Hal3134
Active Member
I recently installed the Noopsyche K7 Pro V3 light on my 250g aquarium: 72x28x30H. It blows away the Reefbreeders Economy lights and the one other no-name LED black box that I had been running for many years now. I'm not complaining about the ReefBreeders lights, as I grew sps, lps, and softies under them just fine, but the visible lumens and the wider spread of the Noopsyche is impressive. I haven't taken measurements with a par meter, but to the naked eye the difference is noticeable. I mean, it's really noticable. So much so that I'm thinking about replacing the remaining black-box budget LED's that I have with more Noopsyche K7 Pro V3's. I was running with 4 budget LED boxes, but think that 3 of the K7 Pro's might be enough because of the apparent increased spread. I read here in another thread that the output is comparable to a Radion Gen 4. Also, because the K7's concentrate their LED's into two bubbles (lens), you get moderate shimmer lines in the tank. I like shimmer lines, but YMMV.
Physically, the unit is about half the size of my budget LED's, and so far, is much quieter than one of my budget LEDS (not the Reefbreeders).
I also like that it has a single power cord, and the lighting cycle is built into the app. My budget LED boxes had 2 power cords each, and also required plugging each power cord into a timer (or using a splitter/merger) to set my light cycle. All that goes away with the K7's.
I'll admit that the installation guide and instructions that come with the light are not so good. No doubt they were all written by Chinese native speakers with limited English abilities. In fact, the written instructions didn't match the choices available on the app so I had to make some guesses. I had to hunt around online for other threads here and elsewhere, videos on Youtube, etc. to fill in some blanks. I also ended up blindly trying various things that seemed to be what the instructions were hinting at in order to get my light up and working, and talking with the app.
From what I've gathered so far, in order to have the app talk with the light I need to switch the wifi network on my phone from my home network to a "network" hosted by the light. Then I can see and edit the program/channels for the light. When done, I have to then switch my phone back to my home network. It's a little cumbersome, but it is apparently necessary unless/until Noopsyche hosts their own servers or something (I'm not an IT person), but that has the downside that if the Noopsyche server goes down (or is taken down), then the light would be "bricked". I was also informed that there is a plus side to this, in that the K7 doesn't have access to my home wifi network, so any issue/worries about privacy/security/spying are not possible.
Even though the light is not without its flaws, for the price (usually under $200 if you wait for a sale), I'm pretty pleased with what I got. I plan to buy more as soon as my budget allows.
Physically, the unit is about half the size of my budget LED's, and so far, is much quieter than one of my budget LEDS (not the Reefbreeders).
I also like that it has a single power cord, and the lighting cycle is built into the app. My budget LED boxes had 2 power cords each, and also required plugging each power cord into a timer (or using a splitter/merger) to set my light cycle. All that goes away with the K7's.
I'll admit that the installation guide and instructions that come with the light are not so good. No doubt they were all written by Chinese native speakers with limited English abilities. In fact, the written instructions didn't match the choices available on the app so I had to make some guesses. I had to hunt around online for other threads here and elsewhere, videos on Youtube, etc. to fill in some blanks. I also ended up blindly trying various things that seemed to be what the instructions were hinting at in order to get my light up and working, and talking with the app.
From what I've gathered so far, in order to have the app talk with the light I need to switch the wifi network on my phone from my home network to a "network" hosted by the light. Then I can see and edit the program/channels for the light. When done, I have to then switch my phone back to my home network. It's a little cumbersome, but it is apparently necessary unless/until Noopsyche hosts their own servers or something (I'm not an IT person), but that has the downside that if the Noopsyche server goes down (or is taken down), then the light would be "bricked". I was also informed that there is a plus side to this, in that the K7 doesn't have access to my home wifi network, so any issue/worries about privacy/security/spying are not possible.
Even though the light is not without its flaws, for the price (usually under $200 if you wait for a sale), I'm pretty pleased with what I got. I plan to buy more as soon as my budget allows.
