led lighting help!

[issihavok]

i was wondering if anybody could tell me of some good affordable led lights for a 40 gallon breeder capable of sustaining some sps corals.

 

[BallinCrew10]

My LFS recently got aquaufo 90watt LED's. They have a couple fixtures setup on their frag tanks. Which hold lps, sps, shrooms, and softies. All seem to be doing well. I can only find 1 or 2 reviews on them though, so I'm hesitant. The price tags not bad at $300ish per fixture.

 

[BigJim]

Build one. It's not that hard and it's a lot cheaper than buying something comparable.

 

[mr_X]

I haven't seen anything affordable that's any good yet. two 400 dollar fixtures are what you are going to have to buy.
i haven't seen folks saving tons of money building fixtures either. not if you use the right components. you might save a hundred bucks on a roughly 800 dollar purchase. you are going to want something with 3 watt LEDs and also something that's dimmable. then you eventually want to be able to sell it when you are done with it. imO

 

[BallinCrew10]

I haven't seen anything affordable that's any good yet. two 400 dollar fixtures are what you are going to have to buy.
i haven't seen folks saving tons of money building fixtures either. not if you use the right components. you might save a hundred bucks on a roughly 800 dollar purchase. you are going to want something with 3 watt LEDs and also something that's dimmable. then you eventually want to be able to sell it when you are done with it. imO

Thanks. I'm leaning back towards the 6 bulb t5 HO fixture my LFS has. Independant blue and white control, 1 cord lol, and I know its a good lighting system. I've also read that when comparing LED's to t5's, the savings on your electricity bill isn't all that noticable.

 

[mr_X]

well, lumens per watt is greater with LED than it is with metal halide or T5, so i would say you can achieve more with less wattage.

 

[BallinCrew10]

Touché sir. Well my LFS has the ecoray 112's and aquaufo. They use 1 and 2 watt LED's respectively, so looks like I'll pass. I just don't want to get burned for $600-1200 as lighting and LED's imparticular are not my strong suit, to put in nicely lol.

 

[issihavok]

if I were to build one where do I get the parts?

 

[BigJim]

You can order the LED stuff online. I got mine from DealExtreme.