Bridgelux or Cree?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Why not? So long as you keep on top of water quality and have sufficient lighting, you can keep most SPS in damn near any tank.

I grew SPS very well (grew a cantaloupe sized birdsnest from a 1" frag in just under 8 months) in a 20 gallon tank for about two years... and I didn't even own a skimmer at the time! Just regulated my feeding and did weekly water changes.

I recommend Rebels over the Bridgelux, and put Crees and Rebels at the same quality level.

I don't have a sump and I heavily feed my tank (although the nitrate is undetectable). I have already killed 4 acros (bleached or dead; weird!) while three survivors are brown but encrusting. So I am kind of hopeless for SPS (had a big thread going few weeks back on this :P ). So maybe I can keep low end acros but high end are not the thing for my tank I guess.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Why not? So long as you keep on top of water quality and have sufficient lighting, you can keep most SPS in damn near any tank.

I grew SPS very well (grew a cantaloupe sized birdsnest from a 1" frag in just under 8 months) in a 20 gallon tank for about two years... and I didn't even own a skimmer at the time! Just regulated my feeding and did weekly water changes.

I recommend Rebels over the Bridgelux, and put Crees and Rebels at the same quality level.

BTW I don't consider birdnest and montis as SPS They put a shame on SPS since they are so forgiving! My birdnests and montis are growing crazy!

[mike31154]

Well I can't vote either option since my DIY LED fixture consists of generic Chinese 10 watt LED multichips. They work fine, have since April. I don't have much in the way of SPS either, but the ones I do have, monti & some other thing that was sold to me as a chalice but grows more like a monti, are doing very well.

The LED game is still evolving at a breakneck pace & IMO in the end, it makes little sense to debate over brand names in hopes of getting a slightly better buy one way or another. One's more efficient, the other has a more suitable spectrum for our requirements, development continues. It's a pretty high stakes game at the moment with consumers everywhere switching from cfls to LEDs in their homes. The unique niche our hobby occupies doesn't get near the same attention from the large manufacturers as more conventional lighting needs for business & general household lighting. And simply because a North American or European company owns a brand name, does not mean that the LEDs they use or ones manufactured under their name do not come from Asia somewhere. I saw a thread on RC yesterday that had a link to Bridgelux who apparently have a new, more efficient LED array ready to go. When you're talking about switching from Halides or T5HO to LEDs, a percentage point of efficiency between one LED & another is a drop in the bucket compared to the power savings over a Halide. Yet some folks still prefer the MHs, for good reason, they are tried & tested, known to do the job.

As far as SPS (or any other coral for that matter), I just don't get the mentality that downplays the value of one species vs another simply because it's easier to keep? It's like the wine conoisseurs (or snobs as I like to call them), man, if it tastes good & is reasonably priced, whatever. I don't care about how complex they get with the descriptions & nose, bouquet etc. I look at coral similarly, if it's pleasing to the eye I'll consider it, regardless of whether it's easy or difficult to keep. I'm somewhat restricted in that regard anyhow since I have some sizeable BTAs in my tank & they are already stinging the dickens out of the green monti thing. So I'm certainly not going to run out & get a cranky, difficult, costly SPS colony even if it does look awesome. Tank looks pretty good to me with the LPS, softies etc. that I have.

[daplatapus]

Well, I've only ever used Cree and Exotic LED's. It does seem like cree's can be used at much lower intensities for the same effect.
Here's is my experience over my 20 gal cube. I built on an 18" makersled heatsink. Pricey, but I have to admit, very well thought out and if you're not sure of LED placement, this heatsink makes everything very easily moveable.
I built 2 clusters, each with 3- Exotic true violet's, 3 - Cree 3-up stars, 1 Exotic ocean coral white, and 2 cree RB. And because I had them, I added 2 more single RB's in between the 2 clusters.
I run 1 RB in each cluster and 1 of the center RB's (3 total) as moonlights only.
I love my fixture! The OCW's and TV's give a full spectrum that I think many of the LED naysayers are missing.

I really need to clean up some of the wiring... A couple pics:

[mrhasan]

That's a really sweet DIY you got there

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Well, I've only ever used Cree and Exotic LED's. It does seem like cree's can be used at much lower intensities for the same effect.
Here's is my experience over my 20 gal cube. I built on an 18" makersled heatsink. Pricey, but I have to admit, very well thought out and if you're not sure of LED placement, this heatsink makes everything very easily moveable.
I built 2 clusters, each with 3- Exotic true violet's, 3 - Cree 3-up stars, 1 Exotic ocean coral white, and 2 cree RB. And because I had them, I added 2 more single RB's in between the 2 clusters.
I run 1 RB in each cluster and 1 of the center RB's (3 total) as moonlights only.
I love my fixture! The OCW's and TV's give a full spectrum that I think many of the LED naysayers are missing.

