DIY LED's in a biocube 14

[gbeef]

Im going to attempt to do this has anyone tried to do this before? ive been following some other forums but i havent much on custom LED's setups?

[Snaz]

Nano-reef.com lighting forum is your best resource. Locally I know Ron66 just finished a DIY LED for his iReef Nano tank. good luck.

[Ron99]

Not overly difficult to do. As Snaz says check out nano-reef.com. They have a bunch of LED builds and one of the members is a great resource for anything LED related. I am planning a 48" LED array for my 75 gallon tank. I have almost all the parts now.

[gbeef]

heres a video of my tank i got the retrofit going its been running for about 3 months and i must say its friggen awesome my corals have been very happy with the change and as for temp it floats at 78 dgrees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsMaqZ7J3gQ

[Ron99]

Looks great. Do you have a build thread at nano-reef.com?

[freezetyle]

Wow. that looks awesome!. Did you do an even split of the of the blue and white? ive been thinking about doing this to cut electricity costs and help slow down evaporation. how have you been finding these things since making the switch?

[Sebae again]

Nice work!

[gbeef]

i don't have an build thread on nano reef. As for heat and evap. The LED's make a big difference i dont much evap and the heat is very stable.

My setup is run on two drivers so yes you can adjust both the blue and white separately. Also you can dim the white and blue to specific color.

[ner'T']

Do you have a rough estimate of what your build ended up costing?

Thanks!

[gbeef]

Parts would of been about 200.00 for everything. but considering if you buy a HQI light it works out better in the long run thats why i made the jump.

- cheaper electricity costs
- No heat fluxes
- less evap.
- LED are good for 10 years, and HQi bulb costs 100.00 and you have to replace it yearly.

The initial cost is about the same as an HQI light but in the long run you'll save money. I knew i was going to run a a 14 gal for a long time so i made the investment.
As for growth my zoos are going nuts they have growing like crazy i have some SPS and the monti cap and digita are growthing very well also, the color is amazing. I have one acro frag in the tank, and when i got it was brown, its been in my system for a month or so and the color has turned to a greenish blue color. All my LPS love the light also the expand and are looking very health. I have a maxim clam at the bottom of the tank also.. the PAR rating on the this setup is about 750-800 near the surface and the very bottom you get about 150 PAR from what i can see you can put whatever you want in the tank.