LED Lighting manufacturers.... Aqua Illuminations SOL?

[reeferchief]

Hi everyone I am sure this has been talked about. I was hesitant on LED's becuase it's a fairly new technology for growing. Yesterday I got to see the Aqua Illuminations SOL LED in action with the day cycle on it. It was way more than I expected and I was quite impressed with this light, even the price tag at just about $500.
Does anyone have any experience with LED lights for growing corals?
Who else manufactures LED lighting fixtures?
How hard would it be to make my own and what would it cost? I used to solder and wire LEDs on controllers which use AA batteries as power. I am an expert a soldering and with designing I am just not sure what else would be required to make LED's controllable and dim as well as resistors and drivers and coverting to 110 power source.
I would not go this route unless the lights and time to build are reasonable because for $500 that is an amazing light and if it ever breaks it is covered!

 

[reefraff]

I prefer DIY but for 500 bux it's hard to beat that fixture. There are some good build threads here in this forum.

 

[reeferchief]

Yea and now the LFS guy just emailed me that they dropped the price today to $399...hard to beat for that price..

 

[acrylic51]

Yeah they dropped the price to $399 a bit ago......The new Phoenix is going to run about $500.00. There are tons of mixed opinions/reviews on the manufactured LED setups. The biggest concern/issue is missing some of the light spectrum. Really the only 1 that might have addressed that issue is the new Radion fixture, but to early to tell if they got it right. Time will tell if they are on the right track.

 

[1guydude]

Lots of LED manufactures...some good and some are crapola...
Orphek
Ecoexotic
Ecorays
Rapids
Evil
AquaIluminations
Marinland
Acan
Maxspect Mazarra
EcoTech
Current USA
Elos
Hydra
Innovative Marine Skkye
Stark
and more....
I was gonna do a DIY setup but found a fixture for $300 at a LFS i liked! Iam using only LEDs now! I have millipora, montiporas, and some polliporas which isnt saying much but i did burn a birdsnest here recently! LOL woops...i gotta dim down the fixture when i put new coral in the tank! The other LEDs i run are the Par38s and they do indeed grow coral!

 

[2quills]

One thing to consider when decided whether to buy a manufactured fixture vs diy is the cost of repairs down the road once the warranty on manufactured fixtures runs out. When you buy a pre built fixture you lock yourself in to their design and repairs can be quite costly down the road unless you can do the repairs yourself. Also, upgradeability...again you lock yourself into the manufacturers limit design. DIY will always be cheaper, easier to fix and upgrade over the long run.
Aqua Illuminations fixtures a little over 2 years old after the warranty has run out....


Cost quoted to repair each fixture with burned out leds = $250 per fixture. Only one of those fixtures still has all the leds intact.

 

[reeferchief]

Thank you for the list..there are quite a few manufacturers......lots of options and research opinions...
WOW so you have 5 light fixtures and it looks like only one is still good. I read that you can swap out the puck that has the 3 LED's in it for quite cheap..around $25/puck.. They also do this for upgradeablility..
I would not want that to happen to me bc I don't think I'd be happy. I'd of course try to fix it myself since I am quite knowledgeable with LED and soldering circuit boards.
My price range is right around $500 for a LED light that I can dim and simulate day cycle. First off who currently makes a stand out above the rest LED fixture for around this price? Second what would I be looking at to make one for a 65G tank that can be dimmed and simulate, as far as price and materials needed?