LED Lighting Clearly LEDs

B

bobbyreefer

New member
I mentioned a week ago I ordered an LED Panal from ClearlyLEDs.com Well i got it on Sat and I am very impressed so far. The light produced is extremely bright and looks very pleasing. already thinking about making an order for a few more to light the whole tank.
 
Bobbyreefer,

I am looking alternative to add more light to my current lighting system (MH 250W HQI), I really do not want to add another MH due temp issues. An alternative are LEDs, however I am trying to find the cheaper way to do this because I live outside of US so if I add handing and shipping the final price raise.

The system you mention is a little pricely because 200 leds will give you about 400 lumens and 4 luxeon leds will give you the about same lumens for $6 each led plus $30 for the drivers without use the lens which can improve performance. All what I just said is from what I read in the web, I am not expert, but luxeon leds seem to be very effective.
 
Eduardo,

If you experiment with The Luxion type I would be interesting to compare the results.

From my understanding there are many different types and qualities of LEDs both high wattage type like Luxion and the standard LED type like Clearly LEDs is implimenting. I don't think it is fair to say that 200 LEDs is equal to 10 Luxeon type LEDs because of the different light output qualities of each depending on where you get them from.

All I know is that I have expereimented with white LEDs before in my car and these LEDs on the Clearly LED panels are like 10 times as bright. Also there is no heat produced and power usage is unnoticable. I think I read somewhere that each of their panels uses less then 10 watts of power.

I am not too familier with the high wattage luxeon type but don't they create alot create alot of heat?

Bobby Reef
 
Bobbyreefer do u have any pics, im also interested in ontaining some LED from clearlyled.com. I think LED lighting has huge potential in reefsystems. I have also been warned about Luxeon led generating a bit of heat, some manufactures i was told recommend using heat sinks with them.
 
Are the panels hard to install? I am not at all a DIY'er especially lighting and I won't wanna mess with wiring and the such.

Also, how much area does each panel illuminate?

Do you get that MH shimmer with the LED's?
 
Last edited:
bobbyreefer ClearlyLEDs.com use standard leds rated at 3.5v@20mA.
Those leds give very few lumens/watts compared to LUXEON.

200 leds would give you about 14w of power.

5 Luxeons K2 would give you 25w and about 2000 lumens for 35$ in leds.
 
pics pics pics. I am considering using LEDs on my tank for many reasons but after reading through the ClearlyLEDs website i believe it is more possible then before. I don't see why it wouldn't work. So for a few hundred i think it is worth trying, i have spent more then that on stuff i didn't really need for the tank.

So bobbyreefer, you got some pics you can upload and show us.
 
I wish folks would take a little more time to quantify 'looks bright' and consider what it means when something puts out less lumens per watt than a standar light source.

LEDs, in their present state are less efficient and HOTTER than standard light sources. If those watts are not producing light, they are producing heat.

The second generation Luxions are finally getting some decent results on led life. If only they could get a little more efficient...

Fred
 
LEDs

LEDs

chris,

Sorry i don't have any pics to show yet but I have to borrow a digital camera from a friend. I think I am just going to bite the bullet a buy one (camera). i will post them when I can. they have some cool pics on the CLEARLYLEDS.com site. If you click on one of them shows you a 40 gallon tank all lit up. Pretty cool. I will post when I am able.
Bobby REEF
 
Clearly LEDs

Clearly LEDs

I will get pics when I can get some taken. Hopefully soon. sorry for the delay. I take the experimenting approach myself. I have spent far more dollars on stuff I haven't really used. This LED stuff really intrigues me. Get one to play with so we can compare results.

Bobby Reef

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9299304#post9299304 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by draleigh
pics pics pics. I am considering using LEDs on my tank for many reasons but after reading through the ClearlyLEDs website i believe it is more possible then before. I don't see why it wouldn't work. So for a few hundred i think it is worth trying, i have spent more then that on stuff i didn't really need for the tank.

So bobbyreefer, you got some pics you can upload and show us.
Click to expand...
 
install

install

to install eletrically you just have take the two wires coming from the power supply and attach them to the wires on the board.. much like putting a battery in teh right way make sure the + goes to the + side and - to the minus side.

in regards to the Clearly LED post I joined REEf Central after I came across thre website. I ask a local aquarium store fish guy about the LED panels and he told to try to learn more through the forum at Reef HQ. maybe I can get them to give me a kick back!

Bobby Reef

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9293911#post9293911 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mr. bojangsjang
Are the panels hard to install? I am not at all a DIY'er especially lighting and I won't wanna mess with wiring and the such.

Also, how much area does each panel illuminate?

Do you get that MH shimmer with the LED's?
Click to expand...
 
Dead link Ice. I know that Luxeons put out more lumens/PAR than the clearlyLEDs version but is there any simple way to make a Luxeon fixture? I would be interested in a DIY luxeon fixture but I don't wanna spend like 10 hours making one and blowing my self up with the wiring LOL.
 
Those fixtures use 5mm LEDs, not high power LEDs. They have a rated life at best 10K hours, and the epoxy housing will most likely yellow before then.
 
I'm wondering if you guys are looking at LEDs for large tanks here or for the nanos that some of you have?

There's an interesting article I came across from back in 2003:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/feature.htm

One fellow is using 3 LEDs to light his nano. Though the tank looked somewhat OK, the conclusion would seem that he should have had close to 250 μE/m2 at the bottom of his tank which would say that he required something like 30 LEDs.

The array that Clearlly LEDs has would seem to be too large for a nano with 200+ LEDs. I wonder if they would consider making custom panels for nanos. Perhaps I'll ask.

All in all, I'm not completely impressed with the site as there is little scientific evidence put forth there. I'd much prefer to hear from a few people who've been using LEDs for a couple of months and get a feel for what they think the viability of this technology is at this point in time.
 
Good question.

I gave the article a careful read though I'm really no good with math.

It looks like he had 235 mE/m2 at the water surface and a ten fold loss to the bottom (where he needed the 235 to be). If that calc is on the mark he would have needed three times the amout of LEDs, a 30 LED array. The rub there is that he'd be sucking 130 Watts and basically be less efficient than a smaller metal hallide.

I'm thinking that the overall Lumen output of his LEDs must have been very poor. I'm no expert by any means but I don't trust Kelvin ratings when it comes to LEDs b/c I believe they are more narrow band wavelength specific (and kelvin is really just to compare to wideband sun type rays). Additionally, watts is a useless metric so I do prefer to think in lumens as that likely is a more realistic light over distance calculation.

All in all, I wouldn't mind hearing an opinion from someone who actually knew something about the subject. If you're out there, please chime in.

:)


... I also wouldn't mind hearing what Tullio has to say about his little old tank and how long it lasted. He seems to be the expert in this field.

I found his Bio here: http://www.aquaticresearchanddevelopment.com/bios.htm

and if you're in the Chicago area:
http://www.theimac.org/tdellaquila.htm
 
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