my wife just gave me a $750 budget to upgrade my lighting to led ;D on my 75 gallon tank does any one have any recommendations on the best way to to this ex. pendants diy or any thing else ? any help would be greatly appreciated
I am woundering the same thing myself. I just watched this guy on youtube, Rickets reef, and he did a diy Led fixture. I was watching the build for it. Looks pretty straigth foward. Im highly considering doing the same thing he did. Looks like it will be between 600 and 700 dollars. Heres a link to the build. There are 4 parts, haha watch them all.
Still looking around and have to do some more research! anyother suggestions??
I believe one of our newest members/vendors has an inside line on LEDs and can organize a group buy to get the costs down.
You may also want to consider this - you have a $750 net budget -that means you can spend $1K and sell your existing lights for $250 ;D
sorry everyone i will be posting it up latter tonight just had a lot of things to get done around the house today lol. should be up in a little bit. and just so you all know my prices are really close to making your one and it looks like a real fixture.
craig
If you are looking for LED’s, Lindsay and I just got two AI fixtures… over budget but you could have one and save up for the second… They have a warranty, par results, and a very nice fixture in our opinion. Good luck with the decision, hope all works out!
[quote=“Jcling, post:5, topic:3625”]
If you are looking for LED’s, Lindsay and I just got two AI fixtures… over budget but you could have one and save up for the second… They have a warranty, par results, and a very nice fixture in our opinion. Good luck with the decision, hope all works out![/quote]i would also recommend the AI lights, but i am sure that 1 mod won’t be enough. i have 2 hanging about 14" above the water of my 75 and it’s just right
hey jared, have you d’loaded the firmware upgrade? if so how’s it going? WOW. they allow for thunderstorms, cloudy days, 14 different large or small time adjustments, lunar cycles,and ramping up fast/slow.
i plan on posting PAR readings today. so far i have not set anything at more than 80%. LOTS of shimmer also.
Have you installed the firmware Paul? It is in the beta, so I wouldn’t jump on it now. At least wait a couple of weeks after the release unless you have time to go back to an older final release if you see issues or are uncomfortable. If the firmware messes up and kicks things on to 100% just after you went to bed and you don’t release it when you go to work in the morning and don’t have a controller to alert you to things being out of whack. Could be pretty bad when you get back at 5-6 at night.
A faulty timer is one thing, but when your tank can’t handle 100% could be risky. I’d wait a little longer on the beta firmware unless you already went through with it.
OK so lets face it my opinion is bias BUT…Let me start by saying that i started playing around with leds about 2 years ago ive tried everything from those pos panels on ebay to the spot lites at homedepot…i have several of those erector set diy cree kits…(all of witch are coroaded n have leds out) then more n more commercial fixtures hit the market some of witch are very nice…But wow so far outta my price range its ridiculous so i started messing around with led grow lites and read up on photosynthesis to try and work out wuts good and bad for coral growth and over all appearance of my dt…and along the way got so wrapped up in it b4 i new it started having led fixtures made too my specs…Then to my friends specs and soon and so fourth as far as i can tell cree leds are for use in indistrey i cant find ne grow lite manufacture that uses them and after testing them against other leds available i found out why although the visible lite produced by the crees is excellent the par value leaves alot to be desired in conjunction with the wattage used by the led…basically wut im trying to dois put good fixtures into the hands of the hobbyist with out sticking my hand to deep into their pockets lol…well im local always looking to better my collection and the hobby in general those who no me know im always willing to lend a helping hand as i hope to do hear…Well its 3am im rambling of topic i guess that means its bedtime lol…if ne 1 has ne ?s dont hesitate to ask ill do my best to answer…
installed the firmware. works perfectly. easy and really tight. all the reviews ive seen on it say YAY! except for a non-separation between cloudy days and t’storms, which doesn’t bother me a bit. i don’t see the need for t’storms anyway except to impress viewers. i ramp up sometimes 5 mins, sometimes 3 hrs, and sunset lasts as long as i want it to, manual op is excellent. i is a happy boy.
looks like i have the wife talked into the AI setup with 2 modules YahoO 400 over budget but it seems to be the best one out there
Wow your pretty good !!
Do you provide wife convincing school ;DBest to order on the 25th of December. People tend to be less generous the next day. I wouldn’t recommend snoozing on ordering too long or minds may be changed.
[quote=“billrob71, post:11, topic:3625”]
Wow your pretty good !!
Do you provide wife convincing school ;D[/quote]
why yes you too can learn to convince your wife into things in only 3 easy lessons BoNg
Sounds like a scam to me. It’s never that easy.
I’ve been working on getting tanks moved into the upstairs rooms and I don’t think it will ever happen.