I really need to clean up some of the wiring... A couple pics:

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by mike31154

As far as SPS (or any other coral for that matter), I just don't get the mentality that downplays the value of one species vs another simply because it's easier to keep? It's like the wine conoisseurs (or snobs as I like to call them), man, if it tastes good & is reasonably priced, whatever. I don't care about how complex they get with the descriptions & nose, bouquet etc. I look at coral similarly, if it's pleasing to the eye I'll consider it, regardless of whether it's easy or difficult to keep. I'm somewhat restricted in that regard anyhow since I have some sizeable BTAs in my tank & they are already stinging the dickens out of the green monti thing. So I'm certainly not going to run out & get a cranky, difficult, costly SPS colony even if it does look awesome. Tank looks pretty good to me with the LPS, softies etc. that I have.

I agree, Mike. I think my birdsnest was always one of my favorite species (though I swear to not have one again), especially neon or ponape BN. Especially when they get big, you're just like "Damn, that's sweet!" and it didn't cost you an arm and a leg to grow it. The new ones that I'm loving in my tank are a purple pocci and a rainbow stylo that are about 5"+ across. Easiest corals but they look awesome! Started them from small frags and I've never once had to worry about them. They even spawn in my tank regularly!

Even without a skimmer and sump I still successfully kept many species that people consider 'hard'. Really, if you give them the right flow and lighting, SPS are actually probably easier and less work than some LPS (in fact very few LPS actually make it in my tank because it's so SPS oriented). Like I said, you just need to stay on top of water quality and you're golden. If that means 1 oe 2 extra water changes a month, so what.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

I agree, Mike. I think my birdsnest was always one of my favorite species (though I swear to not have one again), especially neon or ponape BN. Especially when they get big, you're just like "Damn, that's sweet!" and it didn't cost you an arm and a leg to grow it. The new ones that I'm loving in my tank are a purple pocci and a rainbow stylo that are about 5"+ across. Easiest corals but they look awesome! Started them from small frags and I've never once had to worry about them. They even spawn in my tank regularly!

Even without a skimmer and sump I still successfully kept many species that people consider 'hard'. Really, if you give them the right flow and lighting, SPS are actually probably easier and less work than some LPS (in fact very few LPS actually make it in my tank because it's so SPS oriented). Like I said, you just need to stay on top of water quality and you're golden. If that means 1 oe 2 extra water changes a month, so what.

I can carry out more waterchange if SPS can actually survive in my tank. Will worth it. But I am not really confident with acros. Birdnest, montis are growing crazy and coloring up sweetly. But didn't know stylopora is on the easier side. Will be trying pocci but need to get a flat liverock for the tank; I am out of space

[oyf709]

just want to point out, if you run CREE on a 20g tank, you probly won't even get to 50-70% intensity, you probly just going to run around 30-40 depends on how deep your tank is. I know many people running CREE fixtures at 80% or less for their 24" to 36" tall tank. I think it is better to go with a bit more spread out DIY build with a larger degree lense, so that you can turn up the intensity a bit more and still be able to cover whole tank.

to be honest, the cree vs bridgelux question is really depend on certain situation.
the both are great LED chips and both deliver good spectrum when give the right combination. People get down to detail about how much energy that someone gonna save by using CREE vs bridgelux in a long run. While that argument stand very true, but what about those people still running 2 or 3x 250W MH? It is the same argument when comes to people why they choose to use MH instead of LED, front end cost? proven technology? I would consider bridgelux to be a stepping stone for someone switching from MH/T5 to LEDs, and CREE would be a advance version of it but not the best. I would always consider Luxeon ES LED the better brand of the two and DYI can be found at http://stevesleds.com/.

Usually for a smaller tank, the cost differences are really small, it is only when you start to DYI a fixture that need to cover a larger area like 48x30 or even larger, the cost differences will stand out.


PS: I also copied a comment from 3reef and I think it is very true as well and should be consider when doing DIY, as DIY should allow you to make mix and match on LEDs and shouldn't only stay with just 1 brand of LED. "Bridgelux diodes have much better spectrums available, like violets, deep reds, cyans, etc. but are less efficient, usually about 30% less efficient. They also have lower current and voltage than Crees, but are much cheaper, making them the more affordable option in most cases. The best type of fixture would be a hybrid, royal blue and cool white crees, and violet, red, green, and cyan bridgelux diode. "