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%

4 reviews for 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%

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Antoinette Koss – July 4, 2025

   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.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Lola Witting – July 12, 2025

   Works great my frags and anemones love it

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Edmond Hauck V – November 23, 2025

   If I could give it 10 stars I would I’ve had it for a little while and it works perfect it was so good I bought another one for my 100 gallon tank it had fast shipping too

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Mr. Darwin Schoen PhD – December 29, 2025

   The good:Very good lighting, solid mounting with the cable system on the light. The blues are very blue, and make the colors really POP to an amazing level if you’re into blue light aquariums.The just ok:The controller is very basic. It’s just a clock, and on/off for spectrum 1 (blue) and spectrum 2 (white+green+red). There no ramp up or ramp down for sunrise/sunset, no individual spectrum control, or any way to vary intensity. It works, but I use it as a supplemental light to my other light that does all those other option for the same price.Overall: good lighting, feels commercial in the way it’s controlled, I wouldn’t really recommend as the only light on a home aquarium if your looking for more ‘natural’ features like sunrise/set. As a supplemental light, or in a commercial setting, it’s simple and great.