LED ( sorry )

[Scots_art]

I know as yet i have not introduced my self , so i am sorry for not doing so ( yet ).

But currently all i am doing is this :frustrat::frustrat::frustrat:when it comes to working out what LED i need for my tank.

The tank will be custom made some time next year and is not a straight forward cube / rectangle.

To make it easier it is 2ft long x 1.5ft ( front to back , display section ) and 1ft tall .
I have created rock work from Ceramic rocks and this will create a long island in the centre of the tank . the rock work is 17" long and i will be keeping 90 % LPS.

I have been asking on UK forums for advice and all i seem to get is insults , abuse and PM's telling me if i cant afford to spend £600 ( $900 + ) on lighting then dont bother keeping marines.

I had originally been planing to use par 38 bulbs . each 36 watt . that state they produce a usable area of 12" x 12" when placed 1 ft above the tank.
I then thought about the Kessil 150W as that appears to have a larger spread of light and is far better led's than whats used in the par 38.
But i have been told i will need 2 or 4 Kessils above the tank which seems a bit over kill to me.
and then someone said i cant use anything less than a led unit at 160watt such as the Maxspec razor .

I am not intending to flood the tank with light the usual way . i would like to concentrate the main light on the rock work and on a part of the sand bed . but allowing the light spill to light the rest of the tank.
But having looked at the Kessil 150W it appears as though a single one would light my entire tank and have the light on the rock work.

I have a very tight budget for lighting ... in the UK the Kessil is £209 ($337 ) but a store i use i can get the Kessil for around £180 ,,, ( $291 ) with discount.


Sorry if this was not completely clear as to what i am asking for , i am just really starting to lose the will to live all because of LED and non helpful people lol.

 

[texreefer]

I would go with the PAR38's if you are working on a budget. 2 of them on a 24" tank would work, but I feel that 3 would blend better preventing the "spotlight" effect. There are a few sites here in the states that have a good selection.

ledtric.com

rapidled.com

boostled.com

I would look there and see if they can help you. There is no reason you should have to spend $800 on lighting for a tank that size, those people are morons.

 

[poksal]

Plenty of people are getting great results with the PAR 38 bulbs... you are on the right track.

I have spent over $1000 on my LEDs and already wish I had tried the PARs first.

 

[Scots_art]

Hi lads thanks for a quick and thankfully friendly reply..
See living in the UK we are not called rip off Britain for nothing lol.


Regarding the Par 38's they are not cree led's and i have been told the best leds are cree anything else is useless. the ones i found use a bulb called quadspec and have the following led colours .

6 royal blue , 4 cool white , 1 warm white and 1 Fiji pruple all 3 watts each. and have 60 degree lens .
the reason i looked at the Kessil is purely price .. i know it sounds crazy but by the time i bought 2 of the par38's i am already looking at £159.98 - $258 before delivery. if i bought 3 of the par38 i am looking at £239.97 - $388. so the Kessil would work out cheaper as i would also get free delivery from the store , where as the store selling the par38 would be an other $30 delivery.

I already started buying the Par 38 light fittings a few months back when i was originally told Par38 is ample for my new tank. but i ran into problems as the store ran out of the fittings and i could not source a store to make me a custom bracket for the par38 to clamp onto . as i am using photography lighting fittings which are the same fitting as par38, but i had since solved that issue. as i was going to buy photography light rigging and adapt them to go above the tank ( problem solved ).

i guess the advantage with Par38 i can buy a bulb at a time.
I know a few people who bought Par38 bulbs from the states before they were popular in the UK but because of the prices when they arrived in the UK they were charged import tax and VAT and then charged extra by the delivery company . in the end it cost them a total off $1380 for 4 bulbs lol.

 

[poksal]

Can you get these... I have a set of the 36" by 54 watt and love them. They really did their research and development well. Go down the page and do the charts.. I'd get the 24"by 36 watt unit.. and you need to mount them so you can raise them.. they MAY be too strong and need to be higher than on the legs provided. I think they run about $220 here. The unit will have three rows of LEDs. The other powers (more than 36 watts at 24") are by tying two or more units together.

AquaticLife 1.0 Watt Expandable LED Light Fixture

I did a lot of research and I found you can't believe the ones that think they have to be crees and that they have to be 3 watt LEDs... there is SOOOO much more to it than that. But it is true you can't just buy any old cheap LED fixture... They really need to be for marine reef tanks.. and not some LEDs that some company stuck in a fixture and designed a package that says Reef Safe.

 

[Scots_art]

Just had a quick look Poksal and from what i can see we do not get that here in the UK. and something similar in the UK would cost $578
sorry i missed the 2nd part of your reply. the company selling the Par38 bulbs is ( thankfully ) a proper marine aquarium company.

I have spoken with someone who has 2 of there bulbs and he says there great , really bright but he only keeps sofites.

 

[chichimom79]

I think the Kessils are your best bet, especially for their record on the coral growth achieved with their lights. I have a Kessil A350 above my 60 cube and I love it. I have an older model Rapid LED PAR38 on my ten gallon with so so results. Plus, you dont have to worry about what fixture to put the bulbs into with the Kessil. Its all in one piece and easy to hang. Good luck!!

 

[texreefer]

Hi lads thanks for a quick and thankfully friendly reply..
See living in the UK we are not called rip off Britain for nothing lol.


Regarding the Par 38's they are not cree led's and i have been told the best leds are cree anything else is useless. the ones i found use a bulb called quadspec and have the following led colours .

