The Vertex Illumilux LED lightstrip we first spied at InterZoo is in our hand and we couldn’t help but pop it out of the box and take a closer look at the light to see how it has progressed since we first saw it. This light is going to go to a lucky reefer as one of the great raffle prizes we have lined up for Reef Stock this weekend. More pics and details after the break.
From first view we saw of this 12 in. model was impressive. Built from a durable aluminium housing, the quality of the light can be seen and felt right off the bat. The six Cree XPE LEDs in this model do create quite an amount of light. Although we would have loved to have seen this light in a balanced blue and white version, the blue LEDs did make the livestock pop from our quick “holdover” look at the light in action. Vertex labeled this version running at 20W total.
The power connection is a custom two-prong connection with a soft rubber boot to give it a small amount of protection from the elements. One downside to the power supply is the three-part approach used. The custom two prong cable connects into a typical power supply plug, then into the power adapter body and finally into the power outlet. So overall you have at least nine feet of cord in three sections. There appears to be a knockout plug on the other end of the fixture that looks like via a small modification, could connect another fixture to make it more modular down the road. The Vertex Illumilux LED strip light is a pretty snazzy fixture we’d love to throw over one of our tanks.
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