# GroBeam 500 LED?



## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

Has anyone used this? Among other things that I've been recommended while trying to figure out lighting for my low tech 36 gallon bow, I have been recommended this.

I have a good T5HO rec as well, but I'd like to go with LED if I can just because I like the way the light looks and also because I won't have to replace bulbs every year, and the are efficient.

What do people think about the light I would get from this light if I'm not using C02, but using Excel, in a a 36 gallon bowfront? So, 30" across and 21" deep...

Thanks!!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

As LED lights go this one at least uses some good Cree LEDs in it. But, only 5 per light, XP-Es, which aren't going to give enough light for a 21 inch tall tank, unless you use at least 3 of them. The lights are only 19 inches long, so it takes 3 of them staggered to cover the full length and depth of the tank. I'm not at all sure how much light you would get with 3.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Here is a tank that is exactly 21" tall, but not nearly the volume of water at only 21-23g tall, weird custom tank. This tank has only one strip, co2 or plant food. Mind you these are mostly low light plants, but the growth is pretty robust. Same light strip for 8hrs a day, one water change per month. I would use 2 strips with your tank specs. Length would be the only issue. Or, you could use 2 Nano 400 tiles easily.


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## Naekuh (Oct 19, 2011)

The best led arrays are the one's u make yourself.

i have said this many times.... 

All these premade ones can not compare to the eq that u can personally select, along with the drivers and pwm dimmers u can add later on. 

You dont even need a ton of electrical skills anymore to get a good 12 x Cree XP-G setup, as those come in plug and play now as well. 

Spend sometime on the forum, and learn how to assemble your own array...
You will love it more and appreciate it more... because its your own creation.


OP... my advice in looking for a led fixture is LOOK for a big heat sink... if it has no heat sink, the LED array is useless, its not powerful enough, and its actually going to make u sad.
If it has a heat sink, it means it uses high powered led's which means u will be very happy at its light production.


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## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

Green Leaf Aquariums said:


> Here is a tank that is exactly 21" tall, but not nearly the volume of water at only 21-23g tall, weird custom tank. This tank has only one strip, co2 or plant food. Mind you these are mostly low light plants, but the growth is pretty robust. Same light strip for 8hrs a day, one water change per month. I would use 2 strips with your tank specs. Length would be the only issue. Or, you could use 2 Nano 400 tiles easily.


When you say one strip, c02 or plant food what do you mean? 

So maybe I could do two strips diagonally? Like in a V? Or would you recommend the tiles. Or maybe I should just go with the T5HO. So much cheaper to begin with, but then I'd have to keep replacing bulbs :icon_conf


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## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

Naekuh said:


> The best led arrays are the one's u make yourself.
> 
> i have said this many times....
> 
> ...


I would just have no idea where to start with this. It's not that I don't have a ton of electrical skills, it's that I don't have any. I'm a little bit handy but not with electricity... I'd love to do it, but I just have no idea.


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## WingoAgency (Jan 10, 2006)

azjenny said:


> I would just have no idea where to start with this. It's not that I don't have a ton of electrical skills, it's that I don't have any. I'm a little bit handy but not with electricity... I'd love to do it, but I just have no idea.


Too bad your are not in NY, I run LED DIY party once every a while FREE.


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## Naekuh (Oct 19, 2011)

azjenny said:


> I'm a little bit handy but not with electricity... I'd love to do it, but I just have no idea.


Then this should be EASY for you:


Naekuh said:


> this might work without you having to do much moding:
> 
> 1. Get this retrofit kit as its no solder required:
> http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-222/12-LED-Plug-dsh-n-dsh-Play-Retrofit/Detail
> ...


Heat sink is pre tapp'd so all you need to do is put a little bit of thermal paste on the underside of the led, and just screw them onto the heat sink. 
Then just connect the LED's to the connectors it comes with.. tie the distribution node to the driver.. and viola... u got yourself a 12 x Cree XP-G LED setup.

http://www.vinnymarini.com/pictures/rapid_docs/Plug-N-Play Retrofit Kit.pdf

EDIT: 30 inches across you may need this guy instead..
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-95/Drilled-and-Tapped-4.25"/Detail

and use half of them if you want something more elegant , but u can still keep to the 12 LED kit, as that is 36W of LED + lens.... and should be enough light.


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## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

WingoAgency said:


> Too bad your are not in NY, I run LED DIY party once every a while FREE.


I wish!!

So I'm still confused about what to get. Hoppy recommended the fishneedit 2x24w but they are all out of the right bulbs for now...


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## galabar (Oct 19, 2011)

Here is a good site for the GroBeam:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/LEDLights.html

The site claims that these are from an exclusive deal with Cree and are not sold to anyone else:



> * EXCLUSIVE CREE XR-E & XG EMITTERS
> 
> TMC AquaRays newest offering now includes the latest generation PROPRIETARY Cree XR-E & XG Power High Performance LED Emitters; which are the best emitters available for Aquarium LED Lights.
> Despite incorrect information found in some Internet articles, these Cree Emitters should not be confused with Cree emitters sold for other lighting applications, as those do not produce the correct Kelvin/Nanometers of Light required for delicate marine and freshwater inhabitants and plants.
> ...


You should contact the seller and find out about this. I don't see these super-secret lights on the Cree website, but I'm not going to claim that they don't exist. 

