LED lights

Nick this is for you:
http://reefledlights.com/led-kits/cree-xp-e-kits/48-cree-xp-e-kit/


And this is a guy with a 75 gal:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2102947&highlight=led+75+gal

Thanks for the help derrick! This is going to be pretty sweet and is only going to run me around $500

Im gonna jump into this discussion on the LED's..

How did you decide which "kit" to purchase, and which kit is it? Does it include the High Noon LED's?

I have looked at the Radion and AI fixtures. It seems that for the same price you can build a fixture with more lights and more flexibility. BUT, is this site using the same lights/optics?

As for the kits, The one I linked to is the most "stripped down kit" I.e. no heat sink/driver/etc. You would have to add whichever specific drivers you wanted. The reason for that one is if you are planning on having a controller control them(like my APEXJr) you need to use the correct driver.

Also, I have read on the DIY LED on RC that most people prefer 1" tube or U Aluminum stock for heat sinks. Mounted around 3-4 inches apart, although more is better (for cooling)

As for Lights XP-G>XP-E>XR-E
XP-G doesn't have the blues at this time to my knowledge, which is why you find XP-E's a lot more. I have read that 2 XP-E's are around the same as 1 XP-G, so if you wanted a 3 to 1 ratio blue to white you would need 6 blue XPE for every 1 White XP-G.

The high noon kits are just a white boost for "high noon" the idea (I think) is that during the brightest part of the day, you would turn these on and it would give you an extra umpf of white light, without offsetting your ratio of blue to white on the regular strips.

I am thinking that if you were to build the set up with enough lights, the kit would be almost useless. If let’s say your max was 75% without the high noon kit, then you could just bump up the whites to 100% to get the same effect. Just spit balling at this point.

Whatever you do, you want to control your blues and whites separately. And I personally would do it from a controller (biased towards the apex) Then you could have the lights ramp up and down each day. Then instead of turning on sets of light, the light would be distributed equally throughout the tank. If you wanted a very fine adjustment, you could run 4 controlled sets of lights, 2 blue and 2 white. Then start with 1 and 1, slowly going up until you have all 4 sets of lights on. Because the drivers use a 0-10V reference signal from the apex, the way to switch it up would be wire 4 separate ports instead of tying the blues to one port and the whites to another.
In your case, if you did 6 or 8 strips, it might be 4 ports, port#1 2 blue strips, port#2 2 white strips, port#3 1(2) blue strip(s), port#4 1(2) white strip(s).
So port 3 and 4 would come on in the morning, at 10%, work their way to the max (lets say 75%)then at that point the ports 1&2 would do the same. That would give you the most gradual change. You could just put all the blues on one control port and all whites and adjust as needed too, although it wouldn't be as gradual.

Sandman wrote:I have looked at the Radion and AI fixtures. It seems that for the same price you can build a fixture with more lights and more flexibility. BUT, is this site using the same lights/optics?

If AI and radion use Cree lights, then yes they would have to have the same lights. Cree is a brand name of lights. The optics depend on what you choose to put on them, so they could use similar optics or you could choose different optics.

Looking at the kits, sandman, you could get the 48 all blue and 2 high noon kits, and run those as your whites.

I found this thread on RC, he is using the LED's from Reefledlights.com. Just for reference.LED Kit Build Thread

The build turned out nice, he used all of the bells and whisles for that(solderless kit and nicer drivers) I asked him if he felt it was overkill, 50 lights for a 3 foot tank? thats a lot!

Nick you were talking about going front to back instead of side to side, they have a heat sink that may work for you if you go that route:
http://reefledlights.com/shop/1-75-accent-heatsink/

Anyone checkout this site

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/

I would like to know how they compare to cree LED's. The pricing is def. good

I dont know but the price is really good!

dwolson2 wrote:Nick you were talking about going front to back instead of side to side, they have a heat sink that may work for you if you go that route:
http://reefledlights.com/shop/1-75-accent-heatsink/

Ya but they are $30 each

derrick earlier you said you need specific drivers for the apex?? which ones are they?

I read on the DIY that you need to make sure you have the right one, this one will work for the apex though:http://reefledlights.com/shop/mean-well-eln-60-48d/

ya just found that. thanks! i almost ordered one that wont work with the apex lol! i should probbly get the pre tuned one right?

from what I understand its not hard, but its your money

ok ill get pretuned lol. also do you think i should just get two 18 inch heat sinks for my 48 leds then get thoes long skiney ones you posted for my high noons?

