sifuentes31 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Hey guys i had ordered some led chips from China but now they are saying they are out of stock and if i want something else. Originally i ordered 2 50w 20000k leds but now all they have is 7000k. Is this enough light for my corals or should i get my money back and go elsewhere? Suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 the color temp isn't going to determine "quantity" of light. However, 7k bulbs are going to be very yellow and probably not very pleasing to the eye. If it were me, I'd either do a RapidLED kit or get a standalone pendant (kessil comes to mind) if I were to do my setup all over again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 I figured as much and definetly don't want a yellow tank. Still fighting the green GHA in mine and don't need another unwanted color. Thanks Vic. I'll just get my money back and order elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 the color temp isn't going to determine "quantity" of light. However, 7k bulbs are going to be very yellow and probably not very pleasing to the eye. If it were me, I'd either do a RapidLED kit or get a standalone pendant (kessil comes to mind) if I were to do my setup all over again. If I could redo my biocube I wouldn't go with the RapidLED that I have in there now. I'd look to aliexpress and dealextreme. After ordering more LED and supplies and such I have realized how much I over paid for my Rapidled kit. Rapid sells the drivers alone for 45 or something like that and you can order them from powergate for 38 shipped.... I do like to use rapidled for a kit list so I can see what powers what amount real fast and go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 Actually that's who i ordered from, Aliexpress. It's a host site which has lots of smaller companies that you can order from.. Just turns out that what i ordered was out of stock in that particular store. The price difference is enourmous and instead of glueing, soldering, and wiring 50+ leds i can do the job with 2 large LEDs and still have the effect that Rapid Led has. Even the Meanwell drivers are a bargain at Aliexpress. Not Knocking RapidLed they have a great product but i'm too lazy to do all that work and too impatient and just want my lights up in an hour rather than a day or two. Of course this is only my opinion. Ozarkas lights were nice and bright and did the job. Also Jakes lights went up in a flash and says he has great growth with his. But it's totally up to the user in the end on what he/she wants to do with his/her tank. I like to experiment and trying this new way. If it doesn't work for me then i'll grab the Rapids and still use my drivers. Win Win for me anyway i look at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Actually that's who i ordered from, Aliexpress. It's a host site which has lots of smaller companies that you can order from.. Just turns out that what i ordered was out of stock in that particular store. The price difference is enourmous and instead of glueing, soldering, and wiring 50+ leds i can do the job with 2 large LEDs and still have the effect that Rapid Led has. Even the Meanwell drivers are a bargain at Aliexpress. Not Knocking RapidLed they have a great product but i'm too lazy to do all that work and too impatient and just want my lights up in an hour rather than a day or two. Of course this is only my opinion. Ozarkas lights were nice and bright and did the job. Also Jakes lights went up in a flash and says he has great growth with his. But it's totally up to the user in the end on what he/she wants to do with his/her tank. I like to experiment and trying this new way. If it doesn't work for me then i'll grab the Rapids and still use my drivers. Win Win for me anyway i look at it. Very True! Aliexpress and dealextreme are identical almost. If ali doesnt have it deal does and vice versa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 the color temp isn't going to determine "quantity" of light. However, 7k bulbs are going to be very yellow and probably not very pleasing to the eye. If it were me, I'd either do a RapidLED kit or get a standalone pendant (kessil comes to mind) if I were to do my setup all over again. As with most things, it is in the eye of the beholder. I use 6500K in many applications and do not find this yellow. For a reef display, 6500K and actinic make a beautiful affect. With respect to PAR values, your 7K LED will put out much more PAR than a similiar 20K LED. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 So what is the ideal spectrum for growing coral? Since i'm building my own fixture would adding different spectums help the growth of the corals? Since every species of coral has it's own needs i figured a little bit of mixed spectrum would be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 So what is the ideal spectrum for growing coral? Since i'm building my own fixture would adding different spectums help the growth of the corals? Since every species of coral has it's own needs i figured a little bit of mixed spectrum would be good. Sitting back to enjoy the show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 So what is the ideal spectrum for growing coral? Since i'm building my own fixture would adding different spectums help the growth of the corals? Since every species of coral has it's own needs i figured a little bit of mixed spectrum would be good. The ideal spectrum for growing coral is 6500 Kevin. The ideal spectrum to display coral depends on the coral in question. With respect to using LED lighting, the diodes are each spectrum specific. This means that LED lighting is not broad spectrum. VHO,T5 and MH are all broad spectrum, if you start out with a 6500K, then the actinic range is included in the 6500K broad spectrum. Since you are designing your own lamp, I suggest you mix up a lot of colors. There are a lot of opinions out there. Good luck on your design. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 This is one very complex subject. It's got chemistry, coral physiology, zooxanthellae physiology, physics, coral adaptaion, symbiosis and human perceptions of easthetics all rolled in together. Needless to say I'm the self designated arbitor of whats right. RapidLED is probably a bit more honest in they actually give a range of color temps thier white LEDs may have but they are probably close to the 7000K color temp given by the company you ordered from. The majority of the LED fixtures commercially available use a combination of Royal Blue and Cool White (6000K or so). There are a couple that use more colors. And if I'm not mistaken Ozarka and Photodude (Jake) used that compination as. While many people have reported success with just one blue color and one white I prefer to use a combination. Like Pat pointed out LEDs are not broad spectrum like MH or florescent. I like to use as many differrent colors as I can and you will see some notable build threads int he DIY section with multicolor LEDs. If there are design restrctions I will try for Blue, Royal Blue and Cool White. If possible I will add Warm White then I will try to add Green and Red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share Posted August 22, 2012 That sounds great. While i'm waiting for my refund i'm going to try to come up with a different color combination. Never thought about the green and red colors. Should make everything pop!