LED setup.

[dwilliams87]

I'm sorry this is the one I meant to do. With Dimmers

24 Ultra Premium LED DIY Kit with Dimmable Drivers - Rapid LED

 

[dwilliams87]

I guess one thing I'm still wondering is I've been told that this will be better than my current T5's with Par. Currently my sand is at 130ish and the top of my rock at 230ish. Will I have better growth and color with these?

 

[gmoney243]

If you want to replace your whole lighting setup the 24 kit will do it. If u just want to add to the t5 rick has a good point that few leds the price difference is pretty small. When I did mine 90 leds the cost difference was huge about 1/3 less. Ill dbl check size but I think that heatsink it comes with should b enough. They even have pics at the bottom showing placement. If u just want led accent 12 led on a single strip of c-channel as rick suggested would def kick your par up enough for anything. If u go with that kit it says it comes with hanging kit so I think all u would need is something to hang lights from. Or build a small canopy to mount them too.

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[mixer911]

OK, I'm trying to take all this in here. So, if I wanted to be safe, and have too much and be able to throttle it, what do you guys think about this one?
24 Ultra Premium LED Do-It-Yourself Retrofit Kit (non-dimmable) - Rapid LED

I want good looks and growth though, From what I can tell, that gives me 12 Blue and 12 Cool White. So do these whites do both being in that spectrum?

Yea, that would be a good kit. You can also change the drivers later to Dimmable if you wanted to dim them. That will be a good combination for now of blue to white. These whites are crisp white. With 12 to 12 you will get a 10000k to 12000k look in the end. You can also lower the whites later if you think its too white with dimmable ballasts. Or if you get a driver that has a lower mAh output then the LEDs will be dimmer. So if the Mean Well LPC-60-1050 (1050mAh) driver to be used with the cool white LEDs is too bright you could use a LPC-35-700 (700mAh). Its a lot to take in, I was boggled when I first started reading about LEDs as well. With this kit you can do a lot of changing later and not have to start from scratch again.

This would be for a whole change out, with no T5's. If you want to still use the T5's the 12 LEDs is plenty.

 

[dwilliams87]

I would like to use my T5 but it pretty much coverage the entire tank. I don't think there is room to just add the Led's like I would like. So I think I'm just gonna do a whole new setup. My only question I got left is will the par levels make a significant difference on the appearance of Corals as well? For instance would my acans get a brighter look as now they look good but only.have about a 130 par on them?

 

[gmoney243]

Crees might be slightly more effecient but you wont ever know the difference between cree and bridgelux. I've seen several setups of both types and you cannot tell a difference in colors or growth. Lumens is only the measurement of light to the naked human eye not corals. This is all basically the same as debating if nikes are better than walmart shoes. In the end you have to be happy with your purchase. So do you want nikes or kmart shoes? Ur more than welcome to come see my led setup and see for yourself.

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[dwilliams87]

gmoney243 - So you're saying. For the difference in money, I should go with the 24 from Aquastlyeonline rather than rapidled? If all Im doing is getting a name brand for 85.00, then ill take the cheaper. I buy my clothes from walmart anyway.

 

[killereef]

Thats a good kit, make sure you pick your led combination. For heat sink and lens degree, to know what sizes, ask yourself how high will be your fixture? I dont know how long your tank is but try to spread the led out some on the heatsink. I went with a 12x10 on a 24 x 24. My heat sink is a little short. I have mostly 80 degree lens and is 12 inches from my tank. Its to much like a spot light in the middle. I should have gotten a 14 or 16 x 10 pr a little least. For heat sink look at ledgroupbuy new heat enclosers. I placed a pre order from them. The headsink is very sweet, everything you would want from a heatsink like a fully enclosed, comes with fans, splash guard, place to mount your driver, and the most important(IMO) you dont have to drill or glue the led to the heatsink.
MakersLED Designer Heatsink Kit - Professional Grade - LEDGroupBuy.com

 

[mixer911]

Crees might be slightly more effecient but you wont ever know the difference between cree and bridgelux. I've seen several setups of both types and you cannot tell a difference in colors or growth. Lumens is only the measurement of light to the naked human eye not corals. This is all basically the same as debating if nikes are better than walmart shoes. In the end you have to be happy with your purchase. So do you want nikes or kmart shoes? Ur more than welcome to come see my led setup and see for yourself.

