LED Build Thread

[daniels25143]

Ok, so I am going into the wild and semi-uncharted territory of LED lighting. I wanted to start on something small, so decided the Frag Tank I bought from Dennis would be a good start since I needed a light for it anyway. I just ordered the parts, and will try to post progress as things arrive. I'm putting 24 LED's over the tank, 12 cool white Cree XP-G, and 12 royal blue Cree XP-E 3W LED's. All of the LED's will have 45 degree lenses on them, so according to the myths/lore/common knowledge online I should have ~250 W MH equivalent over the tank, overkill I know, but might want to use this in other places as well. I bought dimmable LED drivers for the project as well, so I can "tune" the color from 6500k up to near actinic with two potentiometers. (I'll be moving to something more sophisticated eventually, but keeping it simple for now.) All the LED's are going to mount onto a 8.5" x 9" heatsink mounted about 20" above the tank. Thats one of the very cool things about LED's you can mount your light source very far away from your tank. Makes it much easier to work on the tank, and keeps what little heat is developed from the back of the LED away from the tank. Now I'll just need to get a bigger heater .

[MBintraining]

all

Dan please be as complete as possible including where you ordered materials from and pics as you go

very curious about LED DIY lighting systems


thanks Dana

[daniels25143]

Well, no pics yet, but here is my Material List so far:
Rapid LED Items
2 Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver $64
1 Thermal Grease (5g) $5
2 4.25" x 9" Aluminum Heat Sink $25 (Going to be screwed together to make one large heatsink)

From Cutter.com.au (yes in australia, and yes it was cheaper this way)
12 Cree XP-G Cool White $97.08
12 Cree XP-E Royal Blue $71.88
24 Cree XP Optics 45 Degree $63.60 (This is actually the widest optic they have for this LED that I could find. Makes designing a bit challenging in an existing hood.)

Next steps for me are to get Cooling Fans and possibly an LED controller to automatically do dusk/dawn/moonlights, etc. If I get real fancy with it I'll do thunderstorms

[dlacey]

Prices? in USD, lol...

[daniels25143]

I updated with prices in USD, just for you Dennis.

[Ken]

This guy has an awsome, hope you can learn from some of his mistakes.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=245374

[dlacey]

Thank you! Just what I wanted to see... not a cheap project

[cmacmike]

Thank you! Just what I wanted to see... not a cheap project

Seems alot cheaper that what you sent Tullio!!! LOL

[dlacey]

Definitely

[Saltwaterworx]

LED= the future! Do you know the PAR? I'd like to see pics of what you got.

[daniels25143]

Dennis, no definitely not cheap. But, if you look at the total cost of ownership it is actually cheaper than running metal halides. Lights will run for ~50,000 hours, and use half the electricity. Payoff is in about 2 years.

Ken, I've been reading the LED thread on Reef Central, it's about 200 pages long. The hardest part is finding the right LED's, right optics, and determining how how you are going to mount the fixture. So many options with them.

If someone has a PAR meter, I'd be happy to take measurements when I get done.

[dlacey]

yeah, when I was trying to get the tullio leds I was looking at just a few years to recoup the money. Definitely worth it... Nice to have someone local try it

[iangibby]

Hey Dan just curious as to what made you go with 45° lenses. From my understanding of the lens that would be usefull in a very deep tank. Anyway just my 2cents theres no right or wrong. Im going to be using leds on my new 180 so I cant wait to see how yours turns out. Did you go with meanwell drivers?

[iangibby]

Heres a useful link Dan www.rapidled.com

[daniels25143]

Honestly, I wanted to go wider with the lenses, but you don't have as many options for the XP series of LED's. The bare LED has a 120 degree angle, so had to put something on them. I did the math, and assuming I hang the fixture ~20 inches above the water I'll get the light spread I need. The lenses I selected are also easy to change, so if I decide to do something crazy like mount the lights in my cieling, I can put some 8 degree lenses in there and be all set