PRIMARY LED lit Custom glass tank

[melev]

That may be true, but I have a feeling you are doing it MUCH cheaper than the Solaris fixture. I saw the 24" model as well as the 6' long model. The 24" cost about $1200 at MACNA. They said it would be good for 5 years. No light bulb purchases - nice. However, the warranty was 2 years. Ummmm...

 

[aquamn1999]

Can't wait to see a picture with the led lights

 

[jnarowe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8608089#post8608089 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
That may be true, but I have a feeling you are doing it MUCH cheaper than the Solaris fixture. I saw the 24" model as well as the 6' long model. The 24" cost about $1200 at MACNA. They said it would be good for 5 years. No light bulb purchases - nice. However, the warranty was 2 years. Ummmm...

Yeah, it will be a while before these are economical enough to take hold. I researched LED lighting for my system and basically found that in order to get the PAR needed it would cost well over $100K, and I still doubt very much that the light would penetrate the full 35" in my display. I am very interested in LED as a long term innovation but with the quick failures of the LEDs themselves, it will take some time for a truly reliable product to hit the mainstream market.

I really admire zachtos' determination!

 

[Fredfish]

zachtos. I am sorry to see it didn't work out, but I'm not surprised at the results. The Luxion K2, at 41 lumens/watt, is about 1/2 the efficiency of MH and just doesn't have the punch.

Its hard to say how long it will be before we see good leds for aquarium applications. It has taken Lumileds 2 years to get to the K2 from its first generation and they are not that much more efficient than the originals.

Fred

 

[hahnmeister]

There are 130 lumen/watt LED's in development right now. Thats why I say... just wait. I agree (didnt I post this a while back...???) that LED's are just too early in their development to compete right now with the halides and T5s which are hovering at about 100lumens per watt, with halide having the sheer lumens/watt advantage, but T5s having the more useful configuration for getting that light into the tank.

Just give it a couple years or so... and LED's will be hot hot hot!!!

 

[jnarowe]

nice balls hahn.

 

[zachtos]

well, atleast I got a smile out of a PFO rep. I may try ordering some focussing lenses to see what a difference they make.

""This is the message:

I just had to smile when I saw your DIY project. It looks very similar to my
first attempt. By the way in my first attempt the LED's burned out in 8 hours.
You obviously did better than I. However, that was 2-3 years ago. I have
spent a lot of money researching all the problems that you have found out
about, and many more problems that you are probably not aware of yet.

By the way it was the DIY people who pulled PFO into the aquarium industry.
Therefore, I am always intrigued by what you DIY's are always doing.

Patrick Ormiston
PFO Lighting""

 

[Fredfish]

Cool. You must be doing something right! I wonder if PFO is using stock focusing lenses or if they developed something themselves.

Fred

 

[fishytoo123]

Why not just use cold cathode tubes instead. Less connections.

 

[leeweber85]

That's cool that PFO wrote you. Are you sure it's the LEDS that aren't powerful enough? It could be your powersupply. Just an Idea.

Lee

 

[Gomer]

the powersupplies should be fine. PFO uses 45° Fraen lenses if my eyes serve me well. The Luxeons are 140° so there you have it.

 

[zachtos]

NEWS FLASH:

I had a long conversation with an engineer at LuxDrive. He was very very very informative about lumileds and powerdrivers. I learned that I wired my array at half intensity on accident. I need to have 6 LEDs per puck at 700mA on a 24Vdc supply. When you add another string, you cut the current in half, this is not specified in the spec sheet, which threw me for a loop. So guess what, I can easily double the intensity of my array, bringing it back to the metal halide range, by spending $40 more dollars and 5 minutes of soldering.

PLUS: I learned that luxeon K2s don't actually have increased light output at all. They are just a streamlined manufacturing process and are cheaper. He said the bins that have higher light output don't exist.

AND: Fraen lenses, he said will focus the light TREMENDOUSLY and stop wasting light. I NEED to order those if I trully want a supremely light tank. I bet if I do these upgrades, it will be in the 250W MH range easily, if not greater because of my design layout being so compressed. PFO uses about half as many as I do per square inch.

Anyone wanna spot me $80? lol

 

[eznet2u]

Well, What are you waiting for...GET TO IT!!!


I have been following this thread from the beginning...Love it.

Sell something and get this going!!! J/k

 

[draleigh]

i see i am not the only one subscribed to this thread. Been a long time since an update was done. Do you still have the original array over your fuge?

 

[leeweber85]

good news...so yeah... get on it!

 

[zachtos]

lol, alright, i'll work on it soon enough. I just haven't had time lately since I'm working on my 240G so much. I'll work on it soon enough.

 

[ChemE]

Yup, I'm still subscribed and glad for it now; very interesting to say the least!

 

[Jimbo327]

Damn this is cool. Keep up the good work.

 

[L98-Z]

I've noticed your occupation says Electrical engineering. May I ask why you decided to use resistors to control the current as opposed using current mirrors?

I would think less power consumption and greater accuracy of the current would make it a better choice.

 

[zachtos]

I am using current drivers in the latest revision. COST COST COST. Current drivers COST MOOLA and lots of it when you need hundreds or thousands. I was thinking of scaling up.

I'm still working on my 240G tank at the moment, click the red house to see why I haven't been working on this prototype as of late.