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Big difference in quality of Kmart shoes and Nike :) I agree that lumens are the measurement of visible light, I bet corals will benefit from a LED that has a higher lumen, they do not use much UV or IR light. In this case, he will need fewer LEDs and for pretty much the same price why not buy better LEDs?

 

[mixer911]

gmoney243 - So you're saying. For the difference in money, I should go with the 24 from Aquastlyeonline rather than rapidled? If all Im doing is getting a name brand for 85.00, then ill take the cheaper. I buy my clothes from walmart anyway.

Sounds like you already have them picked out, lol... It's more than about the price here. But if thats how you want to base your decision, then aquastyle is the better choice for you.

 

[dwilliams87]

No, my decision isn't made. I'm new to this as I said earlier and I am getting everyones point of view and then going to decide for myself. I've not went cheap on anything on my setup so far, I mean I have a mp-10 on a 20 gallon, which is overkill IMO. But if it's the same for cheaper, I'll always go cheaper. Now what you're saying is that it is not the same, Correct? Basically, I want a system that is overkill that I can throttle down to where I want, which is why i am going dimmable either way. Now I'm not a brand name purist by any means. When it comes to guitars, which I know, I'll take a Epiphone guitar over a Gibson any day because there is a difference in 1-2 thousand bucks, and I know how to make the epiphone sound the same through tweaking and new parts. But, when it comes to this I do not know what I'm talking about. But if I'm gonna do this hobby, I'm gonna do it right. My main objective is to buy the lights that is going to do the best for my corals, both visually and growth wise. I don't mind spending more money to do it the best way. I mean, my T5's do pretty good for everything but my acros. However, if adding this light sytem will allow me to do acros and make everything else grow better and visually "pop" more I'm all for it. So, let me ask the question a little differently? If money is not an issue, will the 24 dimmable from rapiled be better than the 24 dimmable from aquastyleonline? Yes it's a difference in 85.00, but if it's better, I'm sold. I'm not saying I'm made of money, but I want to do this the best way possible.

 

[killereef]

When I 1st started building leds, I went cheap, very cheap. I bought bunch of LEDS on Ebay from china, basically their knock off bridgelux. That was my biggest mistake, the quality was bad. My cousin works for a company that make componets for the military and before led was or maybe at the same time leds came out for aquarium. Him and I was building moon lights out of 1w leds. At the time he had to research alturnative lightings and started looking into lights . For example the stop lights. The company he worked for started to make those lights out of leds, again before leds was know. He examining the workmanship and it was bad, it wasnt clean after building and the dios was all crooked. The leds started to go bad and had to replaced them. They prob want last as long as the Cree. Then I asked around and found a thread on reef2reef bout a guy (assuming expert) writing an article on all the diff lightings, par and etc. He talked bout CREE and how much more efficient it is then brigdelux, like the diff between the old cree XR-E and the newer Cree XML. The XML is a whole light brighter, energy efficient and smaller. Its not bout brand name, its bout efficient.

 

[gmoney243]

Ok I personally went with bridgelux because after researching there was many happy customers and my price point was $250 for kit or like $700 with crees. For me the small effeciency difference wasn't an issue as was start up cost. I'm real time the difference on your light bill is so small my leds will burn out before I pay $500 more on my bill as oppose to if I went with crees. Crees are great I love rick and bills and everyones setups. They are the ones who helped make me wanna go led and had great advice helping me build. I nvr saw any spike in electric bill which is why imo the effeciency doesn't matter as they both work great at growing corals. The difference in your bill between the two brands monthly would be pennies. And I agree nike shoes are better but still last like 2 years but my kmarts last a year and I can buy 4 pairs for same price haha. And the difference in coral growth between the two would most likely very small if any since ur still gona be running same par levels just crees wont be turned up as much. Both are good options and will give great color and growth better than t5 for sure. Both kits will need to be dimmed down.

