DIY LED lighting system, what color bulbs and how many?

reefer! you're doing it right!

Take your time and buy more light than you need! Easier to dim it down than to upgrade! Also better for the led's! I'm far from an expert, very far! But you'd want at least 2 dimmer control, 1 for whites and 1 for blues that way you can phase in and out and control the look, or a controller so you can set sunrise, midsun and sunset times! I'd say look for a fixture set up like the AI sols with controller and then mimic it and build it yourself or have someone build it for you!

Reefwerks is buidling me a custom led system, 48 led 3 watt Cree systems, 30 blue 18 white, on 2 heat sinks, meanwell dimmable drivers, dimmer controls, dual fans, fixtures, and hanging kit for $605 delivered! Something to consider!

Read up on bridgelux verse Cree and formulate your own opinion!

Good luck!

 

Thank you very much! I'll have to look into it and weigh my options. In the mean time, how does this look? 48 Ultra Premium LED DIY Kit with Dimmable Drivers

 

Thats a great DIY system, but if you're gonna pay for the best get the best! for a little more get there plug and play kit! Easier to change out colors if you want! if I were you, i'd spend a night building systems on all sites you can and then read up on it for a few days and then order one! Take your time and make sure you get everything you want!

But by the time you buy the heatsinks, shipping, and the few other options you'll want with that, you're gonna be well over $500! So then just have reefwerks.com build you a system! although building your own would be cool! You also have the much cheaper route of bridgelux with maxwell drivers that you can prob get for around $350 total!

 

Cosmo, when i googled reefwerks it looked like a custom tank building company out of WI. is this the right one?

 

I might contact reefwerks and have them build me one, that way I can have the warranty on it, and I'll get a quality product, no doubt. Do you think you could post a URL for me? Whenever I look it up, I can never find it, haha. I'm definitely going to do a lot of research to find out exactly what I want. Then once I understand all the stuff, maybe I'll make one for my brother's aquarium. Thanks for all the help!

 

yep! jonathon! he's great to work with, will builld ya whatever ya want as long as its right! just a note, he won't save ya cash by using cheaper stuff like maxwell drivers! He just says he doesn't want to put his name on something that isn't gonna last, but other than that he's great to work for! He won't just sell ya something to get the cash! gotta respect that! Granted I;m still waiting on my system, but like the progress reports!

 

Good idea, I almost did a DIY system, but for what he's charging i'd rather not blow up a string of led's because i wired wrong! He's real flexible! I'll post pic's when I get them, but he has great word of mouth!

Taking your reef to the next level... - Madison Wisconsin aquarium specialists