Led recommendation poll

[Jimsreef]

Ok so I have been racking my brain on all these leds treads on reefcentral and other forums about what led retro kit to buy for my 180 mixed reef tank. I looked at Aquastyleonline (very tempting) but want better drivers ect. than comes with their kits. Also stevesleds has some nice kits with the luxeon es led chip. Other choice would be the rapidled kits with the cree leds. Steve says the luxeon es leds are better than the latest cree leds. What do you think? Jimsreef

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I would make the decision based on the specific LEDs, drivers, and other components, not based on the vendor. Make sure you understand your own criteria before you even look at components. Do you care more about upfront cost or longterm cost? Efficiency or outright power? Nailing a specific color? How high up will the thing be mounted?

Once you have an idea of your requirements, you can start looking at components. What currents can a given LED operate at? How efficient is it? Do you understand how it is binned well enough to know the actual performance of the specific LED a given vendor is selling? Does a given LED have optics appropriate for your mounting height? Does a given driver have the dimming functions you want?

Then, shop around for the best deals on the specific components you want.

A simple poll isn't going to take any of that into account. Even within the choices you listed there's a HUGE amount of variability. There are Cree LEDs sold by vendors marketed to this hobby that are awesome, and there are others that have poor performance. You need to get specific, i.e. a certain model, a certain bin, a certain operating current, and so on.

BTW, Did the vendor you talked to provide any criteria for saying that one LED was "better" than another LED?

[pwreef]

If you cannot find anyone close to you with an LED setup I would suggest you decide on the drivers you are going to use. Buy 2 dimmable drivers and a minimum quantity of LEDs. Build a test fixture with u-channel from HD and test it over your tank. Make sure you like the color and the ratio first. Steve makes some cool inexpensive drivers. Your total cost for this setup should be under $100. If you don't like it, you can always just put it over your frag or QT tank. You'll also hone your building skills. Do that before you spend 1K+ on a kit that's not returnable. Good luck.

[Gorgok]

Based on the data sheets the Luxeon is more efficient at making light for the power it typically consumes at 700mA than the R3 or R4 bins of Cree XP-Gs, but not the R5.

235 lumen at 3.0V and 700mA comes out at 111.90 lumen/watt for the Luxeon
243 lumen at 3.2V and 700mA is 108.48 lumen/watt for the Cree XP-G R4
260 lumen at 3.2V and 700mA comes to 116.07 lumen/watt for the XP-G R5

Not a bad choice at all efficiency wise. But its producing less light, so you need more of them (more so with Bridgelux LEDs). Compared to the R5 the Luxeon LEDs make about 90% the light under its operating range. The XP-G can be driven harder though, so if efficiency doesn't matter the just light count, the Luxeon (at 1000mA max) only goes up to 70% of the light the XP-G R5 makes at 1500mA.

[ponokareefer]

I'd go with modularled.ca. Great products and no soldering!

[daplatapus]

ponokareefer: dude, that's awesome! I've had a really tough time sourcing components north of the border. Thanks!

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Based on the data sheets the Luxeon is more efficient at making light for the power it typically consumes at 700mA than the R3 or R4 bins of Cree XP-Gs, but not the R5.

235 lumen at 3.0V and 700mA comes out at 111.90 lumen/watt for the Luxeon
243 lumen at 3.2V and 700mA is 108.48 lumen/watt for the Cree XP-G R4
260 lumen at 3.2V and 700mA comes to 116.07 lumen/watt for the XP-G R5

Not a bad choice at all efficiency wise. But its producing less light, so you need more of them (more so with Bridgelux LEDs). Compared to the R5 the Luxeon LEDs make about 90% the light under its operating range. The XP-G can be driven harder though, so if efficiency doesn't matter the just light count, the Luxeon (at 1000mA max) only goes up to 70% of the light the XP-G R5 makes at 1500mA.

It's also fair to note that there are S2 bins of XP-G available, plus XT-M which are again even more efficient. Regardless of whether the criteria is efficiency or outright intensity there are Cree products available that beat that LED, which is why I asked what the criteria are - maybe it's something else.

(And now, the "you're just a Cree fanboy" battle will commence.)

[Gorgok]

Do they have data sheets for the S2 or XT-M LEDs? I can't even find the XT-M series... I see an XT-E high voltage white that is more efficient the top 2 of the ones i listed at their base values, and XM-L high voltage is a little better than all of them. But nothing is close to the XM-L (not high voltage version)...

Strange, i thought Cree had good documentation so far.

I like numbers and data, this is really just curiosity asking. =D