Led q&a

Yes I am aware of that. And I am starting to see that the cost of a fixture with the features I want isn't much more than what I would need to spend to modify my existing fixture to have them.

 

I am thinking to go with LED's, but I heard they don't match the MH for PAR, but the heat output on my tank from my MH is the issue right now.

 

The can blow mh away no prob, the par thing is that par meters do not detect the par right from LEDs, and the results scew up to 20%. What kind of mh do you have now, and how many.

 

You will spend about $80 on meanwells and soldering stuff, and $85 on the dim4, so around $165 total to upgrade. I believe you spent about $250 on your lights?d

 

Yes, but diy will far outcompete any fixture on the market. The ai vega also looks promising, for anyone who prefers not to diy.

 

Yeah it was around $250.

Ok, you've convinced me. It seems like a fun project anyway. I'm very keen on replacing some of the blues with royal blues and a couple of magentas replacing 2 of the whites.

 

Thanks for helping talk myself into ordering the razor,been looking at cheaper ones for a couple of weeks trying to decide but when I picture one over my tank as opposed to the razor I thought it was worth it.

 

Spot on. Haters goin to hate!

 

Just because I Like to be a hater i guess. If this is the case how come people such as Sanjay who is the lighting guru of this hobby won't fully switch to leds, still running mh's as he says the growth isn't there for leds yet. Leds are awesome for color. But I would like to see your extensive research and development which proves LED's give better growth than MH's and t5's. You made the claim above so i would like to see your proof.

 

Sanjay did not test all of the LED systems. He just tested the major commercial ones. If he had a fixture with the right reds, violets, blues, royal blues, and cool whites, he might change his opinion. If you look at the spectral graphs, you can see missing spikes, all of which could easily be added to a diy, or perhaps a new commercial fixture. The proof is in the results, I tried mh, T-5s, and now LEDs for a year. LEDs out competed all three in power, efficiency, and of course coral colors and growth. The proof is there, just because I cannot afford thousands in testing equipment, or I do not have a Phd, does not mean I am wrong. LEDs get better, and improve faster. Since Sanjay did his testing, cree has already come out with 2 new LED series, and broke the 170 lumens per watt boundary. Mh hasn't changed much, so how can it continue to compete, at 45 lumens per watt? That is purely opinion.