# Nicrew Skyled Plus vs Hygger Programmable LED Light



## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Hygger would get my vote here,


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## lk7630 (May 16, 2019)

jeffkrol said:


> Hygger would get my vote here,


Do you personally have any experience with it? Especially the new one? I dont really care about the programming function


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

lk7630 said:


> Do you personally have any experience with it? Especially the new one? I dont really care about the programming function


No basing it on it's flexibility and higher lumens..
Only "advantage" of the Nicrew is the 660nm diodes but boils down to a "typical" white/red/blue unit w/ manual dimming.
Oddball 20V DC power supply meaning not as easily replaced .
Power supplies are generally a weak point in any cheap-ish LED .
NOT sure of what voltage the Hygger runs at atm so it may be a wash. 
Found it.. 15v..also "odd"..a wash.
Well Meanwell have fairly easy to find 15V power supplies .. 20V out of the box..Not so easy. 
https://www.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=LRS-50&mws=841A95CBBDAA951E
I look at a light and ask myself which one would I build.

Both have enough photons to grow plants. 

The Hygger has enough programmable "points" (need 8 points) to do a siesta period..Not my cup of tea but
like I said.. flexible.

Hygger add cyan which hits the carotenoid absorption band a bit and adds a missing or short supply visual brightener..

I'll do a deeper look but see the Nicrew as nothing really special..
Is the Hygger worth more $'s?
Hygger



> IP68 waterproof


no whites.. 6500k whites in most low level lights are usually awful in color, either greenish or yellowish.
W/out seeing the light though??
Going on odds here.
As an example Finnex usess 7000k whites that are pretty free of toning (yes I've used them) and red/blue
Looks good
Beamsworks run 6500k only in some fixtures. Most find them too yellow.


Runs sort of standard RGBA to create "white" w/ cyan to boost color rendering index to 89.

Bad things:
No inv. channel control except for night light.
IF you want a moonlight choice of color is really an advantage.
Personally IF I ran one cyan or very pale white would be preferred.
Confusing programming which is customary to most Chinese software.


That you need to decide really.
People are sensitive to some colors both positively and negatively so you would actually have to see the, no matter what anyone says.

You asked between the 2 and that's my take..


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## lk7630 (May 16, 2019)

jeffkrol said:


> No basing it on it's flexibility and higher lumens..
> Only "advantage" of the Nicrew is the 660nm diodes but boils down to a "typical" white/red/blue unit w/ manual dimming.
> Oddball 20V DC power supply meaning not as easily replaced .
> Power supplies are generally a weak point in any cheap-ish LED .
> ...


Thank you for the explanation. So for this tank I would go high tech heavily planted. Both lights have dimmer function and for nicrew I have to use a timer (which I already have). IP68 and ability to change color temperature are nice features to have on the hygger.
Basically I care most about light spectrum. For the intensity I believe the Nicrew on 100% brightness would give me high light on a the 20gal long so Hygger having better lumen is not a big factor.








Help me to understand the chart above please:
- Does it mean that with the same intensity, hygger will have higher peaked red and less yellow ?
- Nicrew has more red around the 660nm wavelength ?
- Nicrew doesnt have green light but the green spectrum is not less than hygger I suppose they come from the white light. Are the green LEDs on hygger just for better visual light color?

I need something to grow plants well and looks like it's not a big of a difference between these two in shallow tanks.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

lk7630 said:


> Thank you for the explanation. So for this tank I would go high tech heavily planted. Both lights have dimmer function and for nicrew I have to use a timer (which I already have). IP68 and ability to change color temperature are nice features to have on the hygger.
> Basically I care most about light spectrum. For the intensity I believe the Nicrew on 100% brightness would give me high light on a the 20gal long so Hygger having better lumen is not a big factor.
> 
> 
> ...



ONE second look (and showing the perils of cursory looks) the Hygger is sort of "tricky"




*IGNORE all my prev posts it is DEAD wrong!*

*The Hygger is a simple RGBW and EMULATES things like cyan/yellow/purple by a seperate RGB 5050 chip..*



Embarrassingly so..
Both run cool natively and see little advantage of one or the other.
Well except it looks like the programming of the Hygger gives it a slight advantage.


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## lk7630 (May 16, 2019)

jeffkrol said:


> ONE second look (and showing the perils of cursory looks) the Hygger is sort of "tricky"
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I still dont quite get it. Does it matter if they use RGBW chips ? The light spectrum chart is still valid isnt it ?
How about the finnex and beamswork FSPEC ? I see good reviews about them


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

lk7630 said:


> I still dont quite get it. Does it matter if they use RGBW chips ? The light spectrum chart is still valid isn't it ?
> How about the finnex and beamswork FSPEC ? I see good reviews about them



Well it puts them all in the same category with only programming differences really.
Each has a different overall tone though but the 3 Hygger,Nicrew,FSPEC all run quite cool on full.

Hygger is still the only waterproof one.


Actually the spectrum was the tip off. It looked WRONG from what I'd expect if the Hygger was like my first (and wrong) assumption.


All will grow plants fine within their limits on power.
After that my "personal" bar is dimmable and ramping for at least daylight/dusk.


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## butchblack (Oct 25, 2019)

One thing that I don't think gets mentioned enough is viewing perception. You may find the perceived light color to be more to your liking. I just got a Beamswork DA FSPEC and I like the light color much more than the Nicrew classic G2 it replaced as well as the vivagrow 24/7 a finnex knockoff. It doesn't have that yellow/green look to its white light. The funny thing is that unlike the vivagrow and nicrew it doesn't photograph as well. I don't know if I can play around with the white balance on my camera to fix it, but it's easy to correct in Photoshop, so no big deal. I should start a thread on CRI and visual perception.

+1 for being able to use a ramping timer. I find it most useful in a planted tank and is now a must-have item when buying a light.


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## Capsaicin_MFK (Nov 15, 2009)

I've got a NICREW ClassicLED Plus Planted light for my 10g and it has worked really nice so far. I wish it had more red/purple coloration to it though. I think you can change the RGB part on the Hygger to get some nice viewing colors.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

I just ordered both models, I will try to take some pictures and give a comparison. I’m going to return one of them after testing.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

First photo is the hygger, second is the nicrew. Both on max brightness. 

The nicrew is a lot thinner in profile (almost half as wide). It also runs a lot cooler. The hygger runs quite warm and is much wider. The legs are about the same, made of metal wire. 

The hygger also has a timer for day and night lights. It also has more color options. 





dekstr said:


> I just ordered both models, I will try to take some pictures and give a comparison. I’m going to return one of them after testing.


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## FinPerlak (Nov 25, 2020)

Hi.... I have one Hygger and love it, but I don't think it's comparable to the Finnex 24/7 at all. In my experience, it's a tiny bit brighter than the Finnex Stingray (although I don't have a PAR meter to check), meaning that it's more suited to low-tech tanks. I like it better than the Stingray though, considering that it's not only a bit brighter but also cheaper and has a dimmer and timer on top of that.


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