Aquariareview February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 Has anyone heard about the new research being done in LED lighting. I know that Champion Lighting is working on it check this link Also I heard that AB aqualine is also working on it. My sources are saying late this year or early 2004. This is what Champion is saying: LED technology is expanding, brighter LEDs are currently being developed and will soon be able to provide the same intensity as Metal Halides,VHO or PC lamps. LEDs will last for up to 20 years of 12 hour cycles, with no change or deterioration of output. LEDs emit almost no heat. Compact design allows for smaller hoods and no bulky ballast. LEDs may cost more up front, but will pay for itself in energy savings and lamp replacement in no time. LEDs are digitally tuned and programmed to achieve required daylight and blue spectrum. Also, red for night viewing. LEDs can be dimmed to create solar and lunar cycles If you have seen the new LED flashlights you will believe that it's possible. they are so bright that they post a warning on them, not to look at the light. This could be the biggest equipment advance in the hobby in a long time. I will keep the group updated as I get more information. I am building a small simple system for a nano to test some of the new LED's. I dont have the circuts to control the spectrum like the finished products that will be for sale but I have found LED's that have a 8000k Color temp and 24 of them in array are so bright I think I can grow most coral. I am mixing them with 12 Leds that are near the actinic spectrum. I am going to try this on a 10 gal nano. I am going to try a few different types of coral frags to see what will grow. The Visual output (on a single led) looks very bright white as the light emission is more controled in its spectrum than other types of lights. There seems to be very little visible yellow in the output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chideloh February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 Very interesting Nathan. Thanks for the info. I would be interested to find out how much more up front it is going to cost me. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 They do look like the future light for the hobby but the up front cost for now is WOW! There is more to look at then just K ratings with LEDs such as the intensity and spread angle of the LEDs. Here are some sites I had saved when I was looking into building an LED hood last year. Keep us updated on how it turns out. http://www.theledlight.com/technical.html http://led.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgasmd February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 Dana Riddle was at CMAS a few months ago and briefly touched on this since he was doing some research and testing on them himself. For what he had to say, I think they are going to be a huge thing, but it would really be a couple of years after introduction if not more before we can safely say how well they are working. I would not go out and start saving to buy my first set when they come out, not would I hold off from buying whatever lighting I ahd decided on now in hopes of getting that instead. As far as the cost upfront, it is certainly going to be another huge aquarium equipment rip off. LED technology is so cheap is ridiculous and unlike aquarium MH and VHO bulbs is available already. I do look forward to it and let's see what happens. It would be nice to be able to put a panel over my 360 with 4-500 of these lights and get tremendous colors and growth from my SPS with no heat and cheap electric cost not to mention no more bulb replacing. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quazi February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 I have been following this for some time. I am glad to hear that someone is actually working this within the aquarium industry. This will definately change the hobby. Prices will come down when the R&D is paid off and competition does is work. :p To think that you can get MH light, with little heat and bulk. It will make the hobby easier for all of us! check out http://www.lumileds.com/ for more information on the general LED direction. topic:Here is an article from Discover Magazine on the topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquariareview February 20, 2003 Author Share February 20, 2003 There is more to look at then just K ratings with LEDs such as the intensity and spread angle of the LEDs. prevyet In answer to your statment You are right the spread is narrow, however the array you can build overcomes that issue. The intensity of these devices is getting stronger every day ( they already make a street light bulb that will replace a 1000 watt MH). Full spectrum is also getting there. One time cost will be high, however your need for a chiller will be gone and the saving in power bills will be huge. I dont know what they will cost retail. The building cost right now is large as the cost of the LED devices is around is around $3.50 per. A 125 Gal tank would requier at least 300 of them plus the cost of the electronics that would control them. Part cost will come down over the next 6 - 12 months. The aquarium supply companies will attempt to rape the tank owners like they do with everything (Pickleing Lime costs $1.50 a pound until Kent puts it in a 6oz jar and marks it up to $8). This item is going to be a DIYer's dream. It is so easy to build that anyone can do it. The parts will be easy to get. Stay tuned I want to make this so easy and so all over tha net that the lighting companies have to think about how they price the product. (you can't sell a clothesline for $50 whan rope costs a $1) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quazi February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 For those interested in seeing LEDs in action: Look at the new stop lights. They are real bright now becasue they use green and (sometimes) red LEDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 For those that are not familiar with the technology, LEDs are the precursors to LASERs. A given LED is doped to produce light at a single frequency (well, actually a range of frequencies, but a very small range). The "white" LEDs produce light by generating light in specific ranges, one in the red range, one in the green, one in the blue. It wasn't until blue LEDs where "perfected" very recently that you started to see true white light LEDs. Because of this, true full spectrum LEDs are a pipe dream. Even the most monochromatic HID lamps produce some level of output across the entire visible spectrum - LEDs do not. If no thought is paid to the output spectrum, our corals may ultimately suffer, despite the presence of a large quantity of "light". There is an opportunity here to tune the lamps to a specific spectrum to enhance growth. This may actually be a case where the Aq. industries does need specialty items that they could justifiably charge more $$ for. DIYer beware. 0.2. -Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quazi February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 Tom, Good point. Another issue is that LEDs produce no UV light in present form. I realize UV gets absorbed very quickly in water, but I wonder if that may be a problem for some corals? ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidm February 20, 2003 Share February 20, 2003 Now if only someone is willing and able to purchase a tunable laser and determine which wavelengths are best for which corals..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquariareview February 21, 2003 Author Share February 21, 2003 There are new Leds that produce a wider range of spectrum including UV, The cost is higher and there is still some tuning that you must do with electronics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez February 21, 2003 Share February 21, 2003 Do they really produce a wide range of spectrums, or is the manufacturer showing you an "integrated" plot of the output spectrum? That's generally what they do to "smooth" out the spectrum plot. -T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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