Bridgelux leds

[CaiN]

here is my evidence, 50 bridgelux and 40 optics and 3 drivers, taken out because it doesnt put much light out and shriveled my corals.
this was a $150 mistake, should have done it right the first time, bridgelux LED's are inviting cost wise.

On another note, maybe you can mix bridgelux and crees if you want to save on $$$.

 

[ronnie]

You'll never get good growth with them like that. You have to put them on a heatsink....

:bigsmile:

 

[pmgaudio]

I will agree that CREE is a way better LED, but when I read of Burnouts I think with a dimmer they would work, but with THAT said a less PAR LED would make the SAME amount, no? I am NO expert, I only been doing this for 6 months, so what the heck do I know. like I said, I am researching. I saw a tank with non Cree Leds and it looks amazing. almost the whole setup is DIY and it is trully something I would LOVE to strive for on another build. I will do MORE research for sure.

CAIN, I believe you or someone on another "FOrum" Mentioned Mixing a few CREEs with a bridglux setup. and for my 29 Gallon tall I think THAT would be perfect. maybe three blues and two whites to the smallest Breidgelux setup?
Thoughts?????

 

[pmgaudio]

OH BTW what size tyank did these NOT work on. I think in my case I would be WAY out of the ballpark for comparing. small tank, not a TON of coral

 

[ronnie]

Another thing to note with the bridgelux that I'm using (FEDY) is that I used two whites to one blue to obtain a nice 15k-20k look. That is somewhat opposite to the Cree methodology, as normally people are using 6k LEDs (I think - warm white?). So maybe that makes a difference?

The whites I am running are sold as 18-20k - they are a cool white.

 

[CaiN]

You'll never get good growth with them like that. You have to put them on a heatsink....

:bigsmile:

i did put a different one, with the par i wanted and plenty to spare.

 

[CaiN]

CAIN, I believe you or someone on another "FOrum" Mentioned Mixing a few CREEs with a bridglux setup. and for my 29 Gallon tall I think THAT would be perfect. maybe three blues and two whites to the smallest Breidgelux setup?
Thoughts?????

you can use the chinese blue and mix it with white crees, the chinese blue is deeper in the 440nm range compare to cree which is about 450nm.

OH BTW what size tyank did these NOT work on. I think in my case I would be WAY out of the ballpark for comparing. small tank, not a TON of coral

40b, used 48 bridgelux. par on sand was 70. hanging 3 inches from the water with optics. now with crees hanging 3 inches from the water with no optics i get 200 par in the sandbed.

 

[ronnie]

Those are pretty low numbers.

I wonder if a lot of it has to do with the drivers, though. I'm running meanwells and driving them at 640-650mA. PAR is fine with the fixture hung high.

Would be interesting if you had wired them up to the meanwells and compared numbers.

 

[swannyson7]

FWIW, each of the fixtures I'm using have 119 Bridgelux 3w diodes driven at 1.26w and I've had great growth and color. I supplement the fixtures with T5 for a few hours each day, but not enough that it would support the amount of SPS in my tank if the LEDs weren't doing their job. I'm easily able to grow SPS on my sandbed in a 24" deep tank and the lights are suspended approximately 6" above the tank. I also have a Cree DIY setup over one of my frag tanks and I don't see anything to indicate that the Crees are any better. They are both good diodes and if I were to set up another tank, I wouldn't hesitate to use either brand of LED.

 

[pmgaudio]

FWIW, each of the fixtures I'm using have 119 Bridgelux 3w diodes driven at 1.26w and I've had great growth and color. I supplement the fixtures with T5 for a few hours each day, but not enough that it would support the amount of SPS in my tank if the LEDs weren't doing their job. I'm easily able to grow SPS on my sandbed in a 24" deep tank and the lights are suspended approximately 6" above the tank. I also have a Cree DIY setup over one of my frag tanks and I don't see anything to indicate that the Crees are any better. They are both good diodes and if I were to set up another tank, I wouldn't hesitate to use either brand of LED.

And based on the pics of your tank (Assuming it is the AWESOME white Cabinet build) I say the BL Leds are good enough for ANYONES tank. Again I am NEW I dont even know what PAR is supposed to be or what relevance it has in the hobby. I have a 4 T5 setup that works. I am trying to get the colors I want, like at my LFS ( puppy centers ACAN tank is SWEET!)

 

[pmgaudio]

so the BLUE is more important to growth?
Whites are important too? And to what end?
THe UV I hear is growing more popular cause, lets face it, CORAL live IN UV all day!>
I still have a lot to learn, but I also have a very small budget so I like the Bridgelux idea, with maybe a few crees. I may even get the MIN and continue with the T5s like I saw one guy doing...

