Another DIY LED Project

Hi guys

I am looking at going LED's.

Being from South Africa if all the products are about a year and ahalf behind.

So id like to import a DIY Kit. Note i can source heatsink in south africa i am only looking at the LEDS, drivers and lenses.

From what i can find i could get from Rapid LED's or AQUASTYLE.

Bear in mind i would be shipping both to africa so backup support is going to be difficult at best.

So firstly, How many LED's do i need for a 60gal 4ft sps dominated tank(currently rinning 2x150w MH and 2 x 58w T5's)

Secondly what are the pros and cons for these suppliers.

Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

I'd go with between 30-36 LEDs for a 60g tank. Depending on the height of the lights I'd go with the 60 degree lenses (if at least a foot off the water), or 80's if you're between 6-12".

I'll leave the pros/cons to the other members to discuss.

 

That's for the advice. The tank is 1,5ft deep and 2ft wide. What is the optimum heat sink size and led layout using 60° optics?

 

Heatsink seems to be a bigger is better type thing! Bigger so it can handle more heat and more lights in the future if you want!

As far as quality, the aquastyles are fine, but far from the quality of the rapidleds! Its debatable but most seem to say that bridgelux are'nt as high of quality as Cree's and you need more! the other BIG difference is the drivers! Aquastyle use maxwell drivers which are not nearly the quality that meanwells are! Over everypart of the rapidled systems are better, and put together better!

 

Ordering them from abroad? I'd definitely order more than you think you need.

A) The shipping will be the same for 20 or 200 leds.

B) LEDs are easy to dim, but it's hard to add more once you have build a pendant.

C) You may want spares in case of "oops" moments during construction.

You say the dimension of the tank are 4 x 2 x 1.5? That's larger than 60 gallon; 90 I think. Regardless, I'd consider using 60 or more LEDs, and dim them if needed. I have 96 over my 4x2x2 120g.

 

The RapidLED systems are better, if you have the extra cash...which if you're into this hobby for the long haul my advice would be to wait until you have it, and I am using the aquastyle kit.

The aquastyle kit doesn't run nearly as bright as the Rapid...in a nutshell. I'm not an electronics pro so I'll put it this way:
-My brother runs 9 CREE LED's with Mean Well drivers from Rapid on his 20g, 3 cool whites and 6 royal blues.
-I have the aquastyle kit on my 20g running 14 LED's dimmable, with 5 cool whites, 5 royal blues, and 4 violets

I can honestly say that other than mine being dimmable his is a much better light. It's brighter by far. You need to pay attention to the mA rating and lumen output on LED's. From what I have learned, this is the most important factor when looking into LED's...if I'm wrong someone correct me please!

My aquastyle LED's are rated for 750mA's and the CREE's are 1000mA's (at least, some are more). The other thing is, my driver only puts out 680mA max, so I'm not even as bright as my LED's can handle based off of limitations of my drivers. With the Mean Well drivers you can get to 100% if wanted.

I HTH, and I really hope I didn't get anything horribly wrong lol

**I'll be upgrading my drivers to Mean Well's very soon!**

 

Cree all the way! Some people swears that you need THREE Bridgelux LEDs to be equal to ONE Cree, and I believe that.

If you are interested, check out my DIY LED build thread 8)

 

I reciently compared a cool white CREE XP-G to a cool white Bridgelux. At about 6 inches (in air), a Bridgelux puts out 20.3 PAR the CREE XP-G puts out 32.7 on my meter.

This was by no means a super scientific test. I guesstimated distance and both were unmounted driven by two AA batteries on the bench but it shows the new CREE's are a lot better than the Bridgelux.

 

So I can run one of my extra 3w LED's on a couple AA's?

 

I guess if you want. Hope you have a large battery budget.;D