86 watts of LED?
 

so an LFS is selling these LED fixtures for 600 bucks

http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/c-pets-acc...AdIdZ279462828

it says its 86 watts. but does anyone know if these are any good?

they wouldnt be good for corals. They are using SMD leds which have a very low output. Great for a Fowler or fresh water tank.

if you are on a budget this will be one of the cheapest coral growing solutions;

http://reefkoi.com/index.php?main_pa...57b7347a76d1d9

thats exactly what my thought was but the guy at the store was telling me that this 86 watt fixture is equivalent 600 watts of metal halide light (obviously iffy)

yeah i am sure someone will buy them not knowing otherwise.

The address seems to be Aqua Giant
these lights doesn't even have an on/off switch...
IMO not worth $600
take a look at the Vertex Illumilux 48inch
is only like $470

Most people say that 1 watt leds are useless , they dont have the power to keep good par numbers lower in the tank . Notice how everyone with diy is using 3 watt leds its not because they are cheap its because they work .

yeah but theres proof of growth with one watt leds. They are placed closer together and you need more but they are much cheaper than 3w LEDs. 1w LEDs are driven close to max output while the 3W leds in a lot of diy systems are barely driven over 1w and are hung a foot above the tank. Not to mention if you run a 3w at full blast you will bleach everything.

Jump on Reef2Reef and have a look at the PAR numbers. They definitely arent worthwhile for deep tanks but for most people they should be sufficient. You wont keep SPS on the bottom of a 24" tank but some creative aquascaping and you are good to go. Reefkoi can barely keep the lights in stock and hes got tons of happy customers and warranties the units himself.


I think the real question is how effective is LEDs at growing all types of corals and optimizing color. I wont get into this arguement though :mrgreen:

you do realize the Cree LEDs every one is using in the DIY units are SMD LEDs also which happen to be soldered to a star. the only reason the average DIY person doesn't use SMD is because toy need to be able to reflow solder them to use them and that takes some special equipment.

so we spend an extra few bucks per LED to have them pre soldered to a star pad which makes it easy for us to use.

Steve

sorry i have always seen those large flat yellow squares referred to as SMD leds. Do the crees look the same without the bubble on top? They look so much smaller - like you can see the yellow element on that kijiji fixture in the pic - if the crees were not on stars without the built in optics you wouldnt be able see them right?