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 This subject reminds me of that old movie "the never ending story" lol I miss my ATI T5's and I have Cree LED's..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I'm planning on DIY'ing some LED lights as well. I've done a lot of reading, and I feel like I've learned a lot, but am still unsure of the direction to go. It's a new build, I have some old PC hoods that I might use just to get the water/system cycled, but I want LEDs when I finally add coral. Price is obviously a concern, so I'm not going to go down and buy commercial LEDs. I have a 92g corner (quarter circle) tank, a standard "strip" of lights does not seen like it will cover the best. Sifuentes31 I'm interested in hearing what you end up going with. Timfish, or any others, I'd love to hear thoughts on recommended LED setups (number of LEDs, size etc.) for a tank like mine. Sifuentes31 I don't mean to steal our thread, but maybe we can learn together? There is a wealth of knowledge on this forum! Also do you put optics on all the LEDs, just some or not at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Out of curiosity, what is the luminous output for those LED's? I've seen some big ones with very poor lm/w. There's a lot more to it than just lumens per watt, since Par isn't necessarily proportional to lm/w, but some of the high end 1 - 3W LED's, are pushing 200 lm/w for 10K color temp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 The blues i recieved are: 180Lm 10w 452-455 nM 1000mA forward current My driver is a waterproof LED Driver: input: 100-240vac output: 12v5A This should be plenty to light up my 55Gl. If not then i'll just order another set of LEDs and Driver. The LEDs where $22 for a lot of 5 and the driver was $25, both were free shipping. I had ordered some whites but are out of stock AGAIN!! So this little thread might take awhile. As for taking over this thread its Totally cool bud. If you learn something new then i learn something new. Thats why we ask questions...... Hopefully i can install my lights this sunday and see how they look in my tank. I'm going to reorder my lights and get (2) 20w 6500k, (2) 20w 10000k, and order a (2) 10w green and red. I think they have the Hybrid LED's which have booth colors in them. Oh and no i'm not going to use optics on my lights. I'm going to let the light spread out. If i don't like how it looks then maybe i'll look into them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Nice, I'm looking forward to seeing how you "put it all together". Those LED's are a lot different than the once I've been eyeballing, the 5W Cree and 3W...well cheapos. These are 10W LEDs, so you'll need fewer of them? Is that correct? I consider myself pretty "handy", I feel pretty comfortable doing just about anything with wood, have done some welding (nothing finish quality), but when it comes to electrical, I just have not done that much. Stinging LEDs together seems pretty straightforward, it's more of the planning etc. that I don't have the confidence level I would like to have. So posts like this (and others on the forum) are great to learn from. I look forward to your progress! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted September 20, 2012 Author Share Posted September 20, 2012 I'm the same way on being handy. Just electrical i lack on until someome shows me then i'm ok. The 5w and 3w aren't really chepos IMO , they do the job but your exactly right on needing fewer of them if you go with the larger LEDs. I just can't see myself soldering 50+ LEDs together when i can just solder 5 of them and still get the same effect. You should read Jakes thread on his DIY LEDs. It has the info you need on choosing the right Driver. That was my problem when i started. Didn't know what to get but he explains it in plain english and easy to understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Who is Jake? Do you have the link to the thread you are taking about? I looked in the Do It Yourself → Lighting (MH, T5, PC, LED) forum but did not see a post started by Jake. Maybe he has a different handle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Who is Jake? Do you have the link to the thread you are taking about?. . . Maybe he has a different handle? Here's Jake's thread: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/22439-its-time-to-go-from-10-48-t-5s-to-led-pic-update/page__hl__jakedoza Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 This subject reminds me of that old movie "the never ending story" lol I miss my ATI T5's and I have Cree LED's..... I hear ya! Some of the florescing colors do have more "pop" under LEDs but some of the non florescing colors definitly are washed out with some of the fixtures I've seen used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 . . . I'd love to hear thoughts on recommended LED setups (number of LEDs, size etc.) for a tank like mine . . . Also do you put optics on all the LEDs, just some or not at all? There's no absolute or rule of thumb. For example I have issues with sibling colonies of Pink Birdsnest under MH and T5s doing well from 80 PAR up to 600 + PAR but under LEDs and getting 200 - 400 PAR look crappy, seems clear to me to be an issue of spectrum. I would suggest finding corals doing well under the LEDs you want to get. Wheter or not to use lenses depends on how intense you want your lighting at depth. Your tank is kinda on the border line as I've seen similar depths lit well without lenses but you may want some corals that would need lenses to look good. Besides Jakedoza's thread here are two others: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/21874-my-75g-led-plan http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/21406-multi-colored-led-build/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted September 21, 2012 Author Share Posted September 21, 2012 Yeah gotta learn how to post other threads on my thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bimmerzs Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Hi, Led's are misleading....it is difficult to visually determine how much light a led is putting out. While some led setup's may seem dim to our eyes, your coral's could be receiving almost double the amount of light, as compared to another lighting system. PAR comparison's also mislead, led's are tight with spectrum and the bluer end is hard to measure with a PAR meter. A lux meter will give a better picture where as full spectrum lights have those "extra" spectrum's that also add to the PAR total. Do your due diligence and research fully, also go check out a few different setup's that have led's lighting their tank. If you get quality led's such as the rebel es, cree's , etc., you are working with known performance values so as long as your system is planned out well, you can certainly have not only enough but possibly too much intensity. The bigger concern is making sure that you have the necessary spectrum's available for your coral' need's. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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