Switching to LED - Full Review Comming

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by TJSlayer

If I ever move up in aquarium sizes I could use the same fixtures and add another if needed...

This is the LED game lol. Unless you're upgrading a month after you purchase your fixture chances are you won't be able to buy the same thing when the time comes! It's like the gold rush

[TJSlayer]

So good point's there, but waiting another three months won't do much been doing that already for a long time now, there will be even more to choose from..

As far as the units themself becoming obsolete, that may or may not happen.

I know the manufacturers are designing these things so that they are replacible, and from what I have seen, all the different sized units seem to have the same basic led board in them, larger units simply have more. and even some of the newer ones have the same boards just in a different layout, so hopefully they keep in that thought going forward otherwise you could be right.

I suppose one could remove the board and manually change the led themselves as well if they had the knowledge to do so, hard to say.

But this brings up another point that worries me a little, everyone says buy from a company that has been around long term and not one that is new, because they may not be there in then next few years, etc.

But most of the companies that are offering these units are new, very few that have been around long term are offering much, and what they are offering will not work as a total replacement, only supplements...

But again that being said the lower budget offerings from companies like maxspec have been around for some time now, and they are launching their third version of led's and so far from what I have seen you can upgrade even the older models to be similar to the newer ones, and the led's can be moved up all the way to what they are offering today. So one would hope that the other players in the game take note of that.

But so far everyone is citing the replaceable aspect of components in their fixtures for the future and upgrades.

I will be interesting in the coming years for sure...

TJ

[ALang]

Been a very enlightening read. Thanks for the thread. Don't know much about LEDs, except, "I WANT ONE". So this is helping.

Just that the cost is still prohibitive for most of us. Never mind all the salient points... Just wish that ship will come in faster...

[TJSlayer]

I just found out something recently regarding the Reeftech fixtures as well. Not sure if the others can do this or not.

But considering that the new XML chips are now comming out, and if they prove to be that good with the reeftech Light I could simply order a few boards to replace the current ones.

One thing I'm not sure about is wether or not I could replace say one or two of the boards with the XML or if I would have to do all four (In each light)

But could make for some interesting possibilities down the road...

TJ

[Bblinks]

WOW. Those xml are pretty crazy. Can;t wait till see those bad boys inside a fixture...just not from them.

[albert_dao]

FYI, CRI of the XML's is only 75.

They sound nice on paper, but wait til you throw them over your livestock without heavy color refining from other LED sources (neutral white XPG's are 90 CRI).

[TJSlayer]

I think the only ones using the xml's are Pacific Sun as an option in the Metis fixtures, probably the pythons too, but would have check with them for confirmation.

[TJSlayer]

Light has arrived will be starting a new thread on the review shortly!