LED lights

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by Bugsy

I have a pico as well, may i ask how many gal is your pico??

which fixture do you have??

is it the 18"??

What corals do you keep in this pico??

Do you have a picture of your tank?

I have rics, zoas gsp and anthelia and I currently have the 9" coralife 18 watt pc on this tank. I was looking at getting a new fixture the 12" coralife 36 watt pc but then these lights have been recommended by some and other say they are not strong enough for saltwater tanks with corals.

My Pico is the iReef from the last nano contest; about 2 gallons for the display portion. Here is the link to the thread where you can see the DIY LED setup:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=53597

It's really not hard to build your own and is much more cost effective then buying a fixture. For a shallow Pico with easy corals you could probably get away with some of the cheaper fixtures using 1 watt LEDs but 3 watt LEDs are preferable. Avoid any of the fixtures using less than 1 watt emitters, especially the ones with the regular 5mm LEDs. They may look bright to your eye but they have very little usable PAR for the corals.

Originally Posted by MacheteAvenue

im thinking about ordering one of these with my tax refund money

http://www.fish-street.com/maxspect_...ategory_id=126

The thing I don't like about the Maxspect lights is that they use a few single 30W white emitters rather than an array of good quality 3W emitters. The 30W ones are not very efficient in terms of output and heat and not a good choice for aquarium lighting. Personally I wouldn't buy one.

Originally Posted by roblarss

I setup an array of about 60 luxeon rebel LEDs with no lenses on half of my 120gal. When I get that straightened out then I will build another for the other side. Currently have t5 bulbs on that side.
Does anyone know of a place to get larger heatsinks? I cant seem to find a dealer in canada.

Heatsinks is a problem. The few electronics suppliers I found that could get one were very expensive. I ended up buying 3 large used ones on eBay that will do the trick for me.

Maybe we should set up a local LED DIY group

[freezetyle]

Ron. where did you order those LED from?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by roblarss

I setup an array of about 60 luxeon rebel LEDs with no lenses on half of my 120gal. When I get that straightened out then I will build another for the other side. Currently have t5 bulbs on that side.
Does anyone know of a place to get larger heatsinks? I cant seem to find a dealer in canada.

only one I found was www.heatsinkusa.com

prices are good I guess. this is the one I am ordering
http://www.heatsinkusa.com/storename...-10502850.aspx

I am mounting 48 LEDs to this run off 4 controlers, but I am also looking at putting a few UV LEDs in the mix also.

Steve

[Crytone]

Not that this will likely help much but I know of a heatsink company in Canada but I'm nearly positive they don't deal in such low quantities (ie- 1 heatsink) and if they do it's likely a bit pricey. The name of the company was R-Theta Thermal Solutions (they were bought out about a year back iirc). Their standard size is 6 foot lengths with many different profiles available but I don't know their cost on anything.

We used to order from R-theta where I used to work but we didn't deal in single unit orders and usually ordered 50+ heatsinks at a time. Might be worth a shot still and if you can find someone who wants the same profile as you, you can likely place an order and reduce the cost. If there's any interest I can try to contact the parts acquisition guy at my old job and see if he knows of anything else since I know they weren't the only company we dealt with.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Crytone

Not that this will likely help much but I know of a heatsink company in Canada but I'm nearly positive they don't deal in such low quantities (ie- 1 heatsink) and if they do it's likely a bit pricey. The name of the company was R-Theta Thermal Solutions (they were bought out about a year back iirc). Their standard size is 6 foot lengths with many different profiles available but I don't know their cost on anything.

We used to order from R-theta where I used to work but we didn't deal in single unit orders and usually ordered 50+ heatsinks at a time. Might be worth a shot still and if you can find someone who wants the same profile as you, you can likely place an order and reduce the cost. If there's any interest I can try to contact the parts acquisition guy at my old job and see if he knows of anything else since I know they weren't the only company we dealt with.

they look like there more of a semi conductor specilist type thing. and water cooled ones.. didn't see anything that wasn't way overkill and probably to much money also.

Steve

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by freezetyle

Ron. where did you order those LED from?

