Aquatic Life 3 watt LED marine light fixtures shown off at Reef-A-Palooza

By on Oct 21, 2012

Aquatic Life 3 watt

Aquatic Life is an aquarium product manufacturer primarily known for their R.O. systems, pumps, T5 fluorescent lights and more recently for entry level 1 watt  expandable fixtures, and their half watt fish sytem lights. They have recently announced the release of a 3 LED watt fixture aimed at the higher end LED market, and we got to check out the latest developments in person. At $729 these fixtures aren’t cheap, especially compared to other high end fixtures such as the Ecotech Radion or AI Vega but the software behind the fixtures is definitely very impressive.

The Aquatic Life fixtures have the nice metal body enclosure we all love, and we’ve almost come to expect from LED fixtures. Acrylic panels wedged between the sides furthermore give the Aquaticc Life fixture a nice look. The AquaticLife flagship light comes in at a total of 78 watts, and as the name suggest uses 3 watt LEDs. The fixtures are made and assembled in US and use a combination of white, blue, royal blue and red Cree LEDs. The fixture is fully dimmable and allows up to 18 programmable color combinations, and frivolous features such as lightning and cloud stimulation are also possible.

The software behind the fixture is arguably the strong point of the fixture with a buttery smooth interface. The light intensities can be simply dragged up and down with your mouse on your computer, or can be adjusted through slider based window. Default lighting schedules can also simply be downloaded from the website in the case you don’t want to deal with setting up your own program. The fixture comes with a remote that allows simple features such as dimming, but that can also be used to roll through four different consumer programmed lighting settings. The fixture is connected through a USB cable, but an aquatic life dongle can also be used if you prefer a wireless solution.

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  • koraltek

    hmmmm…. yep, still MEH

  • Mike

    Is this a “made in the USA” type of pricing we’re looking at? Because honestly it looks kind of janky.

  • XD_1

    Has Aquatic Life ever made a product that wasn’t MEH? It seems to me meh has been their business plan from day 1. Ever try their T5 lamps? Get four 54w bulbs and they’ll all be different lengths, some won’t even fit inside their own fixtures.

  • Kevin Ge

    Remote interface and control sofeware on computor is impressive ,but I might go with Ecotech Radion with a cheaper price and higher power.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Tibbits/8640355 Matthew Tibbits

    That is ridiculous. I haven’t used any of their products, but that’s crazy. Also this thing looks pretty lackluster.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Frick/100001223981671 Jason Frick

    Aquatic Life has a mid-range aquarist market. So they are probably not trying to impress you your highness. (I’m kidding don’t take it seriously) As for the T5 lamps they have started to get those manufactured in Germany now. I know they fit fine in all the fixtures they come with but i am not sure if the German bulbs will fit in the older fixtures. You should be able to reset the caps if that happens.

  • B P

    AquaticLife makes some very nice, affordable T5ho fixtures. Their 4 bulb and 6 bulb t5 fixtures have excellent features; single reflectors, bulbs, moonlights, and a single cord controlled with a timer for 2 banks of bulbs and LEDs. Their customer service in my experience has been top-notch and their pricing schemes are good for profitability for LFS. While their bulbs aren’t the best, you cannot beat the price. I used to sell the crap out of their T5 units at my old LFS.

    I am very interested in the new LED fixtures, they look to be on-par with DIY built fixtures and appear to have better spread than the entry level Radion. I would much like to see Sanjay do a PAR thread on these!

  • BHazard

    What exactly makes 78 watts of leds worth $729? Why do you need 18 channels for 4 colors? So overpriced and mediocre it isn’t even worth breaking down.

  • DrB

    $730! This makes the Vega, Radion, and Razor look really, really good! Even the price of the GHL Mitras seems like a bargain compared to this.