Ha! Thanks. Expect to see it again but in the hands of someone else....

Oh right I forgot about the $60 6W LED 10year bulbs that make way more sense than the $2 13W CF 5year bulbs. You'd have to leave your lights on 24hrs a day for 10 years for that investment to make sense right now. Plus they are dim as hell, I know because I was stupid enough to try out a couple where I wanted dimmers.

LEDs in tvs are new and I'll bet if u dismantle one it would look alot like the guts of ur LED fixture for ur tank and there way cheaper then they were two years ago in all I'm not saying ur wrong just that it's used more widely then u made it sound like also my buddy who worked on the lions gate retrofit said the company that did it ( company is his aunts ) is in the works for doing other bridges in Canada and the city is plannig on replacing street lamps with the led ones so it's only a matter of time

24 bucks for said bulb at home depot

Yes a matter of time....

As for LED TVs being similar to our fixtures that's not really the case. LED Tvs still work on LCD principles but just use LEDs as a back light, it's really nothing special and hardly an advancement. Opening an LED TV would show almost identical results to opening a standard LCD. The price drop you see in TVs has nothing to do with LED technology becoming more popular or more advanced, they're TVs, encase you haven't noticed they get cheaper with or without LEDs.

Yeah perhaps cheaper now I guess but so are the CFs. However the cheaper LED ones are non dimable which kind of defeats the purpose and they are only 40W equivalent, rather than 60W equivalent CFs. So those really aren't the bulbs I was speaking of, those are still in the $40-$60 range.

I dont know anybody that uses LEDS for anything aside from the ones located inside of electronic devices. On that note, my old work used 400 watt metal halids that cost 60 dollars per fixture including bulb. How come aquarium MH are 600-2000 just for the metal frame when you can get a industrial MH for 60 bucks? Where in the cost of materials and technology, does 5 bucks of aluminim, some plastic and a power chord cost $600?

People in every house can use LEDs in the future, doesnt mean that LEDs made for aquariums will cost any less.

Now there is merrit in saying that you can use older, outdated LEDs to lower the cost but as I said, the materials in a metal halide fixture that costs 600 dollars might cost 25..does production cost really affect the price of aquaria items?...Reefers also tend to demand cutting edge technology, do they run down and buy those 10 dollar Odyssea MH bulbs but the truckload? No, they buy the 120 dollar bulbs just like they will want the new Cree Chips that cost 15/pc in their fixtures.

I will stand by it a million times over, prices in a niche-market stay relatively the same since demand on the item is low and people are willing to pay a premium. Of course, there are "cheap' LED fixtures out there that use bridgelux, I have one. It is alrgiht, but still cost 300 dollars and it not good enough to effectively keep sps for an extended period of time. Cheap products in this hobby have a bad rep and cosidered substandard....there is a stigma attatched to any product that seems to cost less then the others. Ask Odyssea, who actually produces product with a reasonable margin.

These LED fixtures aren't going to get any cheaper I don't think so I agree. The DIY crowd should be able to take advantage of the savings of getting a slightly older diode if they are available.

Actually maybe fixtures will get cheaper, much cheaper, I mean I just noticed by cordless phone has a little red LED that blinks when the battery is low and this exact phone is now $20 cheaper at future shop and that only has one LED!

Can we get back on topic please. The title says show us your LED tanks. Not lets debate the price of LED lights.

HERE YOU GO

Now back to what's obviously more interesting :wink:

There's a lot more derail than there are LED tanks apparently =)

Really? :lol:

Really. Everbody i know uses incondecsent or if they really care about energy, CFL.

Well after seeing the new Ecotech Radion write up I do plan on switching over to them. That will be sometime when the snow starts hitting the ground. My bride gave me the go ahead but I have to sell my sled first. But after several different injuries and being buried in an avalanche it's not so bad.

Yeah those Radions look pretty sweet! I'd be curious to see the final price on them though, $750 seems a bit low for Ecotech, I suspect the final price will be a little higher, for all the features listed anyway. But either way 2 of those would definitely suit my needs.

Yeah and 6 - 8 for me. Sorry I'll go pout over in my LWL thread now.

Well on another thread it says they will be $825 and I think 2 will be good for me.

[quote=lastlight;634Sorry I'll go pout over in my LWL thread now.[/QUOTE]

Huh? Whats that?

It's already listed on some sites for pre-order so pricing may be good:
http://www.marinedepot.com/Ecotech_M...FILDTN-vi.html

Also not sure what this is on about but worth a gander if considering the purchase:
http://blog.captive-aquatics.com/cap...nd-a-miss.html

That last link is interesting but really looks to be a sales pitch for Orphek (which to me also appears to be an impressive light). Hey it could all be true but I was scrolling around afterwards looking for links etc for Orphek. Sure enough I found'em.

They link to the 1350g build which is of course a large Orphek showcase... I've since heard that the fixtures they sourced are custom and not even the same as the standard Orphek lights you or I would buy from the site.

LED is a-swirl in confusion (for me at least).

Quote from Marine Depot
Usage Guidelines

• One Radion fixture is comparable to one 250w metal halide
• Generally, one Radion fixture should be used per 40 gallons (150L) of water volume.
• Approximate surface coverage is 24x24 inches (60x60cm).

