LED lights

[oblivious]

Hey people,
I have a 75 gallon tank. It's about 4 months old now i have two bubbletips only a few fish (flame angel, blue devil damsels and of course a yellow tang . I have been messing around with different light setups whilst building my cleaning crew. What I have found is there is a lot of stuff to learn and understand. Not having a clue about lighting at all metal halides and fluorescents have been a pain in the #$%.
My question is... LED lighting. I've read up on it and it seems to be the best route to go unfortunately I can't find many distributors let alone prices. Since I am only partially into my metal halide setup I was wondering if I would be better off just saving up and putting the money into the LED's??
Any suggestions or reccomendations?

[der_wille_zur_macht]

The vast majority of reef keepers that use LED are rolling their own, so to speak. It's an extremely new technology in this hobby, and there are few (if any) "standards" or rules of thumb as far as applications to reef tanks. In other words, it's pretty experimental. Certainly not something as standardized or available as MH, T5HO, T12VHO, etc. Also, unfortunately, it's not easy to get a commercial fixture. There are one or two vendors out there, but one of the biggest players got sunk by a copyright lawsuit last year.

However, I agree with your assessment - it has a lot of promise. Preliminary results show that an LED rig can be 40% or 50% more efficient than MH or fluorescent, in terms of watts consumed per unit of light emitted. Plus, you'll get ~10 years of life out of a fixture with no lamp replacements.

Have you seen the big threads in the DIY forum? There are a few that tend to bounce around on the 1st page every day. Worth a look.

[oblivious]

I have not looked at the DIY section yet. New to the forums scene so thank you for that tip .
I did research some more and found that building the setup yourself seems manageable except the big seller on the LED for me is the fact that you could program them to mimic certain timezones. Now, I know that even with an amazing tutorial on how to do this I would unfortunately fail badly.
I guess my best bet is to start saving some money and watching the advancements of LED usage for aquarists until something reasonable comes out for the general public.
I thank you for your prompt reply and useful information.

[Flipper62]

I agree with. der_wille_zur_macht

There are a few LED lights out there, but its still not profected yet. The Idea is great, The light with out the heat. So far the problem is the correct light spectrum.

I'm sure its only a few years away before they get it right

[chevellesteve]

Catalina aquarium builds custom led setups. each panel has the same par readings as a 175 MH but they are expensive at 500 per panel . im looking at buying some but i need 4 panels.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Originally Posted by Flipper62

I agree with. der_wille_zur_macht

There are a few LED lights out there, but its still not profected yet. The Idea is great, The light with out the heat. So far the problem is the correct light spectrum.

I'm sure its only a few years away before they get it right

FWIW, LEDs are extremely flexible in terms of spectrum - far more so than other technologies, and we're already able to closely nail what's being used in other technologies (by "we" I mean people trying to DIY this stuff.) While there are some questions about "ideal" spectrum, it's really just a matter of deciding what we want and then building to it. Kind of a nice problem to have.

I did research some more and found that building the setup yourself seems manageable except the big seller on the LED for me is the fact that you could program them to mimic certain timezones. Now, I know that even with an amazing tutorial on how to do this I would unfortunately fail badly.

It is a lot to learn, but trust me, it's really not that bad. There are plenty of DIY controller platforms out there that'll support the dimming functionality, and there has already been enough code developed that it would be easy to get something up and running without knowing the intricacies of how it works. I've got my rigs fading up and down to simulate natural changes in daylight intensity, and even mimic the sun moving across the sky to a certain degree. I'm also working on a random "storm" simulation, that will dim the lights to simulate cloud coverage. This is all being done with a few hundred lines of code on a $30 controller, so it's not overly complicated.

Catalina aquarium builds custom led setups. each panel has the same par readings as a 175 MH but they are expensive at 500 per panel . im looking at buying some but i need 4 panels.

I'm not familiar with their work, but I'd be interested in seeing what they're doing. IMHO LED technology is young enough in this hobby that you need to be EXACTLY sure of what you're getting in a prebuilt unit, otherwise you might not really be much better off than if you had just gotten an off-the-shelf MH or T5 system, in terms of efficiency and cost. The difference in efficiency between one bin of Cree XR-E and another might be 50%, which makes it a wash compared to T5 or MH. And when you compare the highest-binned XR-E to, say, a low-binned Luxeon I, it's more like 100% difference!

FWIW, most commercial fixtures using the appropriate components are running around $20 - $30 per LED, whereas it's possible to DIY a rig for $10/LED.

[oblivious]

I found a local store that is selling LED strips, but, they are apparently selling strips with 10 LED's for 15$. I did not actually go to the store I just called in. This price seems a little low so I'm assuming they are not the right type of LED. I am going to try and Do It Myself, especially if controller platforms can be purchased fairly cheap. I'm in college for a web designing program and know a whole bunch of programmers. So if I can get this thing set-up before the end of this school year I should be able to get someone to write some sweet code. If I do achieve this the first thing I'll do is post it on here

Thankyou everyone for your help.
Wish me luck. It all starts this weekend

[der_wille_zur_macht]

$10 for a 15 LED strip is certainly not going to be anything special, unless you're looking for moonlights or supplemental.

Good luck with the DIY effort. Hang around the DIY forum on here and check out the threads, there's a lot of good reading and plenty of people willing to help. If you go with one of the common controller choices, there's likely already code written.

[lordofthereef]

I agree, DIY is the way to go at this time. From what I understand, there is patent issue with LEDs, who can produce/distribute etc. when it comes to the aquarium trade, so it will be tough to find a unit, and even if you find one it will be expensive. What about T5s and Halides is a PITA? I guess I ask because I am curious what you are planning to overcome by utilizing LEDs.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Originally Posted by lordofthereef

I agree, DIY is the way to go at this time. From what I understand, there is patent issue with LEDs, who can produce/distribute etc. when it comes to the aquarium trade,

Orbitec has licensed their patents with at least one major vendor, though several other vendors are continuing without any apparent issues. I get the feeling that Orbitec didn't like the negative press that happened as a result of them driving PFO out of business. Or at least I *hope* they got that message. At any rate, there are some very clear examples of prior art, so IMHO it's only a matter of time before their patents are overturned.

I ask because I am curious what you are planning to overcome by utilizing LEDs.

I know you were asking the OP but since I'm such a fan of LEDs I'll answer anyways. Longterm cost with LEDs is going to be far cheaper than other technologies, both from lower electric costs and lower (or no) lamp replacement costs. Similarly, an LED unit will pump less heat in to your tank (or the room the tank is in), which is a pretty significant advantage for anyone in a warm climate.

Lastly, LEDs give you nearly infinite freedom. You can get the EXACT color, direction, intensity, distribution, angle, etc. of light that you want. You can get diffuse light, or highly directional light. You can spotlight different parts of the tank, or easily angle part of the array to get slanted "shaft of light" effects at sunrise or sunset. Some of these affects are possible with traditional lighting, but the degree of control is several magnitudes higher with LEDs, since you can control all these factors for each individual LED.

[oblivious]

Great information and loving the DIY section. What I've learned in the last week just from using this site is unbelievable. I think for now I am going to throw a couple HVO's and MH's over the tank, My reasoning being that within a year or two I will be upgrading to a larger tank and will then invest the money into a LED system. Thanks for all the help and hope to see you guys around the forums. Onto the next issue lol