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50w LED Spotlights, anyone using these?


AquaticEngineer

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I was wondering if you still have this light going? I was looking at some hp leds for my tank. Was this a success? Or better off looking elsewhere?

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AquaticEngineer
I was wondering if you still have this light going? I was looking at some hp leds for my tank. Was this a success? Or better off looking elsewhere?

 

Yup still got it going. I burned up the first one because my fan ( shouldn't have gone with a used heatsink/fan combo) stopped working and it overheated the LED chip.

 

I rebuilt it not long ago and added a thermal switch onto the heatsink so that if the temp goes over 130F (the light runs much cooler than that, right around 119F) it kills power to the entire unit. Pretty good investment for $3, lol. Since then its ran perfect.

 

I get the light output of a 250w halide at 1/5 the power usage. Its actually to much light for my 200 gallon coldwater NPS tank and I'm getting some brown diatoms. I'm going to take it down and replace it with a 12w dimmable par38 bulb and use the 50w LED over my coldwater seagrass tank when I get it finished. The seagrass will love the lower kelvin of that light and there will be no heat added to the system from the 50w LED since I can slim up the optics and mount it about 4 ft off the tank.

 

I guess it all depends on your application of the light. In my case I was looking for a single point light that would have high output and very little heat for my coldwater systems. Basically I was looking for a replacement light for a metal halide. These lights work great over cubes, or if you like having lots of shadows in the tank ( I do ) then they work over longer tanks. If you are looking for total light coverage for a large reef tank, then it becomes a little less cost efficient vs a large array of LEDs.

 

Mostly I just wanted to make one to say I did it, and to have a cheaper alternative than a wasteful metal halide :D Hell, I just put LED headlights in my kids power wheels just for the hell of it :lol:

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Thanks for the info. I'm kinda torn between doing 2 20 or 30 watt leds with some royal blues or a new led set-up over my 37 tall. The tank is 25" deep and the par30s aren't making me too excited.

 

That power wheels has got to be the best hoopty on the block.

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AquaticEngineer
That power wheels has got to be the best hoopty on the block.

 

Just wait until the painted Nerf Vulcan gets mounted on the passengers side of the role bar B)

 

The-Ultimate-Nerf-Vulcan-Mod.jpg

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