Want your opinion on LED lighting!

[MIG1969]

Soon I'll be upgrading to a 125G + I'm hoping to get a 6ft (72") tank.
During the past 5 yrs I've have change from MH to T5, and T5 to MH and now back to T5 lighting. I think its more what the endusers like and what his or her expectation, in hoping for the end results, color or growth. For me its about cost, the electric bill and of course how my corals look.

Its been awhile that LED has been introduced in the market for nearly 2 years, and I've been entertaining the thought of purchasing a LED fixture. I heard pro's and con's, and there seem to be more Pros', but when everything is set and done, bottom-line these fixtures are not cheap....very expensive.

That being said, and because I am almost 100% sure I want to own a LED fixture. This is the reason I wanted to start a thread to see who here owns a LED fixture, and can share their experiences, thoughts and recommendation on brand. Those that have LED fixtures, please provide pictures of your LED lighting.

Thank you

 

[DoctaQ]

jay and cheetos and i have leds, search them up.
nano-reef has lots of led builds and even some bigger ones

 

[number1gsxxr]

I'm currently working on a LED light for a 48" tank. I have a friend who is an electrical engineer who is designing it...so I'm not really working on anything. I just supply the money for parts and the beer.

This is what he has come up with so far:

"I am familiar with the XP-G leds from Cree but unfortunately they are very expensive relative to the Lumileds Rebel. In the quantities we will be dealing with, the Rebels are less than half the price of the XP-G meaning we can use more of them and get better coverage. I haven't been able to bounce my layout off the smart guys at the nano reef site but this is my general plan for the layout. CW=cool white and RB=royal blue. Each box is 2" square which gives 2" spacing on each LED."

 

[DoctaQ]

wow thats big. what ya doin for optics? for some reason that i might have completeley made up i thought that there were limited options for rebels as far as wide output optics went
are you / your friend building a custom driver?

 

[number1gsxxr]

There are a few options as far as optics go but they are not cheap. We are going to try it without them and see what kind of par we get. Luckily my tank is only 20" deep. I'm not sure what he's doing for a driver yet. One of the nice things with designing your own light and using optics is you can create spotlight effects on individual corals.

 

[DoctaQ]

keep us posted on the driver
most drivers especially dimming ones are very expensive right now waa

 

[DoctaQ]

i thought i read about it somewhere, bill right? he posted on NR in a thread right after me, sounds like he has a plan for a custom driver, should be interesting.

 

[focus]

Wow drill drill, tap tap!

20 inches deep should be no problem even with out optics.

 

[number1gsxxr]

i thought i read about it somewhere, bill right? he posted on NR in a thread right after me, sounds like he has a plan for a custom driver, should be interesting.

Yup that sounds like the guy.

 

[jayinh]

i cant wait to see this build, i was wondering how lighting a 6' tank would workout. if i ever do a big tank again i will not waste my money on a MH setup but build another LED fixture. i love mine so far.

 

[focus]

Back on topic. I made a retro for a JBJ and loved it 12 CW and 12 RB. Every thing did very well in that tank for 6 months including SPS and the colors really POP. No heat issues so for Nanos these are a God send and relatively inexpensive to build.

Originally was going to build modules for the 120 but could never find the time. Instead I purchased 3 AI Led modules they have the new Cree leds and are insanely bright. 3 will light a 4 foot tank if you elevate the modules. The 3 inch legs are useless and the modules should be hung for best coverage and to minimize the spot light effect and shading issues. They have only been on the tank a few weeks so really can't say how the corals are doing.

In hindsight if I was to purchase again it would be the Pacific Sun fixtures there mounting is superior and the light more evenly spread.

 

[gweston]

I'd love to go LED but the up front cost is a big issue. I suspect I'll eventually go the DIY route and build my own... BUT I prefer to let others design and perfect. I'll use theirs as a guideline to build my own

I suspect eventually I may end up with a hybrid of T5 and LED assuming it can properly support a mixed reef (LPS, SPS, etc) just fine. HA + T5 + LED may also be considered. Unfort having a 72" long tank doesn't help in keeping the lighting budget down.

