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Anybody Heard of these guys: Aquastyle LED Kits


Rosco's Reefs

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Found a link on another list and wondered if anyone here has any experience with them. I would appreciate if somebody with experience building these things would take alook and let us know. They look inexpensive but must be something I'm missing. Thx in advance.

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I have a friend who purchased them and had someone build him a fixture. I have heard mixed reviews on build quality and output quality. I believe they have their place in the hobby, depending on your application. Personally having used Crees, I don't know of I would use them. But there are people who have used them with great success.

 

Just do a google search on reviews of them and you could get a better spread of reviews.

 

 

Project Phoenix in progress

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The kit I bought included everything but the heat sinks, but I had one already. I think their 24 LED kit for the same price includes heat sinks. The drivers that come with the dimmable kit are not controllable, only dimmable with a potentiometer, which is included as well, but you can opt for the Mean Well drivers at an added cost.

 

By the way, the kit comes with "heatsink plaster" which is a thermal glue. If you want to screw the LED's to the heat sink, you will have to get thermal compound from radio shack to make the LED's removable.

Edited by Marc Weaver
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I used 15 white and 14 blue. After these pictures were taken, I also added in 3 Cree violet UV to see what they do. The coral coloration I am getting is similar to my 20k reeflux halides on my main tank, but there are tons of ratios available because the whites and blues are independently dimmable. I'm not sure about SPS growth yet, I filled it with frags last weekend but the colonies were only in there temporarily and I already transferred them to the display tank. The pink paly's in the right corner are growing like mad though. I have seen some growth on the largest brown stag(I guess that's what it is) on the top shelf already, but it did not go through shipping as it was a transplant from the main tank. I'll keep this thread updated when I see some growth as I am tracking it for myself.

 

Marc

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I bought their 24 LED kit a month ago for my 25 gallon and it came with everything. I wouldn't waste the money on dimmable drivers as I run them both at 100% (50/50 white and blue). Also, the included fan is very weak. I ended up using an extra PC case fan I had around. So far everything in the tank loves the extra light.

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  • 2 months later...

I continue to hear good things since asking this question. My current worry is "how much is enough?" I have a 75g and want a fixture that will fully cover it. Is that the 36 bulb? The 72? Thx in advance.

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I'd definitely go 72. I upgraded my frag tank since I originally installed 30 of these LED's from a 20 long to a 40 breeder, and the lighting does not cover the whole tank. It's good enough for a frag tank, but not for a display. I don't think 36 will be enough for a 75 gallon.

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I bought a 24-LED and 12-LED, non-dimmable kits to give them a try. Definitely go with the Meanwell drivers. The Maxwellen's are unreliable. Of the three that I received, one died within two or three weeks. China's too far to go for a replacement, so I ordered a Meanwell replacement from another source. Great kits, though. Everything you need for an easy build is included. An easy way to get familiar with DIY LED building.

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  • 1 month later...

I got the 75 kit six months ago. Its bright, and the dimmer/resistor is not very linear. Optics are plastic/kinda ugly (but then again the whole DIY is rarely good looking). I bought a few other ones to test out and in terms of price/performance/ease I would go with the multichip approach if you still want to do the Diy. However considering it costs only 175 bucks for a 140w commercial one, I wouldn't do it again.

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i mean its one big SMD chip about 2 inch square with a bunch of integrated 1 or 3 w ones in a matrix. You can get cw/rb combos and the amount of wiring is much less and not as messy. There is a thread here a month or two back I think.

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By the way, the kit comes with "heatsink plaster" which is a thermal glue. If you want to screw the LED's to the heat sink, you will have to get thermal compound from radio shack to make the LED's removable.

 

I bought a 90 LED kit that a guy started messing with and gave up. I easily removed and reused the LEDs from the heat sink. Just get under there with a putty knife and they pop right off. I re-"plastered" them with no issues.

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