Otherwise - http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/Aquarium-14-LEDs--DIY-Dimmable-Kit.html with 7 white, 7 blue.
Reef Discussion
I will hopefully be posting up my first instalment on DIY LED's tonight which will cover off on some of the issues with cheap LED's. In short, the light output by lower quality LED's is more variable compared to a CREE for example and you may not be getting the specific wavelengths that are required for corals etc. They won't have datasheets that you can refer too and thus you are taking a gamble. The problem is that without some way to measure the particular wavelengths emitted by a LED you will never know:bulge
I'm feeling inclined to go with the cheap kit for my nano, and when I build my big tank, go for one of the better kits, and maybe order some spare drivers. My nano's likely to become a cross between a frag tank and a QT, so I can't see any reason to spend huge money on an experiement for it. That said, I do want dimmable :P
i should have went dimable on my nano, would be good to dim it down a little its so bright.
for a nano i cant see why you cant go cheap and use the cheap leds. although you can see the higher quality of the crees just by looking at them. even the stars the leds are soldered to are better. and the crees are easiyer to solder. i found the chinease leds terminals didn't take the solder as good.
for a nano i cant see why you cant go cheap and use the cheap leds. although you can see the higher quality of the crees just by looking at them. even the stars the leds are soldered to are better. and the crees are easiyer to solder. i found the chinease leds terminals didn't take the solder as good.
I must admit I don't understand the reasoning for using cheap LED's on frag tanks, nano's etc but not on DT's. The problem with cheap LED's is not so much the quantity of the light (especially on small tanks) but the quality - unless you have access to equipment to complete a spectral anslysis you will not know the wavelength of the light being emitted. Other types of light (T5's, MH etc) output a broader range of light where at least some is likely to hit the required spots (and some is wasted because it can't be utilised by our saltwater life forms). LED's are different in that they emit a very narrow range of light - if you miss the peaks in the spectrum required by corals etc then they will, over time, decline.
With the 'high end' LED's you are able to refer to datasheets to determine the actual wavelengths being emitted and to purchase Bin's based on your requirements - can you do that with the cheap LED's?
Do you value the stock in a frag tank or nano any less than in a larger display tank, I don't think so. So why risk it? Would you use tank supplements from a Chinese manufacturer with no breakdown of the ingredients used ?
The other factor with frag and nano tanks is their relatively small size (generally) - some of the posts above are talking about 14 to 24 led units so the additional cost of buying quality LED's is not excessive in the overall scheme of things.
Are all cheap LED's bad? Probably not but are you able to tell the difference?
Just my thoughts :)
I have no personal experience with Bridgelux LED's. But, CREE were supplying Bridgelux with some components following a patent case a few years ago so they may be OK.
When looking at any LED, I would be asking these questions:
When looking at any LED, I would be asking these questions:
- Is a datasheet available - for Bridgelux the answer is yes
- Are the LED's sorted into bin's based on flux and colour - for Bridgelux the answer is yes
- Do you know what bin's you are getting when you purchase the LED's - that is for you to investigate with each individual supplier :)
Certainly is :)
Another example is Intel when they are making a production run of computer processing chips. Some turn out perfect so they sell them at a premium; some almost prefect so they might disable a few of the precessors and sell them for a bit less; some might be very bad so they disable a lot of the processors and put them in the discount bin - they all still work but some better than others.
The same thing happens with LED's - the chips are tested following manufacture and coded, or binned, depending on the flux (intensity) and colour.
If you have a look at the Bridgelux data sheet available here you will see the different bins starting on Page 26.
The flux (intensity) ranges from C (360lm - 400lm) to X (2700lm to 3000lm) and the colour ranges from N3 to R4 for Warm White with similar bins for Neutral and Cool whites.
Page 31 shows how this all comes together for the product labelling.
Another example is Intel when they are making a production run of computer processing chips. Some turn out perfect so they sell them at a premium; some almost prefect so they might disable a few of the precessors and sell them for a bit less; some might be very bad so they disable a lot of the processors and put them in the discount bin - they all still work but some better than others.
The same thing happens with LED's - the chips are tested following manufacture and coded, or binned, depending on the flux (intensity) and colour.
If you have a look at the Bridgelux data sheet available here you will see the different bins starting on Page 26.
The flux (intensity) ranges from C (360lm - 400lm) to X (2700lm to 3000lm) and the colour ranges from N3 to R4 for Warm White with similar bins for Neutral and Cool whites.
Page 31 shows how this all comes together for the product labelling.
Feel free to ask any questions :)
I doubt that you will get an adequate response. Keep in mind that the better the LED the higher its cost - a lot of these businesses are selling relatively cheap kits because they can buy relatively cheap LED's :)
As an example, a CREE XPG Cool White R5 bin sells on Cutter for $10.12 and emits 275 lm @ 750 ma. The equivalent R3 bin sells for $8.51 but only emits 242 lm @ 750 ma. The R5 is 19% more expensive but only delivers 14% more light!
In the XPG's, the bins go all the way down to P3 which only delivers 147 lm @ 750 ma. I could not find any of these for sale, perhaps because they are not sold at the retail level, but you could imagine that they would be significantly cheaper than the 'better' bins.
Now, imagine that I have a business selling cheap DIY LED kits - I can advertise that they use CREE XPG's :) The uninformed would be ecstatic on getting cheap XPG's, but the informed would be asking what bin are they from ;).
If you are told that they are P3's you may still buy them based on your requirements but at least you are making an informed decision.
Hope this helps.
I doubt that you will get an adequate response. Keep in mind that the better the LED the higher its cost - a lot of these businesses are selling relatively cheap kits because they can buy relatively cheap LED's :)
As an example, a CREE XPG Cool White R5 bin sells on Cutter for $10.12 and emits 275 lm @ 750 ma. The equivalent R3 bin sells for $8.51 but only emits 242 lm @ 750 ma. The R5 is 19% more expensive but only delivers 14% more light!
In the XPG's, the bins go all the way down to P3 which only delivers 147 lm @ 750 ma. I could not find any of these for sale, perhaps because they are not sold at the retail level, but you could imagine that they would be significantly cheaper than the 'better' bins.
Now, imagine that I have a business selling cheap DIY LED kits - I can advertise that they use CREE XPG's :) The uninformed would be ecstatic on getting cheap XPG's, but the informed would be asking what bin are they from ;).
If you are told that they are P3's you may still buy them based on your requirements but at least you are making an informed decision.
Hope this helps.
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