Re: [APD] LED Lights

[Jerry Smith <jerrytheplater at hotmail_com>]

Richard
A member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club has been making LED lights using CREE LED's for a few years. He has a few illustrated step by steps in his blog if you are interested. They are in the order in which he built them. Very good reading.
CREE XR-E Q5 for a 55 gallon http://aquariums.seaspraydesigns.biz/diy-projects/diy-high-power-led-aquarium-lighting-part-i/ It is in 5 parts. CREE XP-G R5 for 200 gallon http://aquariums.seaspraydesigns.biz/my-200-gallon-tank/diy-cree-xp-g-r5-led-aquarium-light-part-i/ It is in 3 parts.
CREE XP-G R5 for a 34 gallon cube  http://aquariums.seaspraydesigns.biz/34-gallon-cube-aquarium/cree-xp-g-r5-diy-led-aquarium-light-34-gallon-cube/ One part only. CREE XM-L (T6) for a 75 gal http://aquariums.seaspraydesigns.biz/my-75-gallon-tank/cree-xm-l-t6-diy-led-aquarium-light/cree-xm-l-diy-high-powered-led-aquarium-light/ See the following update as he had some LED's burnout in this fixture and modified it as posted in his update
CREE XM-L (T6) Update http://aquariums.seaspraydesigns.biz/diy-projects/my-75-gallon-diy-led-cree-xm-l-t6-update/ 
I have seen his tanks personally and can say I am highly impressed with the lighting. You can see the shimmer effect on the bottom due to the water ripples, just like sunlight or MH. Ken ended up reducing the power input to his LED's because they were too bright and his Crypts were growing horizontally and hugging the bottom. 
He is currently building one using two different light color temperatures: warm white and cool white. There will be two power supplies for each color temperature with two dimmers so the intensity of each color temperature can be varied to suit the observer.
Jerry SmithBloomingdale, NJ
> Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2013 12:27:24 -0500
> From: "Richard Wickboldt" <plants at wickboldt_com>
> Subject: [APD] LED Lights

> 
> Hello all and Happy New Year.  I am presently reviewing my light systems for
> my two heavily planted fish tanks.  I presently use Coralife T5 HO strip
> fixtures for a 2 - 3 watt/gallon environment.  This has worked well for me
> for many years.   Except it seems the fixtures fail too often.   Seems the
> transformers just don't last very long.  So with LED technology around these
> days; I was wondering if it is a viable choice for the keeping of plants.
> Does anybody have any thoughts and/or suggestions on LED lights for keeping
> a healthy planted tank.  Does anybody use LED systems? They seem so
> expensive also.
> 
>     Richard Wickboldt
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