48in. Viperspectra

[Wild1]

A fellow reefer has offered to give me a 48in. Viperspectra LED light for my 90 gallon reef tank. He was honest and told me it was older, but works fine. I tried to find it on-line, but didn't have any luck, I'm not sure if it's even made anymore. Does anyone here know or have any experience with this light? TIA

 

[Cichlid Dad]

A fellow reefer has offered to give me a 48in. Viperspectra LED light for my 90 gallon reef tank. He was honest and told me it was older, but works fine. I tried to find it on-line, but didn't have any luck, I'm not sure if it's even made anymore. Does anyone here know or have any experience with this light? TIA

This is no longer made. No experience with it. I know the older viparspectra lights didn't have the same spectrum LEDS they have in this generation of 165 watt lights

 

[oreo54]

A fellow reefer has offered to give me a 48in. Viperspectra LED light for my 90 gallon reef tank. He was honest and told me it was older, but works fine. I tried to find it on-line, but didn't have any luck, I'm not sure if it's even made anymore. Does anyone here know or have any experience with this light? TIA

First ..30" light or ??!!
Second know Vipsrspectra lights wattage us not what they state in the " model number"

165w = 110 watts
Another example this " 600w" hort light is actually

Avg. Power Draw: 260W±3%

Viparspectra TC600 Timer Control 600W

Order your Viparspectra TC600 Timer Control 600W today from Rightbud. Lowest price, FREE shipping & warranty.

rightbud.com

 

[Gtinnel]

If you’re talking about the 300 watt viparspectra lights (which are not 48” long) then I have two of them. I don’t have them on a tank anymore, but they worked well when I used two of them to light a 6’ tank.

 

[VintageReefer]

The 48” vipars are several years old but very good. They are claimed 300w fixture not the current claimed 165w units

They work very well and you don’t get things like 6 channels of control, you get two channels. But these older units were designed to be easy to use. The leds in the channels are in the right ratios to make it hard to screw up.

Adjust the blue channel until your pad readings are where you want. Add in the white/mix channel until the overall color/brightness is where you want it

I know one tank here using the 48’s and his corals are beautiful. He only uses the blue channel…

If you don’t want it. I think he would be interested in buying it if you obtained it and wanted to sell

 

[Gtinnel]

I was able to find the specs of the lights online if it would be any help.

 

[VintageReefer]

I was able to find the specs of the lights online if it would be any help.

That’s the 32” vipar

 

[Gtinnel]

That’s the 32” vipar

Oh so there really was a 48” Viparspectra? I assumed the OP was mistaken on the length.

 

[VintageReefer]

Oh so there really was a 48” Viparspectra? I assumed the OP was mistaken on the length.

Yea it’s a 300w fixture

 

[Gtinnel]

Yea it’s a 300w fixture

The 300 watt fixture is the 32” one. It’s the Viparspectra T300. Well at least the one that gets called 300 watt as it’s actually 203watt I believe.

Also is the tank you showed using them @billyocean tank, because if so I believe he uses 4 300 watt Viparspectra, which I believe are 32” long just like mine.

 

[VintageReefer]

Yes you are correct

I may be mistaken and it might have been another brand of black box.

I know I had a black box style reef breeders photon 48 v1 years ago and there was a non-reefbreeders black box version of it. I thought it was vipar but there were a few brands back then

Regardless, the 32” vipar was never advertised as a 48” model and op is stating the friend has a 48” vipar. Op should ask the buddy to double check the size

And in answer to the question, they lack some features but can grow coral just fine

 

[billyocean]

 

[billyocean]

I run whites at 1% for about 2 hours a day while I'm at work..i hate the vipar whites..lol. but..they are solid lights with a great spectrum. They just don't have any frills...timer and % adjustment of 2 channels

 

[Gtinnel]

To answer the original question I agree with above they do a fine job growing corals, but without any features. I ended up replacing mine because I wanted to have the ability to ramp my lights up and back down (which there is a way to do with viparspectra for someone who is into diy and has a an aquarium controller).

 

[VintageReefer]

I still have my 48” photon v1. It has a lcd screen, timer with 30 min intervals, and a basic remote. Worked great

 

[oreo54]

Yea it’s a 300w fixture

That's confusing since the 31" fixture is "300W"

Hello. I just got the 300w (31")

There is possibly a 48" fixture, there were plenty "like" fixtures (Reefbreeders, Beamsworks, Sbreef, Evergrow) in this size but I'm not seeing any new or old reference to that size in a Viparspectra.

Not really an issue since one can raise a 31" light to cover 48" but with about 200 actual watts of leds before dimming the white channel.

 

[VintageReefer]

i believe the watts was the same (probably the same psu) but there was a small increase in number of leds in the 48” version

 

[crazyfishmom]

I run whites at 1% for about 2 hours a day while I'm at work..i hate the vipar whites..lol. but..they are solid lights with a great spectrum. They just don't have any frills...timer and % adjustment of 2 channels

Completely agree with this. The whites are super overblown and no color blending but man these lights can grow boogers into mountains in no time and the blues are wonderful. Super amazing tank, great inspiration for a novice like me!

 

[VintageReefer]

I was wrong. The 48” black box I was thinking of was evergrow

And they made a newer one also in photon v2 style

 

[Gtinnel]

i believe the watts was the same (probably the same psu) but there was a small increase in number of leds in the 48” version

The advertised wattage of the fixture is based upon the number of leds. They use a 3 watt led, so the 165 watt light is 55 leds and the 300 watt fixture is 100 leds. I don’t believe there is any chance they would make a bigger feature with more leds and not advertise it as a higher wattage fixture.