stephanie Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 If so, would you say that they are worth the money? From the videos I have seen they look like the way to go. I have a 92 corner that I would be putting them over. Thanks ahead of time. Steph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Im not running radions but Im almost done building my DIY lights. I checked into Radions and many other LED alternatives and decided to take matters into my own hands:) The neat thing about DIY is the amount of Magenta, turquoise and other off colored LEDs they are coming out with, and going DIY you just add another driver and up to 15 more LEDs. So far my results have been decent but I haven't hooked up my "High Noons" yet which are supposed to get the more daylight-ish look you can achieve with the Radions. They are ugly indeed, aint gonna lie but............Im building some fiberglass hoods so mine will never be seen. If I liked the pendant hang from cables and brackets and such I would make a nice little fiberglass enclosure but with 32' tall ceilings where they might end up and the fact I have ugly Nanos, making custom hoods to hide all the cheap looking plastic trim is a must anyway. If I had a nice looking rimless tank I would try making a cool pendant container out of fiberglass since you can paint it with automotive paint and get as curvy and cool as you want. I really like the fans that come with the DIY kits too, they ramp up as needed for the amount of heat and even full tilt by holding a lighter under the sensor you can NOT hear it!!! Some of the LEDs I looked into sound like Jet airplanes taking off and thats a no-go. I should be wrapping things up soon and will take some better pics, I snapped a few as I was tinkering and Im still in testing and messing around mode Later I will take some under the moon lights, its a little too insane, looks like a 70s 3D Jimi Hendrix backlight poster in the tank Plenty of room for another 24 Cree LEDs per light for a total of 48 more The killer fan, I love this thing, here its just laying on the heatsink kinda jerry rigged Heres how my camera sees it without all my whites done yet, they should come more into the 14k look which Im wanting after all these years of 20k radiums And my tank was dirty and I had just scrubbed the glass so its cloudy but this is closer to what you see, They are 1' off the water as of now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Oh and the shimmer from LEDs is mind boggling, the entire room shimmers, pretty cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePremiumAquarium Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Looking good Mark! Stephanie, I have sold couple of units thus far and the feedback I am getting is very positive to say the least. They are very, very customizable and have some excellent features. I have many customers runnin ghte AI Sol units as well and they really like them as well. They are another great option to look into. Let me know if I can be of any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanie Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 Looks Good! Where do you get the cree bulbs and heat sink? Can you program them? If so what are you using to do so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanie Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 Garrett, do you have the fixtures in your store? I would really love to see them in person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMERITT28 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Stephanie, Try www.reefledlights.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Looks Good! Where do you get the cree bulbs and heat sink? Can you program them? If so what are you using to do so?Stephanie, yes you can control with Apex and other, being a DIY type of guy, Im actually checking other alternatives I know an electrical engineer and a couple automation gurus Im talking to. For a couple hundred the Apex controls these supposedly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefnjunkie Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Stephanie, Try www.reefledlights.com And Promo code XMAS10 for an additional 10% off-from experiance speaking you will want to see a fixture up and running before dropping that kind of money-I have not seen the Radions so I can not say for sure but my 1st impression is that they will have quite the "beam/spot light effect just based on the look, and if I am not mistaken I looked at them a while ago and their site shows a conical graph with par readings. I am building my 4th unit from reefledlights, (just ordered my stuff today which will give me 6 total DIY units from them-4 (2 -24" and 2 -30") over my 400 gallon (72x48x27) and I'll have 2 (12") over my frag tank (48x24x15) Still not sold on the red and greens-to much of either will grow algae like crazy-its like seasoning food, if you use the right amount its great, to much and you have ruined it. Good luck and remember all LEDs are not equal. Sadly there are about 15+ new players out there that you will need to sort through all the marketing hype and some BS and then try and make sense of everything husker..... you say yours are not good looking, you have not seen mine-(laugh) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Looking good Mark! Stephanie, I have sold couple of units thus far and the feedback I am getting is very positive to say the least. They are very, very customizable and have some excellent features. I have many customers runnin ghte AI Sol units as well and they really like them as well. They are another great option to look into. Let me know if I can be of any help! Yeah I missed the chance at a new AI Sol, I really wanted one because they are one of the brands proven to grow SPS. Several people on this board have had good luck with the Reefledlight.com and the other ones I seem to have forgot their names, I think its like RapidLED or something like that. I heard someones selling AI Sols for $350 shipped somewhere on the web but I had already ordered mine from ReefLED Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 And Promo code XMAS10 for an additional 10% off-from experiance speaking you will want to see a fixture up and running before dropping that kind of money-I have not seen the Radions so I can not say for sure but my 1st impression is that they will have quite the "beam/spot light effect just based on the look, and if I am not mistaken I looked at them a while ago and their site shows a conical graph with par readings. I am building my 4th unit from reefledlights, (just ordered my stuff today which will give me 6 total DIY units from them-4 (2 -24" and 2 -30") over my 400 gallon (72x48x27) and I'll have 2 (12") over my frag tank (48x24x15) Still not sold on the red and greens-to much of either will grow algae like crazy-its like seasoning food, if you use the right amount its great, to much and you have ruined it. Good luck and remember all LEDs are not equal. Sadly there are about 15+ new players out there that you will need to sort through all the marketing hype and some BS and then try and make sense of everything husker..... you say yours are not good looking, you have not seen mine-(laugh) You got some Fugly stuff too eh? If I had known at the beginning what I know now, I may have made something a little more tasteful but its getting covered so to heck with it! I