Inexpensive led lighting

[Jwalker814]

I would suggest running two small fixtures like that. Especially if ur tank is 48"

You will end up having better control of light with two separate fixtures

 

[Dtackett]

I just remembered they are at a 120 degree angel and my tank is taller than it is deep 24" tall/18" deep so would it be better for me to get the 90 degree ones?
Not sure if the Mars Aquas angle makes up for the rest for the light to reach the bottom of my tank better.

the 120s will lower par on the bottom of your tank but it will still be plenty enough to grow the low to moderate light corals that we place on the bottom anyways. unless youre trying to grow sps on your sandbed, youll be fine. 2 of these lights will allow you to grow pretty much anything.

So these are better than the Mars aqua? Any chance they have a bigger version?

yeah, I would say these are better due to spectrum. im not sure if they have a bigger one but ive never been a fan of the bigger lights. I always found them to put off shadows at the ends of a 48 inch tank so I prefer 2 of these.

 

[Jwalker814]

The larger lights are only recommended for 38x24 aquariums. The fixture is on 31" long so you'll have a lot of shadowing if you don't use two separate

 

[Jwalker814]

Another option you can look into is the par38 bulbs like this

http://m.ebay.com/itm/E27-18LED-Cor...h-Tank-Aquarium-Lamp-/171794968204?nav=SEARCH

Guy at my LFS ran these on his personal tank until recently. Said he loved them. They do have dimmable versions - little more pricey.

4 bulbs and 4 sockets might cost you $100 and be just as much light. Seeing as the marsaqua and other comparable fixtures are running the lights at 2w even though they advertise 3w.

 

[domination2580]

Well the tank I need to light is a 125 gallon with 72" long

 

[domination2580]

Another option you can look into is the par38 bulbs like this

http://m.ebay.com/itm/E27-18LED-Cor...h-Tank-Aquarium-Lamp-/171794968204?nav=SEARCH

Guy at my LFS ran these on his personal tank until recently. Said he loved them. They do have dimmable versions - little more pricey.

4 bulbs and 4 sockets might cost you $100 and be just as much light. Seeing as the marsaqua and other comparable fixtures are running the lights at 2w even though they advertise 3w.

I personally think there are too many whites in this set up

 

[Dtackett]

Another option you can look into is the par38 bulbs like this

http://m.ebay.com/itm/E27-18LED-Cor...h-Tank-Aquarium-Lamp-/171794968204?nav=SEARCH

Guy at my LFS ran these on his personal tank until recently. Said he loved them. They do have dimmable versions - little more pricey.

4 bulbs and 4 sockets might cost you $100 and be just as much light. Seeing as the marsaqua and other comparable fixtures are running the lights at 2w even though they advertise 3w.

the issue with the cheap par38 lights is that they don't run anywhere near what they advertise either. that "54watt" light only runs about 36 watts and the 60 degree lenses turns it into a spotlight. ive seen amazing tanks with par38 setups but they cost more than good lights in the end. as in one was a 90 that ended up with 8 lights over it all at different angles to get full coverage. wasn't worth it in the end. not to mention the spectrum isn't very good. while im surprised to see it has 12k whites, its got 455-465 nm blues which is WAY too high to be useful. chlorophyll absorbs at 430 nm best and to mix for effective absorption and for our viewing would be a mix of 430-445 and 445-450.

the quality par30 or par38 tend to cost much more. I found 1 good one that has the right spectrum plus uv and I love this light but its 70

 

[Jwalker814]

Hmm didn't know that was just told about them and saw them on a few of the pages in recommended items.
Definitely didn't know/read about them being 60° mainly because it wasn't the setup I wanted. Glad I didn't try that route myself. Haha 210g at 84x24x24 would have been a pain to light with those.

 

[Dtackett]

yeah, but I gotta say, the setup I seen with 8 had amazing light and coral growth in all directions as there were little to no shadows... but he did a lot of work in customizing his with a better spectrum. he basically bought the cheapest par38 he could find with a good heatsink then gutted them.

 

[Jwalker814]

If they weren't 60° they wouldn't be too bad. May look into throwing two on my nano.

Also found this diy think I might start my own build haha

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f76/diy-dimmable-led-fixture-from-scratch-151097-7.html

 

[domination2580]

If they weren't 60° they wouldn't be too bad. May look into throwing two on my nano.

Also found this diy think I might start my own build haha

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f76/diy-dimmable-led-fixture-from-scratch-151097-7.html

Just an FYI, the guy posted the approximate cost and it was at 1500$.

 

[mcarroll]

Well I was thinking of going DIY using the sb upgrade boards. They are only $60 each. And I'll need 3 so $180. Just gotta see about a driver/power supply.

If I can find a place to source the individual LEDs cheap enough I'd like to make a solid 7'x1' board specific for my tank with 8 channels. 1 every foot and one for moon light.

