LED lighting

i am having a hard time with the whole led lighting thing. is the light that the produce more powerfull than other kinds of lighting? or is it just the ammout of lights that you can fit in a slamm space that makes them a good choice? i have found just led lights on the internet like 100 for $10. could i use those to make my own light?

 

Yes and no. High power LEDs give off more lumens per watt than just about any other light source. but once a lumen, always a lumen, it doesn't behave differently than any other light once it leaves the LED.

Again, yes and no. Yes, you can fit many in a small space, but it doesn't end there. LEDs are more efficient and turning electricity into light and therefore the run cooler for the same light output as florescent and metal halide bulbs, but they still get hot and too many too close together can damage the actual LED component. The primary benefits of LEDs I have seen are: cooler surface temperatures on the units, silent, VERY long bulb life (50,000+ hours, which equates to many many years), efficient use of power, aesthetically they give you that "shimmer" so many of us love, and you can "tune" their color spectrum within a pretty broad range (like 8,000ºK to 20,000ºK)

Nope. A high quality high output LED will cost at least several dollars per unit. If you buy them in bulk I have found them as low as $2/discreet LED, usually packed 3 or 4 to a die w/ the heatsink and power regulator attached. That would be buying them in 10,000+ quantity from Cree or Luxeon directly.


One sec and I'll find a few LEDS I have seen used in tank lighting....

-Doug

 

Cree Xlamp XP-E (replaces the XR-E)
CREE | XLamp XP-E LEDs, leading the revolution in LED lighting

that's the one a local guy here makes his lights with. He uses the Cool white 6500K and the Royal Blue 450nm 3:1


Luxeon makes a nicer package that's easier to work with called Stars, and seems popular with the DIY builders.

Pre-Mounted Rebel Cool White LED on a 20mm Star Base - 180 lm [MR-WC100-20S]

K2 stars were hot a few months back, but have been replaced with the rebels:
Luxeon TFFC K2 Star - Cool White 100 Lumens at 350mA [5027-PWC-10]

This looks really promising, as you could custom tune a tri-star with 2 whites and a royal blue on one star.... $32/unit.
Your Choice Of Any 3 Rebel LEDs Soldered To A 20mm Tri-Star Base [MR-CUSTM-20T]


So you can see, you can spend a grip on the components. Just the LEDs to match a 400 watt metal halide you'd be spending probably $300-500 + time + power supply (another $100-200), plus you'd have to have a heatsink and some kind of housing for everything... that could be cheap or really expensive.

The guy I've met sells a 12 Cree tri-diode unit (Tri-Star is a luxeon trademark, same idea tho) for $1200. Side by side it blows a 400w 6500K MH bulb away tho.

And you figure, its total power draw is about 200 watts, so less than half the MH, you'd save > $100 a year on power.

plus, at $75-80 per bulb every 8 months for MH's vs 10+ years of life on the LEDs, in the long run you'd save some serious coin on not changing bulbs.

Plus, if you get bored with a 15,000ºK tank you ca just turn a dial and get to 12,000 orr 16,000 or 18,430 or whatever mix you really like (corals might hate you forever and die tho)


..and on corals... LFS I go to has had a booming reef tank with lots of SPS going for over a year with LEDs, they love them.

 

thanks alot that was a big help. stinks that i cant build my light now tho