seriously have wire just laying all over the room. I will say Im highly impressed with not seeing any of the problems others have talked about in their builds mainly in the optics. Theres a handful of items I think could be improved with their kits to appeal to the "On the border DIYer" 1. make odd number pre drilled holes, seriously guys, it took me longer to try and figure out a layout and there is no way to have a balanced light ....bad engineering call there. Maybe its just on their 12" heatsinks, don't know. 2. Instructions. I think these things are so simple that they forgot a few things like: Ship a pictured instruction sheet for people and keep it as simple as these really are or at least add in your videos that the Inventronic drivers can be wired in series like the Meanwells, on their site it says the Inventronics need to be wired +to+ and -to-, this kind of slowed me down in waiting for a response after wading through all their videos and such searching to make sure this was a series or parallel driver. I guess with the complex stuff I do for a living I expect well thought out instructions included with my products. I think this is my problem but.............being a DIY project I should have understood the drivers were the same, but not the same? Some where mention something about the Inventronics Drivers other than this DIM+ input is Purple DIM- input is green White goes to the big prong on the AC plug Black goes to the small prong on the AC plug Red V+ goes to the LED strings + Black V- goes to the LED strings - I still haven't got the dimming to work properly, I watched their video but Im seeing no dimming at all so now I need to re-watch their videos and try an determine If I screwed up or they did. 4 out of 4 not working, probably has to be wired in parallel to work, I need to figure this out All in all my guess is these are very tweakable but I really want a little bit crisper white punch, I still need to wire up my High Noons which run down the center so this is probably where Im seeing the muted white pop I expected. We should really start an DIY LED thread here, the ones at reef Central ramble on for years and thousands of pages of babble, I could see that keeping some on the fence staying put. Thanks for helping me take the jump, its nice not opening windows and blowing fans over my Nanos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 oops double post! I wish my camera would take pictures with just the royal blues fired up, crazy pop, Im seeing stuff everywhere I didn't even know I had Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Almost forgot, I hooked up the high Noons this morning and thats the ticket and they Dim for some reason which is really nice. This DiY route is pretty nice because your color range is huge with 4 different drivers on a 12" Heatsink:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewey McLovit Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Almost forgot' date=' I hooked up the high Noons this morning and thats the ticket and they Dim for some reason which is really nice. This DiY route is pretty nice because your color range is huge with 4 different drivers on a 12" Heatsink:)[/quote'] Husker, whats the rough out of pocket for that unit? How many Cree, 48? Their website is so difficult to get a price nailed down with all the equipment you can add and not really know what the differences are between all the 'upgrades'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Husker' date=' whats the rough out of pocket for that unit? How many Cree, 48? Their website is so difficult to get a price nailed down with all the equipment you can add and not really know what the differences are between all the 'upgrades'.[/quote']Yeah their website is a little tricky, as are their videos but I think its because once you make one everything is so simple I think they just figure everyone is over thinking everything which I did. I bought the 55 phoenix kit and added 2 arctic fans, 5 potentiometers for dimming(which I wouldn't buy from them, I would get quality here) I opted for the 2- 12" x 8.5" heatsinks I have 25 Leds on one light and 26 on the other. I bought the phoenix 55 because I wanted to use 6 of the High Noons ( 3 each tank) and the other 4 for another project. You get their premium bins with this kit supposedly. Pre drilled heatsinks, solder less everything and optics. On the blues it was a little confusing to me because you get 24 Royal blues and 6 blues and 15 whites other than the high noons so what I did for moon lighting is put the 6 blues with 9 royal blues to fill one of my 15 LED strings. They aren't to clear on any suggestions on layouts either. Must be part of the DIY thing. I wired both lights together for both Nanos to run at the same time, basically a 24" light chopped in half and lighting two separate tanks in opposite corners of a room for now off the same drivers. My layout 15 whites on one 70 Inventronic Driver split in half ( 8 one light, 7 on the other) 15 royal blues on one 70 Inventronic Driver split in half (8 one light, 7 on other) 9 Royal blues and 6 Blues on a 70 Inventronic Driver split 6 High Noons on a 1050 inventronic driver and room for 9 more lights Im going to order after more playing around with what spectrum I think I need the most, my guess is some of their premium High Noons excuse the mess , still tinkering Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 You may want to reconsider using LEDs your tank may end up looking like this guys tank I don't know how he does it with all that sun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewey McLovit Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 You may want to reconsider using LEDs your tank may end up looking like this guys tank I don't know how he does it with all that sun This tank was featured as 'Tank of the Month' a in December '08. Pretty impressive then and more so now! http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-12/totm/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramy Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Mr. Saltwater Tank you can find him on u tube did a side by side comparison of these lights next to mh lighting and it makes a compelling case. You do have to take it with a grain of salt as they are a sponsor of his but I would recomend watching his videos on the radion experiment. Hope that helps =) Diy leds look like a lot of fun and very customizable however if you are looking for a complete pakage with out the hassle of building one yourself these radion lights do look pretty slick. And the ability to dial in the sunrise to sunset with these units is nothing short of amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClayTheSavageFraser Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Reefled seems like it rocks!!! I need to replace all my lighting TOO!! Clay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Reefled seems like it rocks!!! I need to replace all my lighting TOO!! Clay RapidLED is basically within pennies of ReefLED too, I just didn't like their solderless connections as well. Not sure about salesmen speak but supposedly ReefLED has premium bins and when I asked the guys at Rapid they kind of explained their bins are different but close or something to that effect. Both seem pretty decent about taking calls and answering questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.