Help Me With DIY LED

[CleverBs]

I want to plan to make a DIY LED fixture with 3watt lights. I want to figure out if its a better deal to make one myself or get the amazing ecotech or another high quality premade light. What LED bulbs would be best to use for the DIY kit? and what other items do you need to do the fixture other then the lighting and other equipment that is part of the fixture.

 

[jwalsh]

I'm not trying to squash your dream before it gets off the ground... but I've priced this idea out before and by the time I was done just the parts cost more than a fixture just as good if not better. Maybe you can find parts cheaper somewhere but that's what happened to me

 

[CleverBs]

Well i don't care what ones I get. I just want the cheapest option. And some of the fixtures are 700$ so I doubt it would cost that much.

 

[Aziethe]

What size tank? What are you planning to keep?

 

[CleverBs]

Well I want to make one for a 75 gallon reef with the ability to keep any coral I want. So anything as high as a clam or sps

 

[jwalsh]

Maybe one of the marineland reef leds would work. I know they are supposed to be good for anything but I have no personal expierence with them. I opted for a metal halide and t5 setup

 

[CleverBs]

No that is a poor led system. I don't even think iTunes 3w lights

 

[Aziethe]

I'm currently planning out a 180 and RapidLED recomends between 100 and 125 3W CREE's for keeping SPS corals. At roughly $4-6.00 per LED we're looking at around $4-600.00 just for the LED's. The drivers cost around 20-30 each, and can handle 12 LED's each. Or you could get a larger driver and run multiple strings in parallel. You would of course want to use inline fuses so you don't blow your LED's. After looking at as many scenerio's as I can think of, I can't get the cost of DIY below $800.00. Remember not all LED's perform the same... If you go cheap, your probably going to regret it. IMO there are some nice fixtures out there that are much more affordable.

 

[mbuchanan]

CAFE • View topic - My LED experiment