Need all the expert led guys knowledge. Higher watt led ?

[Mhayes462]

Can you use 5,10,20,30 watt (and so on) LEDs instead of the normal 3watt on a diy build? What would be reasons you would not want too? Maybe too much light in one spot? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[smai-tai]

Can you use 5,10,20,30 watt (and so on) LEDs instead of the normal 3watt on a diy build? What would be reasons you would not want too? Maybe too much light in one spot? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

There is a 5,10,20,30 watt LED? I think that when you see those wattages, it is comprised of a few LED's not one single LED. In which case, yes use the 3 watt LED's. Just do your research first on the brand and info on them.

[gabe_j]

i don't because of heat/stability issues. you can get much more effiect light from leds at 3 watts than at 100 watts.and the colors aren't as developed in those higher wattage bulbs. imo.

[C.I._Reefer]

i don't because of heat/stability issues. you can get much more effiect light from leds at 3 watts than at 100 watts.and the colors aren't as developed in those higher wattage bulbs. imo.

 

yathis^

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

i don't because of heat/stability issues. you can get much more effiect light from leds at 3 watts than at 100 watts.and the colors aren't as developed in those higher wattage bulbs. imo.

 

+1

[smai-tai]

+1

 

There is such thing as a single 100W LED? I was unaware of this.

[lizardfish]

i have seen up to 200 watt led.

 

advantage: single point light source giving the look of a metal halide .

 

disadvantage: 50 lumens a watt compared to 120 lumens a watt for 3 watt leds. so half the light for the same cost of electricity.

 

your better off putting a bunch of different color 3watt leds in a cluster that way you can have perfect spectrum

[smai-tai]

i have seen up to 200 watt led.

 

advantage: single point light source giving the look of a metal halide .

 

disadvantage: 50 lumens a watt compared to 120 lumens a watt for 3 watt leds. so half the light for the same cost of electricity.

 

your better off putting a bunch of different color 3watt leds in a cluster that way you can have perfect spectrum

 

Was it a 100W LED fixture or a 100W LED?

[Mhayes462]

Yes there are bigger LEDs, not fixture. Thanks for the replies, it's somewhat what I wanted. But I'm not really interested in using that big of one. So my question now is, why not 12x5watt or 6x10watt instead of 20x3watt?

[C.I._Reefer]

Because the good manufactures that make LEDs in the true/proper spectrum for our hobby make 3w LEDs. Also heat, as well as light blend, as well as the longevity of the LED. I get what you are saying but there are lots of reasons. If Cree made 8w LEDS that were more efficient than 3w and proven in the hobby over time, we would probably use them.

[ReeferReefer]

3w has more support in hobby, that alone justifies it.

Everyone uses it because of the versitility and reliability.

[lizardfish]

same thing with 6x10 watts 70LPW (lumans per watt) compaired to 100-130 lpw with cree,

 

there is a cree 9 watt its one star wit 3 3watt leds on it but its the same size as a normal 3watt cree 3up star

how big is your reef? what are you keeping? you would only need 2 of these to light a 10g with lps and sofitys 3-4 for sps

[lizardfish]

check these out 100lpw when driven to 10 watts 10 watt cree they need to be driven to 2400 mA to get them to 10 watts yet there the same size as a 3 watt (btw "3 watt leds are cant be called that cuz the can be driven at 1 watt for high lpw or 4-10 watts for higher total lumens at the cost of lower lpw)

[daniel_sweden]

Can you use 5,10,20,30 watt (and so on) LEDs instead of the normal 3watt on a diy build? What would be reasons you would not want too? Maybe too much light in one spot? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

There is an swedish reefer that have done several builds with 5, 10 and 30 w leds with lots of details, pictures and also par-readings in his extensive build thread on the swedish reef site www.saltvattensguiden.se. He also uses a dimmable controller/driver with 16 channels designed by another reefer on that forum.

 

The thread is all in swedish. However, there is lots of build details in pictures and many comparison pictures of different light setups as well as ordinary tank shots. There is also a lot of tables measuring PAR, pH over time indicating photsynthesis, and energy efficiency of the setup that might be understandable regardless of language.

 

If you have some specific question I think it would be no problem to ask them english in his thread.

 

The first pages shows a build with 10 and 30w leds.

 

The last two pages (pp 8-9) details his last addition to his tank: another 10x10w (2 rb, 4 16000K, 4 20000K. all off ebay I think) + 10x3w cree rb.

 

You can see some par readings in the pictures and also tank shots. About PAR 200 at bottom of tank, 450 liters.

 

http://www.saltvattensguiden.se/forumet/sh...-LED-ramp/page9

 

You might have to register to see the images?

[Mhayes462]

I have a 29g biocube and I'm going to do a fixture for it. I want to be able to keep anything I want in it. In researching everything, I kept coming across all these bigger LEDs and wondered why not just use fewer of those to get the same wattage? I knew there was probably a reason, I just like to learn all I can.

[maglofster]

I have also built a DIY LED using similar LEDs as Daniel mentions in this thread.

 

 

I use 2x50W (10000k) and 20x10W (16000k) LEDs for a 90 gallon tank. The 20x10W are dialed down to about 150W total. I have mainly SPS.

[gabe_j]

nice work man!

 

also i was going to say i do use some of the xm-l which if driven to max are technically 10watt leds. and at 10 watts your spec'ing around 1000 lumens so you could get by with reletively few of them over a smaller tank.

 

i'm debating weather or not i'm going to build a light for my 40 and instead of using 36 leds (@ 117 watts max). i'll only use 3 xm-l and 15 rb and see what kind of output i get. i will use other exotic colors provided by led group buy for the fine tuning but i'll post pictures if you interested.

[Mhayes462]

Yeah, I'm interested to see how that build would do. Maglofster, awesome tank man. Looks great, and by the look of your corals the LEDs work great for you. What brand did you use, and do you use optics on them?

[maglofster]

What brand did you use, and do you use optics on them?

 

I bought them from Hong Kong, from an Ebay shop. Don't know if it's okay to link to them here, but I have the adress. Send me a PM. I do not use any optics.