DIY LED Kits

[Neopimp]

Anyone out ther ever use one of the kits from RapidLED.com or reefledlights.com?

I am going to need some new lighting for my 120 and got looking at the costs associated with MH... A basically a buck a watt per year plus roughly 200 a year for bulbs and initial start up cost, it makes more sense to spend a little extra on the leds and be done with it for the life of the led which can be easily more than 10years. However I refuse to pay 2000 or more for a light fixture that can be built easy enough.

So anyone have any experience with this stuff?

Cheers

 

[xxmurrxx]

No self experience with them but I watched a lot of youtube videos on diy led's.  They look really good.
Still not cheap though.. Rapid LED your still looking at pretty big bucks for all the components needed (Obviously cheaper than manufactured led fixtures though)

Check out 1mkwiet ‏ (rickets reef)  on youtube if you haven't already, he has three videos on a fixture build and you can see how his corals are doing with the LED upgrades.

 

[Neopimp]

Ya /I will be 700to 800 usd to get everything.  A great thing about living in a border city is that I get the free shipping if I just cross and pick it up.  And our dollar is about 5% stronger 

If you figure I was going to get 2 250 diy kits for roughly 200 a piece and then toss the bulbs into the mix.  I am approx 150 shy of the price of the LED.  Figure in the 200 in bulbs every year and the electrical costs and heat generation and it seems like a no brainer.  No bulb replacing and not heat worries and even when the LED reaches it rated life, it just loses a bit of light ouput.  I have read 75% output after 11years. Gets even better if I was going to put some 400W on the tank.

And if one burns out.. Just replace it

 

[Cal_stir]

i built a 72 3w led 4 foot fixture for my tank, no optics, cost @ 1150 but prices have dropped and tech has advanced since then
i bought everything separately, not a kit
here's some pics

 

[Neopimp]

Are you happy with the LEDs? Good Growth and Light coverage? How did the dimming circuit work out for you?
Ratio of blues to whites? And of you were to do it all again is there anythign you would change?

I actually think I have all the needed electronic compionenets left over from school to build that cct

Thanks
Dave

 

[Cal_stir]

i am very happy with the leds, i have 36 xpg cool whites, 27 xpe royal blue and 9 xpe blue
the dimming cir works good but its a fixed ramp up/down time, mine was @ 1 hour.
i now use a reefkeeper ALC
growth is good as is coverage

the only thing i would change is the ratio, i run my whites at 70% cuz they are so bright
i would run 27 whites, 27 royal blue and 18 blue
the blues are awesome

 

[Neopimp]

I am looking at the same number over 5ft,on 2 fixtures, and you adjusted ratio sounds liek what I was thinking.
Happen to still have that circuit kicking around? Could be useful since I do not have a controller, yet.

Cheers

 

[Cal_stir]

i have 2, one for the whites and one for the blues

 

[1Zapped2shy]

I too have built two 12"x18" fixtures with 48 (36 royal blue  and 12 white ) lights (gives you a 14k colour look) with Eln 60-48D dimmable drivers from reefledlight.com. Bill was the best price at the time last spring.  I have 70 deg. lenses and the heat sinks and led's are 12" above my 48" 90gal tank. Corals see no difference  from 500 W metal halide that were on the tank before.  Led's, drivers, lenses, heat sink, glue, fans and power supply was purchased from reefledlights.com  Aluminum heat sinks purchased from heatsinksusa.com  Walwort 0-12 v power supply was bought at radio Shack in the States for $16. I'm satisfied with the way the light works, also like the energy savings from the lights.
You can also go to reefaddicts.com for an indepth article and instructions.

 

[phi delt reefer]

lots of LED discussion on Nano-reef with Nano-tuners employee Evil66 and Nanobox startup Divecj (spelling?)

heres what i am getting from their work and discussion;

use warm whites (cool whites are being phased out, sorta) and royal blues - regular blues are may contribute to a windex look; though as Cal has mentioned below he is liking the look - so the color will be a "to each his own" kind of thing.

thomas research drivers are a better quality drivers vs. the meanwell units (have their own reference voltage)- exclusively available through Nano-tuners

may want to check out www.ledgroupbuy.com - run by Milad out of Vancouver  - hes a member of Canreef and a sponser on nano-reef. His pricing is supposed to be the best for he organizes 1000+ led purchases at a time from a discount supplier and passes the savings onto you. Canadian shipping is cheaper too because he gets it all shipped to Canada then redistributes it from his home. You can get optics and wire, etc. from his site as well. Only problem is it may take some time to get the LEDS due to the nature of group buys.

new XM-L leds are out - very powerful but not available in royal blue yet. You may want to try two royal blue to one XM-L warm white in a three star cluster and space out the clusters evenly to get better blending.

you can get a wall wart (1-12v) from Forest City Surplus for $3.95 brand new - RCA Brand. I just bought one on Sunday to power some cabinet fans. They got fans cheap too. They also have acrylic/poly carbonate strips (off cuts from a factory i believe) for cheap if you want to build some nice housing to go round your heatsink. Its only available in clear but you could spray paint it.

 

[Cal_stir]

i didn't mean the blues specifically, i meant the blues in general, royal blues, blues combined