tomorrow..

My bigger issue.... One of my lights are noticably brighter than the other... I think I am going to contact the seller and see what options I have. I plan on ordering a 3rd light so it maybe ok to just use the dimmers to make them all the same...

Here is a quick summary:

1 - Lights are pretty when all blue
2 - Good adjustment options with dimmers
3- Dimmers are lacking. Hard to explain but they are not "smooth" as I felt they should be.. Once at 80% very little difference from 80-100
4 - One of my lights are brighter than the other (both white and blue modes)
5 - Need additional lunar light as all blue turned as low as possible isnt low enough.
6 - I wish I could use my reefkeeper or get a controller to control the ramping/daily cycle .. Currently my rk turns them on or off and unless I manually turn the dimmers they are either on or off. However, the blue and white are on separate switches with separate dimmers
7 - Mine are not noisy. I have canopy and cant herar them when closed.. Very faintly hear them when canopy opened
8 - Need 3rd light to equally light my entire tank.. Although the depth of penetration isnt an issue the width is.. Each light is good for 2'x2" area but my tank is 6' long...
9 - Great price and impressive quality for the savings
10 - Look professional and are very light and easy to hang
11 - first day my tank hasnt raised even 1 degree in temp during the heat of the day.. My tank temp stayed the exact same all day...
12 - Looking in my house from the street people must think I am growing something illegal...

Conclusion
I will be keeping the lights and ordering a 3rd. I will contact the seller and see about the issue of one being brighter than the other. I now have my aquapro light with 1 month old phoenix 14k bulbs and all actinic dual compacts 1 month old as well... If anyone interested let me know will make a unheard deal on them...

I will post lots more pics with both lights but ran out of time today/tonight with all the honey do lists I have been working on...

However, here are some pics with the blues on tonight:

 

and more

 

and more

 

a few more

 

Good review. I have the same issue with one being brighter than the other but only at minimum setting (when you click it in).

When they are turned up there is no noticeable difference for me.

Mine are also in a hood, and are not too noisy. I may take the thing apart and replace the fans with quieter ones. But they run REALLY cool.

Also I know i've been talking about it for awhile but I will try to get a controller next week so i can explore the digi pot thing for control of these.

 

Have this question in another thread but figured i'd ask it here too. How many Cree LEDs do you think would be needed to match the light output of one of these?

 

Good write up Jay. Just be aware while these lights may not look as bright as your other fixture they give more usable light to your corals. I would hold off on adding a third until you see if there are any problems. As far as I can tell from the pics they look great to me.

 

Vinny I totally agree and had wondered if the "usable" light would be a factor but wasn't sure if that was even a possibility. I have a friend that is suppose to come over this weekend and take some par readings. I will post the results.

 

Nice review Jay!

On my 125, the slightly less light regions are acceptable for me, for my softs and certian LPS, and Zoas.

I totally agree that your old set up would definitely put out alot of light.
My 4 x 96W PC's (2 10K, 2 actinic) were putting out ALOT of light. However, after 6-9 months, not quite as much.
I didn't have to acclimate any of my corals b/c the PC's also put out alot of light.
I'm still getting better growth out of my LED;s however.

I hope you work out the brightness difference issue, they should do you right.

 

I took PAR readings of my six bulb TEK, and set the LED's at a comparable height. It took a bit, but the LPS started to stress. I ended up raising the fixture to 13" above the water on my 125. SPS are also doing better. IMO, there is more usable light with the LED's. Like Vinny said, it's deceiving how much light they put off. Don't go by your eye, go by how the corals look. Give them a full month to acclimate.