Tiaojiou RPX-60 LED fixture: Mini review and pictures

Discussion in 'LED Aquarium Lighting' started by ahochan, Jan 9, 2010.

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  1. ahochan

    ahochan Plankton

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    Hi all,

    I just bought a Tiaojiou RPX-60 LED light with USB port and remote control. I thought I'd post some of my initial impressions.

    [​IMG]

    Purchasing the light was a bit cumbersome, since I had to perform a bank transfer to Tiaojiou's bank account in Taiwan beforehand. The Tiaojiou representative I contacted was very helpful and responsive however, so I had absolutely no problem with arranging everything properly.

    The light has 4 different types of LED, marked: R-blue (5x), Red (5x), Blue (5x), 9000k (4x).

    The original announcement thread with pictures is here:
    http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-lighting/tiaojiou-led-24-hour-lighting-system-77567.html

    I have added some of my own pictures here:
    Picasa Web Albums - curwenx - Tiaojiou LED ...


    The light is programmed by hooking it up to a Windows computer via USB. The software is bundled on a CD, and was easy to install. There are two main modes, fixed color and 24-hour cycle.

    There 18 presets for fixed color. The presets can be cycled using the included remote control. Each preset can be programmed with a percentage intensity for each of the 4 different colors. The interface in the application for programming the presets is quite straightforward.

    Day cycle program: 3 different programs can be stored on the light. The presets have 3 dedicated buttons on the remote control. Each program is for a 24 hour cycle, with an intensity for each color programmed once every hour. The application comes with some preset programs.

    To create a program, you must enter the intensity in percent for each of the four colors every hour for a 24 hour period. The interface here is a bit clunky, and there is no easy way to create nice curves (you will need to calculate the individual points to plot yourself in a spreadsheet or similar). Some of the presets that are bundled are a good starting point though. As for how to adapt a program to fit your taste and livestock, you are completely on your own.

    Overall, the software is easy to figure out, and allows very detailed control. It would be nice if it had an "easy" mode too though, like the pacific sun light seems to have. Also, there are no hints in the software or in the manual that help you select a proper combo of colors and intensity, so you will need to go by your eyes.

    Other features:
    * Temperature alarm
    * Automatic fan control (it is winter here now, so the fan runs at low intensity, but I fear it may become quite loud in summer when the room will be super-hot and humid).
    * Universal 100V-240V power supply. Power chord detaches from the adapter, so it can easily changed to a local plug.

    Review of the light:

    My tank is a 60 cm / 100L tank with an assortment of relatively easy too keep corals. I have run it on a 36W PC light until now.

    I ran into a few problems when setting everything up. First of all, the shimmer effect was very intense, and I found it too distracting. I got an extra set of mounts bundled to get some extra height between the water and the light, but even with that, the shimmer was very intense, much stronger than I wanted. My PH was mounted relatively high and pointing up, and moving it down helped get the shimmer down to a pleasant level.

    The second problem I ran into was color spots and strange shadows. Especially the red is bothersome, and gives very unnatural spots and shadows around the tank. In particular I have a mushroom coral that is growing too big for my tank (its twice the size of when I bought it now), and the shadows around it are quite strange.

    I experimented with holding the light up higher from the water, and the overall lightning effect is much more pleasant then, and it should be possible to find an ideal mounting height that retains the shimmer and enough light intensity. However, the light does not have any mouting holes for hanging, so I might need to figure out a DIY solution for that (although Tiaojiou said they would help me with a solution for hang mounting. Perhaps there is some mounting kit coming up?)

    I got a sheet of 3M film with the light as well, and Tiaojiou suggested that I cut out small rectangles of it and attach over the glass plate directly under the red LEDs in order to decrease the light spots. I'll post back when I have tried it, but for now I run with no red lights. For people with into DIY, it is probably possible to experiment with adding extra lenses to spread the light more over some of the LEDs too.

    I also tried to run the light alongside my 36W PC lights. This gives the overall most pleasant lightning effect, and the color spotting and strange shadows go away, but I still get a pleasant shimmer effect. The ideal for my tank would perhaps be to run it with one 24W T5 tube (if I can find a fixture that has only one tube).

    I think people with a deeper or bigger tank may have overall better results than me. Also, if you plan on running a T5 or PC light alongside it, you will probably get better results out of the box.

    I don't really know how it compares to other LED fixtures (especially when it comes to color casts), but for the price, the feature-set is very impressive. The build quality of the light is good, and it feels nice and solid.

    As for the light quality, it certainly looks very different from the PC light, but its growing on me, especially after playing around with different combinations. I would say that overall the corals look better, but not neccesarily the fish (I was told that the red is to enhance fish color though, so I might change my mind on that once I am able to tweak the red light properly).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 9, 2010
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  3. coylee_17

    coylee_17 Fire Goby

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    Thanks for the review and great looking tank.
     
  4. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

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    great review ahochan

    I would like to try something like this on my nano

    Steve
     
  5. purpletang

    purpletang Bristle Worm

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    How much was it if you don't mind me asking?
     
  6. malac0da13

    malac0da13 Torch Coral

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    According to the original announcement thread it was almost $1600. Seems like a lot of money for a light thats only roughly 24" long. Was it really worth all that money? When I first saw your pictures and the other pictures I thought this would be awesome for my little frag tank I wanna build but after seeing the price I can't justify spending that much on a light.
     
  7. Matt Rogers

    Matt Rogers Kingfish

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    Actually - there was a correction in the price quoted ... see correction here:
    http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-li...-hour-lighting-system-77567-2.html#post772345

    Much more reasonable..
     
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  9. malac0da13

    malac0da13 Torch Coral

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    Ahhh...That is much better. I thought it was weird when I checked the conversion yuan was chinese but it said it was coming from taiwan and when I check the conversion to taiwans currency it was ALOT cheaper.
     
  10. ahochan

    ahochan Plankton

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    I paid NT$13,800 for the light, plus NT$700 for shipping to Japan, for a total of USD 449.

    I tried adding small cutouts of the 3M film I received with the light directly under the red LEDs now, and it makes the color spotting much more manageable (it does not go away completely though). My full daylight setting is now 80 % white, 40 % blue, 15 % red, which I find gives a nice overall color.

    I'm not quite sure how to use the Royal-Blue lights though. I tried using them on the lowest intensity for moonlights, but it made my fish reluctant to go to sleep. Perhaps this is just because they are not used to moonlights. How strong are moonlights supposed to be?
     
  11. Matt Rogers

    Matt Rogers Kingfish

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    I am glad to hear the 3M film helped. What is that exactly? Does it have a name?

    I am not familiar with Royal-Blue LED moonlights... perhaps you can just leave them on for a couple hours after the main lights and not all night so the fish can sleep?

    Thanks for the updates on this lamp.
     
  12. ahochan

    ahochan Plankton

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    Its a tinted blue-ish film. I assume it was made by the 3M company.