Retrofit LEDs?

Gdbyrd

Gdbyrd

life's a beach
Anyone ever heard of these guys?:
Rapid LED Home Page

I'm seriously considering ordering the 79$ kit to try out on a 10g. Do you think it'll be enough light? I looked around and didn't really find anyone using them..but it looks like a pretty nice, entry level price. They have the power source and LEDS for sale too..I wonder if 3 LED"s would be enough for low light coral in a 10g....Hmm..

If no one has any experience I might just go with it to try it out. Having a semi-hard time finding lights that'll fit a 10g tank anyhow(at least ones for under $100).
 
Bifferwine said:
3 LEDs for a 10 gallon? As in 3 bulbs total?
Click to expand...

The kit comes with 6 bulbs. That's what I'm looking at. I'm mentioning the 3 bulbs and power source as an option.

I'm not very experiences with these lights, but I've read they are supposed to put out a lot of PAR. You can get lenses with them to spread the light out more, and honestly..a 10g isn't that big.
 
I emailed the company tonight. See what they say. Gave them the size of the tank and asked for a recommendation on which kit, also asked for a comparison on intensity level...and asked what lens they recommend.
 
I have looked and looked but cannot tell what the wattage comparison is. Are they emailing you that information? You will need the equivalent of approximately 40 watts.
 
dcantucson said:
Only Catherine is allowed to keep Penis Corals. Get in touch with her and see if she can get you a little one. :shock:
Click to expand...

Had to say a little one....IC how it is.....Always below the belt.

I believe the LEDs are 3w. So for a 10g I would need 13 of them, is that correct?

40w of LED is equivalent to what though? And is 40w for low light coral like I want to keep?

I think if I'm going to have to spend 150, I'd rather go with something I know will work than just try something out.
 
13 would be about but it also depends on the spectrum of them. You'll have to ask them about what the specs are and what they recommend of soft corals.

I think you'd be better off with more conventional lighting. I have had LEDs before and they were not as effective for my reef.
 
Thanks for the advice. Ill forgive you for talking little about my penis. I might put it off. I just wish I could find a nice alternative that was around that price. I'm kinda considering the 150w mh with t5 from aquatraders now. But I'm afraid it'll be too much light. What I really want to do is get a light for 50 to 75 bucks. The way I want to setup my frag tank I will need two sets of lights. I was going to buy pcs from aqua, but they are sold out on most of the sizes. I don't think I could tank mount a 24" onto a 20" tank. There's also the idea of fishneedit.....but they don't have the most amazing reviews either.
 
150 watts MH would be over kill. 80 watts max is the most you need but could get by with 40 watts for soft corals.

Doesn't aquatraders have something smaller?
 
Can you tank mount 24" lights on a 20" tank?

Biff, I really need tank mounted. Who makes your mh though? I haven't seen too many 70w lights.
 
Thanks Ted. That may work out. I'm still trying to find out if those 24" lights from aquatraders can adjust to fit on a 20" tank.

Meanwhile, I got this email from the guys at that LED company:

Hi Garett,

Thanks for the email.

For a 10g reef tank I'd suggest looking into our 6 or 12 LED kits, depending on what you have inside and whether or not you'll be using lenses. At this size, the only lens that would make sense would be the 80 degree ones, otherwise we can take the lenses out of the kit and you can go without them (FYI, the lenses will make the light more intense).

It's hard to compare MH vs T5's vs LEDs. Everybody does it a little differently, and there's really no scientific way to do so. Some people look at LEDs per gallon, while others believe LEDs per square foot is the better approach. With this size tank I've seen people go with 6-12 LEDs, and all of them have had positive experiences so it's hard to say exactly what works. I'd say start with 6 or 9 LEDs and if you don't think that's enough then you can always add more on later. The good think about DIY projects like this is the flexibility it gives you. Also, our drivers can drive up to 13 LEDs so the incremental cost isn't too bad from 6 to 12 LEDs.

If you have any other questions let me know. I'm sorry if I'm being a bit vague but some of these things are more art than science at this point.

Thanks,
Mike
Rapid LED

Garett Byrd wrote:
> Looking into getting one of your kits to try on a 10g reef tank. I just wanted to ask you what you recommended. I have no idea what I'm doing with LED's, but I thought it might be worthwhile to try it out on something small, so if it doesn't work out I won't have spent a lot of money.
>
> What are the equivalent in terms of lighting with say a 6 bulb kit. Intensity wise. Like comparing T5HO with MH...both same wattage, but MH is more inense.
>
> Whta lenses would you recommend?
>
Click to expand...
 
Gdbyrd said:
Thanks Ted. That may work out. I'm still trying to find out if those 24" lights from aquatraders can adjust to fit on a 20" tank.

Meanwhile, I got this email from the guys at that LED company:
Click to expand...

Crees are a solid LED technology. That being said, I think you'll need a significantly larger amount of power to grow out even leathers.
 
dcantucson said:
How about something like this:

JBJ K-2 Viper HQI Clamp on Lamp Lighting Fixture
Click to expand...
I had thought about getting one of those from jbj nano cubes. The price there is a little better however it is still a lot more expensive then what I have now. My contest tank has zoahs shrooms and lps in it, everything seems to be doing pretty well even though it is only 4 watts per gallon. One thing you have to remember when deciding on lights is the tank depth. A normal 10 gallon tank is not very deep so you can get away with less wattage. In addition I dont have to worry about the heating issues of mh lighting. As far as if the aqua traders light will fit on a 20 inch tank. I dont think it will, I have gotten two lights from them with the provided legs. There is a way to mount the legs so they bend back in however I found that it did not provide a very stable platform. Of course I tried this on my bigger tank and it is a corner tank so the configuration was way out of wack. I ended up hanging my mh light because of that.
 

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