LED project

[Ballinxalex]

Good luck 3w are pretty pricy how many are u planning to get ?

[johnnytrinh]

How many led were u planning to get?

[Andrew_B]

Their controller kit can go up to 49 leds so I was looking at those. But now with what ive noticed about quality of leds, Im not getting anything other than cree. Bridgelux from aquastyles may be okay but I just dont want to risk it. I'll just dish out the money

[johnnytrinh]

Wish I had money for Cree.

[cu0ngsayz]

There's a guy on marsh selling 2 ai sol white for 600

[mistahoo]

Could it have been the power supply and not the LED itself? If you run a weaker power supply on a LED that can handle much more, the lights will be very dim. Ek had 50 (?) 1w LEDs on a power supply. It lit up a 180gal extremely bright. 100 of them was too bright to look at!

[Andrew_B]

Well back to the drawing board. Maybe I'll just keep what I have. I doubt I'll find anything that makes the tank look better than it is now. Maybe I'll do some supplemental lighting for reds/cyan/pinks etc and just suck it up with the t5 bulb costs every 10mo

[Andrew_B]

Well, got my money back for those cheapo fixtures... decided to buck up and buy a Maxspect Razor 160w fixture. Just ordered it, but i'll post comparison pics between it and my current t5 fixture

[johnnytrinh]

What made you buy that over DIY Cree led. Wouldn't the DIY be cheaper ? Both will be Cree led

[Andrew_B]

Kind of cheaper, depends how you look at it
- 36x Cree diy dimmable kit is 355.00 (375.00 if solderless) + shipping. I also don't own a soldering iron/equipment, so I'd have to buy all that also. Not expensive, but another expense.
- A big heatsink, or two small ones is roughly 30-50
- I don't have a controller, so having a full 24h built in programmable timer with automatic dimming is a big plus for me personally.
- The Razor has legs to rest on the tank 7" above the water. I have no cheap way of using a hanging kit since I can't use my ceiling and would prefer not using the wall (no canopy either). So building a canopy would be 50.00+

So with it all said and done, it would be just about the same. Read a lot of awesome reviews about the razor and worse case, I toss it on the tank, don't care for the light output/look and I'll return it. Marinedepot has a good return policy.