Building My LED Light

[Cory Keeper]

And see greg, there inlies the problem. LIFE EXPECTANCY, not Lumen Maintenance. After about 2 years those will have only half the light that they are rated for.

If 5mm were so great, police cruisers would be using them. As it stands they use high power LEDs.

And I am by no means in favor of MH. In fact It is my opinion that LEDs beat anything out there. Its just that 5mm LEDs have their uses, lighting tanks aint one of them.

 

[GregAW]

Like I said before, these are not your normal LEDs. These are high powered LEDs. Oh well, this isn't getting anywhere. You are set in your ways of thinking and I'm using what I've got. You need to do some more research on LEDs. Times have change and so has the technology.

 

[Cory Keeper]

No they are not, judging from the pics you include, they are your normal 5mm. Show me where they are HO? 5mm are usually mounted to a star, and if they were HO, you would only need two, one 10K and one blue, because with that many in there, they would but out INSANE light. I've got a 29g planted and I scaled the number from 30 to 15 because thats how bright they are.

I am looking at the link you provided, and should you be right (though I doubt) I will admit that I am wrong.

But do not be mistaken that high brightness LEDs means HO LEDs.

 

[Sploke]

I wasn't so concerned about life expectancy, but rather light output. The only real way to compare this to the Solaris or the AI fixture would be to get light meter on it and draw some intensity charts.

And, CK has a point. If those LED bars lose 30% light over 3-5 years, they aren't going to be too useful for SPS corals. However, depending on the warranty, that may not qualify them for replacement because they would still be working, just at a fairly reduced capacity. In any case, without getting some hard PAR or lumen readings, its a pretty hard sell to say those are just as effective as a prebuilt high-output fixure.

 

[GregAW]

These are not 5mm LEDs they are a new T12mm. See, from the photos you can't possibly assume they are 5mm LEDs. They are built specifically for score boards, message boards, and warning lights. Features\Benefits - State-of-the-art Chip Technology - Low Power Consumption (2-4 Volts, 20mA) - Long Lasting (100K + Life Hours) - 5V or 12V Internal Resistor. So you see, these are not an EBay item.

 

[Sploke]

Alright after looking at the page, they do show some readings with the lux meter. Unfortunately they don't show anything really useful. They show lux numbers for the 48" light bars. They then show power and lux numbers for halides, then they compare power readings to a 6' solaris fixture but don't show any lux readings. Unfortunately the solaris page isn't loading right now so I can't pull up the lux numbers for that to compare it.

 

[Cory Keeper]

And I'd still need to see some figures on these 12mm LEDs before putting down that kind of money. The fact that I can't find anything on google still leaves me a little skeptical.

 

[GregAW]

Just buy your MH lights and forget I said anything about my LED tubes.

 

[Sploke]

don't get so frustrated....its just that you can't expect everyone to jump up and down over a new product because its way cheaper than everything else out there and "looks really bright". Empirical data and clinical results are really necessary to convince the general hobbyist that a new product is worth anything. I find it strange that the apparent manufacturer (www.sunbriteled.com) doesn't even mention the product on their page.

 

[Star_Rider]

Interesting read.

I am actually researching LED as a source as many reefers are doing now. when you consider MH at $80 per bulb let alone $300+ for a fixture and ballast(which are spendy and may need to be replaced too) for a single

lets see MH bulb cheap end would be $80 every 6-8 months you would need 2 for a 48" fixture so $160 in 2 year 3-4 times plus cost to run, plus ..well you get the point.
I am going to email the company Greg speaks about and get some info from them.
then continue with my research.
thanks for the input guys

greg, to be honest I think most of the guys here are bouncing questions off you. or voincing ther concerns

I wouldn't take it personal.