mndfreeze Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Friend is wanting to get a tank up and running. Because of his wall cutout it has to be a 75 gallon. He is on a tight budget and I told him lightning was going to be expensive. He came back at me with this MicMol light. Now I use AI on my stuff, and this MicMol definitely fits the affordable category, and what it SAYS it can do seems ok, but I need some real opinions from other people here that are more lightning oriented. Friend likes softies and LPS, but like everyone will most likely want to do some SPS at some point, even if its easier, lower light friendly stuff. Will this light work OK? https://www.amazon.com/✪MicMol-Aquarium-Programmable-Spectrum-Saltwater/dp/B075Q78674?th=1 New Aqua Air LightingThe newest Aqua Air LED aquarium lighting is combining the cool smart controller, 11mm super thin unibody design. Power of 24W, 48W, 72W and 96W for choices, great for reef and planted tank. Aqua Air 1200 Item No.: AA-1200 Power: 96W Size: 1160X126X11mm Weight: 3.0kg Packing: 1400x170x50mm Marine: 80pcs White - CN 1 32pcs Royal Blue - CN 1 112pcs Royal Blue - CN 2 8pcs Blue - CN 3 8pcs W White - CN 3 8pcs UV - CN 3 4pcs Red - CN 3 4pcs Green - CN 3 Planted: 112pcs White - CN 1 80pcs White - CN 2 32pcs Royal Blue - CN 2 8pcs Blue - CN 3 8pcs W White - CN 3 8pcs UV - CN 3 4pcs Red - CN 3 4pcs Green - CN 3 Bracket Dimesions (length): Min tank: 1185mm Max tank: 1685mm Lighting Features All aluminium modeled body design High quality 0.5 watt SMD LEDs 11mm super thin unibody Adjustable super bracket installing system Hanging kits is available (optional) Water-resistant cooling system UL approval power supply Two-year warranty What's in the Box 1 x G2 Aqua Air 1200 Lighting Fixture (AA-1200 / 96W) 1 x Smart Controller 1 x Super Bracket 1 x US Standard Power Cord 1 x Power Adapter 1 x Tool Sets 1 x Printed Instructions Smart Controller The new Aqua Air comes with a variety of settings: clock, timer, LEDs channel, special effects (sunrise, sunset, thunderstorms), demo and factory reset. You can use the "demo" to check all the settings in 1 minute and you can reset your Aqua Air by choosing "factory reset". Furthermore, the Aqua Air has 3 LED-channels and can be set separately. It's including the channels of white, blue and special (UV, green, red, warm white). Quote Link to comment
mndfreeze Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 No one? Not even the lightning junkies can comment on what they think on these claims? Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 You get what you pay for. 1 Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Meant to add that if the lighting is out of the budget advise him to go FOWLR with an ultra budget light just for viewing and only do reef safe fish so he can scrounge together enough dough to get decent reef lighting. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 Micmol is popular in the UK. It's not widely used in North America so reviews are limited. The marine version has all the colours you need. If its controllable then it should work. You don't need to buy the most expensive or the favored brands to have success. 2 Quote Link to comment
ReefGoat Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 Perhaps he should go with a smaller setup. I mean putting rock sand and water in that tank is going to cost more than that 300 dollar light I could imagine. EDIT: While I do agree with you clown. In every hobby I have had in my life. I went through a cycle........ Bought cheap first because........budget. Then regretted it within the month or almost immediately once using said product. Then started shopping around for high end and ended up finding a way to get it. Whether that be working overtime, selling something or just simply saving and waiting. My aquarium hobby adventure has been the first time in my life that I just spent the money and got not the highest end but higher end equipment and I don't regret it one bit. Simply because in the end you end up saving money by not wasting it on sub par stuff the first go round. EDIT: I'm in no way shape or form saying that this light is sub par. Because, I don't have a way to know that, as I've never owned it. Quote Link to comment
ReefGoat Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 Hell it cost me almost 200 to put rock, sand and water in my 10 gallon. 100 bucks for rock, 30 bucks for sand and then the bucket of salt was about 70. Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 On 6/19/2018 at 4:13 PM, 1891Bro said: You get what you pay for. Not true. You can Buy quality stuff thats inexpensive. For example. Best auto oil in the market is Shell Rotella and its inexpensive. Due to the high zinc properties its a really great oil for all trucks/auto Over some of the competition that charge you 4 times the amount due to their marketing scams. Alot of cars that recommend oils is due to the companies having partnerships with the car company. Honda/mobile VW audi/Castrol. It doesnt mean you can have something better. Micmol is a great light. Uses high quality chips and leds. Widely used over seas more than the states. Very affordable. Not cheap to the feel at all. The mini run quite with no heat issues. Just because something doesnt have the marketing or recognition behind iy doesnt mean its a bad product. Shoot even those chinese boxes grow SPS. Again its worth a shot to try it out follow it thru the progress. I have AI on my bigger tank. But I bought them at half the cost. 1 Quote Link to comment
