hello everyone, I'm at it again. I recently shut down my ADA 60H reef and will be turning it to a planted tank. THe light I had was meant for a reef so I sold it and decided to try out the makersled kit that they sell at ledgroupbuy. After seeing theblondskeleton's post, it made me really want to try it out.
I picked it up from LEDGroupBuy along with a bunch of their LEDs.
I also picked up a few LEDs and other knickknacks from rapidled.com
I'm running
12 cree xt-e neutral white
8 cree xt-e royal blue
2 philips rebel cyan's
2 ocean coral whites from ledgroupbuy (has a red, blue and cyan)
These are running off 2 inventronics 700ma drivers and they can be dimmed.
With 60degree optics on the whites, and at the height I plan to hang the light, I can hit as low as 20 umol of par up to 120umol depending on how high I turn the light on.
This whole project has been a real pain in the butt, I went cheap and bought crappy drivers from aquastyleonline and they blew out super quick, and took a few LEDs with them, it actually happened twice! I should've just gone w/ the inventronics to begin with, they ended up costing the same after ridiculous shipping from China.
Anyways, on to the pics
Initial LED layout, 4 more LEDs would eventually be added. I learned from the light I built my GF and by looking at the commercial fixtures like the AI Sol and Ecotech Radion that having a lot of leds closely grouped together allows for better color mixing and gives you the ability to fine tune the exact spectrum of light. You end up using a lot more LEDs but it gives you a nicer look in the end IMO.
![Image]()
First test
![Image]()
and completed!
![Image]()
I plan to hang this light from a metal light pole so I drilled holes into the heat sink and hooked on some keychain rings to hold the hooks I'll be using.
![Image]()
Overall, the kit itself is very nicely put together, fit and finish are great. I ended up spending way over my budget due to the crap drivers and blowing out 8 LEDs but it was a good learning experience. However, if I knew I was going to drop this much money, I would've just bought the new AI Vega Color or the Ecotech Radion and have all the controllability and programability too. Oh well.
Thanks for reading!
I picked it up from LEDGroupBuy along with a bunch of their LEDs.
I also picked up a few LEDs and other knickknacks from rapidled.com
I'm running
12 cree xt-e neutral white
8 cree xt-e royal blue
2 philips rebel cyan's
2 ocean coral whites from ledgroupbuy (has a red, blue and cyan)
These are running off 2 inventronics 700ma drivers and they can be dimmed.
With 60degree optics on the whites, and at the height I plan to hang the light, I can hit as low as 20 umol of par up to 120umol depending on how high I turn the light on.
This whole project has been a real pain in the butt, I went cheap and bought crappy drivers from aquastyleonline and they blew out super quick, and took a few LEDs with them, it actually happened twice! I should've just gone w/ the inventronics to begin with, they ended up costing the same after ridiculous shipping from China.
Anyways, on to the pics
Initial LED layout, 4 more LEDs would eventually be added. I learned from the light I built my GF and by looking at the commercial fixtures like the AI Sol and Ecotech Radion that having a lot of leds closely grouped together allows for better color mixing and gives you the ability to fine tune the exact spectrum of light. You end up using a lot more LEDs but it gives you a nicer look in the end IMO.
First test
and completed!
I plan to hang this light from a metal light pole so I drilled holes into the heat sink and hooked on some keychain rings to hold the hooks I'll be using.
Overall, the kit itself is very nicely put together, fit and finish are great. I ended up spending way over my budget due to the crap drivers and blowing out 8 LEDs but it was a good learning experience. However, if I knew I was going to drop this much money, I would've just bought the new AI Vega Color or the Ecotech Radion and have all the controllability and programability too. Oh well.
Thanks for reading!
