We like chasing down leads to get to the bottom of stories here at Reef Builders, so when we saw an interesting LED fixture, we starting digging for more information and that led us to this interesting next generation Chinese box LEDs that many vendors are customizing and bringing to market.
The name may change but there are a variety of these lights all over the internet going by LED Intellegent Lighting IT2060 or TaoTronics TT-AL12. Don’t get us wrong, we do like the light from first glance but we are just not trying to hide the fact that this is a base model that can be tweaked and modified to order to be rebadged and sold exclusively from that store or vendor.
What we liked about this light is there is only one power cord, unlike previous iterations where two or more power cords were used. Another great feature is the built-in controller and remote control to dial in your lights to your own specs.
Let’s get down to the other features. The 2 ft. (24 x 8 x 2.5 in.) fixture is typically rated at 120W output with Bridgelux LEDs. We’ve seen this light in both a white and blue combination along with a more colorful mix of royal blue and blue, neutral and warm White, violet, green and red in varying ratios depending on who is carrying the light.
There are also two different LED patterns we’ve seen. The first is a 5 x 11 spread for a total of 55 LEDs and the second is a 4 x 12 LED spread with three dedicated moonlights for a total of 51 LEDs. The 55 LED spread used three of the blue LEDs as moonlights. The most common optic option is with a 90 degree optic lens but some vendors offer 60 or 120 optics as well.
The fixture is passively cooled with thermal-controlled cooling fan. The light is controlled with an LCD touchpad that allows you to customize the light settings along with a remote control to make it easier from the comfort of your couch.
All the separate colors are programmable and the system allows you set a lunar cycle along with sunrise and sunset. From what we’ve seen these do not have the ability to connect to external LED controllers but being able to program all the channels for a complete light cycle makes that moot.
User input on these lights is very favorable and we look forward to getting our caudal fins on one in the wild to see how it compares in person. This next generation light is retailing for anywhere between $329 and $399 online (US prices only, international prices may vary). The fixtures also come in 3 and 4 ft. versions.
[Images via Amazon, Reef Secrets and Reef Breeders]
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