Bridgelux leds

gar732 · Sep 21, 2011

swannyson7 said:
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.

One thing that might be note worthy is that you have 357 3w bridgelux diodes over your display and twelve crees over your frag tank. Imagine you had 357 crees over your display I'm sure you'd see the difference then.

mcdonaldtj · Sep 21, 2011

Yerboy said:
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.

You hit the nail on the head, I have 2 DIY fixtures one with the XRE series and one with the XPG/XPE series and the differences are noticable. All the money that I spent on the first one will not go to waste because when I upgrade I will mix the 2 like others are suggesting, but from what I have seen in this hobby 60% of the people in it today were not in the hobby 3 years ago and in 3 years I bet it will be the same, so where is the savings for you? The one thing that I have seen about LED's is that due to the cost per LED people are not using enough of them to get what Halides or T-5's give you in a tank. If you put LED's closer together and make sure that you enough to cover the whole tank then the PAR becomes too much for the corals but if you spread them out you have spotlighting or dark corners and it doesnt look as good to the eye. I ended up adding 2 T-5's to mine because the spectrum of LED's dont bring out all the colors of the corals that I wanted and the hybrid did. I look at it this way how many people are using just Halides without supplimental lighting? Not many from what I have seen. It gives me what I want and with the hybrid maybe the bridgelux will do what is needed for the corals and your eye. JMHO

V/Tim

ronnie · Sep 21, 2011

I'm not missing facts - I don't know what the facts are - big difference. And where are you pulling 20k hours from? I'd love to see a link pointing that fact out. I'd also love to see a reef tank that has 50000 hours of LED running on it. Point is, again, nobody truly knows. We are just going off of manufacturer "perfect conditions in a lab" specifications.

You are implying that the bridgelux is a worse product because the company making the more expensive ones has awards - right? I don't disagree that Cree likely makes a better product (or 20 of them apparently). I disagree that your statement that Bridgelux doesn't make a usable product because they don't have any awards (I'm implying this from your statements - sorry if that is an incorrect implication).

The payback factor for me was 9.2 years. That works for me pretty easily. That means it would take 9.2 years for me to make back enough money to have paid for the Crees. I seriously doubt I'll run the light that long, but if I do, that is fine as well.

And I did a tad bit of research - check here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1950575&highlight=diy+led

That guy is running an 8'x4'x2' SPS dominate reef with the LEDs I am using. Along with several others from the TBRC.

But as I said - nobody truly knows, but we are on our respective bandwagons. To each their own. I'm more than happy to admit failure if/when it happens. It is what it is. I do enjoy the discussion, though!

ronnie · Sep 21, 2011

And FWIW, I've always thought it was silly to buy 36 Crees and then run them at 30 percent because you will bleach everything if you turn them up. I'd rather run 12 at 100% personally.

I'm currently maxing out at 40% just to acclimate everything, but hope to get up to at least 70% eventually.

But that is just me. I realize most people love that they are saving more money on electricity, but I'd rather have a brighter lit tank.

luke33 · Sep 21, 2011

I have ran 1w bridgelux, 3w bridgelux, 1w semi's, 3w cree, 3w epistar. The 1w semi's...not close to a cree. The 1w and 3w bridgelux are not close to a cree either. Now when you compare a 119 1w bridgelux fixture to a 48 3w cree they are close in light but not in intensity as the cree fixture pulls around 3x's the par. When you compare the 119 3w bridgelux to a 48 3w cree they are similar in brightness and the bridgelux fixture i've used pull more par. When comparing the 3w epistar to the 3w cree i think is a better comparison than a bridgelux. The nice thing about the cree's that make them superior is they can take the heat and you can drive them harder than the other led's ive used. Does that make them better than the others for reef purposes? Not really imo. If i can get 250 par at 24" depth and the color and spectrum looks good i'm happy. I don't care if its bridgelux, epistar, cree or the next flavor of LED's coming out. I've ran led's for over 2yrs straight on my sps dominate tank and they have had excellent growth and color. Bridgelux 3w 2+yrs, epistar 5mths, even ran cree's for 3-4mths. They all worked well. The 1w semi and 1w bridgelux I didn't care for with sps.

CaiN · Sep 21, 2011

ronnie said:
And FWIW, I've always thought it was silly to buy 36 Crees and then run them at 30 percent because you will bleach everything if you turn them up. I'd rather run 12 at 100% personally.

I'm currently maxing out at 40% just to acclimate everything, but hope to get up to at least 70% eventually.

But that is just me. I realize most people love that they are saving more money on electricity, but I'd rather have a brighter lit tank.

you can ran fewer crees, the problem would be coverage of the entire tank.

ronnie · Sep 21, 2011

Wouldn't wider optics help alleviate that issue? I realize there are some limitations, but it just seems silly to underpower (even though they are "more efficient") them so much.

milkman · Sep 21, 2011

^^ Yerboy. +1

That was my thinking on going with the Bridgelux and keeping the initial cost low.. There is something new every month. I just looking for a bridge to the future and get my MH Sunpod on to the next person.

turbo21 · Sep 22, 2011

A friend of mine will be stopping in the next few weeks and wil be bringing his par meter. I will post all of our numbers when i get them.

milkman · Sep 24, 2011

Just got noticed Aquastyle shipped my Bridgelux kit. Only took about 2-3 days to ship. Good communication.

Any input on using an acrylic shield on the U channel? All the LED's will be covered by lenses.

turbo21 · Oct 1, 2011

I borrowed a par meter today. And not sure how my numbers look.

right at the surface with the meter just covered with water i have 500 par

at the sandbed i have 130

what do you guys think. I underbuilt my setup and have room to add more. should i add some more leds?
one thing is funny is i have a tri color colony that is about halfway under about 250 par and it is growing great and very colorful

ronnie · Oct 1, 2011

If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

If anything, maybe move the light down a bit?

130 isn't too bad, IMO, though.

ronnie · Oct 1, 2011

FWIW, the 250MH I had 12" over my 40B only had a par of 120 on the bottom right under the bulb, and 80s on the outer portion of the tank.

turbo21 · Oct 1, 2011

I know some of the higher end fixtures give like 250 par on the sandbed. The good thing is that my par of 130 on the sandbed is consistent everywhere. I thought my readings would be higher because i lost two huge sps colonies last weekend due to rtn. i turned the lights down thinking it was too bright. rtn must have been from something else

bob

ronnie · Oct 1, 2011

My fixture is pretty clustered, and puts out 550 PAR at 31" (only 11" of water or so, though).

I think you should be fine at what you have, but you may have to be conscious of placement.

CJO · Oct 3, 2011

I think that you are pretty good with those numbers. I like to have a range like that so that I can keep a lot of different types of corals. However, if you are wanting to grow SPS in your sand bed, you'll have to add some more!

CJ

Bernie · Oct 4, 2011

Hi all, so I'm tagging along on this thread and thinking now that a DIY would be much more cost efficient than buying some chinese fixture off eBay.

A little background. I'm building a 180 set up now, 72"x24x24, and looking to go LED instead of utilizing the 2x250MH setup that I have now. Looking to cut down on electricity and heat.

Right now I just have some mushrooms and zoas that I'm going to transfer, well... 1 SPS and a purple brain as well. But I'd like the option to add some stuff without having to worry too much about light.

SO... For a 74" tank, how would you set it up? Do the 90 LED kit and do 45 per side of the center brace (acrylic tank)?

What about heat sinks? I don't mine buying a pre-made one, but the sizes are a bit odd. I'd rather see something like a 24x12, Radio Shack?