[Sculp1n]

Fist off thank you for the incredible DIY thread. Amazing man!

I have been dreaming of getting an LED system on my 225 and have read through most of this thread (actualy just reading your answers to the many questions) but I decided to do the math on what this would cost me.

Am I doing this right?
You have 48 star LED's for a 75 gallon that comes to .64 Star LED's per gallon.
Now if I try and apply that to my 225 I would need 144 Star LED's right?

Figuring that the each Star LED costs $7.21, that would mean it would cost me in $1,038 in just the LED's.
Then for ever 6 LED's you need 1 buckpuck, adding $360.00.
Heatsinks I would guess as being $150
Maybe $100 for a power supply to run it all (probably more but I know very little about PS's)

Total $1,648 and that is not including any mounting material, wires, fans and whatever else. Just based on the math I would figure on this being about $7.50 per gallon if you where wanting to do this yourself on any tank. It's competitive with most LED lighting.

My conclusion is that it would be more cost efficient to either get 24/7 supply LED bulb's (if they stay in business after this whole lawsuit thing) or wait till the LED market lowers there prices. Though there is some night and day differences and huge benefits to having a personalized light fixture to fit your individual needs, the fact that you will almost never have to think about your lights for the next 10 years, and that it's just plain cool, this does not seem like a project that would be a good use of my time and money.

I don't mean that to be offensive in any way (you've got enough sh%t thrown at you for this build as it is). Matter of fact I had no opinion till I just figured this out in this post and I could be completely wrong on my math anyways. Those questions marks were not rhetorical.

Once again, Thank You for the awesome thread Soundwave.


Sculp1n