I bought them all through a group buy on nano-reef.com so we got a very good deal. nanocustoms sells some for a decent price along with drivers and optics etc. You could also try ledsupply.com as I have ordered buckpucks from them and service was good.

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

they look like there more of a semi conductor specilist type thing. and water cooled ones.. didn't see anything that wasn't way overkill and probably to much money also.

Steve

Look under the aluminum extrusion section. Looks like there are several potentially good ones but it is a matter of price and minimums.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Ron99

I bought them all through a group buy on nano-reef.com so we got a very good deal. nanocustoms sells some for a decent price along with drivers and optics etc. You could also try ledsupply.com as I have ordered buckpucks from them and service was good.

I just missed that one, how much did ya end up saving per led on the group buy? Are you using the meanwell drivers Ron?

Steve

[Bugsy]

They are available at Bigals.ca here in Canada but are not recommended for reef systems. I went to the Marineland site and they recommend them for saltwater fish only or freshwater with low light plant tanks only. So guess these will be no good for my 5 gal and I will have to go with the t5's instead.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by Bugsy

They are available at Bigals.ca here in Canada but are not recommended for reef systems. I went to the Marineland site and they recommend them for saltwater fish only or freshwater with low light plant tanks only. So guess these will be no good for my 5 gal and I will have to go with the t5's instead.

Ahh, I see which ones you are looking at. On a 5 gallon you could probably get away with them if you are only keeping softies/zoas but, and it's a big BUT, the colour spectrum will be lousy because it's all white LEDs (except for the low output moonlight ones which won't do much to help). So it won't look nice and will make you prone to nuisance algae etc.

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

I just missed that one, how much did ya end up saving per led on the group buy? Are you using the meanwell drivers Ron?

Steve

The group buy was a while ago; last May or June I think. IRRC we saved a bit over a dollar per LED, $.25 per optic, and I think over $10 on each driver. So with 80+ LED's 80+ optics and 6 Meanwells I saved a decent amount of money. The only problem with the group buy was that the organizer ended up overwhelmed by the huge participation (I'm not sure how many drivers were ordered but the group ordered well over 1000 LEDs) and it took a long time for the stuff to get shipped out. But it was worth the wait as the price was great.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Bugsy

Anyone here have the new LED lights on their tanks??

I have been reading about these lights, the so called replacement oneday for MH. Just curious if anyone has them and what your opinion is using them on a reef tank.

just a tidbit. they are not a "so called replacment" for mh, t5, ect.. they are a very viable alternative to them which can produce the same lighting levels if done right.

the reason you don't see a lot of premade LED lights is that one company holds a patent for the way there done which is preventing any other company from makeing a lighting system with a controler. which is why solaris went out of business. the only way areound this is by selling DIY kits or you can just buy all the parts your self and build one.

so if you want to get the output of a 250 watt HQI set up it can be done easy, you just need a good heat sink, good drivers, a wack of leds, and optics, and the skill to put it togeather. its not cheep to start off with but in the long run it works out to be very cheep.

for me to do a tank with a 12X30 opening I am looking at 400 to 600 bucks (closer to 600 porobably) but when you think about it I will have higher PAR levels than a 250watt HQI, no heat transfered to the water and no bulb cvhanged for 15 years?

if I were to do a 250 watt HQI on that tank it would cost me 300 to get started then 100/year for bulbs so there is 1000-1500 (10 to 15 years)
plus I would need a chiller so another 700.00 for a total of 200 to 2500.

but with the leds I am also getting infanate color as they are dimable and I can dim the white and the royal blue seperatly so I can pick the color I like, and if in a few days I decide I want it more white I can. Also the drivers I am looking at use a 0-10v signal for the dimming so if I wanted to put togeather a PLC, I could have simulated sunrise/sets with the colors shifting also. because I am using 4 drivers, I will b abvle to change the intensity in 1/2 the tank also so if I get new corals, I can place them on one side and dim it down and gradualy bring the light levels up over a week or so to get them used to the lighing levels I want.

the only problem is (and it maynot be a problem but rather a benifit) is you have to build everything, even your housing which can open the doors for some very creative looking lighting systems.

Steve