Rated 5 out of 5 by BigMac Great Look, Awsome
This product is great. Has a great look. Nice removable spots for your system lines or other components. The white lights make your fish look brilliant. The blue light adds a great effect at night and is not to bright at night. LEDs add virtually no heat so no adjusting thermostat. Product fairly durable and easy to clean if need be. Also the customer service was fantastic they stand behind the product one hindered percent.
May 29, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5 by Squidbait Great idea, poor implementation
So the top is stylish, and looks great on top of the tank. Having LED's is great. Here is where things get a little dicey. The LED's should go farther across the aquarium. They sit in the middle leaving the sides rather dark, covering only half the tank. They could be a little brighter overall.
Second, the hinges on the lid are made of cheap plastic. Both of mine have broken off, not from abuse but simply from opening the lid with the occasional leaving the lid open on it's own without support from my hands. Now the lid can't be moved without it trying to fall into the tank. Since the hinges are integrated into the lid, the only option I see is to replace the entire thing, which is really a waste since everything else works just fine. The weight of the lid puts too much stress on the two little tiny pieces of plastic connecting the lid to the frame.
I think I am forced to find some other lid, as I am hesitant to buy a replacement with the hinges being the same as they were on my lid.
I am open to suggestions from customer service, and if they come up with a solution that doesn't involve just buying another lid, I will update my review.
December 21, 2012
Rated 5 out of 5 by DaveTheFishGuy Great product! Works well, nice features. Would buy another if I needed another one and would recommend to a friend.
This is a great beginning to the LED hood light industry. Product works well and have had no problems. Would recommend this to to a friend. For future development I would make the following changes:
1. Develop the ability to use this product with live plants.
2. Design the cutouts for filters and accessories to be replaced incase set up and arrangement is changed. Currently, once you remove the plastic panel it is gone for ever.
3. Design something to fit the 55gal without the gap in the middle. Currently the 55 requires 2 hoods, leaving a lightless gap in the middle.
4. Design a system that you can set on a timer to automatically transition from day to night to off to night and then back to day.. Current system in manual, which is fine, but automation would be better for the fish providing a consistent cycle.
Otherwise, great product. Hope to see my automation idea in the near future. Maybe Marineland will allow me to be part of the R&D? :)
December 10, 2012
Rated 1 out of 5 by fishyguyinNE Lights don't work
This is the second hood I've bought. The lights just don't work. It's the same problem I had with the first/original hood. So it must be a problem with all of them. Everything about the thing is fine, except the lights don't function. With my last hood I had to click the switch, then bang on the unit with my fist several times to get one light bar to light up. This went on for a few months (and the fish certainly didn't like it), then it died. So after having it for a year I bought a new one. I figured I just had bad luck. The new one worked fine for only three or four weeks before the same problemt started again. If I bang the lights around a bit they'll flicker, but they won't light up. I've read other remarks online of how they use a bad switch in these things. I'd avoid this system.
February 27, 2012
Rated 4 out of 5 by hematech Best hood light combo
This LED light system is efficient and functional. The white light is crisp and brings out depth, shadows, and colors in the fish. The Blue "Moonlight" setting creates a calmdown time for my fish before I give them darkness. The LED light fits into the tank hood as one integral unit. The light stays put when you lift up the hood for feeding.
The hood has a protective clear panel protecting the LED light from moisture in the tank. I just love it. I searched until I found the size tank I wanted with the LED light system. I am not dissapointed.
February 26, 2012
Rated 4 out of 5 by fizzbin Nice clean light/hood combo!
I really like this hood/light combination. You have easy, full access to the top of the tank without having to remove the hood or light (assuming you're against a wall to lean it against--turn off the light when you do this!). It looks very sharp and clean with its bulged-up center. This keeps it away from the surface of the water and therefore likely won't grow algae like the flat, glass tops do.
Installation was a piece of cake. I use an undergravel filter/powerhead combo (I know, so old school am I!) on my 29 gallon tank and I had to move the powerhead/tube over a spot since the hinges/hood slightly interfered (I like to hang my powerhead off the tank and not use the suction cups) but not a big deal for me.
I can't give it 5 stars for two reasons:
(1) I don't use an above-the-tank filter so now I have a large opening in the hood that I need to close somehow. This area should come with a filler piece that can be cut up to accommodate one's setup.
(2) The LED light is about 1/3 the width of my 29 gallon tank. I'd like to see something a bit longer--at least 1/2 the width would be nicer and eyeballing it looks to me like it would fit fine without too much compromise to the current excellent design.
July 27, 2011
Rated 3 out of 5 by Commando Very good first led hood of it kind. More development needed.
I was very excited to purchase this Hood set up. From I can tell and from all my looking around at varios pet stores locally and on the internet this is really the first of its kind that I have seen. So two tumbs up for that. I only rated this product 3 stars because of 3 major issues I have with this hood. Fix my Issues and I say it is a 5 star product.
1. You can't use live plants with this system. I wish they had Double Bright versions or Reef vesions so this issue is corrected. I am buying a supplemental lighting system to correct this becasue I like this product.
2. For 55 Gallon longs there is a lighting gap in the center because you need two hoods and the Led strip does not cover most of the surface area of the water like conventional fluorescent hoods. I am surprise to see that Marineland missed that.
3. While the flip top hood is great for acess for the entire surface area of the water and easy to acess your tank. Try cleaning or setting up the tank with very little lighting to see what you are doing. Again I am surprised they missed that.
Overall the product is good. Daylight shimming is not as advertised but the moonlight shimming and brightness is spot on.
I hope they make other versions of this product and improve on this design. I see a future in Led lighting. I also hope they make the lighting color a tad warmer.
May 14, 2011