Going Over To LED's soon Advices

Civicdemon

Civicdemon

Go Big Or Go Home !
Ok so im getting ready to go get some LEDs as most of you know my tank is running at the moment with PC lights and is actually doing good for the most part. Tax time is here and im on a set budget of no more than 600$ for my lights. Im Looking into LED because i dont want my Elec. bill to be any more and i want something cooler in temps. From what i hear The TAO Tronix are fairly good.

Since my tank is 6 feet long im going to Need 3 units, and it seems l i can get these and dimmable for my price range.

So what do you guys think ???

Any other ones that would be better that are in my budget ???

Im planing on a mostly LPS tank with a couple SPS here and there along with my Clams that are still good up to know with my current lights.

Well let me know what you guys think and keep in mind this is the most i will have for lights. and im currently running PC lights so i need to change them up ASAP.
 
go with kessil 350W tuna blue, you will need only 2 units, and they are the top class and perfect for growing :)
 
Civicdemon said:
I think i would need more than 2 units of those, and there hella pricy. 400 eatch that puts me over by 200
Click to expand...

No, you will need only 2 units.. Just with the wide lense

200 $ is nothing... they are leds....You won`t have to change them and the electricity bill will be super low :)... So spend those extra 200 $
 
For what you want to keep, I'd say three units as well in the regular A350, not wide. Going to LED on your tank is going to be pricey. Have you looked into rapid LED DIY?
 
Honestly, in that sort of price range, you will be happier with a DIY route than the Tao Tronics. You will find very mixed reviews on them. A few people here have them and have not had issues. I know of several local reefers that bought these, and a short time later spent money again to upgrade to a more reliable unit. It would have been cheaper for them to either go the DIY route or spending a little more and buying a quality fixture the first time
 
I was thiking of doing the DIY but when i did the math it actually came out to be around 800 to 900$ and it doesnt look good IMO. I DOnt have a canapy on my tank so you would be able to see the lights. And when i say around 600 $ i mean it guys lol. maybe 650 ish but no more than that. And for the mean time i have to do something about these lights.
 
i Seen a couple units that use cree LEDS and they look pretty good but they are not name brand or anything. with 2 year warrenty. i wonder if i can find them again
 
I don't know of any LED's out there that are worth getting in that price range to put over a 6ft tank. The cost of LED lighting is still pretty high. And personally, I wouldn't consider an LED fixture that didn't have some sort of controls for color and/or intensity. At least with MH or T5 you can buy different color bulbs to tweak PAR and color but you can't do that with off the shelf LED units.

What is the lighting setup you have now? When you say PC, do you mean the old school power compacts? You can find some great deals on some nice used mh/t5 combos out there that will blow away all of the lesser LED units in terms of color and coral growth. Yeah, not the best for electricity but have you actually figured out the difference in monthly running cost? It may be akin to buying a more fuel efficient car, where it takes YEARS to make up the difference after you pay all the initial upfront costs.
 
I agree with Dennis here. I understand you have a budget, but at that price point over a 6 foot tank you're going to be better off with a MH/T5 combo. If you are deadset on LED's I would advise you to save some more $$$ to increase your budget, and buy the right fixture the first time

If you insist on sticking at the $200 mark, look at these
http://www.rapidled.com/onyx-by-rapid-led/

RapidLED has been around for a long time and has a record of customer service - which cannot be said about a lot of Chinese black boxes

Also, where were you going for DIY LED's where you came up with a price of $900? A quick estimate over at RapidLED and I come up with ~$480 for everything but the optics
 
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I Actually like that Onyx one eccept for one thing, its a on off thing so a cant control the blues and white sepretly. Plus theres no dimmers. I think for now im just going to go with the tao tronics dimmables.

It has to be better than the Power Compacs im using now with only 1 10k and 1 actinic on each side.
 
Well went with the Cheap Chinesse balck bow lol, Talked with a couple guys that have them now for 6 months and al lthere stuff looks great. Also spoke with them and they said if anything ever goes wrong i have the option to sent it back and get the place that makes them to fix it or to ask for the part and i can fix it my self. So seems to be ok. I will post up Pictures ones i get them all mounted up.
 
deep breathe buuuuuuuuut I would say the AI SOL 2 of them and putting the corals important centered and some of your softies off to the side. just a thought.
 

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