Another LED Thread?!?

G

GraviT

Premium Member
Yep, you guessed it. I'm thinking of converting my 120 gallon from 2x250 Hamilton 14,000k MH + 110 T5 actinic supplementation to LED. I've been reading threads and website product info for the past week and am no closer to determining what the best setup for the buck would be.

The tank is a standard 48x24x24 with an 11.5" glass center brace (yeah..I hate that thing) and I keep mainly LPS and Montipora, although wouldn't want to have acropora be out of the question should I come across a frag someday that makes me start that whole thing again [smilie=lol.gif]. I have a Aquacontroller Jr. and am wiling to buy a VDM to interface with it if needed (maybe even preferred?).

I came across the Prism fixtures on clearance here: http://www.shop.ledreef.com/Clearance-Prism-250-Lighting-PR250CLR.htm. It sounds good and one user has given their stuff a good review, but don't really know much about the fixture and weather or not I can dim them. The price looks good for two complete fixtures, however.

I know that the AI Vega is right around the corner and its release should drive down the cost of the Sol, but it seems like I could potentially do better with a DIY kit both for price and flexibility.

I've been looking at Steve's SPS retrofit kit here http://shop.stevesleds.com/SPS-Grade-LED-Retrofit-Kit-Package-44-54-tanks-SPS-Retrofit-Kit-44-54.htm but that only includes 56 LEDS (28 white and 28 royal blue). I've read some less than favorable information about the drivers in use and wonder if this would truly be enough light for my tank.

I started to put together a DIY at reefledlights.com, but gt lost when it comes down to some of the things like optics and it seems like their "Premium 48 Cree XT-E / XP-G" kit requires 4 drivers? Given the size of the tank, I would need at least two fixtures (their LED My Tank page recommends 3).

I could go on for hours here..but clearly I need some guidance! You guys that have experience here with DIY builds and such..help! [smilie=sweating.gif]
 
Come to the meeting on Wednesday and most of your questions should be answered!! I will respond more when I am not in the car.
 
Come to the meeting, and/or feel free to PMme with questions. I have built around 10 fixtures now i think :)


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So, I'm really starting to lean towards an AI Sol Blue setup. For just shy of $1k, I get the lights, rails, hanging kit, controller and all power supplies. Looking at several of the DIY options, it seems like I would end up spending much more and still have to worry about assembly, housing all of the drivers, optics and trying to keep the fixtures from shorting out from splashes. I know the Vega release is just around the corner, but the price point on this seems pretty good.

Any AI Sol Blue owners out there want to chime in?
 
Wait for sol vega don't buy blue now if you keep sps stay away from sol blues till vega comes out. I switched back to
Mh from 4 sol blues


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The SOL Vega is EXACTLY why I stay from LED's. Still evolving technology is kills the resale value. I stick with halides or T5's.
 
feel free to come checkout my tank. i have 3 ai sol blues on a 90 gallon oceanic tank.two aint gonna cut it if you want sps.. you also need to swap the 4 center optics to 70 degree to get max light dispersion, your par will go down but you will still have plenty of intensity. Thier is nuthing wrong with these lights. People who complain about then didn't do the proper reasearch before buying them, and gives them a bad name.. Trust me thier is no need to go over 40% intensity on white and 90% on either blues.. The colors of my sps are pretty crazy atm and imo the sps still grow just as fast as halides,so in my opinion its a win win situation cause you have newer technology and no light bulbs to replace and no high a/c bill plus you won't need a chiller :) I love my ai sols.
 
I want to switch to LEDs to reduce electricity costs (the usual stuff...energy consumed by 610 watts of lighting, humidity from evaporation, fans to keep the temps down, extra AC use in the house..etc..). Its about time to replace all of my bulbs and I would rather invest that money into something that will help reduce costs in the long run.

I'm not sure that I would be interested in waiting for the Vega..it will almost certainly have a higher price point and I'm really not convinced that adding more colors is going to do THAT much for the variety of livestock that I keep. I've seen lots of happy reefer stories and pics from the Sol Blue. Pampee, why exactly did you switch back? Poor SPS growth, color, etc?

As for 2 not being enough, the specs show that at 12" AWL, each module should cover 24"x24" and my canopy will allow me to run them at that height without issue. There's also that pesky 11.5", 1/2" thick, glass center brace in the middle. It would seem like a waste to dedicate a module to that thing.

Oh..decisions decisions!
 
@toomnymods wrote:
feel free to come checkout my tank. i have 3 ai sol blues on a 90 gallon oceanic tank.two aint gonna cut it if you want sps.. you also need to swap the 4 center optics to 70 degree to get max light dispersion said:
This discussion is almost like saying Ecotech is better than Tunze. My opinion of LED's is that I'd rather wait until it's perfected and not still evolving. LED's don't cover as much spectrum as T5's or halides and they're still very expensive. I believe great growth and color can be achieved with LED's as many people have proven, but not without a heavy price tag. I collect deepwater and higher end acropora and EVERY collector I have bought from only uses metal halides or T5's. The only people who have lost any corals they bought from me had LED's. (That I know of)
I admit that I personally want LED's in the future so my chiller isn't running 6 hours a day in my home, and don't have to replace 3 bulbs every 10 months. Hopefully soon LED's will be more applicable to my system and cheaper for me.
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If you buy the sol blue now you will kick yourself when Vegas come out in couple months as price on blue will drop. Vega are nicer as they will have built in wireless and the color vega is suppose to have the spectrum needed to cover growth of corals.

