LED review

[tommyz44]

So I wanted to share my experience with LED lights with everyone. Might make a cheap long term alternative to some, who want to get into the LED world but dont have big $$ to spend.

My first piece of LED was RapidLED moonlights. I went with the solderless 4 peice package. So easy to install, 4 was to much for my little 30 now that i set that up, so i just disconected one and now good to go! Bright and good deep blue color.

Second (see pics below)is a PAR38 LED screw base (E27) Has 12X 1.2W LEDs: 4 - 10,000K white, 4 - 14,000K white, 4 - 453 nm Actinic Blue. So far so good. Currently only have some fuzzy mushrooms and rics, both open up nicely. This has a few cool white, looks like a 12,000k T5. I would think 3 of these over a 30 gallon would be good for anything through LPS, but i dont think SPS would do well. However i only have 1 on my tank right now as the other two below are being shipped.


3rd I just recieved 5M of rollout LED (see stock pic below) 60 SMD UV ultraviolet LEDs per meter. When i first ripped an old power supply and wired these up, i was a bit disipointed in the color. I was expecting purple, but when i put them over the tank, the zipties started to glow. These are true UV. I would say they were about half the intencity as RapidLED. The Rics seemed to glow really well. I think i will actually run these most of the night, instead of the Rapid LEDs. Less power, NO heat, and it has a nice glow, seems the Rapid LEDs works almost as actinic supliments they are so bright.

I will try to get pictures when i create a fixture to mount to, might be hard because of the UV though.
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Upcoming Blue roll out LED just like the UV (Different vendor, china ship time is horrible) hopfully will be used as an actinic suppliment.

And 2 screw bulb Par30 LED. 5-3W 3 12,000k and 2 453nm blue.

Stay tuned! more pics and more in depth reviews to come!

 

[tommyz44]

Way to add the pictures Tom!:facepalm:

 

[treefer]

LOL you have to bring that overflow box in so we can fix it. besides that good write up, the par light looks like it does work.

 

[tommyz44]

Thanks for helping me with that overflow!! I feel a bit better leaving durring the day!

So an update. I got the Par30 bulbs 2 blue 3 white 5x3W LED. I found that the 12 1.2W bulbs seem to put off more light, however not sure which is better to grow with. I think later down the road since i cannot find anymore of the 12 1.2W bulbs, i may go with a higher wattage with more lenses. Even from the picture it seems the middle bulb with more LED at less wattage per, looks like it is putting off more light. 14.4W vs 15W.

I wired up the UV and added them to my fixture. At 18 3/4" tank depth even the mushrooms on the floor glow. However only green seems to really glow. For example the Rapid LED blues, my duncans glow tips and mouth, but under the UV the mouths only glow. However, the green glow is MUCH more intense than with the blue moonlights. Attatched is a comparison picture of the daylights, and the daylights with the UV. Seems to actually show a good difference. Like i said not enough to grow with at all (see the uv only picture) but works really well for supplimental.

The other picture is just of how i wired the strips. Using a distibution block and a common, i can wire up mutiple stips on the same power supply. Since my power supply is 15W and 2amps i see no issue with straining the supply.

 

[tommyz44]

Well here it is less than a week later, and my UV is already dead. The LED are not burned out but changed to a 6500k look. I have contacted the seller to see why this would happen and hope to get a refund or a different batch. Finger crossed.

Also in advance Merry Christmas and happy holidays yall!

 

[Lowefx]

Merry X-mas, and let us know what happened!

 

[tommyz44]

They contacted me back, and it seems i needed a power supply with 2amps? seems a bit much. The place i ordered it from didnt have a specification on the page about the amperage, so i assumed a 750MA would be fine. Cannot say for sure if that was the issue or not, however i did get my blues in(they showed specs on page) so i am just tossing out the UV that burned out, replacing with the blues, which the two strips only need about .5amps. The first strip seemed really nice. Made the tank glow pretty good.Going to also look out for a 2amp 12v power supply and retry the UV. Hope this works, if not i would say it is worth a few extra to go with Rapid LED for setup.

Lowefx i dropped the extra blue i had(still about 10ft), you will need to solder still, also heatshrink. it needs a power-supply of .35-.4amps per meter.Hope you had a good christmas.

 

[tommyz44]

Small update before the new year. The blues are still working really well. i see i posted i had used a 2 amp power supply for the uv, but its only 750ma. Should be fine to run 2 strips of blue, but the UV needs its own.

What i do want to share now is my cost, as we can see i will save about 30W a month monthly looks good, but the initial cost is what always kept me away from LED

Par 38 bulb-33$ free shipping
Par 30 bulbs (2)- 30 total free shipping
Blue strips-7.56 free ship
UV strips-13.49

Total of 84.05. unless you add in a RapidLED moonlights at 23$ for 4 solderless leds (cheaper if you get less and or solderless)


Monthly estimated cost difference 0.12(corning nyseg rate)/KWH
45W mains @10 hours a day=1.64
15w strips @ 10 hours a day=.55
Total=2.19

T5-4 24w bulb 2 daytimes 2 actinincs same light schedual
48W mains @ 10 hours a day=1.75
48W acinic @ 10 hours a day= 1.75
Total=3.50
Savings of 1.31 a month @ 12 months = 15.72 a year.

