Re: [APD] LED's as a light source.

["Richard J. Sexton" <richard at aquaria_net>]

At 01:39 PM 5/14/2005 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>A friend of mine is heavily into his LED's and they do seem rather
>bright, especially the luxeon star variety.  I was wondering if anyone
>has play with technology such as the following:
>
>http://shop.dotlight.de/shop/product_info.php/cPath/87/products_id/223
>
>I always thought that LEDs would make a great way of providing low cost
>bright lighting but I am concerned about the temperature that the LEDs
>get to, i.e. 70+C.  Also anyone whos good at working with lumens etc
>could maybe advise on the light output of these things as im a bit of an
>ameateur in these areas.
>
>If push comes to shove ill maybe buy a few sets of these in the near
>future and do some tests, im sure ive got a light meter around here
>somewhere.
>

There's an article on the web someplace where somebody ran a test
in two identical tanks, one with 13W of compact fluorescent and one
with 13W of 3W luxeon stars. The LED tank did ever-so-slightly
better, but the 3W ones are fabulously expensive (About $46 USD ea).

OTOH I've seen ads on ebay for 3W leds in flashlights for $9.99 out
of Hong Kong. 

I'm planning to try this sometime this year but I'm not quite there yet;
a betta bolw fell on my small tank I was going to do this with and broke
a pane and I haven't fixed it yet. 

http://images.aquaria.net/tanks/rjs/flw2/leak_test/

Not pictured here is a shelf right above it with a bunch 
of bettas in square jars. Turns out if you stack them two high and
open and close my door enough, they will fall down and go boom.

Mrs. green bettas survived this extra-aquatic adventure in the
depts of my cupboards but alas the tank itself lost a rear
panel. I consider it lucky it was only one panel and an
easy square one, the triangular ones are buggers to cut.

Ironically I'd just replaced that panel as I did a lousy
job of making it 10 years ago and it always leaked a bit.

Anyway, If you look on ebay there's lots and
lots of LEDs available, you just have to wire them up and stick them
in an enclosure. I expect them to be a big deal in aquarium lighting
in the future, but the price needs to drop. Being semiconducters I'm
hoping that will happen.



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