NICREW C10 Plants LED Aquarium Light, 18-24 in, 13 Watts, Full Spectrum Fish Tank Light with Timer, Day and Night Cycle, Brightness Adjustable

For years, I put off buying a "fancy" aquarium light because they were too expensive and I was too cheap! But I started researching earlier this year and found that the Nicrew C10 was competitively priced and had good reviews, so I decided to give it a try. I am very happy that I did, this light has been great. My plant growth has been phenomenal, so much so that I have had to reduce the time of how long I leave on the light. It has variable brightness settings and timer, so you can adjust the brightness or the duration of run time. Seems pretty durable, I've had it for a couple months now. Of course, you need to clean it if you don't have a cover (the company suggests using a lid), but it looks great. The controller is really easy to understand once you get the hang of it, easy to read, and tucks away nicely.

At first, the blue tone seemed quite pronounced to me visually, as we can also confirm through the spectrum chart provided by the manufacturer. Maybe this is more for marine aquariums, I'm not sure. In my planted aquarium, I've been using the blue channel between 20% and 35% as a test. I'm not sure how the spectrum chart looks like this. I'll observe the development of the plants over time. In terms of appearance, this configuration seems pleasant and balanced to me. If there is a lack of blue, I'll return to 100% in both channels.After a week of use, I noticed that the new leaves are getting a little bigger than the previous ones.It's not a very intense light, but maybe that's a good thing. Based on the first few days, I noticed that the growth is not so fast, but adequate, with healthy leaves.The sunrise and sunset, as well as moonlight, are pleasant, but my main focus is that the spectrum and quality of light are geared towards the plants. If it continues to provide good service, (I can't say about durability yet) it will definitely be my go-to brand for aquarium lighting. For now, I only have positive comments.

Exactly what I needed!I was looking for a cheaper/more affordable option of grow lights for a soon-to-be bioactive set up and was led here! So far the lights are working well, it's got a good weight to it (not heavy, but not too light) and I LOVE how it stays in place on the top of my tank thanks to the metal extensions! And the day and night time settings are awesome! Easy to change and I can even dim the lighting at night! Amazing price for this, and it looks great, I love how simple and sleek it is! I hope this lasts a long time!

Really love this light because it is a great value and has everything I was seeking in a light. However, depending how you place this light, the control unit may be too close to the water. This was unexpected, because the overall power cord is over 6 feet long. In my case, I have provided a photo showing that with the light mounted to the top of my aquarium canopy, the control unit just barely extends out of the back of my canopy/back of my aquarium. In my case, I think this is just far away from my saltwater to prevent salt creep from forming on the controller. Also, if you use an aquarium canopy designed like mine, then the included brackets to suspend above aquarium will not work. My prior light was already attached to my canopy top, so we tied this light with coated wire to my canopy top's prior light's connectors (eye screws - not anything fancy). Setting the time was pretty straightforward, and the directions warn if you take too long on any particular field it will timeout. I did have that timeout happen to me during initial setup, but it wasn't a big deal to start over that part. I love that my fish only with live rock (FOWLR) saltwater aquarium turns on and off on its own without paying an arm and a leg for traditional saltwater aquarium lighting. When the light is on, at 100% blue and 100% white lights were too strong, too bright for my foxface and copperband butterfly fish hid. I tried bringing the light down to 75% but when I got all the way down to 50% then my copperband butterfly fish came out from hiding. I've also enclosed a photo of my saltwater aquarium. On the clip is some macroalgae for my foxface fish to eat, and having this good lighting designed for plants will help that to grow until my foxface eats it. This is a red gracilaria macroalgae which might be a little tough for my small foxface, but it looks nice and will absorb phosphates and nitrates from the water, should it grow out on the clip. The gracilaria is similar in texture to dragons tongue, but it is supposed to grow faster. I may move my clip further up to the light, esp since my fish hid until I brought the lighting down to just 50% intensity. I don't have space in my under-tank refugium for a planted area, so my clip is my only planted solution (for now). As long as salt creep doesn't form on the control unit, I expect this to last a long time as it is well made. Even if this light doesn't and needs replaced sooner, this light cost just 5% of what I just paid for a replacement light for my other bigger tank, a mixed reef aquarium using AI Hydro 64s... 5% is not a typo - this light from Amazon a GREAT value!! I have been using it a month now and I LOVE IT!!In case Amazon mixes my aquarium light with other similar products, this is my products description:NICREW C10 Plants LED Aquarium Light, 30-36 in, 20Watts, Full Spectrum Fish Tank Light with Timer, Day and Night Cycle, Brightness AdjustableI hope my review helps others

I like the controller on this one a lot, it's easy to use and clear about what it does on the display. It's a nice blue display too.I would prefer however if the controller was farther away from the light fixture, so it's not hanging alongside the tank.It fit perfectly well atop my standard sized 10 gallon tank, and covered almost the entire length of it. However, since I have a glass canopy, the LED lights individually reflected on the top of it, which looked quite distracting. So however nice this was I decided to return it to get something with even lighting instead of little LEDs. Without the glass cover on my tank it would have been fine I think.