lpsouth1978 Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 I have seen a lot of people asking about this light lately. The simple answer is that it will work fine for Fish only and MAYBE softies. I would not use it for anything more. This light is only 96W but has 256 LED's. This means that each LED is only 0.375W. There will be NO penetration of PAR with this light so using it for LPS or SPS will likely end in loss of the corals and a lot of money. If he is looking for inexpensive options he would be better served with a Viparspectra 300W or something similar. They are in the same price range but use higher wattage LED's. Still not top of the line, but capable of keeping all corals and anemones. Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 32 minutes ago, lpsouth1978 said: I have seen a lot of people asking about this light lately. The simple answer is that it will work fine for Fish only and MAYBE softies. I would not use it for anything more. This light is only 96W but has 256 LED's. This means that each LED is only 0.375W. There will be NO penetration of PAR with this light so using it for LPS or SPS will likely end in loss of the corals and a lot of money. If he is looking for inexpensive options he would be better served with a Viparspectra 300W or something similar. They are in the same price range but use higher wattage LED's. Still not top of the line, but capable of keeping all corals and anemones. Bigger Micmol I would second think it. But it should do fine for softies and low light LPS. Orbits are inexpensive and work Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 7 hours ago, ReefGoat said: Perhaps he should go with a smaller setup. I mean putting rock sand and water in that tank is going to cost more than that 300 dollar light I could imagine. EDIT: While I do agree with you clown. In every hobby I have had in my life. I went through a cycle........ Bought cheap first because........budget. Then regretted it within the month or almost immediately once using said product. Then started shopping around for high end and ended up finding a way to get it. Whether that be working overtime, selling something or just simply saving and waiting. My aquarium hobby adventure has been the first time in my life that I just spent the money and got not the highest end but higher end equipment and I don't regret it one bit. Simply because in the end you end up saving money by not wasting it on sub par stuff the first go round. EDIT: I'm in no way shape or form saying that this light is sub par. Because, I don't have a way to know that, as I've never owned it. You don't have to go cheap to get quality. That's marketing controlling the masses into believing low cost means crappy make. I have an Ai Prime, aquamaxx, and a par38 on 3 separate tanks. All lights in differing costs. I have had growth, happy corals, and colour pop with all 3. I started reef keeping in 2007 after yrs of freshwater 1 big trend that I myself saw when I was a newbie was everyone constantly advertising the most expensive products while claiming lower cost items were not only crap but wouldn't work. We still see it today. Will some products be shit- yup that's regardless of the cost. Can you do a tank without going into massive debt. Yes. It's doing research on products If I was on a budget and had a large tank I'd go with Mars Aqua. Many successful reef hobbiest using them and they saved themselves money which can go on corals. Now setting up a 75g with $300- sure it can be done, if someone gives them everything for free. Lol. Even inexpensive lighting on a 75g will cost $300+ 2 Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 4 hours ago, Clown79 said: You don't have to go cheap to get quality. That's marketing controlling the masses into believing low cost means crappy make. I have an Ai Prime, aquamaxx, and a par38 on 3 separate tanks. All lights in differing costs. I have had growth, happy corals, and colour pop with all 3. I started reef keeping in 2007 after yrs of freshwater 1 big trend that I myself saw when I was a newbie was everyone constantly advertising the most expensive products while claiming lower cost items were not only crap but wouldn't work. We still see it today. Will some products be shit- yup that's regardless of the cost. Can you do a tank without going into massive debt. Yes. It's doing research on products If I was on a budget and had a large tank I'd go with Mars Aqua. Many successful reef hobbiest using them and they saved themselves money which can go on corals. Now setting up a 75g with $300- sure it can be done, if someone gives them everything for free. Lol. Even inexpensive lighting on a 75g will cost $300+ Well said. Quote Link to comment
