LED Lighting - DIY vs Premade Fixtures

[sphelps]

You don't need a par meter with most purchased fixtures because typically the company gives your the par readings so you already have your base line, plus there's quite a few people already out there taking and posting various par readings with these fixtures, you'd be somewhat redundant to take them yourself. With DIY it's not that simple, so many variable like number of LEDs, type, operating current, drivers, lenses, heat transfer, controller output, ect. You don't really have a base line and you don't know what effects over time will be. You could always guess and check but corals can be expensive experiments.

Also keep in mind comparing a typical DIY build to fixtures like radions and other high end ones isn't always a good comparison. If you're going to omit all the features that these come with then don't add that to your savings. I could also build a go cart that would be pretty fun and get me from A to B but it wouldn't be fair to say I saved $200K cause I didn't buy a Ferrari. With Radions for example will your fixture have 5 channels of PWM control for 5 colors? Will you have specialty designed reflectors? Will you have wireless control? Will you even be using the same LEDs?

Mark, for your example you should compare it to 6 AI sol modules which without a controller will cost you around the same as your DIY build.

[Lampshade]

I don't think you can compare Radions or Vertex to a DIY. Radions are nice.... but they're like a buying a Ferrari to pick up groceries with.

You can get AI SOL's, $2500 for a 6' tank up to 30" wide, 6 units, lots of power.

People argue about how there's better bulbs out etc... but at some point there is a light that works, people can't say that you need the "best" light available to grow corals. If you apply that logic to halides we'd be using 1000W street lights on our tanks and nuke everything in there.

Don't get me wrong, i love DIY stuff, i've got 200+ hours into an arduino controller that's saved me $200 maybe, that's a pretty crappy hourly rate.

Just saying that in this argument of cost efficiency of a DIY, there are premades that will be worth it once you factor in what happens if you overload a couple bulbs, or screw up a solder, etc. And in the end, your time is worth something, so unless you enjoy the time spent on a DIY, you're not saving too much.

[mseepman]

Originally Posted by sphelps

With Radions for example will your fixture have 5 channels of PWM control for 5 colors? Will you even be using the same LEDs?

Well I will have 4 channels for PWM control...only using 4 colors. As for the same LED's...they only tell us that they are using XP-G's or XP-E's (both of which is what I'm using) but they don't get into binning....I know I bought the best bins possible for all my LED's...can the same be said for them as a mass producer?

Don't get me wrong...I think their light was awesome looking. Still haven't really seen it over a tank with anything live in it. What I will give them is the link to their pumps. I will be using Vortechs and I won't be able to link my lightning storms between devices. Their wireless functionality is a little over-stated...wireless to their equipment, but nothing else so I struggle to give them too many kudos for that.

I would hate to think that after all the elbow grease I'm expending...I still only rank as a go-cart and not even a freaking KIA...give me some credit...

[sphelps]

Credit has to be earned