diy leds??? any input from folks in the know (1 Viewer)

[gabe_j]

ok so after some debating i'm strongly leaning towards leds. now my problem lies in how many i'll need... should i go for the 24count retro kit or the 36? from rapid led. is 50/50 a good mix or will the whites overpower the blues significantly? i'd like the 20K look if that was possible from a retro kit.

http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-54/24-Ultra-Premium-LED/Detail

theres over a $100 difference in price but i don't know if i need that much light and i would like the opinion of people who actually have experience in LED powered tanks. not what your heard or your friend has or anything like that. i'd like actual users of leds. thanks ahead of time for the advice.

here's some pics of the tank i want to cover 1 from the side and a 3/4 fts.

and that huge nem will be moving to a new home next week. so lighting him/her isn't a concern anymore.

 

[DustinB]

I had 24 over a biocube and it was just enough without optics. I would also suggest to see a DIY LED setup in person, not all pics show what it really looks like. Hard to explain. I just didn't like the LED look at all, some people love it.

 

[flexrac]

what size tank?
for a 20k look you could go with 2 to 1 ratio
1RB,1b to 1 white. so in a 24 bulb setup you would have 8 of each led, controlled seperately, the rb puts out par so you will be good there.
i have an aquaillumination fixture, the white version, and with 2 whites to one blue, the whites can overpower the blues quickly. just make sure you get the dimmable kits, that way you can control the color temp better.

you can stop by my place and look at my system and play with the lights to see if you like what you see. don't know anyone with the AI SOL blues, that fixture has the b,rb,wh combo, suppose to range from 14k -20k.

 

[flexrac]

i also see mostly lps and softies in that system, you may want to try ledgroupbuy for your leds or steveleds.com then get your heatsinks from rapidled and your dimmers unless you plan to run them froma controller.

 

[freespool]

The kits at rapid do not include the heat sink. I have been thinking about this too and have designed several layouts. They also offer a device that will to sunrise/daylight/sunset for you.

for the kit it also does not include the lens for the white light.

 

[flexrac]

rapid carries heatsink though, and you can buy the optics for the whites there as well, only about a dollar each.

check out this thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1988306

 

[fishboyt]

what size tank?
for a 20k look you could go with 2 to 1 ratio
1RB,1b to 1 white. so in a 24 bulb setup you would have 8 of each led, controlled seperately, the rb puts out par so you will be good there.
i have an aquaillumination fixture, the white version, and with 2 whites to one blue, the whites can overpower the blues quickly. just make sure you get the dimmable kits, that way you can control the color temp better.

you can stop by my place and look at my system and play with the lights to see if you like what you see. don't know anyone with the AI SOL blues, that fixture has the b,rb,wh combo, suppose to range from 14k -20k.

Question: what is "RB"?

 

[DustinB]

Royal Blue

 

[fishboyt]

Royal Blue

Thanks!

 

[gabe_j]

whoa this got more hits than i expected right off the bat! thanks guys.

well i'm not terribly worried about the heat sink issue since i work in a machine shop. worst case i make my own. so no worries there.

thanks for the heads up dustin.

felix i may need to swing by one day if i'm in the area. i live on the opposite side of town. down in clear lake.

i was planning on useing their dimable kits. i just wasnt' really wanting to go with the 36 bulb set up mostly cuz i don't want to overkill the lights and bleach out alot of my acans on the floor. i figured if i under sell it just a bit i could get away with having some darker spots for my lower light loving stuff.

i do want to keep some more sps but i can dedicate the peaks to hold my higher lights stuff.

ideas?

 

[soymilk]

it gets tricky when you space out leds and have optics. You'll get the disco ball effect. Its very very distracting. I think this is why dustin didn't like it.

I sorta like no optics. I have the sol blues. I also have a diy fixture somewhere I have to dig up. If i was to do it again. I would get 2 or 3 30w white leds, and a bunch of royal blue, and blue leds with no optics. I think this best resembles MH. I really did enjoy the maxspect 160w led I had.

Good luck, and take pictures of the build.

 

[gabe_j]

yeah i'm trying to build it so i dont get the discoball look. i know your a fan of no optics on the blues but what if i took 80deg on the blues and 40-60 on the neutral whites.

also do you think i could check out your tank one day trung

 

[DustinB]

I was running 60 degree optics and it still wasn't enough spread. Most of the light was focused straight down. From what I've read, if you go with 80 degree optics you may as well be running without them.

 

[RGH69]

Hello Gabe,

I have 48 LED's on my 29g Biocube. Here is a link to a post I made about them.

The beauty of this system is that you can dim any channel and fine tune the look you want or crank them all up for growth. I would suggest 2 cool white to 1 Royal Blue to one blue.

Unfortunately the system is no longer available. But we are coming up with a better one that will have user replaceable LED's. That way you can change what you prefer. But that won't be ready for another month or so. But you can still build your own pretty easily. Just use a dimmable driver.

 

[gabe_j]

@dustin, how far off the water were you with the 60s and i didnt realize the 80s were that wide...

@RGH i dont know if i want a whole board over my breeder i was thinking of just doing a bolt onto a heat sink.

 

[soymilk]

@gabe: sure just let me know when you wanna stop by.

@Dustin: I dunno about that 80 or none theory. My old maxspect had no optics and par dropped off considerably after 12". My ai with 70 deg optics still hold 200+ on the sand bed well over 24". One day when I get my par meter back I'll test the LEDs a bit more. Get some solid numbers.

Rgh69's system seems pretty interesting. Looking forward to some par numbers with the tighter optics.

 

[DustinB]

From the LED to the water was probably 10-12".

There is a general consensus that you want 1 LED per 10-20sq in. 10 being very light demanding SPS on the sand bed, and 20 being all softies.

Looking at a 40B, you have 648sq in. So you need between 32 and 64 LED's. The magic number would probably be around 48-54, 60 degree optics, and a fixture height of 12+ inches from the water.

There are some really good threads on reef central about this. I believe there's one about the color combos people are playing with such as very small amounts of reds and greens.

 

[DustinB]

@soymilk: I'd be interested to see what the actual numbers are, I only really know what I've read from others' experiences. Other than my fixture I played with. I really like the whole idea of LED's, I just got lazy and bought some t5's. At that kind of cost I didn't want to play around with different combos.

 

[soymilk]

Last I checked reef central, people were still chasing the perfect combo. Im pretty happy with the color response from my corals with the blue, royal blue, and warm white. When I just had coolwhite and royal blue. Seemed like there was something missing.

I have to take back what i said earlier. I realized I compared maxspect and ai. Both use diff brands of LEDs so... not really a fair test. I have to either take the optics off my ai or test a diy rig.

I'm hoping to test 3-4 systems soon, and hopefully write something. Ai vs Ati pm vs Geissmann mh+t5 vs maxspect. All out par war. Measuring par intensity and spread.

 

[DustinB]

That's pretty much the way I felt, just missing something. I know some people were doing like 1 red to 24-36 CW & RB. Seems like the warm white is starting to be used more now, like in your case. Unfortunately I never really tested my combo with any colorful corals.

You can test my sunpower if you were curious about the PM vs Sunpower. May have to wait a little while or borrow it. My 90 is coming down soon to restart it.