LED Lights users

i seen them over a few tank at the rockford swap. they looked ok, but the same seller had a MH over the clams.
 
I think a shop by me has a few over a tank... I wasn't very impressed. The fixture I built at home was allot brighter than 3 of these. 3 of these equal about the same length as the fixture I built
 
I think a shop by me has a few over a tank... I wasn't very impressed. The fixture I built at home was allot brighter than 3 of these. 3 of these equal about the same length as the fixture I built

that would depend on if they are the same leds, wattage of the leds, and the optics if any on the leds
 
I would like to setup a LED on my tank and need some information on reefer how are using them currently I would like to request if you can post some pic of your setup with the led fixtures DIY or whole unit purchased from the store. Thanks
 
hi all, i m new to the salty world and i dont even have my 1st tank yet...
(hopefully, i can at least have 1 in my life)

I read from another forum that people dont have big issues to grow sps, lps, softies...with Evolution LED Light 119- 1 watt LED's, but people concern how to fix or replace these 1 Watt bulb if they are failed. I havent gone any futher to find out the answer.

Personally, i m just not a big fans of these 1 Watt fixtures unless it is on a big big sales. I prefer to spend another $130 to get a Maxspect G2-110.
 
I built a few DIY from http://www.reefledlights.com/ back in the spring. I got my first one at the JARC swap, and a few more kits a couple weeks later. I like them for the most part. They grow coral very well. My personal opinion is LED for the main lighting and T5 to suppliment is the best. I've tried it both with and with out T5. I have SPS (from the last frag swap in West Chicago a few weeks ago) in the sand in 25-27 inches of water (29" deep tank) and I've already noticed growth. I had my clams in the sand for the first few months I had LED. They were fine.

I've seen the 1 watt LED's at the LFS before. They don't look all that bad, but for me, I'd rather make my own. I like the LED lighting from the cree 3 watt better. It may be because I have more control over how they come on together, I'm not sure. It seems to me that the 1 watt fixtures have a different color to them than my cree's. I think I've just gotten used to my LED's and like that spectrum better now that I've had them for a while.

I have a couple corals that have changed color on me since LED. T5 seems to help with restoring some of it. That's my only complaint. They continue to grow, so I guess I can't complain all that much.
 
Taylor T I agree with adding the T5 suppliment that is what I doing this winter I have all 3 watt LEDs but I think the T5s add a little more.
 
taylor is the strip LED lights better or DIY LED can you post some pic thank you.

I've never seen the strip lights so I don't know which is "better". Bill says he can make one is 3 hours. He is superman in my book. I'm sure he's also made alot more than me too... Each one took me over twice as long as that to make.
Here are a couple old pics I had.
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I like them, but they aren't the only way to light a reef well. I've got enough time with them to find I get good results with low electric and heat. Some coral really color very well with them, some color much less/different than MH or T5 only. That's why I do T5 with them now. I can say they grow cheato like crazy. Anything with the green color to them grows very good. It took me a while to get used to the power of them, I was toasting my corals pretty easy with them.
 
hi all, i m new to the salty world and i dont even have my 1st tank yet...
(hopefully, i can at least have 1 in my life)

I read from another forum that people dont have big issues to grow sps, lps, softies...with Evolution LED Light 119- 1 watt LED's, but people concern how to fix or replace these 1 Watt bulb if they are failed. I havent gone any futher to find out the answer.

Personally, i m just not a big fans of these 1 Watt fixtures unless it is on a big big sales. I prefer to spend another $130 to get a Maxspect G2-110.

its no different than any other led fixture. you cannot compare 1watt leds to 3 watt leds. either way if you went the same style of fixture as the evolutions with 3 watt leds its still cheaper than the maxspect
 
Wow that’s really nice! What’s the dimension of your heat sink? Do you use dimmable units? And if I my ask how much did it cost you to build one 48 Led unit also can you use one driver for the 48 Led instead of one driver per 12 Led….. Thanks again for sharing your pic.
 
I just purchased and installed (last week) two of the 23.5 inch Ecoxotic Panorama fixtures. I also saw the many LED fixtures over tanks this last weekend at the Rockford Frag Fest. Thus far, I am very happy with the Ecoxotic fixtures. The fit and finish is great and the tank inhabitants are happy. It has only been 1 week now, but I have seen some growth on the SPS that I have in the tank and the softies and anemone's love it. I will post pics very soon. I just upgraded my software on my computer and am figuring a new way to make the photos smaller and posting them like I used to.

Link to Ecoxotic: http://www.ecoxotic.com/products/panorama-led-lighting/panorama-led-fixtures.html
 
Wow that's really nice! What's the dimension of your heat sink? Do you use dimmable units? And if I my ask how much did it cost you to build one 48 Led unit also can you use one driver for the 48 Led instead of one driver per 12 Led"¦.. Thanks again for sharing your pic.

Thanks. Heat sink is 8.5" x 24" (some of them are 22" also). I think they were between $550 and $600 each. I made 60 LED kits. I thought the 48 LED kit was around $450ish? I still had to buy the plugs and aluminum stock. I want mine grounded, so I bought 3 prong plugs. The plugs they come with deliver 120 volts to the heat sink - no ground. We all know it only takes one time to regret it. You can only put 12 on 1 driver. I've got 5 drivers per heat sink. I usually only run 48 at a time. My goal was to choose how I lit them, 1:1 2:1 or 3:1. I don't have any of them on a dimming driver. They were alot of work/time to make - I hope I don't have to make any more for another 10 years, by then, I hope someone sells me one that's getting out. I'm guessing it's out of alot of budgets too. But I'm absolutely sure I saved a pretty penny on A/C. I always had trouble keeping the room tolerable when I ran MH. Then I added another tank to the room. Then I added a window A/C to help the house A/C because it wouldn't go below 80* - ever. My tanks started getting into the mid 80's with MH. Not only am I saving on electric cost and bulb cost, I only ran the window A/C this year when I didn't run the house A/C for personal enjoyment, not to keep the tanks cool. For my situation, it is a great choice for lighting my tanks. It was a hard pill to swallow at first.

I have no reason to sell it or pitch it, and I hate when I read others raving about how awesome their LED's are, and everyone should buy them,(personally, I think MH does give the best results [[[my personal opinion]]] but the results aren't worth staying MH for me), BUT, I'm pretty sure I've saved enough in cooling and electric to pay for 1 of them by now, and I don't have to buy bulbs yet.

whats the difference between those and led x mas lights
Price, spectrum, and intensity.


I bought them because I'm in reefing for the long term (I hope). I had fish when I was 8 (freshwater). 30+ years later, I still have them. It's only getting more expensive, and I'm trying to cut my long term costs with out giving up my piece of the ocean - ever.
I've only tried DIY. I have no personal experience with any premade units, but people for the most part like them, so I read.
 
Here are some photos of my tank and its inhabitants with the new Ecoxotic fixtures. As I said in the previous post, they look great and the tank creatures seem to like them so far.

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If these lights work out, I will be setting up more on our 120 Gallon tank. The electricity cost savings alone pay for these fixtures. This doesn't even take into account the cost of bulbs....which I was forking out over $400.00 a year for.
 
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