what would you do?

alright I havedon some hard core reading and looking and just cant make up my mind on what I want, so I declair a poll LOL :.

it pretty stright forward I have a 75 gallon tank that is 48x18x21 it will be housing SPS, LPS, and softies. I would love to hear from some of teh people who one or bothe types of these leds to help me with this.

Cree from rapid led-
1. dimable leds x48
2. dimmable Meanwell drivers x4 (leds and drivers come in a kit)
3. heat sinks x2
4. 92mm fans x2
5. 80 degree optics

color style would be 24b 24w= 48 leds
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total $490.00 including shipping

Bridgelux from Aquastyle-
1. non-dimmable leds x48
2. non-dimmable meanwell drivers x4
3. heat sinks x2 (black)
4. fans 8cm x2 (everything above comes in a kit)
5. extra leds x24
6. extra Meanwell drivers x2
7. 60 degree and 80 degree

color style would be 34rb 24w 10cw 4uv= 72 leds
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total $357.20 including shipping

 

The CREE's have a much better output than the Bridgelux's. I personnaly would go with the RapidLED kit, but like you have pointed out it is more expensive. I believe you get what you pay for, but it is your call. I'm sure you could be happy with the Bridgelux if you decide to go that way, it just wont be on wuite the same level as the CREE's

 

I also think about the extra power usage and it really drives me nuts... along with the extra heat, and extra time to soder the extra leds.

 

What is the wattage between of the two? I really don't think the leds matter much. All of the comparisons are in lumens, which is a misleading metric. The PAR from the bridglux fixtures I've seen, seems to be on "PAR" with the CREES If the watts are the same anyways.... If you like the look, either should work, but I would try to find a tank with CREEs and Bridglux to look at first, to make sure you do like the look. Also, it looks like the bridglux are non-dimable. This may or may not be an issue, depending on if it is overkill or not. I generally think it's a bit safer to go with dimable though. If you spread out the leds and don't cluster them, then you can dim it by turrning off a bank, but otherwise, you have what you have...

 

I definitely would go with the rapid kit. The crees are proven, you will have less wiring and soldering to do, and rapids customer service is top notch.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

rapids coming out with solderless kits. today, i think. fwiw

 

Cool, any word on pricing? Don't see anything yet. It looks like they dropped the price on LEDs today by 10%, although the DIY kits, drivers etc.. appear to be priced the same.

 

my thoughs on the dimming is that if the color is too bule or to white that it can be adjuated to almost a few hundered diffrent spectrums just by tuning the dial.

I really wish I could see the diffrence in the real world but its a small town and its a even smaller saltwater worls where im at so it may be few and far between to actually see the diffrence in real time.

 

Check out BoostLED for pics. Their fixtures use the bridgelux leds and produce some nice results, and compare to pics and video of some diy buils. I just did the same call and ended up going with the rapidled route, the look I saw of the white and royal blue of the cree I thought looked sharper but now with more people using colors i decided to add a few osram reds, and am getting some true violets to add to get an awesome mix.
I went with just buying the leds and drivers seperate because i am planning on mixing the different kinds into one unit.

 

they're there now.