hockeyhead019 Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Hey everybody, I was just wondering what the advantages of each are. From the at I see it the commercial ones usually have a better finished quality (mostly in the looks department) as well as more preprogrammed modes ie storm mode and clouds rolling by and the like. DIY seems to be more customizable and you have more options of combinations, I guess I want to know if people think it's worth it to DIY vs get a commercial unit. Link to comment
Mojado Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 DIY has very little resale value. If you can swing the coin, I'd get an off the shelf unit. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 DIY is absolute control of everything. The quality of every part in there is as good as your willingness to invest in it. As far as cleanliness goes that is up to how much work you want to put into the light. Off the shelf units are plug and play but you must use their components. Deviation from their components voids the warranty. DIY also requires basic skill in small electrical work. Link to comment
Addinali Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 get a maxspect razor great looking light with a great spectrum and soon to be able to be controlled by bluefish. thats the way I would go. Or everyones favorite Nanobox. Link to comment
hockeyhead019 Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Yeah I just saw recommendations for the nanobox but that little sucker is expensive. I have the soldering and electrical know how to make one I just don't have the finishing skills lol Link to comment
gus6464 Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 DIY has very little resale value. If you can swing the coin, I'd get an off the shelf unit. Not if he does a good DIY like an ATI Sunpower/Nanobox retro. Link to comment
D Z Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Not if he does a good DIY like an ATI Sunpower/Nanobox retro. +1...thats what I'm doing. Link to comment
hockeyhead019 Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 +1...thats what I'm doing. That seems like a crazy expensive option lol ~250 for an ATI fixture and then plus the 250 or whatever nanobox wanted for the retro kit?? I was trying to keep this project in the low 300's at max Link to comment
Horerczy Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 I picked up an eBay t5 unit and gutted it to make an led fixture once. Finishing is all about individual tastes. Link to comment
D Z Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 That seems like a crazy expensive option lol ~250 for an ATI fixture and then plus the 250 or whatever nanobox wanted for the retro kit?? I was trying to keep this project in the low 300's at max Yeah.....but it will be the best light you could possibly put over your tank.(obviously I am a little biased.) You could do it how I did. I found a used ATI fixture that was in good shape with fairly new bulbs. I found one for $220 shipped. Then I ran it just T5 for a while until I could afford the nanobox retro kit. Now I just need to find some time to pull my light off and do the retro. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I'm for the DIY approach, it's the fun of designing and building that I enjoy, then of course the satisfaction of seeing it working and looking great. Check my build thread (not been updated for ages sorry) but does touch on my LED build. Couldn't be happier with how it turned out. But it's only worked out as well as it has due to lots of research before hand and the time I invested in planning the layout for what I wanted. Link to comment
dadummy Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 DIY all the way if heart is set on LED. You can customize it anyway you want, since you built it you know how everything works. If something fails you can fix it or change out different LED's. Then when the latest and greatest LED's hit the street you can replace a few diodes instead of breaking the bank on a new fixture. tank size and what corals you want keep would be a big factor too. Gutting an old fixture or halide pendant works great, have seen some diy acrylic housings that were pretty sweet as well Link to comment
gus6464 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Light is the most important thing in your tank so why skimp. If you want delicious coral, get a delicious light. Don't want deliciousness? Then get something ok. In the end most lights including ebay specials will grow stuff, but will it be delicious? Probably not... ATI/Nanobox hybrids are very future proof. New flavor of pucks comes out, buy new pucks and pop them on. A ballast goes out, replace it for $25. LED driver dies, replace it for $5. Fan goes out, buy a new one on amazon. Mess up your reflector, get a new one for $10. Needless to say there is nothing on the light that can't be replaced and in most cases for quite cheap. You can't say that about any other commercial light. It pretty much sets you up for a forever light. Link to comment
DaveFason Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Just beware that most DIY projects normally get close to a retail package. Believe me! Link to comment
hockeyhead019 Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 Just beware that most DIY projects normally get close to a retail package. Believe me! Yeah most of the projects I've seen rival something that comes off the shelf. It kills me to buy something I know I could build to so I'm caught between a rock and a hard place lol Link to comment
