led light 60" long under $500 possible???

[j-gens]

is it feasible to think i will be able to build an led light system for a 60" tank for lets say under $500

[Hoppy]

It is possible, but the resulting light isn't likely to be enough to grow plants. My roughly 24 inch long fixture cost me about $200, and I did it about as cheaply as is possible, making my own simple driver circuit. Following that pattern you might be able to make a 5 foot fixture for just about $500, but you would likely be much happier, much sooner, if you used buckpuck type drivers, which add a lot to the cost for big fixtures.

[j-gens]

is this the kind of driver you made?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Supe...er-LED-driver/

whats going to be the advantage of the buckpuck driver?

dimming capabilities?
also what are these 10watt leds that i am seeing on ebay... is that the same thing as the high power led?
http://cgi.ebay.com/1PCS-10WATT-high...item3ef9afcedf

[Wasserpest]

Something like this

http://www.ledsupply.com/06007.php

might come close. Still too expensive, but I can see ready-to-use strips like this fall more in price and then it will get affordable for larger tanks.

If you get 6 of those and space them out over your tank it might work. But that will be more than $500, doesn't include the power supply yet, and who knows how long they last.

Right now T5 lights just make more sense, financially speaking. Couple of years down the road I am sure LEDs will replace them.

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by j-gens

is this the kind of driver you made?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Supe...er-LED-driver/

whats going to be the advantage of the buckpuck driver?

dimming capabilities?
also what are these 10watt leds that i am seeing on ebay... is that the same thing as the high power led?
http://cgi.ebay.com/1PCS-10WATT-high...item3ef9afcedf

Yes, that is the same circuit I used, I think. The difficulty comes from having to handle, mount (electrically isolated, but thermally connected to the heat sink) and get the correct resistors to achieve the current you want for a series of LEDs to match your power supply. The advanage of the buck puck drivers is they are plug and play devices, even though you still have to figure out how to use them for multiple LEDs.

As far as I know the 10 watt LEDs are just 3 x 3 watt junctions mounted on one star heat sink. That puts them close enough together to treat them as a single light source. If you are lighting an unusually deep tank they could be an advantage, but not otherwise.

I agree with Wasserpest that LED lights aren't economical yet, compared to T5HO, but if you build your own, using less than the highest output LEDs, and using DIY drivers, you can still make a light fixture that isn't many times more expensive than T5HO fixtures. I'm very happy with mine.

[davocean]

I've been using an LED fixture on my reeftank for about 5 months now as part of a beta test, and I'm pretty impressed.
The same Co is working on a FW LED system.
Right now the issue seems to be obtaining penetration at greater depths, and not having the spotlight effect that the higher watt/power LEDs produce, but it's only a matter of time.
I'll tell ya, one cool thing about these is the lack of heat added to my tank, sure is nice running w/out a chiller.