I'd love to see how yours comes out!

 

[gweston]

LED options

LAGGY network on my end today - posted a dupe

 

[Shane5223]

I have a biocube 14g and I am considering switching from the original 48W that comes with it and going to the LED or maybe supplementing with the LED...Any experiences or recommendations??

 

[focus]

There is a GB on Maxspect Led lighting on Reefcentral and nano reef. Worth checking out!!

It would be tough to build them at these prices 18 month warranty also...

 

[The Munch]

Do a search for Evilc66's PAR 38 - 21w Cree Lamp.

I bought one of these a little over a week ago as an experiment on my frag tank. There's a ton of posts about these bulbs on RC and elsewhere. The reading is good for generalizations but I'm considering buying a bunch of these bulbs to light my 125g, so I wanted some first hand experience on how much ground they can cover.

It's been a very short period of time, so I can't make any concrete statements, but the frags seem to love the light and are colored up very nicely. The 40 degree optics on the bulb I have provide a very narrow focused light beam that I think could easily light the bottom of a 24" tank.

I've already purchased another bulb with the 80 degree optic to see how that works, but it's backordered.. Won't have it until probably last week of March.

I'll post some pictures when I get home from work.

 

[DoctaQ]

wow, it would be very expensive to light a large tank with par38s

and i dont think that maxspects are that cost effective compared to DIY, they use large high wattage leds and 3w blues.

 

[focus]

wow, it would be very expensive to light a large tank with par38s

and i dont think that maxspects are that cost effective compared to DIY, they use large high wattage leds and 3w blues.

I agree DIY is still cheaper.

****Note: Shipping included in prices.****
G2-180w: (15.7”x7.0”x1.8”)
Web store US$ 630 each
Group buy US$ 570 each

G2-160w: (15.7”x7.0”x1.8”)
Web store US$ 580 each
Group buy US$ 510 each

G2-110w: (15.7”x7.0”x1.8”)
Web store US$ 440 each
Group buy US$ 400 each

G2-170w: (31.5”x7.0”x1.8”)
Web store US$ 760 each
Group buy US$ 670 each

G2-230w: (31.5”x7.0”x1.8”)
Web store US$ 982 each
Group buy US$ 810 each

PAR reading - there have been several posts with PAR reading on the fixtures, you can refer to the Maxspect thread for more details, http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1767811

In general, here're some PAR reading of different models (roughly):

Notes:
- measurement is # of inches under water (0" = water surface).
- I'm only counting the # of white LED here, please refer to the spec sheet for details on number/type/color of bulbs listed in item #3:

180w - uses 4x 30w LED bulbs with no 3w LED, the best PAR output in a small radius (2'x2'). Recommended for tanks over 20" tall.
0" 1300-1400 PAR
3" 800-900 PAR
10" 500-600 PAR
20" 200-300 PAR

230w - uses 4x 30w LED with the rest 3w LED, but spread out so generally it's like 2x 160w models.
160w - uses 2x 30w LED with the rest 3w LED.
Recommended for tanks over 20" tall.
0" 1100-1200 PAR
3" 600-700 PAR
10" 300-400 PAR
20" 150-250 PAR

170w - uses only 3w LED, ideal for shallow tanks over 36" wide.
110w - uses only 3w LED, ideal for shallow tanks 18-24" wide
Recommended for tanks within 20" tall.
0" 900-1100 PAR
3" 500-600 PAR
10" 200-300 PAR
20" 100-150 PAR

 

[DoctaQ]

i also dont understand why theyre called 3w leds, at 3.7vf and 1000ma theyre closer to 4w not accounting for driver loss

 

[focus]

i also dont understand why theyre called 3w leds, at 3.7vf and 1000ma theyre closer to 4w not accounting for driver loss

It does seem odd, very high vf. I didn't see anything saying 1000ma? I thought these ran at 800ma??