Ok so I'm building a led light for my future 10 gallon reef build. I am planning on having sps or an anemone in the tank (I know it will be a challenge). Looking on ebay, I found 5w leds... Would 10 5w white leds (1000k) and 5 5w royal blue leds (450nm) be good enough? There are also full spectrum 5w leds, would those be better? Thanks for the help!
Building a led light!
- Thread starter Max447
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Jason mack
Monti madness
I have no idea what it costs too make your own LED unit .. but if your looking for ideas check out mars aqua leds .. these lights do very well with sps ..and they are cheap too buy .. but if you want too build one ,I'd see what they use and base your unit on that .!
Fishinbob
Active Member
Maxx,
Building you leds can get costly and somewhat time consuming...but on a project that size it will be a breeze. Check out rapidled.com they have everything you need from heatsinks,leds,drivers, wires
pros and cons with diy
Pros
If it breaks you fix it
Fully customizable
Easily upgradeable
Sense of accomplishment
Cons
Can get expensive
Looks "unfinished" not a clean look
Time... we always need more time.
My unit was 120 3w cree leds per heatsink, 2 heatsinks so 240 leds
Waaaaaayyyy overkill!
About 10 colors on 6 channels so I got a wide spectrum and dialed it in as I please. If you have any questions feel free
Fishinbob
Active Member
I would go 2:1 blue to white, 10k white is sharp but can make the tank look too washed/windexy.
I personal opinion would be
15 leds
5 royal blue
3 blue
2 uv
2 warm white
3 cool white
On a dimmable driver so you could tune it down need. Options are end less but just costs more looking at around $100-120 to build a small light setup. Like he said some of the new fixtures are similarly priced.... but I love my leds... I love the gratification of building something.
I personal opinion would be
15 leds
5 royal blue
3 blue
2 uv
2 warm white
3 cool white
On a dimmable driver so you could tune it down need. Options are end less but just costs more looking at around $100-120 to build a small light setup. Like he said some of the new fixtures are similarly priced.... but I love my leds... I love the gratification of building something.
Picassoclown
Active Member
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Fishinbob you are a godsend! Can you please let me know how in the world you did all this? I would love to build my own lights for my 150g tank. I would need 3 geismann lights for $2400. Would you mind messaging me or making a post on the entire thing from parts to building? This is one of the most amazing posts I ever seen and can potentially save a lot of people a lot of money lol. I thank you in advance!!!
