VIPARSPECTRA 165W LED Aquarium Light Dimmable Full Spectrum LED Reef Lights for Coral Saltwater Fish Tank, Remote/Timer Control, Programmable Auto On/Off, Blue/White Dual Channel Brightness 0-100%

I purchased two of these lights to put over my 65g reef. Following advice online I cracked the units open and 'hacked' them to remove all of the lenses except around the outer perimeter to give better spread. (The lenses on the inner side of both fixtures, where they're next to each other, were also removed.) I was impressed to see that there're some decent measures taken to prevent salt creep from invading through the plexi window at the bottom of the light from splashes -- there's both a bead of silicone and a gasket. However, you'll still be out of luck if you drop the thing in the tank.With the bottom of the fixtures about 10" above the surface of the water and the light set at 75/30 I was getting PAR of about 275 mmol about 8 inches down, and about 125-185 on the sand (with the highest levels at the bottom in the middle of the tank where both fixture's coverage overlapped.) With the lenses removed discoballing is reduced and more light reflects back off the sides of the tank internally, giving better light to otherwise shadowed areas. However, the top of my tank is fully enclosed by a hood; keeping the lights this high with no lenses might be intolerable otherwise, if I didn't have something to block the light-spill.The lights are easy to program using the included remote, but a bit of a pain if you want to turn them on during a time when they're set to be off. It would also be nice to have a soft-start that ramps the lights up from 0 over a period of a few seconds, if only to not startle the fish -- but I now have a screen on the top of my tank, so it's not an issue. The whites at 1% are very bright and may provide a tank that's too white for some users even at this level -- however, personally, I found the whites provided at 70/30 to be pleasing.These lights are extremely bright in terms of PAR when put on full, particularly if you keep all the lenses on. The use of a PAR meter to map out the light coverage of your tank is highly recommended when adding these lights to a tank, particularly if your previous lights were on the dimmer side. I have been acclimating my tank to the new light over the past two weeks and am most of the way to where I want to be; coral growth has already taken off compared to my previous, underpowered light.With the way that I mounted my lights, I was easily able to adjust both of them at the same time using a single remote, if some care was taken with the angles. While the onboard clocks can indeed drift apart, it's very simple to adjust the time on the light to get them back into synch.I'm also impressed by their customer service. Through my own ignorance I screwed up one of the hangers; they responded to my inquiry promptly and went above and beyond helping me out.Ultimately, you get what you pay for, but I consider these to be a fantastic value. These are no-frills lights, but they seem to be built decently well and with quality LEDs, and are more than sufficient to grow corals well, and -- though this is completely subjective -- I find their spectrum pleasing. Viparspectra put their money and effort on the things that really count, and pretty much on nothing else.I will likely pull out the LED drivers and replace them with 0-10v versions so that I can use my Apex to dim them, but that's a low priority upgrade. However, given the light's construction, it should be relatively simple to do so.

Update: Used for over 3 years and still love them. I take them apart to vacuum and clean inside whenever the fan gets too dusty. I use a vacuum, toothbrush, and 90+% Isopropyl Alcohol (NO WATER). I then dry everything with a hair dryer. Let sit for a bit, and they're good to go after reassembly. NOTE: Opening voids warranty!Great economical light, however, limited to 14K so not great for some corals. Blue is truly amazing. Really makes bubble tip anemones pop. Love the remote. Don't drop in or let get wet with salt water or won't work :-).WARNING: Doing the below steps will void warranty!!! Likely if you need to do this, warranty is already void.If dropped in salt water, immediately unplug electric from wall. Set de-energized unit on table and disassemble. Pay attention to how everything is connected. Suggest taking pictures of everything before you disconnect it. Wash everything (including unplugged power cord tip) with 90%+ pure isopropyl alcohol. Brush components with toothbrush if necessary. Dry each component completely with hair dryer. Visually inspect. Reassemble. Plug in and test. Should work fine as long as not in salt water for long. If don't have time to immediately take apart, completely immerse in 90%+ pure isopropyl alcohol (immediately) until time to take apart. Works for most electronics, including LED aquarium lights. Should work perfectly afterwards, but you must take your time and completely follow above procedures. Must immerse (soak) anything that can't be disassembled for longer. May need to remove and wash lenses for individual LED's. Be sure to wash any potentially wet component as salt is both corrosive and conductive.CAUTION: Never open unit that is plugged in! Be careful with electricity. If you're not comfortable doing this, and don't understand electricity and the risks associated with working with it, then please don't attempt. This is for information only and in no way an endorsement of the above procedure. Proceed at your own risk.

Only had these a few days. Replacing a AquaLife 72" T5 set up which ran well for about 12 years but finally died.Positives:* Easy to mount from the ceiling.* Seems well built* The lights are more "shimmery" than the T5s* Fairly easy to set up* The blue channel is a much deeper blue than the T5s* My old 5T fixture cost about $180 to replace the 8 bulbs each year and this LED is more energy efficient.Negatives:* Not loud but much louder then my old Aqualife which had a total of two fans. This pair has 6 fans. Not bad but my tank is in the same room as my high end music listening room.* No night light. My old fixture had 6 small blue LEDs for a nice night light. I pulled them out of the old fixture and mounted them in my hood on a timer. Would be nice to have a built in night light as a third channel.* Does not seem be a way to just turn on channel one or channel two without setting it up in the timer. When you adjust the brightness both channels come on at the set brightness.* One of my remotes came broken. I only needed one but was able to super glue the broken one to repair the cracked plastic. I didn't ask the seller for a replacement, it was easy for me to fix it.Overall happy so far. I set the dimmer down to 15% for the first 3 days and then up to 25% so the coral can adjust to the LED light. I had no light for 4 days but nothing died. Many of the mushrooms lost color but its already coming back strong. I am going to keep ramping up the dimmer every week.