new lighting

[paul]

i have a 4 bulb t5 fixture for my tank right now and am looking for a new lighting system. i see everyone switching over to LED's. i've seen the ecoxotic lights and like them but last night i ran into a website with a large system for what i thought was a good price. i don't know if this brand is good or worth the price nor do i know the pro and cons if this system versus others. but for the price i'm thinking of trying them out. any suggestions would help.

[paul]

forgot to add this link

http://www.truaqua.com/aquarium-lighting-led-48inch.html

[BBQHILLBILLY]

LEDS are pretty and energy efficient. I dont know that fixture. That LED is .06 WATT per LED and couldnt find the light spectrum. Its probably not REEF ready but I coould be wrong.
Looks like it would be great for fish only tank.

Based on my experience I can offer 3 choices.
1. Marineland REEF LED fixture. Look at the website for REEF specs. These are 1WATT LEDS and do great for shallow tanks to grow coral. I have one and I like them.
2. The AOI is what I want. These have 3WATT LEDS and automatic controller for different parts of the day. Little more expensive but I want them.
3. diy A lot of websites are offering DIY LEDS. I have not done this yet but it could cut your cost in half. I would like to do this too.

[alton]

Looks like a great fixture? The only problem I see is 462 LEDS with only drawing 28 watts? .06w LEDS? If you have $300 laying around wanting to gamble good luck.

[rrasco]

I wouldn't mess with LEDs that low power, not for a reef. Good off the shelf LED kits come with a high price tag, with good reason. What size tank is this for?

I just ordered all my supplies for a DIY LED kit. It's right under $500 so far but I will be running 108 3w LEDs powered by DIY drivers. This project will be mostly DIY, even the drivers. However, you could try the DIY kits at aquastyleonline.com; lots of people have reported success with them and they are very reasonably priced. The only caveat to them is you need to add heat sinks (which they also sell) and the drivers that come with them are only dimmable with a 0-10v analog signal, meaning you can't use an apex or most other store bought controllers to dim them, you must use a manual potentiometer. You could of course build your own controller that sends a 0-10v signal though.