Build my LED in Austin... Looking for LED suggestion

[Mike]

Anyone have experience with Buildmyled out of Austin? Reviews look good. Trying to find LEDs for the tank, once we move everything over. Not top of the line, but not cheap either. Anyone with feedback or suggestions on who to go with and why...

[alton]

Okay I may catch some heat on this one but in my defense I am a MH person. So switching from T5's and MH to LED was tough I tried some brands and spoke with others about the top of the line stuff. But to me BML is top of the line and the best LED out there for people like me who do not have the time nor the corals to test on. I buy them put them on my tanks adjust to the par level I want, and walk away. Most of mine are set around 85%, run for 10 hours a day, my oldest is 2 years 4 months old. The 20K XB is my favorite with one on my 65 and two on my wife's 65
http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?84479-Wifes-Crystaline-65
I use a 12K XB on my 20g frag tank and two 14K regular on my 300 with only running the MH 3 to 4 hours a day and maintain great growth on corals. I don't have to worry about acclimation going from MH or T5 to BML because they don't have individual reflectors and look like T5's when viewing my tanks. They come with a three year warranty where most are one year. I can order it from Louis at Elegant. The attached picture is my office 65 with only one strip way under powered, but the corals do fine. The other is the 20g with the 12K and plenty of PAR. Except for my 300, all the other tanks have glass tops.

[Mike]

Thanks Alton. Due to heat issues in that back room with the MH, I pulled it off a while ago and using the T5s and LED. Now thinking of ditching the T5s, due to heat and doing all LEDs.

[alton]

I ran into the same issue here at work, and since I lost the control of the thermostat I had to trade in my MH for LED. A good rule of thumb is 1 fix for 12", 2 - 18", and 3 - 24" of depth staying around 25" tall and the length of the tank for SPS. 20K XB covers the full spectrum from 405UV to 3K. 1 Manual Dimmer will handle two fixtures, and if you have to ramp up and down like the Jones it will go from 10% up to 100% using an Apex or Reef Keeper.