BigAirHarper
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+1 for the kinetic theory of air. Maybe a google translation gone wrong? Hahaha
chinese led lights
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TropTrea
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The more I'm getting into LED lighting the more Inm realizing that all LED's are not the same. The comercial fixtures I have seen have such a high range of difference it is unbelievable. At my local fish store they have fixtures with 90 LED's in them that are selling for $400 and claim to be using only 120 watts but do not put out nearly the lighting that a pair of 54 watt T-5's are putting on the tank next to it.
I had bult my first LED fixture and presently have two 40 gallon breeder tanks next to each other. One is powered by 4 39 watt HO T-5's for 156 Watts and the other is powered by my DIY LED fixture using 24 LED's running at 2.5 watts each 112 watts total. The Tank with the LED's is unquestionably much brighter to the point I'n concerned about burning corals.
I have also experimented with various series and brands of LED's. And I will tell you that there not comparable. Running at the same power on two manufactures LED's right next to each other it is obvious that one LED is producing 2 to 3 times as much light as another.
anyone serieously considering LED's today should seriously consider building there own fixture. LED techniology is moving very fast. Most comercial manufactrers are using LEDs that were on the market 2 or 3 years ago. While in the LED business what was state of the art last year is two generations obsolute today.
Just last November the best LED's were producing 75 lums per watt and now there are several that are producing 100 to 120 lum per watt. But it will take manufacturers over a year to convert to the new LED's while the do it yourselfer can use them today.
I had bult my first LED fixture and presently have two 40 gallon breeder tanks next to each other. One is powered by 4 39 watt HO T-5's for 156 Watts and the other is powered by my DIY LED fixture using 24 LED's running at 2.5 watts each 112 watts total. The Tank with the LED's is unquestionably much brighter to the point I'n concerned about burning corals.
I have also experimented with various series and brands of LED's. And I will tell you that there not comparable. Running at the same power on two manufactures LED's right next to each other it is obvious that one LED is producing 2 to 3 times as much light as another.
anyone serieously considering LED's today should seriously consider building there own fixture. LED techniology is moving very fast. Most comercial manufactrers are using LEDs that were on the market 2 or 3 years ago. While in the LED business what was state of the art last year is two generations obsolute today.
Just last November the best LED's were producing 75 lums per watt and now there are several that are producing 100 to 120 lum per watt. But it will take manufacturers over a year to convert to the new LED's while the do it yourselfer can use them today.
salsipuedes
New member
You have a very valid point. the main reason I was gonna go with the dimmable cree fixture was becasue of the cree leds... then again there are newer and better leds out each month... hmmmmm...
TropTrea
New member
The biggest culperate to LED burn out is heat. Sure if you put too much power on them they will burn out but that woud basicly be in a matter of minutes rather than years. Cree LED's have several series of LED's rated at 3 Watt LED's. in the past they claimed a life spam of 50,000 hours running them at 700ma which comes out to be between 2.5 Watts and 2.8 Watts dependent upon the series. They receintly rerated several of these series to run at 1,000 ma which actualy comes out to be 3.8 watts for the same 50,000 hours. Look at 50,000 hours and you see that is 11 years of usage on the average aquarium.
But what I pointed out earlier is that all Series and manufacturers of LED's are not the same.
TropTrea
New member
Actualy the Cree LED's are realy the leader in the field. Other companies are comming out with lower cost LED's but they are not comparable to the Crees right now. You can get a Cree LED producing 97 Lum per watt for $3.20 or get a nother brand for $2.50 which is producing 60 lumns per watt. Where is the savings when you need 60% more LED's to produce the same amount of light?
Geez this light debate is killing me I dont know what to do. So what lights do you recommend. I was leaning towards the aquariumleds just because thats in my budget. Im a bit of a techie and DIY doesnt scare a bit but jeez the prices of DIY are threw the roof also. Can I get something for under 600? I have a foot print of about 62 x 18 x 27 deep.
I was thinking 3 of the 14k 120w 3w from Aquariumled. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
I was thinking 3 of the 14k 120w 3w from Aquariumled. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
salsipuedes
New member
exactly, this brings up the debate of how many leds do I really need?
I have 1x175watt mh iwasaki se 15k - more par then many 250 watt metal halides, and 3x36inch t5 an 1 x24inch t5 on a icecap 660 with individual reflectors.