mndfreeze Posted June 28, 2018 Author Share Posted June 28, 2018 11 hours ago, lpsouth1978 said: I have seen a lot of people asking about this light lately. The simple answer is that it will work fine for Fish only and MAYBE softies. I would not use it for anything more. This light is only 96W but has 256 LED's. This means that each LED is only 0.375W. There will be NO penetration of PAR with this light so using it for LPS or SPS will likely end in loss of the corals and a lot of money. If he is looking for inexpensive options he would be better served with a Viparspectra 300W or something similar. They are in the same price range but use higher wattage LED's. Still not top of the line, but capable of keeping all corals and anemones. Thanks, This was more the information I was looking for. Not so much about quality comparisons as I knew the light was already a cheapy/budget, but the number of LED's vs the wattage listed seemed suspect for its claims. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 On 6/27/2018 at 11:12 PM, mndfreeze said: Thanks, This was more the information I was looking for. Not so much about quality comparisons as I knew the light was already a cheapy/budget, but the number of LED's vs the wattage listed seemed suspect for its claims. Wattage on LED is completely different than standard lights. Ex. A 5 watt led bulb is equivalent to 50 watt incandescent. My Ai Prime runs at 24 watts, I have sps and lps under it. The light is at 85% for everything but whites and reds. What you should be focusing on is: Led colors and ratio of the colours. You want 4:1 blue to white Par values, spread of the light, controlability. Quote Link to comment
05XRunner Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 Go T5 Grow Co. T5 Fluorescent Fixture 6500K HO Bulbs Included for Hydroponic Indoor Gardening (T5 4ft 4 Bulb Fluorescent Fixture) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M624OCR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_OxzoBbPYKP43D Get some ati bulbs like 2 blue+ and 2 aquablue plus or coral plus Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 6 minutes ago, 05XRunner said: Go T5 Grow Co. T5 Fluorescent Fixture 6500K HO Bulbs Included for Hydroponic Indoor Gardening (T5 4ft 4 Bulb Fluorescent Fixture) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M624OCR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_OxzoBbPYKP43D Get some ati bulbs like 2 blue+ and 2 aquablue plus or coral plus I loved t5. Quote Link to comment
mndfreeze Posted July 5, 2018 Author Share Posted July 5, 2018 On 7/1/2018 at 3:45 PM, Clown79 said: Wattage on LED is completely different than standard lights. Ex. A 5 watt led bulb is equivalent to 50 watt incandescent. My Ai Prime runs at 24 watts, I have sps and lps under it. The light is at 85% for everything but whites and reds. What you should be focusing on is: Led colors and ratio of the colours. You want 4:1 blue to white Par values, spread of the light, controlability. Yes, but the issue was I don't have any PAR information to look at. What I posted is basically all I could really find which was why I asked. There is definitely a link to wattage PER LED as well. That light has a ton of em so each LED is fairly low power. I have an AI prime also and it only has a few LED's on it because each one is fairly high powered. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 7 hours ago, mndfreeze said: Yes, but the issue was I don't have any PAR information to look at. What I posted is basically all I could really find which was why I asked. There is definitely a link to wattage PER LED as well. That light has a ton of em so each LED is fairly low power. I have an AI prime also and it only has a few LED's on it because each one is fairly high powered. Let's put it this way. A ton of ppl say the Aquamaxx nemolight won't work, ppl down play the orbit as well Both have more leds with low watts per led. Many use the orbit with no issue. I've had the nemolight bleach corals because it's that strong. Leds are very powerful and ppl often forget that. Ppl also tend to only recommend what costs a lot assuming it means better. Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 1 hour ago, Clown79 said: Let's put it this way. A ton of ppl say the Aquamaxx nemolight won't work, ppl down play the orbit as well Both have more leds with low watts per led. Many use the orbit with no issue. I've had the nemolight bleach corals because it's that strong. Leds are very powerful and ppl often forget that. Ppl also tend to only recommend what costs a lot assuming it means better. Amen.... Lol. I should be getting my micmol mini G3 today as a matter of fact. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 On 7/5/2018 at 9:33 AM, jdmcbuilt said: Amen.... Lol. I should be getting my micmol mini G3 today as a matter of fact. Great to hear. Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 3 hours ago, Clown79 said: Great to hear. It looks great. The fan when it turns on is a bit loud its a quite humming sound.. But it's not louder than my fan over my 75g. So no big deal. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 8 minutes ago, jdmcbuilt said: It looks great. The fan when it turns on is a bit loud its a quite humming sound.. But it's not louder than my fan over my 75g. So no big deal. That's great. You should write a review after a mnth of use. It will be helpful to others who want to try out other options. Quote Link to comment
jdmcbuilt Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Clown79 said: That's great. You should write a review after a mnth of use. It will be helpful to others who want to try out other options. i was planning on it. once i start to place some corals in there to show there reaction to the light. 1 Quote Link to comment
Ted Sledge Posted July 6, 2022 Share Posted July 6, 2022 It's a good light , glad I bought it for my reef tank 1 Quote Link to comment
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