Arcadia Classica Aqua-brite LED Light/Arcadia Classica Striplight

EDIT - see post #5

Further edit (3 December 2017) - the name has now changed to Arcadia Classica Striplight. Link




I recently purchased two of these lights, a white and a blue.


The white one was an accident as I clicked the wrong colour when I purchased it. However it is actually perfect as a light for my quarantine/hospital tank.
The blue light is in my main tank as moonlighting, it switches on 15 mins before the main light turns off, and remains on for a further hour.



Both strips have 6 leds; the unit is submersible (rated IP68) and attaches to the tank wall by means of two brackets with suckers. The unit can be rotated within the brackets allowing the light to be angled. My only concern is that suckers do tend to wear and I do not know yet if replacements are easy to find.
The mains cable is 2 metres long and attaches to the plug adapter with a usb connector. There are two cable clips provided to hold the cable in place. The white light came with the plug adapter in the same pack while the blue light arrived with the plug adapter in a separate box.


So far I am impressed with the lights. The white one is bright enough for a 25 litre quarantine tank. The blue is even adequate as moonlighting for a 188 litre tank.
But I would not use one of these lights as the sole lighting for a tank over 30 litres.

I didn't explain very well 

The light unit has a cable coming out of it. At the other end is a usb plug. This plugs into something that looks a bit like a 13 amp plug which Arcadia refer to as a power adapter. This can be seen in the photos in the link.
The power adapter plugs into the mains, and I presume it 'does something' to the mains electricity in much the same way as the box labelled 'AC/DC adaptor' on the end of the mains cable for my Aqua One tank's LED light.

I have amended the wording of the first post.

Post #5


I put this light into my tank two and a half weeks ago.
The package and the website say the light is submersible which I assumed meant it was OK to put it under water.

I did a water change yesterday and noticed there was water inside the light.

I emailed Arcadia about it, but it was late on Friday afternoon so I will have to wait till next week for a reply. It may be a fault with this particular light, or there could be a design flaw. Needless to say it is now in a bucket in the greenhouse.



My QT has a perspex lid so I put the white light on top of the lid rather than underwater.

Unfortunately, it doesn't say. It has a transformer which says output 5v DC 500mA max, if that means anything to you. The box just says 'low wattage'.

Started a new thread on LED lighting here as I want to keep this thread for comments on this specific LED light.

Feel free to start another thread in the Equipment Review section on your new light 

IP67 protection means only temporary insertion in water! It would need an IPx8 for continuous insertion in water.

An update on this LED light.

Since being told it is safe to use, I have placed the strip on top of the cover glass where it works quite well as a transition between main lights on and total darkness.

However, I have noticed that recently the LED at the end where the cable enters the light has stopped working and the next one is not nearly as bright as the other four. Yesterday evening, I emailed the chap I was in contact with last month about it and had a reply at 8:20 this morning asking for my address and they'll send me a new one.
I did ask if they wanted the faulty one back but no, they don't.

As it is a sealed unit it is difficult to learn anything from it. We do monitor the return rate though.

It is possible that I bought a faulty light, and that the recent problem with a non-working LED is due to the water that got inside the unit.

When it works, it does the job well but I would be reluctant to advise anyone to use it under water. For use outside the tank or on a cover glass, it is fine.