 

[FiReBReTHa]

Brother Cavil: I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!

I thought of this quote because I see allot of folks saying the phrase, "the tank looks good"

Realize that what you "see" and what grows coral are two different things. Spectrum Matters and that's the key element to reef keeping.

How long those bridgelux's will maintain their spectrum curves and light output over time is a big question that they haven't answered. Even looking at their data sheets does not show how many hours their life cycle is. They merely state, "long life"
Last numbers I saw from them was 20-25k which are half the life of cree. So in essence you have to spend twice as much and still get less output. I don't see the savings there.

The spectrum curves shown in data sheet are the optimal LED produced, so the best of the batch. Do you guys think that you are getting the best LED produced each time that matches up to the datasheet? Cree manufactures 6-20 etc different types of Royal Blues alone.

 

[FiReBReTHa]

Also has anyone seen the post on the reefled forum comparing different Cree bins, I'd imagine it would be the same kind of deal with the bridgelux LEDs. How do you know what you aregetting are there bin numbers for the bridgelux?

good job for covering that, I didn't see your post till after I made my comment about the bins, good post!

 

[ronnie]

We don't have any numbers on Cree yet, either. So that kind of eliminates the longevity equation. There are other factors that can lead to shortened life as well. Distance to water, improper cooling, improper driving, etc. Show me someone who has put that many hours into bridgelux and said it was done at 20k hours. Same with Cree - show me someone who ran them for 50k hours and saw them diminish. And not in the lab - on tanks.

Lots of variables. Hard to make those statements and feel comfortable as you and I (nor anyone else) knows the true outcome yet.

If Cree produces 20 different royal blues, how do you know you are getting the best one? Because they say it is X wavelength? We put a lot of faith in manufacturers. Just because a product is three times the cost, doesn't mean it will output three times the light. It just means you spent more on something that might work better or longer, and you might not have.

 

[CaiN]

ronnie, no i wasnt abe to run them with the meanwell drivers. maybe the chinese drivers is also the limiting factor in the light output.

 

[FiReBReTHa]

Except you are missing allot of FACT in your post.

If one company says 50k and they have a better track record of being accurate compared to a company that says 20k and is reputable but nowhere close to the first company. Which are you going to trust.

The guys who say 50k hrs and has a ton of awards from earned quality.
or the guys who say 20k hours.

Yes, lotsa faith in manufacturers as well as lawsuits for false advertising. You can easily find the datasheets that says the output difference in between each LED.
Have you bothered to really look into this in depth or did you just speculate it and go with the cheaper one?

There's always going to be the guy at best buy who says the bottom end TV's looks just as fine as the magnolia TV's, that's why they sell both.


In reefkeeping its easily found that you try going cheap once and then you end up spending double to fix it the second time around.

We don't have any numbers on Cree yet, either. So that kind of eliminates the longevity equation. There are other factors that can lead to shortened life as well. Distance to water, improper cooling, improper driving, etc. Show me someone who has put that many hours into bridgelux and said it was done at 20k hours. Same with Cree - show me someone who ran them for 50k hours and saw them diminish. And not in the lab - on tanks.

Lots of variables. Hard to make those statements and feel comfortable as you and I (nor anyone else) knows the true outcome yet.

If Cree produces 20 different royal blues, how do you know you are getting the best one? Because they say it is X wavelength? We put a lot of faith in manufacturers. Just because a product is three times the cost, doesn't mean it will output three times the light. It just means you spent more on something that might work better or longer, and you might not have.

 

[_Alex_]

if the one is still a reputable company what leaves you to not have trust in them?? they are sellign something taht they are saying is half the life spand for half the price? i ahve seen these on the meanwell drivers and they look a lot better than on the chinese cheaper ones. i think the output to the actual LEDS can make a big difference on the light output of driver to the led itself.

 

[FiReBReTHa]

if the one is still a reputable company what leaves you to not have trust in them?? they are sellign something taht they are saying is half the life spand for half the price?

That's what I was implying is that If they were being accurate, or overstating, they are still half the lifecycle of Cree and half the price, except then the Bridgeluxes are two-three times the price as it takes time to remove the old, then replace with new ones and time is expensive for me to be replacing something when I could have done it right the first time.

 

[nixer]

lol

 

[Yerboy]

this time next year we will all be looking at leds that get lumens 1500 @ 700mA and everyone will run out and replace all their leds. I doubt anyone in the hobby will actually use there DIY fixtures 25k hours so to say you save money now by buying leds that cost 2x as much as the next guys is ridiculous. If you run your leds 12 hours a day for 5.7 years you will have gotten 25k hours of use from them, in that amount of time most of the diy crowd will have opted for more advanced technology or more efficient leds so will replace them any ways.