55 gallon DIY LED display build (from groupbuyled.com)

[Floyd R Turbo]

I just saw your link to steve's LEDs in your other thread. I didn't realize they were now carrying 660s and true violets. Steve's is starting to look better and better. I like their blurbs about the Philips LEDs vs Crees. Good timing I'm pondering convincing a customer to switch to LEDs instead of replacing 8 T5HO lamps every year....

[joelespinoza]

I just saw your link to steve's LEDs in your other thread. I didn't realize they were now carrying 660s and true violets. Steve's is starting to look better and better. I like their blurbs about the Philips LEDs vs Crees. Good timing I'm pondering convincing a customer to switch to LEDs instead of replacing 8 T5HO lamps every year....

Yea, Steve is great. He has the pricing of chineese no name brands, but with premium products and great customer service. I have never seen anyone respond so fast, to emails or for shipping.

My advice on LED builds is now start low and optics are usually optional on tanks up to 20" deep. Figure with Luxeons at 1000mA you should aim for about 1 LED/per 20-30 square inches of tank surface area. 20 for SPS and like 30 for for softies. You can always easily add more later, but its hard to get back corals that got fried.

Here is a post I have on reefcentral about the warm whites, it amazes more more people dont use them, they are really fantastic:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2194214

I am still amazed by how great that freshwater tank looks, its ok in pictures, but in person its just beautiful. That build is a tad ghetto because the person I built it for wanted to stay as cheap as possible, but even going insanely overboard on LEDs it still only cost like $85 for the whole retrofit. I mean you cant even buy a T5 setup for a freshwater tank that cheap. Although she might end up paying for it when she has to buy all her fish sunscreen and tiny sunglasses... =)

This was the build thread for the freshwater: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2192354

[jnad]

Hello!

Is the led unit you made from Steves led still running good?

I have ordered an ADA tank with dimensions 75x45x45cm, it is going to be set up as an "Holland" type of planted fresh water tank.

I am considering bying leds from Steves for display lightning of this ADA tank, any suggestions of led setup?

Jnad

[joelespinoza]

Hello!

Is the led unit you made from Steves led still running good?

I have ordered an ADA tank with dimensions 75x45x45cm, it is going to be set up as an "Holland" type of planted fresh water tank.

I am considering bying leds from Steves for display lightning of this ADA tank, any suggestions of led setup?

Jnad

Sorry i havent checked on this thread in forever.... VERY busy with school, but yea the stevesleds are doing great

[crashmushroom]

Joel i think you may have convinced me i have a diy cw & rb cree xte build. Since changing from my t5 a year ago i was so dissapointed wigh colour loss i put my old t5 unit back up and my expensive led build is gathering dust under the stairs. Im going to swap out my cw with 2700k from steves and confirm what you are saying. I am correct in saying xte RB and 2700k from steves is all i need. If so im glad i didnt go ahead and waste more more on cyan red green and violet leds. U may have saved me a fortune. One more request can i see pics of your 2700k build please?
Thank you

[joelespinoza]

Steves 2700k warm whites definately bring out color better, and I think they are far superior to the cool or even neutral whites most people use, however I think that a combo T5/LED unit still looks a bit better. Personally I think something like 4 warm whites : 2 royal blues : 1 ~420nm + 1/4 T5 lighting is pretty spectacular. That sounds complex but let me give you an example:

So if I was making another fixture from scratch, for a 90 gallon tank (48" x 18" = 864), I would figure roughly one of steves LEDs per 30 square inches, if driven at about 1000mA, which is about 28 LEDs total. So probably 16 2700k Warm White Luxeons at 1000mA, 8 Royal Blue Luxeons at 1000mA, and 4 ~420nm violets at 700mA. Then I would add a single 48" T5HO bulb in the middle, probably a 10k one, although maybe a 50/50 if I wanted it less white.

[Floyd R Turbo]

That is a really low figure joel, when I was going to do a 2 RB : 1 CW array, I was told that the rule of thumb was based on surface area and you divide by 16 for low light/softies, 12 for LPS to easy SPS, and by 10 for heavy SPS.

For my 120g (24x48 = 1152) that was 72 for low light, 96 for mid-range, and 120 for high light.

For a 90 at low light, that's 54 LEDs, minimum, and you're going to have a hard time growing anything past LPS at mid to low positions in the tank even with that few LEDs I would think.

[crashmushroom]

Oh good i was hoping to get away from t5 hopefully the cri95 leds will do me they arrive monday. Do u have any pics of 2700k mixed with RB?

[joelespinoza]

Oh good i was hoping to get away from t5 hopefully the cri95 leds will do me they arrive monday. Do u have any pics of 2700k mixed with RB?

Sadly any pictures I send you wont mean anything, any pictures I take simply wont represent reality.

That is a really low figure joel, when I was going to do a 2 RB : 1 CW array, I was told that the rule of thumb was based on surface area and you divide by 16 for low light/softies, 12 for LPS to easy SPS, and by 10 for heavy SPS.

For my 120g (24x48 = 1152) that was 72 for low light, 96 for mid-range, and 120 for high light.

For a 90 at low light, that's 54 LEDs, minimum, and you're going to have a hard time growing anything past LPS at mid to low positions in the tank even with that few LEDs I would think.

The "Classic" rule of thumb is 1 3w Cree XP-E driven at about 2 watts (~700mA max) per 15-20 square inches of tank surface area, up to about 24" deep, with 1/15 square inches are very high light, and 1/20 square inches as medium high. Looking up specs sheets from different companies feels like comparing apples to oranges, but it you stare at them long enough you realize that the old generation XP-E Crees running at 700mA have significantly less then half the output of more modern Luxeons running at 1000mA.

Since this is reef lighting, its quite likely that whoever told you 10-16 was applying the "more is better" theory that has been pretty applicable to all previous types of reef lighting, and is so hard to get away from with LED lighting. In reality its INCREDIBLY easy to burn the crap out of corals with LEDs, and pretty difficult to starve them to death.

In the end, I am no expert. All I have is my softies and my LPS, I dont bother with SPS at this point. However I can tell you that my fixture has plenty of spread for a 90 gallon tank, and with my 28 XTE Royal blues and 14 mixed whites that if I turn the fixture up more then 70% (~490mA) everything starts shrivling up and doesnt do well at all, however everything is perfectly happy indefinately at 10-15%.

Cree XTE at 1500mA and Luxeons at 1000mA are pretty comparable in output, so if I wanted a 70% cap on my lighting and to make it out of Luxeons I would be looking at nearly 1/3 the LEDs, so 42/3 = 14 give or take. This is an estimation, but its probably in the ballpark.

Keeping all that in mind, the fixture I estimated was twice that number of LEDs and a single T5HO tube (for visual brightness). Honestly, I think its overkill.

PS I meant 4 Luxeon Royal Blues @ 1000mA max : 2 Luxeon Warm Whites @1000mA max : 1 ~420nm violet @ 700mA max. I dont know why I reversed the ratios of royal blues and whites, sorry.

[Ace25]

I run a 50/50 mix of RB/CW 24 LEDs on a standard 4' 60G, light is 18" above the surface and I still can grow acropora on the sandbed. My other LED light is 48 LEDs (mix of all types of LEDs, cyans, reds, all types of whites, blue, royal blue, and actinic) over a 75G (30x24x24) and it is way to many LEDs, could have easily got by with 36.

Video I just took with my new iPod Touch.