zygote2k May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 Just removed 2) MH/PC fixtures from the 500 and replaced them with 6) of the D120's. Much brighter and less electricity. Old system was 1396w, new system is 720w. Just sayin'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 So most of that truck was yours! ha ha.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkiboy May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 photos?!... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 Worthless without pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trockafella May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 Worthless without pics +1..... Just sayin.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 Just removed 2) MH/PC fixtures from the 500 and replaced them with 6) of the D120's. Much brighter and less electricity. Old system was 1396w, new system is 720w. Just sayin'. Nice. Given about 8 hours per day of operation, 365 days per year, that's a savings of about $20 a month in electricity costs alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 That's a nice reduction. I just hope the LEDs last as long as they say they do. So far the LEDs both over my tank and throughout my house have not lived up to the long life span the manufacturer's claimed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trockafella May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 . So far the LEDs both over my tank and throughout my house have not lived up to the long life span the manufacturer's claimed. Maybe this will help drive the prices down.. Lets be honest, expecting an electrical lighting device to last 7-10 years without replacement is a stretch... Cant build a $60k car to last that long, why should we expect a light too.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 (edited) Maybe this will help drive the prices down.. Lets be honest, expecting an electrical lighting device to last 7-10 years without replacement is a stretch... Cant build a $60k car to last that long, why should we expect a light too.. Honda builds them all day long for $20k... I really want to see this tank already! Edited May 29, 2013 by BowieReefer84 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 Cant build a $60k car to last that long, why should we expect a light too.. No moving parts? Nothing to crash into it? Agree that it will be good to get an idea of true longevity vs. theoretical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 That's a nice reduction. I just hope the LEDs last as long as they say they do. So far the LEDs both over my tank and throughout my house have not lived up to the long life span the manufacturer's claimed.How long did they last and what kind of failure did they suffer? Normal LEDs should last thousands of operating hours but their life will be driven down by sustained operation at high temperatures (i.e. high current with poor thermal conductivity limiting heat dissipation). I don't know and haven't looked at the reliability data on these high powered devices, though. They dissipate a lot of power in a very small area and poor thermal conductivity can cause the die to overheat very quickly. With proper cooling on the LEDs, my expectation would be that the drivers would actually have the shorter lifespan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 In my house I have 47 of the Utilitech LED bulbs, 7.5w. Bought less than two years ago and run indoors for less than 10 hours a week. I have had six of them go out so far. Two just last week, one in the garage and one in the dining room. Luckly Lowes takes them back as they have a three year warranty. I have 6 of the Sylvania LED bulbs and none of them have failed yet and they are the higher wattage ones. All five seem to be the driver that failed. On the tanks I have had both Ecoxotic Panarama 12w and 19W modules that end up having emitters that burn out, even with fans on them. They also seem to go through power supplies kind of fast. At work I have installed LED's in parking garages and office areas and there have been way too many warranty calls to go back out and replace the fixtures that have failed. Normally the driver or power supplies. Electronics, while energy efficient are just not as durable as the things they replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 I built up three LED DIY's (from ReefLEDLights) 18 months ago, each with 66 each 3W Cree LED's on stars screwed into large heat sinks. Arctic silver was used as the thermal compound. Each assembly is being driven as a single chain, using a 200W Inventronics driver but running at 70-80%. Each assembly is also equipped with two fans on the top of the heat sink. No enclosure. I've not had emitter or driver failures on any of these three units (knock on wood). I've also built two other kits that I purchased from a vendor in Hong Kong. One was a 12-LED assembly (single string / single driver), the other was a 24-LED assembly (dual string / dual drivers). Stars are cemented on the heat sink in this case using a thermal cement. Drivers on these were Chinese (I believe) - Maxwellen. Within 4 months, one of the three drivers (in this case, it was one on the 24-LED assembly) had died. Because I needed less light, I replaced the failed Maxwellen with a Meanwell, driving both strings with the one driver. I kept the other Maxwellen off line as a spare. This drives each (not Cree) 3W emitter with about 350 mA. The 12-LED light is driven by a Maxwellen at 700 mA. Again, no emitter failure - just what I think may be an infant mortality on the cheap driver. These two have been running since last summer. Semiconductor reliability is intimately tied with operating temperature and staying within limits. That's one advantage of a DIY build, I suppose. You retain more control. I wonder what's up with the Ecoxotics that they are failing so quickly. As for the other lamps, you're lucky to have the three-year warranty available. Did Lowe's make you produce a receipt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM May 29, 2013 Share May 29, 2013 From the nano-reef forums, the Ecoxotics sound like they are getting corrosion on exposed conductors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k May 30, 2013 Author Share May 30, 2013 I have found that the Panorama Pro strips burn out after 6 months to a year and have gone through nearly 30 of them on various tanks. The older Panorama 12w strips have the best record- 3 years so far no issues. I had a driver burn out on a 50w Cannon. Of the 72) Par 38's I've installed, only 1 has given me any issues and it was a driver. On one of the high-end DIY systems made by a WAMAS member, I've experienced 1 driver failure and 3 emitter failures. When I installed this system, I told the client he could expect 5 years on the LEDs and 3 years on drivers/fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind May 30, 2013 Share May 30, 2013 Any pictures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k May 31, 2013 Author Share May 31, 2013 Any pictures? Soon enough. Tank is at 14th and Irving if you want to stop in and see it. I have a bit of a cyano issue I'm working on, but with the addition of fresh lights and the 4th MP40, it should clear up shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf June 1, 2013 Share June 1, 2013 Like I can make to 14th and Irving, post the pics, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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