LED DO IT YOURSELF QUESTION.

[dsaundry]

So I have been watching several members tackle d.i.y. l.e.d. lighting projects and I have been speculating on trying one myself, My question is how much do you really save building your own light fixture and were you happy with the final results, both cosmeticly and output? How did the final cost factor against just going out and buying one? Factoring how many hours it took to build, would you do it again?

[NanoHuman]

MY custom CREE system cost around 250 dollars to build, and with the Meanwells dimmable ballasts being controlled by my APEX, it is identical in performance (or better) to a system that costs 4 times as much like one from Pacific Sun or from Vertex. I think the CREE lamps are better than the ones that Vertex uses in their current system that is on the market, and well Pacific Sun uses CREE lamps. I am able to completly simulate the photoperiod from sun rise to peak power to sunset. Features which command several thousand dollars in stand alone units. Of course this control depends on owning a system that control a 12v source for the dimmer like the APEX, but there are alternatives.

My LEDs create a shimmer that equals or surpasses that of MH systems, I have unlimited control over the temperature by controlling independantly the blue and white lights and it uses almost no power at 72W, 0.9 Amps.

My tank is an SPS tank. Evidence of the power is found in my tabling montipora which is at the very bottom of the tank. About 1CM of new growth is growing directly up, an indication that it is getting more than it needs in light. I am going to move it to a more shady location as a result.

My system currently peaks at 80%, takes 2.5 hours to ramp up to 70%, same time to go down to 0%. I have it go from 70% to 80% 4 hours after the 2.5h ramp period and stay there for 1 hour, then the cycle goes in reverse.

The heat produced is such that you can place your hand on the ballast or ontop of the hood and not risk a burn or even discomfort.

[dsaundry]

Do you have any pics of your system, did you get your parts from nanotuners? What size tank are you running?

[mseepman]

I am trying to put together the materials to do an LED light above the new 290G. It will probably be around $2,000 for me to do it all the way I want (dimmable, etc) out of new Cree's. Purchasing a similar light would have been Four or Five thousand.

I haven't gotten the stuff all together yet but I've bought some materials and I'm just getting used to the wiring and trying to figure out the coverage, the right optics and the right number of LED's.

I think DIY would be the only way to go now that I've figured out how to do it.

[NanoHuman]

I think I have a few pics from when I was building it. The unit is a 15" lighting system, running no optics since they are not required. By changing the config on my lights I could make it light as big as a 36" long tank. Depth could go to 20" with the optics that I own, but don't use.

It is currenly on a 30 gallon cube system, 14" deep. I purchased everything I needed from nanotuners, but you could also go to LEDSupply.

mseepman, for sure that is the best plan. Would be fun doing LEDs on that system since you can really setup a cool optics system. I own a collection of 40 and 60 degree optics that I can't run with my tank size.

[mseepman]

Would love to see those pics. I'm assuming that your fixture is made up of Cree XR-E led's since you built it a while back. I'm hoping to mix XP-G and XP-E's. I have a decent price on them from a supplier that's a lot cheaper than LED supply.

[NanoHuman]

I will take some pics of the setup this weekend and do a little write up about the parts. I did use XR-Es, as far as I know the XP series is smaller and more efficient which is great for heat.