They further go on to say:



> Many do not seem to understand that not all emitters are equal even with the open source Cree-XR-E emitters, commonly sold for other applications; these are only as good as their correct wavelength output (Kelvin Temperature/Nanometers). One cannot compare a first generation CREE XR-E or similar emitter from a few years back to the newest XR-E of today anymore than you can compare first generation iPhone to the latest iPhone (same name, improved technology).
> Based on email I get (some very insulting too), forums I have read, & especially YouTube videos (for DIY LED Aquarium Lights) many persons seem to make this very incorrect assumption. This has resulted in a plethora of non reef capable LED lights flooding the market, some claiming to use CRee daylight emitters while in reality these are not even close to the same currently patented emitters used by high end LED lights!
> *I do not know whether to laugh or cry when I read or watch YouTube videos where someone brags how cheaply that they put together a DIY LED Fixture, when in reality this is the same as bragging about making your own PC Computer using a circa 2000 Intel processor and attempting to compare it to a computer using the latest Intel processor!*
> 
> ...


So, can folks debunk this with actual facts (not just opinions please)?  Does TMC have exclusive access to special CREE LEDs that we can't get our hands on and that are far superior to the LEDs folks are using in their DIY projects? I'm interested in these AquaRay GroBeams, but I'm not sure I buy into the super-secret exclusive Cree LED thing.

Thoughts?


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## tentacles (Nov 28, 2011)

Sounds like he got an "exclusive" deal with cree on some particular color bin emitters - who knows which one without analyzing their spectrum/color temp. Most likely he bought out a lot of them from some supplier. I can't imagine he has the kind of volume/buying power needed to have an exclusive contract on a particular color bin unless they are rather rare.

Another interesting fact is that the color temperature of the LED will change *drastically* over it's operating current range. I believe they are binned at 350ma, running them at 1000ma shifts them about .05 (units?) on a CCt chart (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/30/creexlampcwfull.jpg/) If you look at the chart linked there, thats a pretty big shift. Also, you can move another .05-.08 in one or the other directions (downward and left) if the LED is running hot. 

I love how he says "exact wavelength" and then specifies a range of 465-485.

One thing to note, the newer XPG series of emitters is not only higher efficiency than the XRE's, they also hold their efficiency better over time.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

TMC (Tropica Marine Center) has the exclusivity of these LED emitters. TMC is a massive company well known in the industry for reef hobbyist and freshwater hobbyist. If anybody has the coin to do this, its TMC (Tropica Marine Center) has this wrapped up. 

Here is a recent quote from an interview from PFK with TMC's Michael Barrett who is TMC's lighting consultant.

"With energy prices going up all the time, massive amounts of money are being piled into the research and development of LEDs. Indeed, Philips have recently won a $10 million cash prize from the US government for successfully developing an LED product that is equivalent to the good old 60W light bulb. With all of this time, effort and money going into the humble LED I think we will see big things in the future.

The only issue we face in the aquarium lighting industry is that the LED developments are mostly aimed at task and building lighting. This means that warm whites are where the R and D is concentrated with the cool whites that are ideal for an aquarium following along a bit later.

The reason that we at TMC are able to get our exclusive very cool white LEDs is purely because of our early adopter relationship with Cree and the volume that we now buy. As mentioned these aren’t available to anyone else and having spoken to other LED manufacturers including Philips and Osram I have found that they don’t even make LEDs in whites that cool.

You can rest assured that TMC will continue to keep its collective ear to the ground and will strive to bring you cutting edge products at a reasonable price."



Salude


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## galabar (Oct 19, 2011)

Green Leaf Aquariums said:


> TMC (Tropica Marine Center) has the exclusivity of these LED emitters. TMC is a massive company well known in the industry for reef hobbyist and freshwater hobbyist. If anybody has the coin to do this, its TMC (Tropica Marine Center) has this wrapped up.
> 
> Here is a recent quote from an interview from PFK with TMC's Michael Barrett who is TMC's lighting consultant.
> 
> ...


Interesting. I was waiting for TMC to come up with a better mounting option for these and it looks like they did. If these are all that they are cracked up to be, I may have to try them.

Anyone interested on a 36" Coralife 192 watt fixture?  Can I really replace that with 30 watts of LEDs?!?


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## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

Well, huh. I wish I understood a little more about this and could apply all this info to my own tank.


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## robbowal (Mar 27, 2011)

azjenny said:


> Has anyone used this? Among other things that I've been recommended while trying to figure out lighting for my low tech 36 gallon bow, I have been recommended this.
> 
> I have a good T5HO rec as well, but I'd like to go with LED if I can just because I like the way the light looks and also because I won't have to replace bulbs every year, and the are efficient.
> 
> ...


I think you will be fine but the only thing you need to take into consideration is the power controlers for these lights, one two channel controler will control two aquaray 500 units (one on each channel) they will dim together and cannot be contoled seperatly.
If they are mounted close to the water surface i think you will be fine with two (you can allways add another later if you need it along with a controller) 
I currently have changed over from T5 to LED and have two grobeam 1000nd with a multicontroller 8 over a 44Gal 18"deep, the lights are running at 80% when on and 1% for moonlight. the nice thing with the controller is you can setup sunrise and sunset (max 4hours for each to and from full power)
The instuction are a little confusing but if you email TMC directly they will answer your questions very quickly and thouroughly. 

If you do get them try get a deal where you can get the twin 500 units with power controller.
you can also PM me for any advice on setting the controlers if you need to.


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