Rapid Leds thoughts?

[migs671]

hey guys planning on buying a 12 led DIY soderless dimmable kit

 

what are you guys thoughts about this product??

 

heres the link if you guys want to check it out

 

 

http://www.rapidled.com/12-led-plug-n-play-retrofit-kit-dimmable/

[specore]

hey guys planning on buying a 12 led DIY soderless dimmable kit

 

what are you guys thoughts about this product??

 

heres the link if you guys want to check it out

 

 

http://www.rapidled.com/12-led-plug-n-play-retrofit-kit-dimmable/

 

 

I bought a solderless kit from Rapid LED and wish had just soldered them myself. Mine are mounted in the hood of my JBJ 28g and about once a month one of the connections gets loose forcing my to take everything appart to find and repair the loose connection.

[duncan-junkie]

I love my Rapid LED kit!!! Solderless was easier, since I had no experience with solder. But if I had to do it all over again, I would solder my own.....I felt like the wires weren't long enough, and Ive had the problem of a wire coming lose. All in all, its a great product.....and the price is reasonable! My corals love the new light, I can keep sps and clams with no problem, and the shimmer is amazing. I've also cut my electric bill down by 1/3!

[migs671]

I love my Rapid LED kit!!! Solderless was easier, since I had no experience with solder. But if I had to do it all over again, I would solder my own.....I felt like the wires weren't long enough, and Ive had the problem of a wire coming lose. All in all, its a great product.....and the price is reasonable! My corals love the new light, I can keep sps and clams with no problem, and the shimmer is amazing. I've also cut my electric bill down by 1/3!

which kit did you go with?

 

any pictures?

[duncan-junkie]

which kit did you go with?

 

any pictures?

I went with their Solderless 24 LED Kit over a 29gal BC. I don't have pics of the fixture, there too bright for my cam and it comes out all jacked.

[Reefnator]

Check out the LED Group buy 3-ups (1 neutral white and 2 royal blues) I did a retrofit on my JBJ 28 intermediate. I soldered mine and used 3 channels on the makers controler to balance the colors how I like. I see the 3-ups come in solderless also now. If you decide to solder you should have some soldering exsperience and tin the wires and the pads as you will be soldering 6 wires to a single star. You can also use the single heat sink that rapid led sells and mount it with a "L" bracket between the fans on each side. gets some more light out to the sides. It looks great and the corals love it.

[AZReefJunkie]

You really shouldn't be intimidated by soldering. It's very easy and there are plenty of videos on YouTube that can walk you through everything.

[Scranton]

I built a set of Rapid LEDs soldered, dimmable... just hooked them into an apex after a year of turning knobs... they are amazing. I have 3 reefing friends locally one with T5s, one with Phantom LEDs and my rapid leds beat them all with coral growth and color. I wouldn't hesitate to build a set and as for learning to solder... youtube is great. My one piece of advice Don't mount the LEDs first. cut the wire to size, solder it to the LED and then mount it. After they have been mounted to a heatsink all the heat of course goes into that and you cannot get a good clean solder joint.

[fitMINT]

I bought the retrofit kit for my biocube 8. It was solder less, and puts out TONS of light. Sometimes I think it's too much light, mine isn't dim able. But my corals are growing fast so I guess it's working well. I would say the color isn't that great, I'm actually thinking of adding one of those ecoexotic actinic strips to supplement color. Even with 5 royal blue and 4 neutral white it's like all white. I brought an orange ricordea home from the lfs and it's never been anything but blue/light purple under my lights.

 

And I have to be honest, but I thought the craftsmanship sucks. The kit is a reasonable price, but some of my wires were barely long enough to connect to other LEDs. The countersinks didn't match the supplied screws for the heat sink, and they only gave me 2 "twist style" electrical wire connectors for the driver. (Still need to connect the wall plug though) Even the screws used to fasten the LEDs was a countersunk screw. What sense does that make? Also, the instructions, if you find some close to your app, are pretty poor. Not sure if I would buy again to be honest.

[ifarmer]

premade led fixture are a lot cheaper these days.

DIY parts aren't cheap, the wiring is not good and the looks is bad.

resale value is next to nothing.

There are many nice LED available these days at affordable price, I would not suggest the DIY route these days

good luck

[bdevillier19]

I'm going the day route with a t5/led hybrid fixture. If I were to buy a commercial fixture I'd be looking at least double. The nice thing about diy is that if I change tanks I can reconfigure the light. If better LEDs come out I can swap them. With commercial fixtures they sucker you into buying the latest and greatest every year. The only problem is that what they call the latest and greatest had been in the diy scene for at least 2 years. Why would I buy a gen3 radion pro that still uses cool whites? Just don't make sense.

[Bobyboy]

I have a custom DIY dimmable setup running 24 LEDS on 2 drivers.

The thing I like the most about the solderless is being able to swap out LEDs in a matter of seconds.

 

I had 12 white and 12 blue when I first did the setup and the blue was way OP, now I'm running 14 white 9 blue and 1 Red/Magenta and I can't be happier. I had a wire come loose while I was hanging it the first time and stuck it back in and never again. But I can see it being a more common problem in a hood that is being moved/lifted up on a regular basis.

 

Good luck and I recommend Ordering a couple extra of each color so you can get it to your liking and try out a single red/magenta/UV and see if you like it.

[fitMINT]

^^^^^ this is a good idea, i thought about calling rapid led to see how many extra less my driver can handle. then i would just buy one or 2 more blue less and maybe a red one swell and drill and tap the heat skink myself and just wire them up.

 

i have 1 blue centered in the middle of my heatsink, wonder what changes replacing it with a red/magenta one would do? they're so cheap, its worth a shot for sure.

[Bobyboy]

You wouldn't have to drill/tap or add extra's unless you really need it.

Just swap out an existing one with another color.

[fitMINT]

You wouldn't have to drill/tap or add extra's unless you really need it.

Just swap out an existing one with another color.

 

if i was going to add leds i would add colored ones. i have a biocube 8 and my kit came with 9 leds, 3 rows of 3. 4 white and 5 blue. but the tank doesn't have much color, I've always thought the whites were too strong and maybe overpowering the blue. if i were to just replace my existing whites with some different colors wouldn't it throw the lighting balance off in my tank? the blues are in an x formation, whites in a diamond. i thought of just replacing the blue that is dead center with a red or uv or something.

[Bobyboy]

 

if i was going to add leds i would add colored ones. i have a biocube 8 and my kit came with 9 leds, 3 rows of 3. 4 white and 5 blue. but the tank doesn't have much color, I've always thought the whites were too strong and maybe overpowering the blue. if i were to just replace my existing whites with some different colors wouldn't it throw the lighting balance off in my tank? the blues are in an x formation, whites in a diamond. i thought of just replacing the blue that is dead center with a red or uv or something.

Exactly, if you think the whites are OP select one or 2 and swap them out and just play around with the locations of the new LED until you find something you like.

[holdorf333]

fwiw i've purchased from them twice in the past and they have been great to work with