[minorhero]

Hello folks,

I recently saw that Aquarium Co-Op put out a new light. I was very intrigued and decided to give it a go. I bought a 12 inch light because I actually have several tanks that use that size. It arrived last night and I decided to compare the spectrum to other lights I already own and post it here for folks who might be interested in such things.

The 4 lights are:
1) Aquarium Co-Op 12 inch light currently selling for 60 dollars plus shipping.
2) Twinstar Light Ver. III SA 30cm. Currently selling for 140 dollars plus shipping (inline dimmer not included)
3) Hygger 9w Full Spectrum Aquarium Light - currently selling for 19 dollars plus shipping
4) Honpal LED Aquarium Light (aka random light I had purchased a few months back), currently selling for 20 dollars plus shipping.

All pictures are of my tadpole grow-out tank. The honpal is a fairly dim light, so I used built in dimmers or inline dimmers to dim the rest of the lights to roughly the same brightness levels for purposes of taking these pictures. Here are the results:

Aquarium Co-Op:

Twinstar:

Hygger:

Honpal (aka random light):

Other notes. The Aquarium Co-op light definitely has the best fit and finish. It feels extremely solid. The controls on the aquarium co-op light also have a very smooth gradient when increasing or decreasing the power of the light. BUT it doesn't do sunrise and sunset, so other then noticing this feature when first setting it up, it's pretty worthless.

The Honpal light is definitely the closest to the aquarium co-op light in terms of spectrum. I bought that light because I needed something low powered and cheap for this tank, and I wanted something that had more then red, blue and white leds. The Honpal fit the bill in that regard. It would not be a good light if medium or high light was needed whereas the other lights can certainly accomplish that goal.

Regarding the hygger, there are several different lights made by this company, all with similar or identical names making it very difficult to differentiate them. The version I have in this comparison is definitely the crappiest of the lot .

And that's all. Hopefully you guys found this useful.

 

[jeffkrol]

Thanks...

Does it have sunrise/sunset mode? Can I change the individual LEDs? These features didn't make the cut. The price increase and loss in efficiency in the LEDs didn't make sense when achieving our goals of the best possible light that lasts a long time while remaining affordable......We recommend using this light with a Kasa Wifi Timer set to 8-12 hours per day.

Does it retain last setting?

 

[minorhero]

Thanks...


Does it retain last setting?

It does. The last setting being dimness level and whether you have the light turned on to the blue only lights or all the leds. There are no other settings on the light.

 

[Goodwood]

I know that photos on a computer screen can look different from what you would see with your eyeballs, but I find it interesting the most expensive light looks terrible compared to the Aquarium Co-op light.

 

[minorhero]

I know that photos on a computer screen can look different from what you would see with your eyeballs, but I find it interesting the most expensive light looks terrible compared to the Aquarium Co-op light.

They are very different spectrums. The twinstar lights are known for having a very red spectrum. If you have red plants, and really want them to 'look' VERY red, then shining red light on them is a good way to bring that about. Enter the twinstar. They are awesome at emphasizing red plants.

The aquarium co-op light really does have a nice spectrum to it though, so yeah, it does make for a nice looking tank as well.

 

[evil8]

The Aquarium Co-Op lights came out a week after I bought the new light for my 75g. I was on the members mailing list.

 

[greenguppy]

I just purchased one for my 65gal planted tank. It looks great and plants are starting to look a lot better than when I had one nicrew. In a vid Cory did he measured the par and it seems decent in that department as well.