Led lights

[xandrew245x]

Hey guys, I have a 75 gallon rectangular tank, it is about 48" long. I bought my setup from a guy and it came with T5 lighting with brand new bulb, he told me they would last a year. While doing research before getting into the hobby, I came across led lights and how wonderful they are, and I decided that is what I would like to upgrade to once my T5 bulb bite the dust. I read into it and see everyone saying that DIY is the cheapest way to go. I found nice led fixtures that are 24" long and 15" wide, I would need 2 of them to cover my tank properly. For $500 a piece, they come with everything including dimmers. I looked into building a led light myself, but for the bulbs alone I would be spending over 500 bucks, then factor in all the other material need to finish them. For the two led fixtures I would pay a little over 1000 dollars. My questions are for DIY
How many led lights would I need for a 48" long 75 gallon tank
What other materials would I need
What would be the estimated cost of buildingit
Sorry for the vague questions, but before I get into building a led fixture myself, I want to know if it really is much cheaper than what I would be paying for two complete ones.
Thanks!

 

[mr. limpid]

Normal spread coverage of LED is 24"x24' there is one that covers a 30" square, but you lose PAR on the perimeters. You could get by with 1, 2 would cover entire tank. DIY runs about 300 to 350 fixture, you can get a good fixture far same price with a warranty. With DIY you can chose the LED's you want, with manufactured product you get what they have.

 

[xandrew245x]

Thanks limpid, I think I would rather buy one rather than try to fuss with building one for that little of a difference. Do you think I could get away with one led fixture for now since i'm only going to be starting with a few coral, then get another as I expand?

 

[mr. limpid]

Yes, you just need to place them under the light. Just remember the max par is 12" from center and about 12" deep. I was just at a site yesterday (cant remember the site) they did a compassion of three fixtures of par's at different heights off of tank. AI Sol, Eco Tech and Vertex, the winner was AI Sol and it is the cheapest of the 3.

 

[xandrew245x]

Well, what kind of light penetration do you get from T5 lights? I know there is quite a few spots in my tank where it is going to be deeper than 12 inches.

 

[xandrew245x]

The ones I were looking at were the ecoxotic panaorama 24" fixture, it comes with 5 led strips that contain 12 led bulbs on each. They are a total of 95 watts.

 

[mr. limpid]

I was saying 12" deep is where you get the best par reading, you just place corals with high light requirement up on rocks. As for T5's I never went into them went directly into LED's longer life out of bulbs, less power usage and less heat transfer into tank. The ecoxotic panaorama from there web site doesn't look like its for corals just fish only. You never said if you were going to try to keep corals and what kind.

 

[xandrew245x]

Yea I want to keep coral, I'm not sure what kind yet. I was reccommended those LEDs by another person on the forums for coral lighting.

 

[mr. limpid]

I know there's a person on this site who is using the PAR38 bulbs but all the other strips never say what the wattage is of the LED. 1wat LED's will only good for softies and some SPS, 3watt LED's will handle any coral you want. You can do a search to see who it is and ask him or her the coverage of these bulbs.

 

[xandrew245x]

Well if i'm going to buy leds, I want ones that are going to handle anything I throw in the tank, any good suggestions on lights?

 

[mr. limpid]

Here is a list that people talked about and had good thing to say about them.
Ecoray 60D $300
StarkLED 60W $369
Aqua Illumination SOl $399
Eco Tech XR30W $750
Vertex Illumina $999
I have have not owned any of these fixtures.

 

[xandrew245x]

Ok, I will check them out.

 

[xandrew245x]

I like the Ecoray 60D LEDs, good price, and I think I could still get away with one unit at first, and then 2 for the entire tank once I start getting more coral.

 

[acrylic51]

Quote:
Originally Posted by xandrew245x http:///t/390032/led-lights#post_3451315
I like the Ecoray 60D LEDs, good price, and I think I could still get away with one unit at first, and then 2 for the entire tank once I start getting more coral.
You think 1 unit would give adequate coverage.......Looking at their numbers a iffy as well IMHO........

 

[mr. limpid]

The Ecoray just to let you know has a smaller coverage than the others; 18"x13" at the depth of 24". All that means is that corals that require intense lighting should fall inside that area. You can still have other corals out side of the area that require less intense lighting.