Mojado Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Yeah most of the projects I've seen rival something that comes off the shelf. It kills me to buy something I know I could build to so I'm caught between a rock and a hard place lol How much is your time worth? If you want to build a personal computer, are you willing to spend time and effort to build your own RAM chips? If price rivals off-the-shelf, I say just get off the shelf and get on with the true task at hand. . .building a tank. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Why not cost out a few light designs and then see if it's worth building over buying? I find my costs tend to be similar but the overall quality of parts used is generally weighted heavily in the diy lights favor. Link to comment
hockeyhead019 Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 So I did some looking and some pricing out of things for a DIY setup. I used reefledlights.com and rapidled.com as guides since this was just a quick priceout and not a full deep dive investigation. The suggested strength of the fixture was figured to be around 24-28 premium LEDs, we're talking the newest CREEs or the Luxeon Rebel series. Those LEDs were selected due to their established status in the market and their efficiency rating vs cheaper or lesser known LEDs. After grabbing a sufficient (probably slightly overkill) heatsink, some pc fans from amazon, dimmable drivers, controller (bluefish mini) and a power supply, the end cost was ball parked at around $350. Of course I'm sure there are areas to slightly cut corners or get in on a bulk buy and save some cash but that was the figure I think is pretty realistic. Plus the time involved in building the unit. Take that estimate with a grain of salt as it's based on the nanobox duo and the photon 24 as a base in terms of LED selection and array number and channel number. At this point I think all signs point to an off the shelf unit due to the relative same cost and quality finish... now the question is which one to go with lol *Begins more research and development of a new spreadsheet and grading criteria for fixtures * Link to comment
gus6464 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 So I did some looking and some pricing out of things for a DIY setup. I used reefledlights.com and rapidled.com as guides since this was just a quick priceout and not a full deep dive investigation. The suggested strength of the fixture was figured to be around 24-28 premium LEDs, we're talking the newest CREEs or the Luxeon Rebel series. Those LEDs were selected due to their established status in the market and their efficiency rating vs cheaper or lesser known LEDs. After grabbing a sufficient (probably slightly overkill) heatsink, some pc fans from amazon, dimmable drivers, controller (bluefish mini) and a power supply, the end cost was ball parked at around $350. Of course I'm sure there are areas to slightly cut corners or get in on a bulk buy and save some cash but that was the figure I think is pretty realistic. Plus the time involved in building the unit. Take that estimate with a grain of salt as it's based on the nanobox duo and the photon 24 as a base in terms of LED selection and array number and channel number. At this point I think all signs point to an off the shelf unit due to the relative same cost and quality finish... now the question is which one to go with lol *Begins more research and development of a new spreadsheet and grading criteria for fixtures * Or grab 2x V3 pucks from Dave for $110 vs going with a boatload of single LEDs. Link to comment
hockeyhead019 Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 Or grab 2x V3 pucks from Dave for $110 vs going with a boatload of single LEDs. Even with those I would still need a good amount of the rest so it doesn't cut the cost too much. Since the total cost of going with the normal sized LEDs was about 100 bucks. The only benefit would be the reduction of the heat sink. So probably saving 50 bucks max Link to comment
gus6464 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Even with those I would still need a good amount of the rest so it doesn't cut the cost too much. Since the total cost of going with the normal sized LEDs was about 100 bucks. The only benefit would be the reduction of the heat sink. So probably saving 50 bucks max Well that and your sanity of not having to solder 50 zillion wires. Link to comment
D Z Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Even with those I would still need a good amount of the rest so it doesn't cut the cost too much. Since the total cost of going with the normal sized LEDs was about 100 bucks. The only benefit would be the reduction of the heat sink. So probably saving 50 bucks max Going with pucks vs. single leds will also save you ALOT of DIY time. Link to comment
hockeyhead019 Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 Both very valid points haha thanks guys Link to comment
gus6464 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Both very valid points haha thanks guys You can make the V3 pucks from Dave 2ch as well. I find the 4ch unnecessary as his color blending in 2ch is quite perfect. Then all you need is 2 LDD's at that point. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I bought my LEDs from china using Aliexpress.com as they're a fraction of the price and I'm in the UK and there aren't any suppliers like LEDsupply over here, I also got everything else off ebay. Do look into buying direct if your buying in bulk and know what you need. No point paying a middle man, that's what makes it close to retail. My costing came out roughly £150 for 3 arrays. So that's 3 heat sinks, all the LEDs, 13 LDDs, all the wire and d sub connectors. Then I had £150 worth of components for an arduino based controller including a 7 inch touch screen and a large project box. So £300 total for some 270w of full spectrum output and a reef controller combined. An apex controller starts from around £500 over here and a decent LED unit is £300 upwards and neither would have given me the satisfaction and enjoyment that I have had building my arrays, or have the control over colour and LED layout. Just my thoughts. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.