Does this refer to water volume in the tank only and if talking about just tank size, for a 90 gallon should I go for three? Really like what I see and seriously considering switching over from MH to LED now.

I'd wait for a few reviews and feedback from actual users before signing up for a pre-order. The wattage on these kinds of fixtures can be misleading as it depends on what level each set of LEDs is operating at but I would suspect 2 would be plenty for a 90 gallon.

I agree but it does make you wonder with all these new fixtures coming out each kicking up the gimmick level one more notch. It really gets to the point of not knowing what the heck is good and bad. But I do know that halides make great reefs :wink:

yeah, good point. Would suck to have blown $2 grand and not being impressed. Would be nice to have it for Xmas.

If you are talking about the 3W Cree LEDs that are everywhere now a handy way to work it out is your tank LxHxW (all in inches) divided by 324. That will give you the number of individual LEDs recommended. Although that fixture has red and green LEDs in there too which are not factored into that formula. Their usefulness is still to be determined.

Well then this is your lucky day! :biggrin: My name is Russell and I own at least 10 strands of LED Christmas lights, 2 LED flashlights and an LED 'spot' light (one of those adhesive stick-anywhere lights).

Unless I'm in JL talking to Rene or John, I just have a hard time taking lfs reccomendations seriously.

Your results may vary.

+1 me to lol iv found most LFS will lie to u so as to make more money Rene an John actually give good advice

um.. thats a handy way to figure out how many gallons your tank is now how many LEDs you need. LEDs are based on coverage only so how many would you need to evenly cover a surface area not a volume.

Steve

actualy I bought two yesterday at home depot. 60 watt equiv, dimable 19.00 each, and I am very impressed with them. I tried dimmable CFLs but they suck and dim at different rates so I took them back.

house hold LEDs are dropping in price quite quickly now that there is more compatition. but the bigger thing we should worry about here is the mercury in CFLs. I am slowly changing out all my cfl's to LED now that there are good options in a reasonable price now.

Steve

You divide cubic inches by 231 to get gallons not 324. But I agree that might not be the best way to decide on the amount of LEDs, kind of similar to the 5W per gallon deal.

As far as I know you need to be in the range of one LED for each 10-15 square inches. So for example take your tank foot print to be 48"x24", that's 1152sq" meaning you'll want to aim for a range within 76 to 115 LEDs, give or take. Now deciding on a final number will depend on your tank height and coral requirements. For something average say 24" tall and mixed reef with SPS you'd probably aim right in the middle of that range.

That's nice but personally don't really believe it as HD didn't have much at all for 60W equivalents last time I checked, the ones they did have where $40+ and IMO still dimmer than the CF 60W equivalent. However that is my personal opinion but I still would like to see a link to the 60W for $19 cause maybe I missed something last time. Still $19 for one light bulb is a decent amount, really it's not going to save you money.

For the price difference, I'll take a chance with mercury poisoning:loco:

I would disagree with that completely. As the guy with the 2 1/2 foot tall tank needs way more LEDs per square inch than a 6 inch deep nano tank.

You calculate what heatsinks you need based on the surface area but LED density is most definitely determined by volume.

Correct I wasn't finding the gallons. We came up with the 324 figure based on some test tanks I have here to calculate an approximate recommended 3W LEDs per tank size. That formula would give you 86 LEDs for that tank size you mentioned. You are right though you then use that number and go up or down based on what your light requirements are.

haha thats right ... dislexia is wonderfull, guess I should finnish my coffee before I start reading

Steve

actualy no.. the spacing of your LEDs depends on the lense your going to use on it. so in a very round about way yes the depth of the tank and your PAR requirments at the depth will determin the lense. then the combanation of the lense you use and the hight of the fixture above the surfface to give you even blending of the blue and white will give you the spacing of the LEDs. then the physical surface area will give you how many you need to use at that spacing.

now as for heat sinks, nothing to do with the surface area, but rather with the amount of watts dispersed per square inch. using a 3 watt LED on a star you want a heat sink that will disperce a min of 3watt / sq in I see most are up around the 6watt/sq in, and you can use air movment to increase this value.

if I use your fourmula it tells me I need 20 LEDs for my 30 gal tank, where from mapping my tank and projecting PAR values I know I need 36 to 48 LEDs (calculation was actualy 42) I can get away with 36 but might go 48 as I can get a kit with that number already. so your formula would have probably been find in my tank with no optics and low to med light corals, but not for a pure SPS tank with high light corals at all levels in the tank.

so I guess if it is bassed of one optic choice and now requirement for a specific par level at the bottom of the tank it would work..

Steve

yes

The degree of optics also impact the coverage significantly.

Also, you can save on LEDs depending on where you place your coral. If you keep all your sps in the middle, you dont need a large density of LEDs at the ends of the tank.

l l l l ll ll llllllll ll ll l l l l l

Cree Leds are all over the map now for lumens. Some are 106, some are 230, some are 350. All are considered "3 watt". You can save money and get 3-ups. which I would cosider as 1 Led. So really, the amount you need depends entirely on the emitter you are using.

are there more pictures, I sea lot of text