DIY LED aquarium kit?

[Massimo]

I'm basically lost in this field. I don't know what I need for my tank to grow corals. What I mean is that I don't know what kind of LEDs I need. I don't know how many LEDs, how strong, what type and all that stuff.

I'm looking to have almost all soft corals and some lps corals. (no sps corals).

I would like a blue color in my tank. Not a super blue color. Just enough for me to notice it.

I was thinking of buying from aquastyleonline.com

They have a good selection of DIY LEDs kits but I don't know which to get. If you guys don't mind, would you check on the website and let me know which kit would be good enough for all soft corals and some lps corals?

My tank is a 37 gallon aquarium. It's 36x12x20

Which DIY kit would be good enough for what I want?

If you have better websites in mind please let me know, thank you!

 

[Aquaman024]

You can talk to rapidled.com . They are extremely helpful. To get the ratio you want, you ca always get a dimmer for the white and another for the blue.

My ratio is 1:1 royal blue to white (6500k) . My tank does not have a blue hue that you want.

Also try buildmyled.com . You can customize and they have predetermined setups.

 

[Terrance]

To learn more, read this by RapidLED: LED University
Its the basics and you NEED to understand it.

If you are really don't want to research too much, then get solderless LEDs. You can look on Youtube to see how to solder LED reef lights and decide if you want to experiment. It might be a pricey project if you mess up with the regular LED kits that make you solder.

After understanding the basics, the most important thing I look at is the LEDs. Most of the options you see will be 3w LED. Then you need to consider the different brands of LED. The LED kit in the website you listed has Bridgelux LEDs. Those LEDs are not as powerful as the Cree (another brand) LED on the RapidLED solderless kits. For example, 7 Cree LED will provide as much light as 10 Bridgelux LED.

Why would you care between 7 or 10 LED? 10 Bridgelux LEDs will cost more in electricity bill. The more number of LEDs will show provide more blue lighting to the naked eye, so its the only reason to get 10 LED in my opinion. They are always coming out with more effecient LEDs, so there is even more advanced models of Cree LEDs.

Before you buy from the website, contact the sellers and they will work with you to make sure you end up with the proper setup. They want you to be happy and recommend their website to other people.

 

[Saratj1]

I would get 2 of these.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=121029251220&index=4&nav=SEARCH&nid=35119174447

Then 2 of these

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=400345498712&index=9&nav=SEARCH&nid=11397394427

Then get the largest heatsink that rapid led has, get the fan, splash guard and hanging kit. Or 2 medium size heatsinks. With the same setup, the. Two heatsink thing would cost more , but would give you more options as far as mounting, and future upgradability.

You'll need some wiring, a couple ac power cords, they are $6 at lowes. A soldering iron. A few small screws, small solid wires, ect.

Here's a similar one that I built.
It also has 3x10w LEDs.




Here is one of rapid LEDs larger heatsink, I think it's their largest but not sure. I got this one on their scratch & dent sale. It was around $40

 

[biss444]

i built a led light setup for my 200 gallon reef, with alternating white and blue lights, made out of plywood, bought leds on ebay, i think they sell them on amazon now, anywhere from 3 watt to 9 watts , i have the gu10 connections, got the sockets on ebay, bought extention cords at wallmart,. i have five rows of lights , bulbs are 3 inches apart . wrapped the inside of light with aluminum to reflect more light,i have it hanging from ceiling about 7 inches high, that way i can work on my tank without light being in the way, then have them plugged into a timer, my corals are flurishing. was alot cheaper to build then to by one fot the size i needed