Yep, Rapidled is what I used as well. Their current offerings have shifted to weed but you can still get the individual led colors that benefit reef tanks. I forget the other led supplier people used to use - it had his first name in the title. I currently run DIY blue led strips as supplements but I just used Chinese 450nm and 470nm - did the job and have been running a couple years now.
Are you trying to replicate t5/Mh or other consumer led fixtures like Radion, etc.?
Would like to end up with something like the spectrum of a Kessil500...not the physical configuration, but a strip light with heavy concentration of 365nm to the low 500's with strength enough to penetrate a 120 (4 x 2 x 2) with SPS adequate PAR. Don't want much do I?
If you are doing a striplight, then it's simple math (total forward voltage minus 3v for overhead up to the max of your driver) and your choice of diodes. I'm running 55 3w leds in series off one Mean Well HLG-185H at the moment for my dusk/dawn and some royal blue pop with my T5's. Penetrating 24 inches of water with sps adequate par will require lenses or LEDiL reflectors. Lenses will be destroyed over several months by sub 400nm leds , unless of course you can find glass lenses.
I hadn’t considered the deterioration of the plastic lenses. Those are easily replaced and are cheap. I just fired up my light after ten years, and it’s still capable of bleaching corals. I have a bunch of extra lenses…I might swap out the old ones on the blues , but I don’t have a PAR meter to measure any difference.
I've never had a led lit tank deep enough to require lenses ( I also just keep easy corals), but I've noticed near 400nm that even the material of the diodes themselves gets discoloured after enough time.
People have been building DIY reef lights since they came out..
forums.reefcentral.com
No, RC has excepted it's part of a bigger community so links are fine.
Hey that's great. No more cryptic censorship. Was "kind of" fun..
www.reef2reef.com
You are correct, I, too was expecting more light intensity from the T-5's. I did make one mistake, the fixture over the 120 only has 6 T-5 HO's. There are currently 2 pure actinics, 2 10,000k Odyssea, and 2 Giesman "purple" bulbs. The intensity measured by a waterproof Apogee sensor is approximately 270 at the surface (8" below the fixture), then reaching about 110 at the bottom. These are average readings of measurements taken throughout the tank at a given depth.
Well the half empty approach..
Yeah, I just looked at rapidled…I can still build a really nice and powerful light for a lot less money than a high quality light off the shelf. The sacrifice is connectivity. For me, having everything linked up through an app is of minor importance. Once I get the lights running at the output that I want, it’s unlikely that I’d ever need or want to make any adjustments. The options available on the high end light systems are simply more than I would be willing to pay for.
That's insane. Steampunk overclocking lol.I built my water cooled Cree LED fixture.
It had water running through it and a radiator.
Even the algae scrubber light was water cooled with Cree LEDs.
If you have an Apex or other controller, you can control many drivers with 0-10v. That's what I do for my diy led strips.
