# DIY LED GTA/Canada



## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

Been going back and forth about what lighting for my 200 gallon 7' x2' x 2' medium- high light. Want to see how much a diy led would cost me. Anyone have experience with this ? Any recommendations for led suppliers in Toronto or Canadian websites?


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## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

bump........


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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

I have ordered from aquastyle online ( google it) they have the best prices on DIY kits and parts although they are in the US and you'll get screwed on the customs fees. I recently (last summer) built an actinic strip from them and it was a good deal except for the extra 40 bucks for customs)
I would love to know of somewhere local or even Canadian... Best bet (in hindsight) I think might be eBay and order from China. You have to know exactly all the parts you'll need as you don't get kits from eBay. It's not hard and fairly easy to figure it out though. You can look at Aquastyle or Rapid LED and see what comes in the kits and see if you can get a better deal on eBay.


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## nc208082 (Jun 27, 2013)

Honestly I wouldn't diy an led anymore. You can buy controllable units for quite cheap that will grow quite a bit. By the time you source all the parts and ship it to you the cost will be pretty close and not look anywhere as good as a pre built system.

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## CapnCaveman (Jan 2, 2013)

Just finished building one for my 65G planted with LEDs that I ordered from Fasttech based on a rapidled build. It's only been up and running since the weekend, so I can't speak to longevity but if you want practice soldering it might be a worthwhile project. LEDs took over a month to arrive though. Paired it with some constant current drivers and an old laptop power supply. I'm probably at less than $100 for the consumables and mounted them in an old t5 fixture that blew the ballast


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## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

I have a 200 gallon 7' x 2' x 2'. A tank this size requires some multiple of the high end led fixtures. And costs can go way up. Planning a diy led build right now with the help of someone from plantedtank forum. Parts right now excluding aluminum bars for the heatsink add up to about 650 cad. Sounds pretty reasonable so far. 

Parts come from a combination of eekbay and stevesled. Just wanted to know if theres something in canada where i can avoid custom charges. Also doesnt help with our canadian dollar the way it is.


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## CapnCaveman (Jan 2, 2013)

Just for example, these are the Emitters I used. Cree Xp G2 5W

Not sure how they'd compare with the luxeons from Steve's Leds or if you are looking at the tristars or 12W but $1.58 plus free shipping is hard to beat. If you go with FastTech, I hear you should pay the extra for the E-Ticket shipping. I didn't and it was about 5 weeks.

Can't wait to see how yours turns out


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## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

CapnCaveman said:


> Just for example, these are the Emitters I used. Cree Xp G2 5W
> 
> Not sure how they'd compare with the luxeons from Steve's Leds or if you are looking at the tristars or 12W but $1.58 plus free shipping is hard to beat. If you go with FastTech, I hear you should pay the extra for the E-Ticket shipping. I didn't and it was about 5 weeks.
> 
> Can't wait to see how yours turns out


Im using the Luxeon rebel es 3watt. I will check out the fastech leds. Thanks for the suggestion. Will try to document the build. Will probably ttake another one to two months since a lot of parts are coming from china haha.


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## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

Anyone have experience with rapidled or coralux.net ?

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## amps (Feb 24, 2015)

I just made a big order of 75 Luxeon LED's from Rapid.

The customer service was awesome and it worked out to be the best overall pricing and stock levels. I was able to get everything I needed from just the one store (including all the power and heatsinks).

I'm doing 5 groups of 15 LED's spread over a 72" tank. 40 Royal Blue, 15 Neutral White, 5 Lime, 5 Cyan, 5 Blue and 5 True Violet. It's spread out into 5 channels so I can have solid control over the color/tone of the tank.


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## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

amps said:


> I just made a big order of 75 Luxeon LED's from Rapid.
> 
> The customer service was awesome and it worked out to be the best overall pricing and stock levels. I was able to get everything I needed from just the one store (including all the power and heatsinks).
> 
> I'm doing 5 groups of 15 LED's spread over a 72" tank. 40 Royal Blue, 15 Neutral White, 5 Lime, 5 Cyan, 5 Blue and 5 True Violet. It's spread out into 5 channels so I can have solid control over the color/tone of the tank.


Were you charged custom?


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## amps (Feb 24, 2015)

I had them shipped to Niagara falls so I could avoid the extra $40 in shipping charges. I plan to pick them up next week.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

I'm very glad you're going with DIY LEDs, it's going to be wicked and so versatile, keep us updated and posted on the progress!

I came close to building my own a year or so back, but went with Radions instead. However, would still be interested for future projects.
Post pictures!


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## vincel892 (May 23, 2012)

default said:


> I'm very glad you're going with DIY LEDs, it's going to be wicked and so versatile, keep us updated and posted on the progress!
> 
> I came close to building my own a year or so back, but went with Radions instead. However, would still be interested for future projects.
> Post pictures!


Yup. Decided against T5 due to costs associated with buying tubes every year or two. Will try to document build as best I can


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## PaulieWoz (Aug 5, 2015)

Check out ,

http://www.atcledlight.com/

They are located in Mississauga. I've never shopped there and I'm not sure if they'll have what you are looking for, but I saw them advertise led aquarium lights on kijiji a few weeks ago. But I think they have everything you need to make your own fixture.

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