ruki

Here's something I was thinking about. How about trying to get the same light as a 4-tube T5 HO Tek Light using LED light bars.

Option 1: Phillips Luxeon EverLED TR
http://www.luxeonstar.com/sub_catego...&link_str=1429
124 lumens per watt. 3100 lumens per tube. Three of these give out about the same as four T5 HO tubes. These cost $150 per tube, so that's $450 for what should be a kick-but plant light retrofit.

Option 2:Environmental Lights 300 LED tube
http://www.environmentallights.com/s...ducts_id=12149
75 lumens per watt. You need 5 tubes to equal 4 T5 HO. 5 * $70 = $350.00.

Anyone out there try this? Does this make sense? At least with the EverLED, you can look up the individual LED to get decent spectrum info.

P.S.
I started down this path when trying to see what one could do in comparison to the extra high end Solaris LED aquarium light (www.solarisled.com) Their 48 inch fixture costs $2789!

Volenti

I haven't used these particular products, but I currently use 1w luxeon stars as supplemental lighting on one of my planted tanks and have used them in the past as exclusive lighting for smaller planted tanks.

The cool thing with LEDs is that they are fully dimmable, you can have the whole thing go from a faint moonlight up to midday blast in one long seamless transition. (which is what that solaris light can do I believe)

ruki

Yeah, the Solaris is impressive and can do all sorts of fancy dimming, but in a way, it's expensive bells and whistles that I don't need and could turn out to be yet another thing that breaks down.

Here's a LED unit I decided to experiment with. Its catalog ID was MR11-WHP6. It's 6 LEDs built into a track lighting lamp. It doesn't need an external current regulator, so so all I have to supply is 12 volts DC. I don't have to construct fancy heat sinks for it either.

MR11-WHP6 White LED bulb

MR11 with 6 High Power White LED 12 Volt AC/DC operation, GZ4 base,
Produces 65 lumens at 7000K, 120 degree beam pattern
approx 80 lumens per watt
$ 14.95

All choices are a compromise. This choice scores high in ease of use.

I would like to play with some of those Luxeon Stars. They are really impressive. Some of the Crees are too.

Cliff Mayes

Whoa! That looks cheap! I like it!

It looks as if a bunch of these could be jammed into a homemade hood to make a good light source for a tank.

Please let us know the specifics of assembly and use as it develops. This sounds revolutionary.

Gomer

Those aren't high powered. you can drive a SINGLE XR-E at 1amp for over 250 lumens and probably 80lumens/watt (at 350ma ~100lumens/watt)

Cliff Mayes

Gomer: I am sorry partner but you lost me. I am about to pull the trigger on a light system for a 20H and need all the info I can gather.

Could you explain that in different, practical terms so I could understand? The technology is changing rapidly and I cannot keep up. Need some help here (and I am probably not the only one.)

Gomer

Right now, unless you really really want to play with technology, and are electrically inclined, I would stay away from LEDs. There ARE some very very efficient LED's right now, but it isn't cheap, plus they need heatsinking, and constant current drivers. Basically, you have a lot of research to do before you take the LED plunge. This is advice from someone who several high powered LED systems under my belt and am still new

ruki

I agree Tony, it isn't terribly high powered. That's why they bundled 6 of them into one "lamp". But for the light, it's cheaper than the Luxeon pucked light bars and I don't have to heat sink them.

Cliff, this isn't exactly revolutionary. It's a nuts and bolts (more like a kid's Lego brick approach!) where previously one had to custom integrate individual components on a custom PC board and then have to figure out a way to cool it down.

This particular light makes little sense for things larger than nano tanks (5 gallon and smaller tanks/containers). You would need a ton of them, and then their 120 degree spread wouldn't make as much sense for a tight array.

This can be quite an expensive playground, so I'm starting out with nano tanks. If it doesn't work out, it's not a huge loss. The next thing I want to try is something brighter and pre-pucked so I don't have to mess with a fancy power supply. Maybe that effort will work for a standard 10 gallon tank...

I'm thinking there will be more easy-to-use modules similar to the LUXstrip coming soon.
http://www.theledlight.com/LUXstrip.html


Tony, care to share your gut feelings on the LUXstrip? I'm hoping for something a bit denser, but it may be indicating a trend toward integrating the power supply and the light in a single module.

Gomer

I have very successfully use the original and K2 Luxeons on planted tanks. Right now I am debating how much I want to invest for a reef fixture. I am so close to take the plunge right now...

The strips you linked are kinda ...undesirable. K2's are not nearly as efficient anymore (about 50% of current HO LEDs). I used 12 K2's on a 4g tank and it worked perfectly for stems. Over a 10g, it would work for a more low light tank.

ruki

That's kinda what I thought about this strip. You would need a few of these over a 10 and that gets pretty expensive!

I hope that next year they will have some sort of affordable strip like this with truly HO LEDs. Or perhaps I'll have to (shudder shudder) do a real design and construction project like you've done