I am probably a year away from starting up my 105g reef tank. Its 4ft across and thinner and taller than a typical 120. Light penatration and intensity is important due the tall nature of the tank. I used to use two MH250's and two VHO lamps on the tank and was just starting to get into hard coral. Long story short I had to move and tear down the system.
I was looking at LED light strips for a lighting project and ran across new LED laps that are 100 watt! They are engineered to replace HPS street lighting and are now seeing wide spread commercial use. They are already quite common in Japan. They look like square pads and they really eat 100 watts of power. The cost of these units is very low. I can have them shipped to my door for around $50 ea. I would have to get a power supply to run them and the cost on those is low as well. I would be looking at round $100 ea DIY with power supply mounting heat sink ect. I would probably reuse my old MH pendants.
Has LED lighting finaly come of age? I have been out of the hobbie for some time. About 10 years. I know lots can change during that time and lighting is one of the fastest moving technologies because of LED lighting advances. It seems that these 100 watt lamps could really give MH a run for it's money. Power consumption is lower and expensive bulb change outs every year are not going to be an issue. Now with the initial costs dropping into $100 dollars per 100 watts it has my attention. I could easily see using 4 or 6 of these lamps on the 105 and staging them on and off throught the day to adjust daylight intensity and offsetting them with some blue / UV leds on the side. I still don't know about the color temperature or how things will grow under this light. I like the idea of reduced power consumption and avoiding noisy chillers. My old setup had the chiller in the basement so you didn't have to hear it. I would probably use sealed piping to the basement again for the chiller and calcium reactor. That worked well last time.
I still havae a year to go so I am sure things could change! These lamps will probably be around $10 each by then and the power supplies $5! Who knows! It seems exciting. LED lighting is replacing automotive head lights, spot and flood lights, yard lights, and other high intensity lighting. You name it LED is rushing in to compete! In a few years those floresent high efficiency lights everyone uses will be a thing of the past as LED takes over. I already replaced my 10w halogen yard lights with LED lamps "specifically warm ones so they would look natural" They put out as much light as the halogen lamps and you cant tell they are LED by looking. On top of that they were cheeper to order on ebay and ship from Tiawan than purchasing the halogen replacements at Home Depot and Lowes! Now I can string more lgiths on existing power units without having to upgrade power supplies! There is no doubt that LED is going to rule the lighting world. Just not sure when.
Here is a link to the ebay listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1PC-BRIGHTEST-100W- ... 3269wt_922
Randall
I was looking at LED light strips for a lighting project and ran across new LED laps that are 100 watt! They are engineered to replace HPS street lighting and are now seeing wide spread commercial use. They are already quite common in Japan. They look like square pads and they really eat 100 watts of power. The cost of these units is very low. I can have them shipped to my door for around $50 ea. I would have to get a power supply to run them and the cost on those is low as well. I would be looking at round $100 ea DIY with power supply mounting heat sink ect. I would probably reuse my old MH pendants.
Has LED lighting finaly come of age? I have been out of the hobbie for some time. About 10 years. I know lots can change during that time and lighting is one of the fastest moving technologies because of LED lighting advances. It seems that these 100 watt lamps could really give MH a run for it's money. Power consumption is lower and expensive bulb change outs every year are not going to be an issue. Now with the initial costs dropping into $100 dollars per 100 watts it has my attention. I could easily see using 4 or 6 of these lamps on the 105 and staging them on and off throught the day to adjust daylight intensity and offsetting them with some blue / UV leds on the side. I still don't know about the color temperature or how things will grow under this light. I like the idea of reduced power consumption and avoiding noisy chillers. My old setup had the chiller in the basement so you didn't have to hear it. I would probably use sealed piping to the basement again for the chiller and calcium reactor. That worked well last time.
I still havae a year to go so I am sure things could change! These lamps will probably be around $10 each by then and the power supplies $5! Who knows! It seems exciting. LED lighting is replacing automotive head lights, spot and flood lights, yard lights, and other high intensity lighting. You name it LED is rushing in to compete! In a few years those floresent high efficiency lights everyone uses will be a thing of the past as LED takes over. I already replaced my 10w halogen yard lights with LED lamps "specifically warm ones so they would look natural" They put out as much light as the halogen lamps and you cant tell they are LED by looking. On top of that they were cheeper to order on ebay and ship from Tiawan than purchasing the halogen replacements at Home Depot and Lowes! Now I can string more lgiths on existing power units without having to upgrade power supplies! There is no doubt that LED is going to rule the lighting world. Just not sure when.
Here is a link to the ebay listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1PC-BRIGHTEST-100W- ... 3269wt_922
Randall
