What do you all think of LEDs?

[da6d2003]

150 LEDs in a 2' tube. I haven't gotten a par reading or temp yet on it though. In theory it should be avail in 10000kelvin, 14000kelvin and BLACKLIGHT!!!! How cool would that be. Another fun thing, they can be made to work underwater. They should last 15000 hours.

I do know now why Solaris is so expensive.

 

[Kigs!]

ooo is that a DIY job? looks nice dave...

 

[ficklefins]

I do know now why Solaris is so expensive.

Are you using the 1-5watt high power led lights, or 5mm?
http://www.solarisled.com/FAQTechnical/5MMLedvsHighPowerLED/tabid/60/Default.aspx

 

[da6d2003]

Are you using the 1-5watt high power led lights, or 5mm?
http://www.solarisled.com/FAQTechnical/5MMLedvsHighPowerLED/tabid/60/Default.aspx

They are a hyrid. The high power ones get VERY hot as you can imagine. This was a DIY gone awry. I had a friend of a friend make it for me overseas. A bunch of stuff got lost in translation. For example, the fellow made it snap into an eclipse hood. That's fine for FW tanks. I also think that the design as is will get pretty hot and decrease the life of the bulbs. This means that they would only last 8 years or so. They're also going to be pretty expensive. We are discussing options for manufacturing high power LEDs and we'll see where that goes.

 

[surfn]

wicked!

 

[FateX8]

yeah that looks awesome
just curious but how many watts or watt is each led?

 

[da6d2003]

These are 2.5w each.

 

[FateX8]

i count 150 LEDS?!
so its 375W?
interesting, have you turned it on yet?
and how is the light spread on those?
have you thought of using individual reflectors that they have for LED's?
dont know if those actually help in intensity or if they even need that help but it would be interesting to see

 

[da6d2003]

Yea, it's majorly bright. The spread is very good. Those numbers are pretty theoretical though. Nothing has been measured yet. The one's that were playing with now are putting out 60 lumens per watt and the leds are 5 watts each. Extremely bright but very hot. But they'll last up to 50,000 hours if you can keep them cool enough. Do the math on that one. LOL, reef tanks on Mercury.... This setup would even be more expensive. Oh well, it's fun playing with this stuff.

 

[storrisch]

if you could run a small fan on each end of the tube one pushing air and one pulling that should put a pretty large dent on heat issues.

 

[edwing206]

Got pics of it over a tank?