WTB - Small LED lighting (to add to my biocube 8)

[asn-naso]

I would like to add some additional lighting to my biocube 8. I'm thinking about buying one of the 12" strips from reefkoi, but I'm not 100% sure I can make it fit. It might be a tad too long.

Does anyone have any old small strips that they would like to sell?

 

[Cherub]

I don't have any but I just wanted to warn you to stay away from the Trulumen strips. They sucked when I got them for my nano... You might try some of those screw in bulbs with the buiilt in heatsink. They have good reviews and start at 70ish.

 

[Jfaiii]

Check this out. You can use it with any size heat sink. http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-143/06-LED-Actinic-Supplement/Detail

 

[asn-naso]

I've looked at the rapidled's, and thought for about the same price I can buy a strip from reefkoi. Then I started to think about it, the ones from reefkoi are 9 watts for the whole strip, and the ones from rapid are 3 watt's per bulb. Do I need to worry about heat if I go with the rapid's? What about shielding them from the water?

 

[Jfaiii]

What I would do is mount the bulbs to a heat sink that will fit under the plastic water shield in your biocube. Then when you take the PC bulbs out I would leave the electronic components in so you can still run the built in fans if you need. This is because the heat build up can vary from situation to situation.

 

[asn-naso]

I was thinking about augmenting the PC's with some LED's. With that in mind, I don't have much room under the plastic shield.

I was going to modify the front of the lid, so I could put a 12" strip in there. If I go with the reefkoi evo led solution, that gives me 9 watts in addition to the 36 I already have. If I go with the rapidled solution, it would add 18 watts. Both are about the same price, the evo solution is premade and has a glass cover. The rapidled solution is a DIY, and it also sounds like it will generate a lot of heat.

Does anyone else have any suggestions, or have something they'd like to sell?