Inside Rapid LED

yea guys PM them or email. I have been for about a week as I am prepp'ing for a large LED build for my new 120.

 

I may send a message their way..

 

timing is everything. Im just in the process of deciding what to do. Diy or a prefab fixture. Ive been experimenting with 2 x 7 w led lamps. I guess they are par 38 types. The corals that are under these seem to love the extra light. Even an acro frag is growi.g and starting to show color. One question. The lamps im using and most of the ( entry level ) fixures that are coming out are or seem to be 1w leds. Where as companies like Rapid are using cree ( obviously higher end.) 3w leds. I love the dimmable/ controller aspect but ive noticed that people that use the 3wers are always running them at 50% or even less sometimes. I guess im alittle confused. Why go with 3w leds if only 1w.or 1.5w is all that is needed. I stress." Needed". Im sure everyones needs are different. I know some of the earlier "reef capable" ( not mentioing names lol) fixtures were only good for accent lighting and not coral growth. But there have recently been a couple of new entries by companies that are still only 1w leds. So is there any evidence that 1w wont promote coral growth. Or is that reserved for the 3w gang even after being dimmed. Now obviously there are variables. A fixture with (just thinking of one recently releasd) 54 x 1w leds compared to 18 x 3w leds should be the same right? Are some just just going overboard with how many 3w leds they really need. And how does one caculate how many leds are needed taking into account tank size and depth?

 

6 months ago, 1 watt LEDs were slightly more efficient. Then cree came out with the newest XT-Es and XP-Gs, which blow 1 watt LEDs away hands down. Yes, most people run them low, but I have seen some people go all the way up to 100%, it depends on the fixture, corals, and user.

 

I don't agree with your comment sorry, the cree xpg does blow 1 watt leds away in efficniency, i.e.e lumens per watt. This is very important for architectural lighting in creating strong lighting for rooms and outdoor uses that can produce mass amounts of light while using very little wattage.

But yet when sanjay did his test of the lights, how come the aquaray fixture which uses 1 watt leds tested higher par output than the radion and others which use 3 watt leds and some being the xte and xpg series?

Rapid led is great and mike has been a wealth of knowledge helping many amateurs become competent enough to make their own lights.

 

awesome! Yeah emailed Mike back and forth regarding an LED build a while back and he was very helpful. I plan on picking up a 12bulb par38 for my new 16gal cube. Anyone have one of the 12bulb Par38s btw? I would like to know the light spread at about 18-20" to see if it would cover a 14x16 footprint.