I think I am going to give making my own diy 48" reef light a whirl. Does anyone know of a cheap place to get the parts, i.e. Cree chips, led drivers (http://kutop.com/ip64-dimming-function-meanwell-eln-60-power-supply.html?___store=default&___store=default&gclid=COvx7Ofu08gCFQMFaQodfJAGtQ), etc. I see that Amazon sells the Cree chips fairly cheap. Thanks.
Rapid led, they have great support if you need it. Can i ask why your building a light? For the money you migjt be better buying the chineese led from ebay or amazon, unless your trying for a special look ie just actinic colors or somthing like that
I recently bought a used Photon 32 for my 48" 75 gal mixed reef, but I don’t like the coverage. I want to build one solid 4 footer with a space in the middle for the center brace and the lights spaced the way I want them. I like doing that kind of stuff and it looks like fun. I would then sell the Photon to recoup my costs if everything works out. Thank you for the info.
What are your plans with the tank? Before you jump into building your own led fixture you might wanna talk to guys that have done it and see what kind of end result they ended up with. Like coral growth and color and so on. I have seen alot of people like your self try this and end up spending more money in he long run. Why not 2 smaller fixtures and split the center brace? Most that are using led lights need to add more lighting like t5 or vho to help, the growth/ wattage isnt there with most diy kits. Imo led is only good for you and me, what i mean is we can tweek the lighting for what you and i wanna see. However that probally isnt what the corals need to geow properly. So if your dead set on building your own be prepared to be adding extra lights and extra led and then going back to t5 or mh lighting. If you look on reef central or any of the oher sites you will find tons of people switching back to whatever they had prior to the led. They dont get the colos or the growth they had b4 they switched. This hobby is already very expensive, i would hate to see another person waste more money on led and not be happy and wish they didnt buy them. Thats my :TWOCENTS for what its worh. Im still using 3-250w metal halides and wont switch untill led are proven and the good fixtures dont cost 1k each.
You make some very good points. I’m gonna do a bit more research till I jump in. I did like the look/growth when I had T-5’s, but wanted to reduce my costs/heat by going with the led’s. I had 2 chinese boxes on it till one went and I bought the Photon. Corals kinda just sat there. Thanks for the input.
I wish billrob was around, he setup his 300 and did the diy thing on that and wasted alot of $ and ended up junking most of it and bought mh again.
Then there’s me who grows corals just fine under LED. Check my signature to see how I hacked my Chinese LED’s. IMO if your going to build your own LED fixture, it’s cheaper to buy one of the chinese ones and scrap it for parts than it is to buy everything separate (driver, led, heat sink, switches, fans, etc.)
I no longer have use of my 6ft DIY LED fixture that was on my 180gal display tank. It has Cree Blue 3w LEDs and white 3w LEDs, 6 drivers, 2 fans and two 3 ft very heavy heat sinks. If you would like to see some pics, just let me know. Plenty of useful parts to put together a DIY unit. Selling it real cheap.
I’ve had great success growing coral under LED. I built my own fixture and it ran great for years. I have a detailed write up on it on my website:
http://engineersreef.com/The_Engineers_Reef/Custom_LED_Lighting.html
Had great sucess? Not using the lights anymore?
I am noticing a trend here, seems most people that have built there own fixtures are not still using them and have converted to the box light or added t5 or threw the led away all together.
Hmmm, seems I’ve opened the perverbial can o worms on this one! Maybe I will just stick with what I have right now. Thanks for the responses.