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[poolkeeper1]

I tried Cheap with my First Led Fixture, Then my Second was based on Quality Cree Led's and if I had done Quality First I would have saved a bunch of Money! Cheap is not the way to make decisions in this Hobby unless you want to do everything twice? JMO
Bill

 

[dwilliams87]

You guys are all awesome. I appreciate all the input and opinions. I'm gonna think on this for a lttle while and look at what everyone is saying and see what direction I want to go. I do know now that if I ask a question to you guys, I'm gonna get the information I need to make my desicion. So, thanks alot. I really look forward to meeting all of you and putting some names to some faces. MTRC Rocks!

 

[gmoney243]

Cheap isn't the right word here cheap in price yes but bridgelux is the #2 led company basically. I shoulda said its like nike vs reebok. Bridgelux makes tons of commercial fixtures people love. I agree if this was chucks leds I wouldn't buy lol. But hey if u don't trust bridgelux u can buy older model crees for like $2.5 per led same price as bridgelux.

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[mixer911]

I am all about saving some dough. But I have a lot of money in corals and time invested in my tank. With leds being so new there was little info out there on the long term effects of LEDs on corals. Most of the successful led tanks are running Cree's. For me I want to build something and have it done right the first time. If I can save money thats a plus. But to spend even $200-$300 on some leds and then a 6 months to a year later kick myself for not just getting the proven ones. I have been in this hobby for over 15 yrs and can say with everthing there are always cheaper alternatives to proven techniques. Take T5s for example, sure there are T5's I could buy at lowes or HD for cheaper than the ATI bulbs, but will I get the same results, not a chance. Metal halides are the same way. So with LEDs I think of Crees as the Radiums or ATI's. Its a decision we make all the time in this hobby and in the end its up to you. Its not just about brand name here as some think. It is about using a piece of equipment that will allow my corals to thrive. I have nothing against bridgelux leds and some people may have good results, but I am not willing to take that chance with something as important as lighting. I would be better off to go back to my metal halides at that point, lol.. Its like the cheaper chinese 20000k Metal halides, some people love them, but their color spectrum shifts and you have to change them more often. That is yet to be seen with the bridgelux LEDs. I know Crees don't. :nerd:

Now for your tank they may be perfect. But to me like I said earlier for the few dollars in savings, I would go the proven route.

 

[killereef]

You know what they said bout 2nd place? First place loser.......lol....kidding. All jokes aside, bridgelux is a good company so which every you choose, you want be disappointed. With heatsink, if you are like me, either go with drilled or predrilled, cause i like to change out color combination. If you glue it in, its hard to get off without damaging something. Use 20g wires single strand, its easier to work with. If you need more info, just send a shout out.....lol

 

[gmoney243]

Yep most important thing is that you are confident in the equipment you use. If your worried about something then the whole relaxing hobby thing goes out the window. Like I say u can save money on older crees or spend more on newer crees if you want crees. Don't think I bought mine because they were cheaper I researched many many threads for a month or so looking at results people were getting using bridgelux leds. The threads and pictures and all convinced me they were quality enough to buy. Lighting is very important so you should buy the best you can. For me and my tank it was bridgelux. If I had the money I'm sure id buy those ecotech leds but that's like $2000+ for my tank lol. I went for #2 to save money so I can get other items that otherwise I wouldn't like vortechs :)
If you can afford a bently then hellz yea! But I'm fine pimpin my benz lol. that's a better analogy.
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[gmoney243]

Also some people are using the same reasoning to go back to MH. Because they feel the growth and colors are better and would rather spend more on electricity and replacement bulbs. Leds arnt perfect no brand. You just gotta figure what's best for you.
Either one of those brands will smoke your t5 for growth and probly color. I was using ati bulbs before led.
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