I hear so many people "burning" their corals with leds, I just want to know what I need to replace what I have now since i have good growth the way it is. I dont want to have to run my LEDS at 40-50% all the time to not burn my corals, let me get away with 1/2 as many and run them at 80 - 90% and save some $$$... Maybe on my 92 corner i'll go with DIY and ill get an el cheapo chinese fixture over my 25 frag tank and then we can really compare the 2...
rrasco
New member
The problem is intensity VS spread. While 1/2 as many LEDs may be more than enough to burn your corals based on intensity, it might not be enough to get good spread over the whole tank. This is where optics come into play, but then you don't get as good penetration. It's a balancing act for sure.
BigCountry74
New member
The cost of DIY ran me off as well. It just did not make sense. 3 of the Aquariumleds were 479 shipped, so I went ahead and did it. The guy listed the par at 3 different depths and that is what sold me.
I am building a fixture to hold 3 boxes. The one thing in common with all of these 120w boxes is the dimensions - from what I have seen, they are all 400mm X 213 mm X 71mm (really wish they would list in inches for us dumb *** americans lol).
So I figure if in 2 years dimmable boxes are available at 100 dollars they will be the same dimensions, and I can simply swap/sell my boxes out then perhaps, since they should be a popular size, since so many will be in existence. Of course by then, they will be selling cheap controllers for the dimmables and that will more than likely replace this thread, hehe
I am building a fixture to hold 3 boxes. The one thing in common with all of these 120w boxes is the dimensions - from what I have seen, they are all 400mm X 213 mm X 71mm (really wish they would list in inches for us dumb *** americans lol).
So I figure if in 2 years dimmable boxes are available at 100 dollars they will be the same dimensions, and I can simply swap/sell my boxes out then perhaps, since they should be a popular size, since so many will be in existence. Of course by then, they will be selling cheap controllers for the dimmables and that will more than likely replace this thread, hehe
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fatoldsun
New member
did you get a price for non-bid units? I wouldn't want to bid on and "win" one unit and then need to fight for the second....
saw that - actually had a side convo on the local club's board.... one creative way of describing (or translating) fans - kind of like the garbage collector being a "sanitation engineer?"
He said he was the manufacture and I told him I needed three units he gave me a price just under his buy it now. What we ought to do is all find some units we really like and do a group buy. Jeez once you hit 6 units with these companies the price goes down 25-30% and the shipping also. Right now shipping from china is about 20 bucks a kilo on a few units where if we ordered 6 or more we could be at 6 bucks a kilo(2.2lbs)
Silkyslim
New member
BigAirHarper
New member
These new dimmable black boxes seem appealing. How about I add another to the mix.
Found this on alibaba:
http://houyi.en.alibaba.com/product...&edm_cta=read_msg&edm_time=realtime&edm_ver=e
She said fixture price as follows:
64x3W Cree=458+112shipping
or something comparable to eshine
40x3W Cree=388+82 shipping
Fixtures include hanging kit and legs, and of course that sleek built in controller.
Anyone heard anything about these? I like the looks of them.
Found this on alibaba:
http://houyi.en.alibaba.com/product...&edm_cta=read_msg&edm_time=realtime&edm_ver=e
She said fixture price as follows:
64x3W Cree=458+112shipping
or something comparable to eshine
40x3W Cree=388+82 shipping
Fixtures include hanging kit and legs, and of course that sleek built in controller.
Anyone heard anything about these? I like the looks of them.
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fatoldsun
New member
The club looked at an eShine GB but we didn't have enough takers. Not a problem here. One of the members uses eShine for car stuff for his business. Said they're decent to work withThe cost of DIY ran me off as well. It just did not make sense. 3 of the Aquariumleds were 479 shipped, so I went ahead and did it. The guy listed the par at 3 different depths and that is what sold me.
I am building a fixture to hold 3 boxes. The one thing in common with all of these 120w boxes is the dimensions - from what I have seen, they are all 400mm X 213 mm X 71mm (really wish they would list in inches for us dumb *** americans lol).
So I figure if in 2 years dimmable boxes are available at 100 dollars they will be the same dimensions, and I can simply swap/sell my boxes out then perhaps, since they should be a popular size, since so many will be in existence. Of course by then, they will be selling cheap controllers for the dimmables and that will more than likely replace this thread, hehe
I spoke to them also and got similar pricing. But for my footprint of 6 x 18 x 27 they said I needed 4 units they are only 5 inches wide so you need to run 2 rows. Thats like 1400 bones for that kind of money I could build a small sun.
BigAirHarper
New member
Hmm, she quoted me 12.5 inches width. I was thinking one of the 40x3W would be perfect for the 57 rimless.
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