Well if was me and I was going DIY (which I probably would never bother with again) I'd go with the LEDgroupbuy heat sink
http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/makersled...ssional-grade/
Maybe I'm missing something but the aquastyle heat sinks are pretty standard, nothing sleek about them really. By the time you strap on a fan and splash shield it'll look pretty ghetto.

For LEDs I'd probably attempt the 3-ups, ideally ones with 1 RB, 1B & 1NW, all Cree's or Luxeon's (around the same price). For a 20 gallon I'd just wire all them together and do a simple on-off with a single ballast, keep it simple. I wouldn't bother with any other colors except maybe violets. On a small tank it's pretty hard to get good color blending, especially with DIY, don't think it would be worth while.

As a foot note, I think some brands are actually cheaper than your DIY builds:

see clearance underway at http://www.eshinesystems.com/purchase.html older models...
bridgelux, though...

and taotronics ones ( can get from ebay, newegg.com). If you add all the parts from a DIY kit, and theseseem cheaper than what you can build it for. I think LED lights will progressively get better and cheaper so question is, are you getting into the game with a cheap build whether it be DIY or elcheapo, and sit on the side lines until a decent company brings one out with all the features ( auto dimming, full spectrum , looks nice ) you can actually afford and enjoy for a decade. I think those who spent $4000 on a Vertex LED probably would want a full spectrum now and probably want all those special dimming features.

With all the holiday promo's going on, I think now is the opportune time to jump on the LED bandwagon whether it be DIY or a not too expensive model like Ecoxotic panaroma pro's, taotronics, etc.

msjboy

Why not? So long as you keep on top of water quality and have sufficient lighting, you can keep most SPS in damn near any tank.

I grew SPS very well (grew a cantaloupe sized birdsnest from a 1" frag in just under 8 months) in a 20 gallon tank for about two years... and I didn't even own a skimmer at the time! Just regulated my feeding and did weekly water changes.

I recommend Rebels over the Bridgelux, and put Crees and Rebels at the same quality level.

Spot on! That's my sole intention. I want a DIY led till I graduate and can afford a "real" led fixture.

I am really inexperienced in this and have not heard of most of the brands you have talked about (other than taotronics). So would really appreciate it if you can post the names of these sort of lights :)

The shipping is a killer :( I found a 24 emitter cree fixture (with everything like sunrise sunset lunar cycle, even remote) for $220 BUT the shipping is another $50 so gets me over my budget. I really liked that fixture.

Yah LGB's heatsinks are awesome.

If I do go Cree, I will get 3-ups since they are somewhat cheaper than getting three separate crees. The soldering is a challenge though.

I don't have a sump and I heavily feed my tank (although the nitrate is undetectable). I have already killed 4 acros (bleached or dead; weird!) while three survivors are brown but encrusting. So I am kind of hopeless for SPS (had a big thread going few weeks back on this :P ). So maybe I can keep low end acros but high end are not the thing for my tank I guess.

BTW I don't consider birdnest and montis as SPS :lol: They put a shame on SPS since they are so forgiving! My birdnests and montis are growing crazy!

Well I can't vote either option since my DIY LED fixture consists of generic Chinese 10 watt LED multichips. They work fine, have since April. I don't have much in the way of SPS either, but the ones I do have, monti & some other thing that was sold to me as a chalice but grows more like a monti, are doing very well.

The LED game is still evolving at a breakneck pace & IMO in the end, it makes little sense to debate over brand names in hopes of getting a slightly better buy one way or another. One's more efficient, the other has a more suitable spectrum for our requirements, development continues. It's a pretty high stakes game at the moment with consumers everywhere switching from cfls to LEDs in their homes. The unique niche our hobby occupies doesn't get near the same attention from the large manufacturers as more conventional lighting needs for business & general household lighting. And simply because a North American or European company owns a brand name, does not mean that the LEDs they use or ones manufactured under their name do not come from Asia somewhere. I saw a thread on RC yesterday that had a link to Bridgelux who apparently have a new, more efficient LED array ready to go. When you're talking about switching from Halides or T5HO to LEDs, a percentage point of efficiency between one LED & another is a drop in the bucket compared to the power savings over a Halide. Yet some folks still prefer the MHs, for good reason, they are tried & tested, known to do the job.

As far as SPS (or any other coral for that matter), I just don't get the mentality that downplays the value of one species vs another simply because it's easier to keep? It's like the wine conoisseurs (or snobs as I like to call them), man, if it tastes good & is reasonably priced, whatever. I don't care about how complex they get with the descriptions & nose, bouquet etc. I look at coral similarly, if it's pleasing to the eye I'll consider it, regardless of whether it's easy or difficult to keep. I'm somewhat restricted in that regard anyhow since I have some sizeable BTAs in my tank & they are already stinging the dickens out of the green monti thing. So I'm certainly not going to run out & get a cranky, difficult, costly SPS colony even if it does look awesome. Tank looks pretty good to me with the LPS, softies etc. that I have.

Well, I've only ever used Cree and Exotic LED's. It does seem like cree's can be used at much lower intensities for the same effect.
Here's is my experience over my 20 gal cube. I built on an 18" makersled heatsink. Pricey, but I have to admit, very well thought out and if you're not sure of LED placement, this heatsink makes everything very easily moveable.
I built 2 clusters, each with 3- Exotic true violet's, 3 - Cree 3-up stars, 1 Exotic ocean coral white, and 2 cree RB. And because I had them, I added 2 more single RB's in between the 2 clusters.
I run 1 RB in each cluster and 1 of the center RB's (3 total) as moonlights only.
I love my fixture! The OCW's and TV's give a full spectrum that I think many of the LED naysayers are missing.

I really need to clean up some of the wiring... A couple pics:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/IMAG0173.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/IMAG0167.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/IMAG0168.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/IMAG0169.jpg

That's a really sweet DIY you got there :D