Not much savings monthly, however where i will save is not buying bulbs every 8-12 months, even if i was to replace my LED strips at the same time (since they come with 5 meters) i would only need to replace half as many times, 80ish for 4 new ati bulbs 25 rounding up for 5 meters of blue and uv.

12.50(if i replaced LED yearly) vs 80$ bulb replace =67.50+15.72 electric savings
annual savings would be about 83.22.



Off note, Happy new years everyone!!! Resolution to do more water changes will last how long this year?? HAHA

 

[tommyz44]

In case anyone is following this, the blues are still running nicely. I finally (chinees shipping is so long) recived my power supply for the UV. Not sure how if i want to run UV and blues on the same timer or controll them differently....
Was thinking about in order royal blues(3w rapidled), royal and Uv, just Uv, Uv and blues, then run blues through most of the night. The Par bulbs have been working good, however i seem to find the 12 1.2W bulbs to be much brighter than the 5 3W? Seems backwards. Might add a monti or somthing to test out the growth compatability with SPS.


A friend at work is going to try them on his 90, however not sure about how deep they go so ill be rasing my fixture to 35-40 inches to see how well deep they will work. Incase anyone might want to add supplimental color only lighting.

 

[tommyz44]

pic of the blue strips and also my newest addition. A pair of Yasha's from Upstate aquatics, an awesome addition to the tank. Some real eye cathers in the tank!

 

[Lowefx]

Do you have a link on where you found the power supply for the blues? I still need to get one.

 

[tommyz44]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-110-240V...Connectors&hash=item4acc482f28#ht_2329wt_1124

Sellers name is melody862012 if the link doesnt work. My first one was from china and took forever, so i am sure you can get them cheaper than 5$. I got one from her since the shipping time is SO much better. 12V 2A power supply, this is what is recomended for the whole 5m, so its a bit overkill, but you dont have to worry about burning them out. I did raise my fixture to ~40-45 inches from the bottom of the tank(to simulate the depth 26inches tank depth and 12inches higher for where his halides sit) and found that the rics still showed color even at that depth. So i am starting to think the strips may be a cheap alternative for some moon lights and coloring.


Also if anyone looks there are 2 main types of LED strips ( 3528 LEDs and 5050 LEDs)
Sourse:http://www.flexfireleds.com/pages/Comparison-between-3528-LEDs-and-5050-LEDs.html

5050s are hotter, and produce more light, however the 3528s are less bright but much cheaper and cooler to run, and require a much smaller power supply. 2-5A for the 5050s I bought a 5050 blue roll 5M (11.88) for a roll, and will do a comparison on the 5050 to 3528s. Both purchased from same vendor, so i dont get any variation due to vendors.

 

[tommyz44]

SOOOOOO the UV again within 4 days burnt out. Even with the proper power supply...quite disappointed with those. however the blues are still running great. So I ripped out the UVs, and I think I will replace with blues for a total of 4 rows. The power consumption was much smaller than I thought when I contacted the manufacturer for the blues. 2- 24" strips would be about 6W.

I will post a comparison and review when I get the 5050 sized LEDs.

 

[tommyz44]

Ok so i broke down and decided to get that chinees Evergrow D120 LED fixture. Bently23 is building a frag tank for me, so i thought this would be nice to use above it. But who can 2-3 days to at least test out a new toy? So i hung it over the 30gal...WOW just WOW..... These things are bright. the off position to on jumps about 15% so there is no 15% and lower for dimmable. but very adjustable from there up. 2 Channels blues and daylights. The daylights are very "warm" but easy to cool off with the actinics channel. I really loved the DIY stuff but i think i may buy another so i have 1 each. These are amazing for the price i paid (128$) However there is no moonlight 3 channel. So i think what i may do is run the Blue strips still around the edges and use these as moonlights still. The Par bulbs were great, but over bigger tanks might not work great. A pico tank would be GREAT for these, or supplimenting sides if there is a lack of light from a fixture. But now that ive gone dimmable i dont think i could go back.

 

[dinger28]

Have an Evergrow D120 on my biocube and LOVE IT! It has only been a few weeks, but everything is doing wonderful!

 

[tommyz44]

I thought it would be fun to try out the Par 30/38 screw base bulbs (cheap alternatvie) and also i know many who have tossed around the idea of using those cheap 5M rolls of LED strips. Besides the UV burning out several times, the blue stips and Par bulbs worked great. Lots of wires, bulbs are only on off.

Glad to hear Dinger. I was blown away by how bright these were. Seems lots of people that ive saw on forums have had really good luck with these. The radions have lots more bells and whisles, but with a much larger price tag. Really well built too.