Steve's led build advice

[Ls7corvete]

I was considering trying a diy led build using Steve's leds. I was wondering if anyone has done this lately and could hear your opinion/experience.

I think the biggest question is, how important is deep blue? It looks like Steve only has cool blue and royal blue. Though sb reef uses a lot of cool blue...

Plan:
5x 3up leds as follows, probably 3 strips of these to start with on my qt/frag tank.

Royal blue
Royal blue
White 5k

Royal blue
Cool blue
White 5k

Royal blue
Violet
White 5k

Royal blue
Cyan
White 5k

Royal blue
Royal blue
White 5k

 

[TDEcoral]

Unless you really enjoy DIY projects, I'd just buy a commercial light these days. There aren't a lot of people doing DIY LEDs so it can be difficult to get advice if you run into any issues and there are so many good, affordable commercial lights that it doesn't make financial sense to go DIY. Plus DIY lights have almost no resale value if you decide to go a different route in the future. That being said, DIY lights can be a challenging and rewarding project if you light working with electronics. As far as your plan, my advice would be to copy the layout of a light that you like.
This might get more attention if you post in the general DIY LED thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/general-diy-led-thread.534238/

 

[Ls7corvete]

Unless you really enjoy DIY projects, I'd just buy a commercial light these days. There aren't a lot of people doing DIY LEDs so it can be difficult to get advice if you run into any issues and there are so many good, affordable commercial lights that it doesn't make financial sense to go DIY. Plus DIY lights have almost no resale value if you decide to go a different route in the future. That being said, DIY lights can be a challenging and rewarding project if you light working with electronics. As far as your plan, my advice would be to copy the layout of a light that you like.
This might get more attention if you post in the general DIY LED thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/general-diy-led-thread.534238/

Good advice, actually I was thinking about that. Definitely would start with my frag tank first. See if it's "worth it". Planning on about 250$ would be 350-400 for a commercial light. Not a huge difference.

 

[theatrus]

I was considering trying a diy led build using Steve's leds. I was wondering if anyone has done this lately and could hear your opinion/experience.

I think the biggest question is, how important is deep blue? It looks like Steve only has cool blue and royal blue. Though sb reef uses a lot of cool blue...

Plan:
5x 3up leds as follows, probably 3 strips of these to start with on my qt/frag tank.

Royal blue
Royal blue
White 5k

Royal blue
Cool blue
White 5k

Royal blue
Violet
White 5k

Royal blue
Cyan
White 5k

Royal blue
Royal blue
White 5k

I hate the non-specific marketing of LEDs. What is cool blue? 485nm? What LED chip is being used?

For a frag tank, you can probably pummel it with 450, a few violets (420 or lower), and maybe a few 485. Yes, skip most everything else if you're not going to look at it for color.

DIY isn't for saving money, its for building what you want. At least all of my builds suffer from over-building and lack of volume to make things cheap

 

[Ls7corvete]

I hate the non-specific marketing of LEDs. What is cool blue? 485nm? What LED chip is being used?

For a frag tank, you can probably pummel it with 450, a few violets (420 or lower), and maybe a few 485. Yes, skip most everything else if you're not going to look at it for color.

DIY isn't for saving money, its for building what you want. At least all of my builds suffer from over-building and lack of volume to make things cheap

Cool Blue:"- Wavelength -470-480nm Excellent for enhancing true coral colors! "

Ill probably put in the white, at least on part of the tank, mostly as a trial for future builds.