How easy do you want it? If you want it to be as easy as possible, get the heatsinks,pre drilled, if you don't mind gluing them, and want to save money, buy 1 or 1.25 tube stock of aluminum and make your own rails for the heat sink. If i do it I think I am going to do the tube stock. The heat sink looks really clean, but IMHO unless its going to be suspended above the tank, making your own heatsinks is a better option(spreads the light out)

if you do use the heatsink, use this fan, its supposed to turn on automatically by heat:http://reefledlights.com/shop/arctic-cooling-f12-pro-tc-temperature-controlled-120mm-fan/

ok im going to do the u channel im also thinking about doing a vent to ether outside or the atic to keep the heat down in my room.

Where did you see on that site the different types of fixtures? When it comes to optics, higher optic means deeper pen. right? I saw on their site that they recommend 60 for the best results. Have you seen anything that contradicts that or states otherwise?

clownfish14 wrote:ok im going to do the u channel im also thinking about doing a vent to ether outside or the atic to keep the heat down in my room.

What is the benefit to U Channel over a wider fixture? Will that provide the same spread front to back?

The use of optics depends on mounting height off of the surface of the water.
U channel has the benefit of spreading the leds out, and I have also heard it does a better job at displaying the heat( think all the leds are spread out over a larger area)

Has anyone here switched to AI's or Ecotech's LEDs? In the long run they are cheaper than T5s but I want to wait until the technology is more stable.

Im going to use diy. The ai and echotechs are to expensive

I just ordered the aqua style 12 bulb DIY kit. I will post pics when I get it.

I was able to see Jeff's fully loaded SPS tank yesterday that is running AI sol LEDs. His tank is amazing and the adjustable settings are awesome. His tank is making me rethink the LEDs...maybe in the future upgrade!

Ya the options you have with the leds is what got me too. That and the overall price saved in the long run.

I have read its a 50/50 whether SPS like LEDs or not. I have read some brown out other grow like weeds compared to Metal Halide, but has anyone heard whether or not LPS and the like are affected that way? I haven't heard anything, but I also wasn't looking for it either.

Anyone think of running a mix? Like half t5's and half LEDs? I am still wanting to go all LED, but when I reset up my tank, I am going to have all LPS/Zoas etc.

I would think that if you ran LED's and T5 it might damage the LED's from heat. This might be able to be avoided with fans. I have read that LPS like the LED's, and I have had good results so far with the few pieces that I have.

Oh yea I forgot about those trumpets...

reefer87 wrote:I just ordered the aqua style 12 bulb DIY kit. I will post pics when I get it.

I was reading up on those lights, it seems like people really like those cree like leds. Let us know when they get in!

I did some more research and they are made by bridgelux. Personally I have heard it before but I can't remember what it was.

My lights have been shipped. Now just a few more days.

reefer87 wrote:I did some more research and they are made by bridgelux. Personally I have heard it before but I can't remember what it was.

supposedly bridgelux is a cheaper but less efficient brand of LEDs. both put out similar light though(from what I have read.)
can't wait to see that setup though! Did you get dimmable?

No I didn't. I wished I did.

reefer87 wrote:No I didn't. I wished I did.

I think you can just buy a dimmer for like 20/30$

Yeah I will look into it.

potentiometer based:
http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/MeanWell-LPF%252d90D%252d48.html

controller based (runs 11 LEDs?):
http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/MeanWell-ELN%252d60%252d48D.html

Just got my lights in the mail today. I will start a DIY thread tonight and post pics.

what tank are you putting them over?

Biocube 14.

oh

If I could afford enough for the 60 I would do it too.

I was looking through the DIY over on RC today and came across this:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2128756

and the LEDs I believe he is talking about:
http://stores.ebay.com/led-hk/100W-leds-/_i.html?_fsub=1673982012&_sid=482459762&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322


What they are are multi chip LED's think taking all those older 1 watt LEDs and putting them on a single board, then selling them. Thats what I think they did. The chips must have a stronger cooling setup than a 3w, for obvious reasons, but the cost is much less and the amount of fixtures you would need would be less. I was thinking 2-50w and 2-100w to replace the 250's and actinics, although that might be overkill. I like the idea though. I also thought about running 4 or 5 50w ones as well, create a more even spread, but my tank has a center brace that will make a nasty shadow if I use 5 lights.

Just for info for you LED people:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/aafeature

I still dont believe the spectrum are where they should be for the LEDs, but hopefully sooner than later they will get there.