First time poster. What a great resource this is. Turbo i love the whole concept and what you've contributed. My question is around build vs buy. I love DIY and everything other than the LEDs seems pretty straitforward. Seems like the little research I've done on premade LEDs I could make my own ATS plus prefab LEDs for much less than buying one of your new ATS products. I hope that comment isn't taken the wrong way. I'm all about buying and spending for quality in this hobby of ours. You get what you pay for. And this ATS seems like just the thing for my system. So I guess it just seems like I could build a 4 cube system with about $120 in premade LEDs and a few $ on plumbing and mesh and I'm done? Versus $500 or so on a fully made system here. For one it's plug and play, has extra features, better LEDs and I'm sure performs way better than anything I can DIY. Do I have it right? What else am I leaving out? am I also missing something with the LEDs as I've heard stuff about an LED controller or something?
Not taken the wrong way at all, if I didn't want to help people DIY one, I wouldn't post that info here or anywhere else! When it comes down to it, a roughed up screen, slot pipe, pump, and lights are all you really need. Everything that comes with my units are really more "tweaks" to increase efficiency and ease of use, as well as a few safety issues. Some of these are easy to account for, like spray blocking and light blocking, others like the growth chamber concept are a little trickier to DIY, that's all
Hey Turbo, again thanks. That's really helpful. I really want to DIY it but need to start ASAP and get on the algae in my DT before it becomes a problem. I guess thats one of the other benefits of buying pre-made. Its ready to go. Ok if I DIY I'll post my progress here. Im sure I'll have more questions but thanks again! - Bryan
