# Green Element EVO Quad Reef LED



## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Pics and video for anyone interested. My previous setup was 2xT5 and 2xT5HO. The regular T5's were 6500K and Actinic. The 2 HO bulbs were both 6500K.
The different setup configurations are as follows:
T5, LED's at REAR of tank, LED's at MIDDLE of tank, at REAR with optics removed and at MIDDLE with optics removed.
Camera settings remained consistent for both pictures and video. Apologies for the overexposed LED's, I should have used them as a baseline instead of the T5's.

T5's









T5's





[email protected]









[email protected]





[email protected]









[email protected]





[email protected] NO OPTICS









[email protected] NO OPTICS





[email protected] NO OPTICS









[email protected] NO OPTICS


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Nice but i like the T5's more than the LED


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

You know GTZ after I bought my beamswork reef bright 3300 lumens and installed it on my tank and it replaced a quad t5HO. Obviously the brightness was not even close. So I went online and was doing some searching and ran across the EVO quad. Probably should have ordered it although I have really gotten used to my beamswork but probably still going to order another one just for brightness.

I was having problems with my camera and adjusting to the different lights. In person which is brighter the dual t5HO or the EVO quad? Which do you prefer?


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## austings (May 12, 2012)

I love your tank, you have some nice fish in there. How big of a tank is that?

Also, where did you buy those LED's? You can PM me. Thanks.


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## newforestrob (Feb 1, 2010)

fusion said:


> Nice but i like the T5's more than the LED


Yah,me too,the shimmering and spotlighting is something I wouldnt be able to get used to,great looking tank either way though :thumb:


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

At the risk of this sounding like a product review, (which I'll add at some point in the reviews section), I haven't made up my mind whether I like it or not. At 3 watts x 64 LEDs, I expected the tank to be much brighter.
The shimmer does take some getting used to. It would look better if the surface was moving much slower, but that defeats the purpose of agitation providing better gas exchange.
Brightness at the floor of the tank is about the same, perhaps slightly less with the LEDs. Overall tank brightness is a fair bit less with LED's but that's to be expected because LED's project rather than spread.
I think I'd prefer no blue led's, all white. I wish there was another switch option to turn them off. I may try to mask off the blues and see how it looks. The spotlighting is less intense in person, more so with the light in the middle with no optics.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

^^^Sounds exactly like my new beamswork. I have become accustomed to it over the last week. I would have guess that your fixture would be close to a dual t5HO and dual t5SO combined but less than a quad t5HO. My fixture is 3300 lumens with 54 1w LED's and it is a bit less than half of my quad t5HO using only one ballast(technically making it a dual).

Still....I have yet to find a light to satisfy my personal tastes like a metal halide. Just not very economical to run on a freshwater tank with no plants.


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Beautiful tank and fish GTZ...wow...I don't know...the T5HO's cast a fixed bright light...the LED's cast a shimmering light...it really comes down to personal preference. I love my LED's. I have T5HO's on my marine tank and my fish hide at times because the light is so bright. Having areas of less light is not necessarily a bad thing...and that's only my opinion


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

I think the shimmer effect looks great.


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## papasmurf (May 21, 2003)

I've got two of the beamswork 1W 36" units end to end over my 125. I removed the optics as the spotlighting is too much with them. I was replacing a 4x54" T5 HO unit (48") so the end to end spread with the LED's is better. I was using 10k and 6500k bulbs in the T5 unit and wish they had a 10k/6500k combo available when I purchased instead of the 10k/blue leds. I have been thinking about ordering some yellow leds off of ebay and replacing some or all of the blue ones.


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## eutimio (Aug 22, 2012)

Is it me or the fish look a lot better with the T5?I like my reef bright marineland led's and i was looking for a 4ft light also but i might just go for the t5HO and combine them with the LED's i have.I think you get a clearer view of the fish with the t5's dont you?


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

eutimio said:


> Is it me or the fish look a lot better with the T5?I like my reef bright marineland led's and i was looking for a 4ft light also but i might just go for the t5HO and combine them with the LED's i have.I think you get a clearer view of the fish with the t5's dont you?


I like my fishes colors on my LED more than my t5HO. The only difference is brightness. I have the 3300 lumens reef bright model and it is still not as bright as a dual t5HO.


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## eutimio (Aug 22, 2012)

razor thanks for the reply we've had this conversation a while ago lol but really this is confusing i guess in person the led;s look a lot nicer i just cant tell whats gonna look good on mine since its 30inch deep and for now i only have a 24" LED fixture.For the price of the beamswork i guess its worth risking..T5's are even more expensive than that.whats your thought on this?


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

eutimio said:


> razor thanks for the reply we've had this conversation a while ago lol but really this is confusing i guess in person the led;s look a lot nicer i just cant tell whats gonna look good on mine since its 30inch deep and for now i only have a 24" LED fixture.For the price of the beamswork i guess its worth risking..T5's are even more expensive than that.whats your thought on this?


48" quad t5HO is cheaper than the Beamswork. I think I linked you to the guys website. Just look for the t5HO. If you want brightness the go with the t5HO.

PS...go with the quad t5HO that has two actinic and two 10000k bulbs.


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## eutimio (Aug 22, 2012)

more expensive in the long run replacing the bulbs i meant and really the 24 i have is almost enough for me when the fish hang out near the middle and top of the tank..because of the slim design , they dont cover much area thus the need for another fixture on a 18inch wide tank.The corners are kind of dark and i cant see the fish colors when they swim in the corners...so a 48 beamswork i am sure will work in terms of lighting being placed in the rear section of the tank having the second 24 inch fixture i already have backing it up in the front of the tank with just the actinics on or whatever works best.Im very picky and also take a lot time to get a product that im not sure how is it going to work so thats why you see me asking all these questions , making up my mind upon a product then suddenly change it all over again.haha


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

eutimio said:


> more expensive in the long run replacing the bulbs i meant and really the 24 i have is almost enough for me when the fish hang out near the middle and top of the tank..because of the slim design , they dont cover much area thus the need for another fixture on a 18inch wide tank.The corners are kind of dark and i cant see the fish colors when they swim in the corners...so a 48 beamswork i am sure will work in terms of lighting being placed in the rear section of the tank having the second 24 inch fixture i already have backing it up in the front of the tank with just the actinics on or whatever works best.Im very picky and also take a lot time to get a product that im not sure how is it going to work so thats why you see me asking all these questions , making up my mind upon a product then suddenly change it all over again.haha


yes....cheaper in the long run for sure just not as bright. Go with the 3300 lumens reef bright Beamswork model. You will be happy with it.


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## johnc (Dec 16, 2011)

boy has this topic taken off!! I think it is all about personal preference. GTZ the comparisons are great but it really is a shame that suppliers dont have identical tanks on display so that we can see the difference ourselves, live and decide. However as has been said, it takes time to get used to the LEDs effect and my fish are far less skittish with it


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