eBay LED strip?

[Navyblue]

I was planning to light a FOWLR and I was looking into LED strips. 5630 LED strip cost about $10 for a 5m (15') reel. 300 LEDs per reel, max at 150W but being set to run at 72W.

It may not seem like much, but they are only 1 cm wide. 4 strips of them over a 4' long tank would jam about 70W for 4cm wide (less than 2"). This is comparable, if not exceeds, the physical width and wattage density of T5HO with reflector, lets ignore the light output for a moment.

If we jam 40 strips it would only be 40cm wide (less than 18") with 700W. The LED is 120 deg spread, not great, but not worse than 360 deg spread of T5s. We could devise some sort of reflector at the sides to bring back some lost light back to the tank.

While it likely won't rival the penetration of narrow beam optics of high powered LEDs or MH, in theory I would imagine it to be comparable to T5HO which is good enough for 99% of reef application. And being 120 deg there will be no hot spots or shadow and spread will be extremely even.

The only question left is spectrum and heat. For the former I don't imagine them to be too different from, say eBay multichip cool white LEDs. But of course we have no way to know until someone measure it. For the later, I suppose it will be problematic (like T5HO). We could probably leave space and holes between the strips so that hot air can escape upwards from the water surface.

But the biggest red flag of all is, why is no one doing it? I can see that there are somewhat plenty of those who use a few strips for FOWLR, but no one really make a serious panel with them. Any obvious reason on why it is such a bad idea?

 

[Webmanny]

Here is my personal opinion on these. I did consider them when building my DIY light, but got turned away by the following reasons.

Considerations:

• Needs to be the 5050 LEDs and not the smaller ones for penetration
• Needs to be the 300 LED strip for coverage
• Needs to be the waterproof ones/sealed
• Needs to be RGB for the right color combination

Cons:

• Each strip of the quality ones is about $24.00 with the power supply
• These are about 5Amps each and 1 meter will only give you 3.75 strips to cover the length you are looking for
• In order to run the 40 strips you talk about, you will need almost 11 rolls of these lights
• These 10 or so rolls will consume over 45 amps
• In total, with all the above, you would have spent about $240.00 for a "mediocre" LED light.

I spent about $150 for all the components of my High power 3W LED light and it is even working great for high demand SPS corals.

I think it comes down to price. You should still try it with less strips and in sections that you can control for the right color combination and effect.

You may be able to do the same thing I did, but using those strips.

One very important thing with LEDs and this is the reason why people tend to knock them down without knowing. You MUST have access to a PAR meter. Without this, you are guessing and it will not work.

You don't need to buy one, but you must have regular access to one for the first few months until you get it to where it needs to be and at least once a year, as the light changes intensity and corals adapts, which all lights do.

Good luck!

 

[Navyblue]

IMO, I would prefer a mixture of white and blue, may be some warm white and red. Those RGB LEDs are basically red, green and blue in one package, so I imagine there will be 3 spikes in the spectrum and nothing in between.

Lately there have been these newer 5630 LEDs that is 0.5W like the 5050 but with higher lumens output. Not sure how it works in practice.

My tank is 4x2x2'. 700W is probably overkill. If I were to do it I will probably aim for 400-500W. That will be about 6-8 reels ($60-80). The power supply with voltage fine tune would cost about $50.

You are right that it all comes down to price, there is really not too much of a price advantage here for an untested and mediocre light.

 

[ConnieKeefe]

Of course. With a bubble free drain system (get away from dursos,) a properly adjusted skimmer (quality skimmer,) keeping section water falls under ~ 1", and appropriate width for the flow rate, there are no bubbles. It is good design, it does not happen by accident, however.

 

[jc286006]

i have built a light similar to what you are proposing when you bring the rgb to full power you get a white that has a bluish green hue to it . While its not a displeasing color its not what i am use to seeing on aquariums but then of course i havent been able to get my diy drivers to work properly where i can get a good color variation on my separate strips to have any colors other than white in the mix

 

[Navyblue]

I have an RGB screw in bulb that I experimented to use as moonlight. Yes it's white isn't exactly white, but with some weird tint. IMO a proper wide spectrum white is always more desirable than simulated white with just 3 wavelength spikes, both aesthetically and I presume photosynthesis wise.

 

[Redman88]

eBay LED strip?



I have two of these cans over a 55 fresh water tank.



The strips are blues. And the multi LEDs are white 65k ten watt

 

[Navyblue]

May I ask how hot are you running those 10 watters? I have not considered running multi chips this way.

 

[Redman88]

May I ask how hot are you running those 10 watters? I have not considered running multi chips this way.

Warm to the touch but I don't know how hot they are. I am not driving them full out. They are 1.25 amp and I am driving them at .75