DIY Kits from Aquastyle Online ??? (China)

I think the Bridglux LED's are pretty good. I don't think that they are as efficient and stringent in testing as Cree but I would use them after looking at the data.
However I would use Meanwell drivers instead of the Maxwellen that come with the kits.

When Cree bin a 450nm diode it is guaranteed to be +/-5-10 within that spectrum. All of the other chips on the wafer that tested outside of that parameter were binned and sold as something else or trashed. Knock off companies make a 450nm wafer and call every chip on that wafer 450nm.

I almost bought from Aquastyle but after figuring the cost of the kit + shipping it was more cost efficient to go with rapidLED. I didn't need a heatsink so the price difference was only $25 more and I had my kit in two days.

 

I am missing something on your math. The 90 LED AquaStyle kit with dimming drivers was $266 delivered. Just the 90 Bridgelux LED's and lenses would be $234 delivered, so you are getting the five Chinese drivers, wiring, potentiometers, etc for $32 more with the kit pricing. Even if I don't use them and go with Meanwells, seems like I could use the wiring, plugs, etc.

At RapidLED, the 90 Cree LED's and lenses are $5 ea or $450, so just about twice as much. When I price out six Meanwell 60-48D drivers at $34 ea, or $204, I am over $650.

I can get the ready made 55 Bridgelux non-dimming fixtures for $325 each, or $650 for the two i would need, so I figure if I can't save almost 50% on the DIY it's just not worth all the work.

 

I never said anything about the size of the the kit I bought. In my case is strictly all I was implying. And true, the bigger kit the bigger the savings. Until you start getting good drivers and figure shipping.
I already said I'd use the Bridglux. I'm not knockin this product at all except for the drivers.

 

I plan on getting the 90 LED kit and 4 large black heatsinks, 3 for this 90 kit and one for the 46 for later.
I figure I can replace the drivers later with some good ones.

 

Thanks, On a 46x8.5 heat sink from heat sink USA. Yes they are the dimable kit, no they are not on 100% about 65-70%ish

 

50/50 white to blue. If I had to do it again I would lean toward more blue. No red or UV. I am pretty new to LED's and I'm sure that the drivers aren't the best but they work and they don't generate much heat. If they give out I will buy Meanwells. My schedule is kinda crazy for the next couple of weeks but I will try to get some more pic's up. I did frag off some stuff yesterday and we'll see in the next couple of weeks how they react.

 

Inventronics 40w 700mA Dimmable Driver « Catalog Products « Shop « « ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting
I used this because there are issues dimming Meanwells using Reefkeeper ALC. The Meanwells draw too much current sometimes on the dimming circuit. These Maxwellen drivers AS supplies cannot be used with controllers. As they do not have a 0-10V dimming input. They just have the resistor input. You might be able to find if it has the 0-10V circuit internally, but this will be an experiment for sure. I am running 14 LEDs on each string. I have 4 drivers in total. 2 for blue 2 for white. Works quite well with my Reefkeeper system. Another feature I have is I can dim manually. I put a 4PDT switch in to switch from ALC to a manual dimmer.

 

meanwells has other drivers other than the ELN series,
there's the LPF and the HLG.

 

I am aware of this. However I wanted to go with drivers that other people successfully used with the RK ALC system and Inventronics were specifically mentioned as working fine in other people's setups. Plus they are much smaller then Meanwells. It also seems like some ELN's work okay while others draw too much current, especially in the case where you want to control multiple drivers on each channel. At least those are the reports from the DA forum. Nothing wrong with using Meanwells otherwise of course.

 

Agree when you factor in the DA ALC. I looked into using other meanwells with my reefkeeper, and it seems like the common consensus was that they will likely not work if you need more than 2 drivers. Hence I didn't use the reefkeeper at all.