Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron99
I don't have one but did have a look at them when i first got interested in LEDs. EvilC66 over on nano-reef (a major LED guru) has had a look at them and their build and commented about the poor thermal management and the driver circuitry. Can't remember exactly when he posted, maybe 5 or 6 months ago.
There may be nothing wrong with this fixture for a fish only tank or one with low light softies and LPS but I suspect SPS will need to be very near the top of the tank leaving little room for a nice looking colony to grow out. They will likely grow fairly slowly and the colours may lean towards the browner end. Generic Chinese 1 Watt LEDs without optics simply cannot throw out the PAR that a good 3W SemiLed, Edison Opto, Cree or LuxeonRrebel can. My own experiments comparing generic emitters to Cree XR-Es using the exact same driver etc. show the Cree has something like 3x greater PAR output. Once you throw optics into the mix it makes even more of a difference. Without optics you will have a very rapid drop off in PAR at depth. May not be an issue in a very shallow tank but once you get past 12 inches or so in depth it can become important.
I wouldn't spend the money on a Vertex or many other commercial fixtures right now. They are generally overpriced for what you get. You can DIY a fixture as good or better for half the cost. The AI is about the only one I think is not grossly overpriced for what it is. The Maxspect looks to be decent for it's price range too and they have made many improvements to their lights recently (individually replaceable LEDs, optics options).
Also, I wouldn't worry about fires but mainly about relatively low output from the 1W LEDs and rapid degradation in output due to overheating of the emitters. You may find your PAR has decreased significantly in just a year or two with these.
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Fair enough. I am going to take your guys advice and move the coral higher in the tank. As it stands, it is about 9 inches from the light. I will try to get it within 6.
I would LOVE a Cree based light but as it stands it isn't in the cards. About 4 months ago I bought so initial supplies from LEDsupply (10 royal blue XREs and 10 cool white XPGS, a few dimmable buck pucks (350ma but i probably shouldhave got 750ma) , 2 power supplies, some optics in varying degrees, wiring, etc)..about 350 dollars worth but after considing the light I would truely want to make, it would cost me about 600 just for the LEDS. Not to mention, it would be uber ghetto, with wires hanging all over the place etc. I still needed a canopy, an extruded heatsink, more buckpucks, a soldering gun, solder, more lenses, the list goes on. I since abandoned the project but am holding onto my supplies. Perhaps, when my light fails I can use the housing as a canopy for a DIY. The height of it would be perfect for the standard height heatsink found at heatsinkusa
But thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate them.