Amazing coral growth with LEDs

[dinobot]

Would you recommended Marineland Reef Capable LED Lighting System 36” (36) 10,000K White & (6) 460 nm Blue 1W LEDs - 2610 Lumens?

 

[Bobbofin]

I think keeping the heat down is the major issue. Thermal breakdown is the #1 thing that causes electronic parts to fail. I have four 80mm fans on my fixture on a 14.5x14.5" heatsink. I don't know if LEDs will last 50,000 hours and 11 years, the main factors are overdriving them and temperture.
I don't doubt that the screw in PAR38's are experiencing failure. They are being screwed into a fixtures that holds in the heat, it has a small heatsink and no fan.

 

[Bobbofin]

Would you recommended Marineland Reef Capable LED Lighting System 36” (36) 10,000K White & (6) 460 nm Blue 1W LEDs - 2610 Lumens?

I am by no means an expert. I will share my experience and information I've gathered. I took it slow and did this build over two months and it worked out great. As far as that fixture I cannot comment. It's probably ok for softies and fish but SPS, I don't think so.

 

[dinobot]

Hey Bob,
Thinking about switching my four strip VHO powered by two Ice Cap 660 on my 180G tank to:
1. 72" Giesemann Infiniti Light Fixture (3) 250W HQI + (4) 80W T5
2. (2) Marineland Reef Capable LED Lighting System 36” (36) 10,000K White & (6) 460 nm Blue 1W LEDs - 2610 Lumens
What will be the better choice of the two or should I stick with VHO? Any advice would be nice. Thanks

 

[Bobbofin]

Hey Bob,
Thinking about switching my four strip VHO powered by two Ice Cap 660 on my 180G tank to:
1. 72" Giesemann Infiniti Light Fixture (3) 250W HQI + (4) 80W T5
2. (2) Marineland Reef Capable LED Lighting System 36” (36) 10,000K White & (6) 460 nm Blue 1W LEDs - 2610 Lumens
What will be the better choice of the two or should I stick with VHO? Any advice would be nice. Thanks

Not familiar with Marine fixture so I can't give you an opinion other than it would be very white with only six blue LEDs and it wouldn't be very bright. My little 14x14" fixture with 36 Cree 3 watt LEDs pumps out over 3300 lumens on a 24x24" tank! I do know that building two 30x14" 60 LED fixtures would be very expensive, probably $1200-1500. It's also depends on what you're keeping. I am not an LED guru. I followed the guidelines on www.reefledlighting.com and other places, did research, took my time, and it came out awesome. I am going to share what I learned on the 15th and let you do what you will with the information.

 

[DoctaQ]

marineland is not in the same ballpark as bob's high powered fixture

 

[Gonereefing]

thanks for this info. I was seriously considering making the change from mh to LED for my reef tank but wanted to be sure it was the right move to make. Based on your research it's not but hopefully and most likely it will be the aquarium lighting of the future. I'll wait and in the meantime stay with MH.

 

[sparkyee]

Hi,r
I am building a 96 element array for my 72 bow. Ir is using 50/50 Cree's. The whites are XP-G are rated at 1.5 amps producing 433 lumens each. I am derating them to 900mA's. The royal blue XR-E's are being derated to 600 mA's. The shape
of the heatsink array is 2 x 23" x 4" end to end. I am using another 23 x 4" piece to join the three pieces together so it looks like a "T"to fit the bow in the tank. I am still building the power supply. If you do build an array beware that Cree specifies only certain adhesives can be used near the LEDS, no cyno to hold the lenses. See the following url-http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/XLampXP_SolderingandHandling.pdf. I might bring the array to the next meeting if I go. I
use these LEDs in my job designing for Siemens Medical. Good luck everyone with their projects!!! Larry