With the "RGB A Plus" series, the manufacturer Chihiros now offers fully controllable LED aquarium lighting that builds on the popular "A" and "A plus" model lines. Instead of delivering only white light, the RGB A Plus lamp lets you draw on the full range of colors. In the following, we present this aquarium light in a bit more detail.

Features and equipment of the RGB A Plus

The "RGB A Plus" is a clip-on lamp for aquariums whose length can be adjusted by means of the sliding metal brackets. This allows the lamp body to be adapted flexibly to various aquarium sizes. A matching power supply, developed especially for the German market and its safety standards, is included in the scope of delivery. The real highlight, however, is the included Commander 4, which provides the Bluetooth interface for controlling the lighting via an app on a smartphone (Android or iOS). The Commander is integrated into the cable run between the power supply and the lamp. In case you want to operate the aquarium LED without a controller, a corresponding connecting cable is included.

This lighting from Chihiros is a so-called RGB LED lamp that has several color channels (R=red, G=green, B=blue). With the help of the Commander 4 LED controller, you can change and control the intensity of the individual colors. In addition, programming a daylight curve is easy to do. It is no problem to program a moonlight individually, just like sunrise glow or various twilight scenarios.

The various light colors controlled individually (100% intensity each). The final picture shows all channels at full power ("Full Light").

In contrast to the "WRGB" series from Chihiros, the "RGB A Plus" model line has no separate white LEDs. The white component of the light is achieved here by mixing the different RGB colors. This is also noticeable in the luminous flux achieved, which is lower compared with the WRGB lights. Nevertheless, if you place an RGB A Plus lamp on a common standard aquarium, for example, you generally reach around 30 lumens per liter. This corresponds roughly to a medium light requirement and is therefore completely sufficient for the growth of most aquarium plants. A big advantage of this RGB lamp is the many different possible lighting scenarios, with in some cases a very strong ability to emphasize various color tones. Red tones, for example, and thus red-leaved aquatic plants and reddish fish can be emphasized especially beautifully. Another advantage is the very fair pricing of this lighting.

Light color presets

Various presets can be called up via the Commander 4, with which you can get good results quite quickly and easily. In addition, you have the option of creating and saving your own presets. This way you can keep your favorite settings ready to call up at any time.

An overview of the various presets that the Commander 4 provides. Shown in this order: preset "Red", preset "Green", preset "Bucephalandra", preset "Neon", preset "Shrimp" and "Full Light".

Comparing RGB lighting with pure white LEDs

How nicely certain colors can be emphasized with an RGB lamp such as the "RGB A Plus" is shown by this comparison with other LED lighting that has only pure white LEDs. For this, we simply selected the "Full Light" preset on the Chihiros lamp, in which all light colors are at the highest level. Of course, even better, individual fine-tuning is possible here, but this preset already looked very nice in our test aquarium.

Under the RGB A Plus, red aquatic plants in particular are emphasized very well.

With pure white LEDs only, the red and green colors in particular do not glow as intensely. In addition, a distinct yellow cast can be seen in comparison.