What do you think about this LED fixture?

[Neogenocide]

Originally Posted by Fishtastic

I always laugh because people told me that the 10-20$ 96cm 96 led strips off ebay (the ones for cars) wouldn't work....
8 months later and all my corals are 3-4 times the size they were.. I guess the led's don't work. /shrug

Not that I don't believe you, but well, I don't. Lets see some pics of this budget LED build that supports SPS in more than the first couple inches of water. How many of these 96 count led strips are you running?

Scott

[E.intheC]

check out the Rapidled bulbs (with the Cree LED's built in).. I'm going with about 5 of the PAR30 5xLED bulbs for my 40 breeder. Should only cost $325 plus the hanging assembly.

[PAbellera]

I had this debate last month. I ended up going crazy and got 2 of the Reefsmart 120w LED that you posted from pacific east.

These are great lights but I wouldn't pay more than $350 for them. If you were to spend around $400 or so, you can get the Maxspect LEDs.

The problem I found with the Reefsmart LEDs are the fans. They're a little loud for my taste, but you can easily swap that out with a different fan (of course that would entail some DIY).

Also, depending on the size of your tank and how high you intend to place the lights, you might get shadows (This is the case with all types of lighting). My tank is 4' long and the lights are only about 2" over the tank, so I noticed that I had some dead spots in the center.

This actually worked out to my benefit because I wanted to showcase some nice SPS there anyway! I ended up ordering a 12 LED retro kit from RAPIDLED and now it looks awesome! What's nice is you can also mix and match the LED's to get the coloration you want. At first I was hesitant to play with the soldering iron but just watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I_5uh4R_QQ

It's really not that hard and only took about an hour to solder and run the wires. Add another 20 min if you use a dimmable driver. Mike at rapidLed is very quick to respond via email and answered all my questions.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions about it.