Diy Led

[teebone110]

Any LED DIYers out there?

I have 2 DIY RB/UV strips that have treated me well for many years and I’m considering adding some additional LEDs to my system.

I have been looking at a couple more strips of Cree RB, B, UV, and V however curious about opinions.

Right now I’m leaning to 2 dimmable channels
Channel 1 = Cree XTE Royal Blue x 7 + Cree XTP Blue x7 controlled by Meanwell LPF-40D-42
Channel 2= Epiled Ultra Violet x 5 + Epiled Violet x 5 controlled by Meanwell LPF-25D-42

All through Aquastyle http://www.aquastyleonline.com

The prices are still reasonable, considering the costs of LEDs have come down a lot in recent years. Quality fixtures still demand a high price tag and it’s my opinion that DIY can deliver.

I run an 8 bulb ATI Sunpower, so these are just for extra "pop" so I can relate to all the cool kids and their LED systems . (Also have a 60 inch Reef Brite XHO kicking out some nice par too)

So what are opinions on sellers and colour combos, quality, DIY LED parts, etc.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Mine has been DIY for years, except the recent addition of the radion, and I added 2 T5s just to try and cover the bases.

Everything comes from Rapid LED, and if possible I always get the CREE bulbs. You can even get ones that you don't have to solder.

As for dimmables, I used to do that with a dimmer, then using the dimming channels on the apex, but I found that instead of messing around with dimmable drivers, and dimmers, I just went to the ceap drivers that only run ~14 bulbs, and I just do "banks" of different LEDs, so say last lights in the tank to go out are a strip of royal blues. Now the radion comes on around 10, but it used to be the blues, then the whites, then the UVs, then the reds/greens/whatever. Then they would step down from high noon. The apex controlled all of it. I'd say that if I was going to do it again, I'd likely go back to all LEDs, but I might have a small metal halide to do 2 hours from 11am-1pm, just to get that high noon colour that only halides can bring (or if you're not picky, have your high noon at midnight, so you avoid the kathleen wynne time of use, and the liberal carbon tax hits).

As far as I can tell the secret is all in the quality of the LEDs and the amount of UVs you use. The low spectrum UVs you really can't see at all, so they're not for lighting the tank, but they keep the sps from going dark (as you have seen), so in the evening, you run just a bunch of royal blues, and the corals are just stunning. It's just a different approach from the nice-and-easy-but-hot-and-expensive MHs. I have yet to see a commercial LED setup that would rival a full on halide setup, but the other benefits outweigh them, AND you can custom tailor the look you want just by swapping out LEDS. It's just a different approach.

I will say though, I haven't had a single driver fail on me, and the only LEDs that ever burned out, were ones that were open to the salt. Anything behind plexi is fine (but does the plexi take away some of the spectrum? If my radion kionks out on me I'm out $800 or so. If an LED fixture goes out on me, it's usually a $4 repair. So food for thought.

 

[teebone110]

Thanks Salty- I’m still considering whether to pull the trigger on more LEDs and think I have he colour combo nailed down. Inagree that it might not be worth setting up dimmer settings and just have different banks of lights fire up at different times.

will check out Rapid LED- the soderless seems to be worthwhile since the cost isn’t much different and easier to manage.