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superman1981 
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 Topic: LED Question
Posted: March 06 2008 at 1:49pm |
Since I failed to hijack the other LED thread, I decided to start my own  . I'm thinking of lighting a 10 gal with LED's, and I was wondering if I could go as simple as using something like the following: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7942766My question is, are all LED's created equal, or are there different qualities of LED's? I'll keep softies for sure under the lights.... and maybe more, we'll have to see. Thanks, Tim
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jpndave
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Posted: March 06 2008 at 6:56pm |
Sorry you got over looked over on the other thread.
The simple answer is no.
Those types of leds aren't even close to the type we are discussing. If you want LEDs, even for softies they would need to be the more powerful versions. Color temperature of the leds also comes into play. You need to make sure the proper spectrum is covered.
There are a bunch of threads over on nano-reef.com where they have tried different arrays of leds. You might start with a search over there.
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jpndave
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Posted: March 06 2008 at 7:01pm |
Luxeon and Cree are the two main players in the game. I am looking at luxeons. http://www.lumileds.com/products/luxeon/
There is way more to this than just hooking up a light. If you are interested and serious about it then climb on board for the ride. If you want an easy solution, stick with the standard type fixtures, MH, T5, PC, and regular flourescent. If Robert (MrNewbie) gets his to market it sounds like it would be a very viable option.
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MadReefer
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Posted: March 06 2008 at 8:19pm |
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At around $7.50 per led. It wouldn't be too costly to put an array together. I wouldn't know where to shop for everything but it would be a fun project.
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jpndave
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Posted: March 06 2008 at 8:33pm |
 MadReefer wrote:
At around $7.50 per led. It wouldn't be too costly to put an array together. I wouldn't know where to shop for everything but it would be a fun project. |
I have a few sources for all of this. It is cheaper to buy in quantity. If there is interest in it, we could do a group buy for the parts. The leds are more like $3-4 each. Then you have the boards and the drivers and some incidentals.
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MadReefer
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Posted: March 06 2008 at 8:40pm |
Is it possible to add 6 leds to a 5 gallon hex tank? How much would that cost? I know a little about this stuff but have zero experience.
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jpndave
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Posted: March 06 2008 at 9:50pm |
From what I have had quoted, it would be $20+ for the driver, $4-5 for each led you would want to mix white and blue, maybe 3 of each. A couple of bucks for each board for the leds, you would want 3. Some aluminum for a heat sink/mounting point/reflector. A bit of wire and probably 2 - 12 volt transformers. You may have some of these lying around, I do. I think that is it. So, about $55-60. The leds would last for 7-8 yrs and probably be bright enough for sps over that size tank. You also get the "glimmer lines" that look so cool on halide tanks.
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unixnum1
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Posted: March 07 2008 at 10:16am |
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This is something I have been playing with for around 5 years but until now, I have never been happy with the coloration (no it isn't on my tank).
The whites have just been to warm.
As jpndave states, if you can buy them in bulk, you can get a better deal.
What the solaris company, and others, have done is request a special LED that runs at the ~10K level, they then added blue LED's that are at ~420nm.
The interesting thing is that the blue and white LED's are actually Ultraviolet LED's that they added a special phosphor to that makes it either glow white or blue.
I currently have an order comming out of China for a few more test LED's to see if I can get the color I want without requesting a special LED run from luxeon.
Cool technology though!
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220G with 30G sump, SPS/LPS. RoboTank Controller. =====================================
If life is a bowl of cherry's,
why am I always the stem?
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superman1981
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Posted: March 07 2008 at 10:23am |
Thanks for the info I actually have some PC's I can use (which I'll probably end up using now), but I figured I'd check to see if something along these lines would work to...
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jpndave
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 2:14am |
unixnum1 wrote:
This is something I have been playing with for around 5 years but until now, I have never been happy with the coloration (no it isn't on my tank).
The whites have just been to warm.
As jpndave states, if you can buy them in bulk, you can get a better deal.
What the solaris company, and others, have done is request a special LED that runs at the ~10K level, they then added blue LED's that are at ~420nm.
The interesting thing is that the blue and white LED's are actually Ultraviolet LED's that they added a special phosphor to that makes it either glow white or blue.
I currently have an order comming out of China for a few more test LED's to see if I can get the color I want without requesting a special LED run from luxeon.
Cool technology though!
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I thought they were using the cool white color with the royal blue. Where did you get the info on what solaris is using? Which versions have you tested?
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unixnum1
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 10:22am |
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I have talked to a luxeon sales person and asked about various wavelengths.
To get the wavelengths that other companys are using, they have to request different phosphors which "Luxeon" can provide but they cost more.
That is one reason the technology is more expensive.
However, I have come up with some Ideas that I can use to force the LED's to run at the colors I want.
However, I am testing it on lower wattage LED's, cheaper, until I get it right.
I will then buy the 5W LED's that will pump out all the light you want so you can grow pretty much anything.
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220G with 30G sump, SPS/LPS. RoboTank Controller. =====================================
If life is a bowl of cherry's,
why am I always the stem?
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