Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeclarke
Do you think that the Quad is the best value for an LED light? Will it keep corals happy?
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No i don't think Quad is the best because there are a lot of people running their LED at less the 50% intensity (
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=85801)
So based just on that even
IF i would concider Evo LED from Aquatraders i would buy two instead of one quad. At least this will give you some flexibility. Unless of course there are separate cords or switches to get half of the fixture illuminated. It says "
2 external high power transformers", so may be there are two cords. In that case $239 for Quad is better then 2 48" fixturesx159.90=319.80
One this is clear that LED's get cheaper by the month, who knows what price will be next year, maybe AI sols will sell for $300 instead of $900 who knows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mike31154
To chime in on some of the earlier questions... While I don't have a controller either, since switching to my DIY LED fixture I'm inclined to consider something other than a timer or manual dimmer to control the lights. One of the great advantages of LEDs is the flexibility in power & colour choices. A controller allows for automatic blending of the various colours for the look that you personally like provided you also consider your coral's requirements. With many of the cheaper fixtures, you are stuck with the colour options built into the light with no way of fine tuning that other than replacing LEDs or supplementing with other lights.
In addition to timing options & water parameter monitoring, most controllers out there these days also offer analog and/or digital dimming signals to fine tune LED lighting. This is the feature that allows automatic, gradual dimming & options like cloudy days, moon phase tracking, lightning etc. While I could care less about the lightning feature, the ability to automatically tune my LEDs in almost infinite steps throughout the daily photo period is a good reason to consider either getting a controller or building one.
With respect to Cree LEDs vs the competition, it's generally accepted that currently the Cree emitters provide more lumens per watt. This means they are more efficient & theoretically you could get away with fewer Crees for a build than the less efficient LEDs. Hard to say form one build to the next whether it's more cost effective to go Cree over another brand, that's something pretty much each individual has to do the math on. My DIY LED fixture is made up of multi-chip 10 watt generic LEDs from Asia. Although it's been up & running for almost a month, there are a few more tweaks & modifications I need to do, automatic control being one.
I have no experience with these EVO fixtures. The price is certainly attractive, but it appears the after sales support is not the greatest & based on the lack of information coming from the suppliers, I'd hesitate to spend the $$s on one.
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Thank you for sharing your experience.
Can you describe your tank please WxLxD, what corals do you keep and how long and under how many LED at 10W per LED since you are not using Crees, your LED's can be close to EVO product although there is no way of knowing obviously.
Regarding more lumens per watt seems like non issue right now as many pple do Not run LED at 100% (link above) anyway.
That is why Aquatraders fixtures are so attractive, i can get two fixtures for less then $300 (my tank is 36" so its $149.90 each) and if (that is the big IF) they have half decent LED's corals should be OK. Personally i don't care about fancy $900 controllers. I am ok with $8 timer.
They say that individual lenses are replaceable (good) but they don't say anything about lens angle and led itself other then it white and blue, and customer service sucks. (not so good).