Diy Led Rig

[Mcbenthy]

I'm in the process of planning a planted tank and would much rather run LED than T8/T5.... Having looked at how much the 'aquarium' LEDs are, I'm pretty appauled. I know commercial LEDs are significantly cheaper, and I can buy a metre of LED tape for ~£25 (http/www.ledcentre.uk.com/276-outdoor-led-strip-lights/319-60-smd-power-5050-strip-led-light-bright-white-12v-dc.html) that are rated for outdoors use and conform to IP68 (waterproof). I was wondering what kind of data I should be looking at for these lights, I know the WPG rule doesnt apply with LED due to their high PAR output, buthow do I get a decent measure of what would be medium/high lighting?

Cheers!

 

[DrRob]

I've been pondering the same thing.

Not sure if you've seen some of the other useful LED lighting posts from earlier in the hardware forum but the two I can recall both used individual 3w LED's and, if I remember correctly, used around 9 for a fairly cube shaped marine tank.

If (there's always the if), the numbers equate, then that would be 27w of lighting.

I then found myself wondering if the strips would be as good as the individual cree type LED's and, to match the power I'd need 3-4 strips.

I was looking at this one:
http/www.brightlightz.co.uk/index.aspx?s=Product&p=254

for my new 4 footer.

or some of these:

http/www.brightlightz.co.uk/index.aspx?s=Product&p=866

 

[Mcbenthy]

I've been pondering the same thing.

Not sure if you've seen some of the other useful LED lighting posts from earlier in the hardware forum but the two I can recall both used individual 3w LED's and, if I remember correctly, used around 9 for a fairly cube shaped marine tank.

If (there's always the if), the numbers equate, then that would be 27w of lighting.

I then found myself wondering if the strips would be as good as the individual cree type LED's and, to match the power I'd need 3-4 strips.

I was looking at this one:
http/www.brightlightz.co.uk/index.aspx?s=Product&p=254

for my new 4 footer.

or some of these:

http/www.brightlightz.co.uk/index.aspx?s=Product&p=866

using the lumen output of 9 Cree XLamp XM-L I would need 4.7 metres of the stuff I mentioned (£125), and then the controller etc etc. But I wonder if that much light is going to be overkill for my system? and for that price, It may be better to just go with the Aquagro 500 for a lil bit extra and get the 5 year guarantee...

 

[DrRob]

I was thinking that the first one I linked to pretty much was 5 meters of what you were looking at, unless I've missed something, which is possible, it's been a strange 24 hours.

 

[Mcbenthy]

I was thinking that the first one I linked to pretty much was 5 meters of what you were looking at, unless I've missed something, which is possible, it's been a strange 24 hours.

The one you linked has a lower lumen/meter rating, although they seem to be the same strip of LEDs... *ponders*

 

[Mcbenthy]

As an aside, I have been chatting to a sales rep from Arcadia, and he said these are due for release next month, and is looking into pricing for me: http/www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php?pid=103&mid=10&lan=en&sub=&id=4

 

[DrRob]

Could be interesting. My 4 footer that I have this all planned for is waiting for the room it's going into to be renovated, which will be a few months away yet as we've had to move around some of the renovation plans recently. So I can certainly wait a month. It is interesting to see the price drop on the strip lights though. It was only a couple of months ago that 5m cost well over £100.

Having said all that my tank isn't really pretty enough to go hoodless without a bit of work, but might be worth it for the right price on the arcadia's though.

 

[Mcbenthy]

Could be interesting. My 4 footer that I have this all planned for is waiting for the room it's going into to be renovated, which will be a few months away yet as we've had to move around some of the renovation plans recently. So I can certainly wait a month. It is interesting to see the price drop on the strip lights though. It was only a couple of months ago that 5m cost well over £100.

Having said all that my tank isn't really pretty enough to go hoodless without a bit of work, but might be worth it for the right price on the arcadia's though.

well, he got back to me... had to steady myself as I almost fell off my chair laughing! £225 RRP per unit! and he told me it was cheaper than the TMC unit

I think DIY LED may be back on

 

[tunerhead24]

check out rapidled.com they have some real nice diy led kits.

 

[alexlark]

Any updates on this guys?

I've been looking to do something similar myself after I bought these for under my kitchen cupboards:

My link

I bought the warm white ones for my kitchen and they are quite bright. I'm just not sure how bright they would be for the normal running lights in my aquarium. If I were to fit them I think I would get 5m of pure white and 5m of blue. I would then experiment to see what the perfect combination would be (50/50 etc.)

I've also seen 5m lengths on ebay that have 600 led's for a similar price.

What do you think then?