Would minimize shadowing and increase spread.
150 white green red uv leds for the 7 channels and 50 LEDS for moon light

Putting roughly 600watts into my tank.

It's a simpler light, but they are a much better way to DIY in terms of simplicity and cost at least.

As noted earlier, I've been using and making lights like this for quite a while, FYI:

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/267432-gu10-led-build-thread-chinese-ebay-lights/

A 72"x12" version needn't cost more than $140 and will be much better than what you mentioned or the other generic lights being mentioned, which will throw light all over the room the tank is in. This wastes power AND grows nuisance algae on the glass. My DIY is properly designed (in this instance) to light a 72 x 12 space, so it will do neither of those things

 

[mcarroll]

D

 

[mcarroll]

I just remembered they are at a 120 degree angel and my tank is taller than it is deep 24" tall/18" deep so would it be better for me to get the 90 degree ones?
Not sure if the Mars Aquas angle makes up for the rest for the light to reach the bottom of my tank better.

You just need a little bit of triangle math to determine what's the correct height and angles.

Unless you have a rough week cube shaped tank these compact lights are a bad design. If you want to think of them as being designed like something else, they are sort of like a metal halide bulb. That sounds good except that metal halide bulbs are very hard to control and get the light where you want it.

LEDs are supposed to take care of that, and our eminently capable if you can do the math. :-)

More to come…

 

[anit77]

Don't mean to hijack the thread... I hope my questions are relevant for others.

I'm going to be starting up a marineland 220 DT 72x24x29 next month and have most everything I need but the leds. Im going to run 2 80w t5's across the front and back with the leds down the middle. The tank is going in wall with a fish room behind. So hoods and fixture housings are of no concern.

I'd like to put 3 led fixtures over the center of the tank. But be able to control them on a budget. I can do the diy stuff myself. It will be a year or more until I delve into sps and I future I can always upgrade the lighting down the road.

Can these black boxes be modified to be controllable via an Apex? (Sunrise, sunset, clouds, etc) And which would be the best to buy for this application?

 

[bobman]

Mars aqua come standard with 90 degree optics but they sell 120 degree optics that you can swap out very easily. Just open up the fixture unscrew the lighting panel and pop off the 90 degree optics they are only held on by a small dap of super glue. Then just super glue the new optics on. I will try to find a write up my lfs did using different optics in different configurations using a par meter. If I remember correctly the tests he did was on a 24" tall tank with blues at 100% and white at 50% with the mars aqua at 14" above the water then again at 12" above the water. The par readings were pretty detailed and varied a lot depending on how the optics were installed and where. I do remember with no optics at all the mar aqua had a 120 degree spread but par at the sand bed was pretty sad and with the 120 optics installed I dont remember the exact number but it was a serious improvement. I will look for it and post it here if he gives me permission (which I doubt will be an issue).

 

[bobman]

Don't mean to hijack the thread... I hope my questions are relevant for others.

I'm going to be starting up a marineland 220 DT 72x24x29 next month and have most everything I need but the leds. Im going to run 2 80w t5's across the front and back with the leds down the middle. The tank is going in wall with a fish room behind. So hoods and fixture housings are of no concern.

I'd like to put 3 led fixtures over the center of the tank. But be able to control them on a budget. I can do the diy stuff myself. It will be a year or more until I delve into sps and I future I can always upgrade the lighting down the road.

Can these black boxes be modified to be controllable via an Apex? (Sunrise, sunset, clouds, etc) And which would be the best to buy for this application?

How long is it till you will be needing lights at all. Reason I ask my reef club had a rep from mar aqua talk to us and he said they were currently developing a black box capable of running on an apex and other controllers. That was a couple months ago so probably in the next year it might be on the market I would think but I am sure the price will be a little higher for those models

 

[Jwalker814]

Just an FYI, the guy posted the approximate cost and it was at 1500$.

Check the date. Was almost 6 years ago when LEDs where just making a big entrance into the market. And the driver's and supplies werected bulky and price. Looked up his pwm programmable device and it only cost $20.

Priced almost 3 times the amount of his LEDs on ebay for $219. Would put almost 750 watts of light into my tank.

 

[Aussie paul]

If your pretty handy build your own. I'm building a 3ft panel with 5 channels for $300 aus with 20k,15k,450nm,410nm,470nm and full programmable control all purchased from ebay

 

[anit77]

How long is it till you will be needing lights at all. Reason I ask my reef club had a rep from mar aqua talk to us and he said they were currently developing a black box capable of running on an apex and other controllers. That was a couple months ago so probably in the next year it might be on the market I would think but I am sure the price will be a little higher for those models

I'll probably need them February to March. If there's any DIY needed I'd probably want them sooner.

I'm fairly handy I just don't know where to begin selecting the components beyond the leds. I think I can figure it out but want are the best controllable drivers for this?