6 royal blue , 4 cool white , 1 warm white and 1 Fiji pruple all 3 watts each. and have 60 degree lens .
the reason i looked at the Kessil is purely price .. i know it sounds crazy but by the time i bought 2 of the par38's i am already looking at £159.98 - $258 before delivery. if i bought 3 of the par38 i am looking at £239.97 - $388. so the Kessil would work out cheaper as i would also get free delivery from the store , where as the store selling the par38 would be an other $30 delivery.

I already started buying the Par 38 light fittings a few months back when i was originally told Par38 is ample for my new tank. but i ran into problems as the store ran out of the fittings and i could not source a store to make me a custom bracket for the par38 to clamp onto . as i am using photography lighting fittings which are the same fitting as par38, but i had since solved that issue. as i was going to buy photography light rigging and adapt them to go above the tank ( problem solved ).

i guess the advantage with Par38 i can buy a bulb at a time.
I know a few people who bought Par38 bulbs from the states before they were popular in the UK but because of the prices when they arrived in the UK they were charged import tax and VAT and then charged extra by the delivery company . in the end it cost them a total off $1380 for 4 bulbs lol.

Just because an LED is made by CREE, doesn't mean it is any better than the rest. I am using Phillips Rebel ES LED's in mine and I couldnt be happier. My concern with the single Kessil will be the light spread. Will it cover the entire tank, or will you end up with dark corners ? By using the PAR38's you will have the ability to spread the light across the entire tank. I would start with 2 and see how it looks , if it is ok then leave it, if you want better blending of the light then add the third. I would stay in the 60* optic range though, any tighter and you run the risk of having that "spotlight" look and may fry a few coral. The color combo that you listed above sounds like a nice light and should give you great results.

 

[Scots_art]

i had a look at one of the sites you mentioned Tex and i just spoke with a friend who said if he ever gets anything from America or Canada he gets relations / friends to buy the items and ship them as "" gifts "" and put a cheaper price on the box than what it actually cost. and when you pay your friend or relation back you do so a few months later so it does not look like you got them to buy it for you.

But with you saying the par38 i mentioned sounding good i may go back to them.


chichimom79 i have seen loads of videos of the Kessil A150W and thought wow bright , fantastic just what i want . but then i came across a few videos that show people are not happy at all with them and needing 2 or more above tanks 2ft or more.
a video i watched before joining the forum showed that the A150w was actually pretty dim . but other videos i seen showed the opposite and they were bright.

I had seen a picture of A150w used on a 3x2 tank and the single light was filling the entire tank apart from the very upper corners at the surface on left and right side . but that would not bother me as its just water lol. and the back of my tank will be black.
not really worried about fittings as i can get them fairly easily , its just making a support strong enough to support 2 or 3 par 38 bulbs . a few local stores said they could make one to exact sizes but it would cost £171...$278. just for bent metal.
but i can do it my self just buy buying a photography light fitting for £20 - $32 lol.

See an other thing that is making me laugh ( thats a good thing ) as i was starting to give my self a headache before i joined here ....
here in the UK on forums all you read and get told is "" the Americans are using cree they have stopped using trash , and its all cree cree cree .

 

[Northstar24]

The Kessil 350 and the 150 are totally different, you may need more than 1 150 to get proper coverage, but 1 350 tuna blue would be more than sufficient

As far as Cree LEDs go, they may not necessarily be the 'best' but they have a proven track record, more so than some of the other makers of led. Phillips and Bridgelux are also options

 

[Scots_art]

North the Kessil 350 is far to expensive in the UK , well for my budget. it comes to over $600 compared to the A150w at $339.

as for getting full tank coverage i am not 100% bothered if i do not get that , as the corals will only be on the rock work and the odd one or 2 on the sand bed next to the rock , the rest of the space is open sand bed and open water . the tank is not 100% 2ft x 1.5ft x1ft . at the right side of the tank i have a bit at an angle then it is straight again.

But the best is yet to come , as the person who is supposed to be building the tank has not got back to me with a final price , a friend who is in the Aquatics business said he could get the tank built for me less than £100 ( $161 ) but delivery from his business to me would cost £285 ( $460 ) and hes in the UK lol.

 

[Scots_art]

Tex , thank you for the pm. i tried replying back but did not notice i am now allowed to send pm's back just yet . i need a post count of 10 first.

 

[Cheeser]

U should look into the eco ray 60dx

 

[Scots_art]

Nice light that Cheeser, but it is not available in the UK and to import it would cost to much once the UK government realise its entered the UK.
i would be whacked import tax and 20% VAT , then the delivery company would charge me extra.
having a quick search at prices, in total to import one from America to me would cost just shy of $1000 for lighting and all the extra fees.

the onlyway to get something from the states into the UK without all the extras ( or a lesser chance ) is have something bought and shipped marked "" gift "".
so i have been told by a lot of people who buy from the states all the time lol.

 

[bjohanson1234]

have you thought about building your own LED system? Might be less expensive given that the fixtures aren't available in your country and to import them would cost a boat load.

Look here and see if you could get these parts locally or from a site that is based in Scotland.

Rapid LED


For what its worth, after some research, I opted for a kessil A150 over my tank. It is 30" long by 12" deep x 18" tall. I am getting it for Christmas so not sure how it will look(IE dead spots), but they are supposed to have a 2'x2' lighting area. Once I get it installed, I will post some picks of how it looks.

 

[Scots_art]

DIY is not an option as you would hear the bang from there , and it works out far more expensive here in the UK to make your own rather than buy ready made.

all LED's that are bought for diy come from America or cheap Chinese led's.

 

[Scots_art]

one guy just made an order for led's so he can make his own and in total its cost him $975 so far and thats before its hung above the tank.

thats leds, heat sink , fans , framing , silicone , acrylic sheet , wire hanging kit , plug and other fittings etc.