LED lighting - what are my options?

[jcardona1]

Sounds reasonable. I just grabbed a kit that I could experiment with and get some internet help should I fail miserably I will admit, the meanwells are a bit daunting, and the buckpucks limiting to 1000ma is pretty nice too. I don't plan to exceed that on any of my strings. Might be worth using those instead.

What LEDs are you going to use? StevesLEDs.com might have a good deal on them - and they're way less expensive than Cree's.

So what else do you need besides the buckpucks? A laptop power supply? Each laptop power supply can run 24 LEDs? Is that how it works? Or is it 6 strings of 6 for a total of 36?

Yeah, the Meanwells seem easier to use. That is until you want the dimmable feature. Then my eyes glaze over haha.

For the LEDs, I'm just going to stick with the Cree XP-G, a mixture of neutral white and warm white http://ledsupply.com/indusstar-1up.php A little more expensive, but I'd rather go with what's been tried and proven over and over.

The buckpucks will need to be connected to an external power supply. This is the one I'll be using, 24v, 6.5a http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=16854+PS

If I use 1000mA buckpucks, that's 1a each. So with a 6.5a power supply, I can hook up a max of 6 buckpucks (6a total). Each buckpuck can do 6 LEDs, so 6 buckpucks with 6 LEDs = 36 total LEDs off of one 6.5a power supply.

Total cost would be about $135 (6 buckpucks and 1 power supply). Using Meanwells would cost a couple bucks more (3 dimmable Meanwell drivers, potentiometers, and 10v power supplies).

So the cost is just a little bit cheaper with buckpucks using an example of 36 LEDs. And with the buckpucks, you'd get 6 arrays of 6 LEDs that can be independtly dimmed. Meanwells would give you 3 arrays of 12 LEDs that can be dimmed independently.

 

[Danger_Chicken]

This thread has really progressed. It went from marineland to floodlights to DIY. Jose does each string really need to be dimmable? I can see that casting uneven light, but then again I have driftwood near the tops of my tanks that could stand a little less light. What will the total cost be for the DIY light? Are those 1w leds?

 

[jcardona1]

This thread has really progressed. It went from marineland to floodlights to DIY. Jose does each string really need to be dimmable? I can see that casting uneven light, but then again I have driftwood near the tops of my tanks that could stand a little less light. What will the total cost be for the DIY light? Are those 1w leds?

Yeah it sure has!

No, they don't have to be dimmable. You could always use non-dimmable buckpucks or Meanwell drivers, which will cost a little bit less. But of course, it's nice to have the flexibility and just run them at full output at all times.

These are 3w LEDs, and seem to be really really bright. Look at this tank for example. 48x24 footprint running only 11 LEDs, and the fixture is raised several inches off the tank.

I'm estimating total cost for a 3ft fixture with 18 LEDs to be about $300. The heatsink is the expensive part. A 5.8"x36" heatsink will be about $70 alone!

 

[Clay]

You can actually make the heatsink out of aluminum U channel from HD/Lowes. It's cheap for a 4ft section (or smaller), and you can effectively make your own open space heatsink. The other option is heatsinkusa.com - there are a few others, but they do a good job (from what I've seen). You can also have them tapped to use nylon screws instead of metal ones, which can help eliminate the possibility of bad connections.

 

[Danger_Chicken]

I got the 30w today WOW! more than 3x brighter; it's brighter than four 10w's. The light is whiter too, looks closer to 10k. The unit is 4x the size. I only had time to hold one over the tank before I went to work but it looks like it will replace a 150w MH on my 220 lumen for lumen. I held it over a 180 and I think it will do great for those that like the really bright tanks. I finished the last light box last night; I'll hang the 30w's tonight and get some pic's. For me the 30w's would be too bright on a 24" deep tank. They are not as bright as the pic of the discus tank appear. I think the photo was over exposed. My phone over exposes all the LED light pic's.

I got these from Satisled.com. They are on ebay and have a some neg feedback. The lights are cheaper on their site and shipping from hong kong was only 4 days. Cost was $87ea shipped. They state they ship within 3 days, after 5 days and no answer to my emails I filed a dispute with Paypal. The lights were shipped the next day.

 

[jcardona1]

Holy crap that thing is a beast!!!! Yeah, I have a feeling this light would be too much for most tanks, maybe even too much for a planted tank. Looks like you could light up a parking lot with that thing! I wonder what the PAR output is on that thing.

 

[Danger_Chicken]

I know the 50w's are even bigger. I think these are about the same as a high light planted tank with multiple compacts or T5's; I'll know more tonight when I run 3 side by side. They came wired with a plug which was nice. The lumens rating is 2400. I'd like to know par on these and the 10w's.

I'm running six 10w's on my 72g low light planted tank. I should know in a few weeks how the lights do for the plants. He's a crappy phone pic of the plants after 2 weeks under the leds. I'll post another in a month. It was running 72w of T8.

 

[jcardona1]

I did a PAR test on the 10w light. They were showing about 35-40 PAR at 12", which is high-medium light.

 

[Danger_Chicken]

Here's a video of three 30w's on a 30" tall 220. My camera over exposes these so they are not quite as bright as the video appears. The brightness is on par with the 10w's on the smaller tanks... almost as brighter as the metal halides at the top of the tank. The jag feels the tank is his alone so I have two big plastic plants floating that are blocking a fair amount of light.

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[Fat Homer]

I'm actually quite interested to see how these LED's fair up against T5 / T5HO lighting, especially the set from Hong Kong when it comes to plants...

I've personally been thinking about maybe trying out some LED lighting, but been waiting for some one with plants to test them out to see if they live up to the hype that they are better than HD lighting on planted tanks...