Some sps did well but some lost their two tone coloring also some of my acans, micros and lobos turned all orange.

Google LEDs and corals turning orange you will see this a common thing with LEDs that are just blue and white.


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@kuyatwo wrote:
If you buy the sol blue now you will kick them self when Vegas come out in couple months as price on blue will drop. Vega are nicer as they will have built in wireless and the color vega is suppose to have the spectrum needed to cover growth of corals. Some sps did well but some lost their two tone coloring also some of my acans said:
Exactly!
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my green and purple acan is still green and purple.. my orange rainbow ricordia is still the samecolor.. have two wellsophyllias both of them are still the same color as is my clam. One of the wellsophyllias did get blasted with the stock optics though when i head the white intensity at 80% when i first set it up. but after lookingon reefcentral i quickly figured out acros will brown under the glass divider on a 90 gallon without a third light fixture..

after trying to get by on two fixtures my self i had a huge dark area under the divider. you cannot support any sps under it without a light there,
call aqua illumination directly if you dont believe me he will reccomend 3-4 fixtures for this size tank.
 
I've been running AI Sol Blues for a little over half a year now. I bought most of mine used from a tank tear down except a back-up unit that I was going to put over another tank that I bought new so overall I'm not into them for what some owners have into their systems I think it averaged out to about $300 a unit with hanging kit and I am running 3 of them and then another $75 total for the 70 degree lens kits to replace the stock 40 degree lenses in the center pucks. I've had really great growth with my LPS and SPS under the AI's and have been regularly fragging SPS to just give to friends or trade to the LFS for credit. What Pampee said about red turning a bit orange held true in my case for some corals but not for others. I never messed much with the different intensities I could run for the white, blue, and royal blue. I just have them all at 75% after starting at 40% and acclimating the corals by upping it 5% a week.

At the time, I was looking at having to replace a total of 8 T5 bulbs which would have run about $200 and then again after 6 - 10 months. This factored in to my decision to just switch to the AI's. If I consider the cost of two bulb changes, I could sell the 3 AI's for $575 and break even cost wise. I haven't tried to calculate energy savings before but the lower wattage used for lights plus the chiller not running obviously factors in to the cost calculations.

That said, I love the latest and greatest gadgets so I've pre-ordered 5 AI Vega Color fixtures for my new build. I'll keep the Sols running on my current tank so that I won't have to try to rush everything over to the new build and then I'll probably just sell off any extras I don't use to light a QT tank or my Solana, if there are any left. If I want to, I can always upgrade them to Vegas according to AI as they will have the upgrade kits available after the Vega itself rolls out.
 
@toomnymods wrote:
but after lookingon reefcentral i quickly figured out acros will brown under the glass divider on a 90 gallon without a third light fixture.. said:
That might explain why my tri-color is a bi-color that is mostly brown and my pink birdsnest never colored up the way I thought it should. Oh well, no bracing for the new build so it won't be an issue [smilie=smile.gif]
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For $1000 Im sure Joe or I could build you an LED fixture that would blow your mind! Take a look at bimmerz LED build in the DIY forum I doubt that he has 1000 in his and he has 11+ colors in his fixture(talk about full spectrum!) All that being said, I have not run the AI Sol but I am currently running a blue/white only fixture. On my 70g I had a 7 color fixture, on my 120 a 7 color fixture, on my 29g frag tank a 2 color fixture; so I have a little experience with the LEDs. I am in the process of UPGRADING my 60g to metal halides to grow SPS. The LPS, zoas do fine under LEDs assuming there is enough light, but my SPS have discolored and some even RTNed from lack of lighting. My wife desperately wants me to stick with LEDs for the obvious economical reasons, but I want the growth that LEDs just arent providing. At bare minimum I would wait for the Vega, or build your own fixture(you could get out WAY under 1000) but if you dont want to sacrifice color and growth dont switch to LEDs yet.
 
I am thinking a solid DIY fixture with labor for a 120g might be 600-700. That would be using all cree and luxeon leds, as well as meanwell drivers. Hardware would probably be 3-4 smaller pendant heatsinks with a fsn over each.

Anyways, that is my initial thinking anyway. I did a 4-bulb T5 with 30 LED's for a tank that size and materials was about 600.

I've done numerous LED builds, but i have to agree with most guys here, tried and true halides are the way to go for SPS. I am switching tomorrow to halides with LED actinics.


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The more I think (and obsess) about this, the more I think that maybe I should just take my girlfriend on a cruise with the money!
 
Cruises are awesome and well worth the money but make sure you at least get a balcony room.

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