Seth's DIY Cree XM-L LED build [Archive] - Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board

Seth81

12-14-2011, 04:44 PM

Hello everyone, I've gotten a bunch of questions about my DIY light fixtures. So I thought I should make a new thread about it.
First off my goal is to have an automated dimmable lighting solution with a night mode that is capable of growing coral, with minimum Algae growth (so cool light all the way).
Basically I designed 5 Lighting strips suspended over my tank with aircraft cable hanging from my canopy rails. This way they are mobile and easily removable.

Here is the Basic LED layout:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5001
Components
5 x 24"x4" Wide Heatsinks from Heatsinksusa.com
20 x Cree XM-L T6 Bin 1B cool White LED's mounted on Star PCB from www.cutter.com.au (http://www.cutter.com.au)
15 x Cree XP-E Royal blue LED's mounted on Star PCB from www.cutter.com.au (http://www.cutter.com.au)
35 x Star PCB shaped thermal pads from Cutter
2 x 100 Watt Thomas Research products LED dimmable driver (2.8 Amps) from www.thomasresearchproducts.com (http://www.thomasresearchproducts.com)
1 x 40 Watt Thomas Research products LED dimmable driver (700 mA) from www.thomasresearchproducts.com (http://www.thomasresearchproducts.com)
5 x 12 VDC Computer fans from Ebay
100' #18 AWG hook up cable from Active Electonics
5 x project enclosures from Active Electronics
5 x 8 Way Plastic terminal stripes from Active Electronics

Make sure you get some spare LED's I did have one of the whites burn out on me after 30 minutes.

Design Data
Here is just some numbers if anyone is interested:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5002

I tried out the fixtures with no fans at all...and after a few hours they got too warm to hold, not burning hot or anything, but too much to be constantly touching, so I decided I needed the fans after all. With one fan per fixture the heat sinks stay room temperature.

Driver Specs:

According to the LED spec sheet, at 2.8Amps the forward voltage is 3.35 Vdc, so the voltage range is the limiting factor to the number of LED's I can connect per driver. The model below would be good for 8 - 12 white LED's at 2.8 Amps

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5003

The driver is dimmable via a 0 - 10 Vdc signal. I plan to connect this up to my PLC (programmable logic controller) and make a whole sunrise/sunset routine.

I decided against optics at this point . The LED's naturally have a very wide angle light distribution, almost too wide over 120 degrees. The only reason I may use optics is that my tank is 38" tall, and if I find that the light penetration isn't that good i.e. not enough light at the very bottom of the tank, then I will spend the $6/ fixture I was quoted. But when I turned the fixtures on I seriously doubt I'll have a problem.
I promise to add some more pictures soon...i.e when I am not at work

BigAl07

12-14-2011, 04:50 PM

Very nice looking layout!

Stones

12-14-2011, 04:56 PM

Looking good man, can't wait to see some pics of it up and running.

Reefer Rob

12-14-2011, 05:55 PM

BigAl07

12-14-2011, 06:01 PM

... I believe corals also need red spectrum.

Your shallow water coral are adapted to utilize some degree of reds for sure. Plus adding a titch of reds & greens is tend to be very eye pleasing to the Homo sapiens in the equation.

Seth81

12-14-2011, 07:15 PM

There is a massive LED aesthetics thread on RC you might want to read before you go with cool whites. Lots of people complaining the light is very flat, and they add reds and greens trying to improve the color.

I went with about 2:1 royal blue to neutral white and to color is gorgeous. After only 2 weeks it's still too early to say anything about algae growth, but I believe corals also need red spectrum.

Looking at the attached flux distribution for the XM-L's I would say there is no need for any additional green lighting. Red... well maybe, but that might encourage algae growth. I think I'll try out my setup for a while. The only mods I am considering right now is optics and some more royal blues for better actinic lighting and a cooler (K) look

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5004

Edit: Looking at the XP-E Cool Whites, there seems to be slightly more green content in the XM-L cool whites

Reefer Rob

12-14-2011, 07:27 PM

Yes the optics are nice, they keep the light in the aquarium, not the room. I tried without first and found it had too much light spillage, but it did have a nice T5 lighting effect. With 80 degree optics there is way more shimmer and more of a halide look.

BigAl07

12-14-2011, 07:30 PM

Looking at the attached flux distribution for the XM-L's I would say there is no need for any additional green lighting. Red... well maybe, but that might encourage algae growth. I think I'll try out my setup for a while. The only mods I am considering right now is optics and some more royal blues for better accentic lighting and a cooler (K) look

Yes the XM-L's do have a much wider "spectrum" than any of the other LED and are an excellent choice to get more Spectral Diversity in your fixture.

Are you going to run these off of a controller or just manual dimming?

Seth81

12-14-2011, 07:33 PM

I'll be running these off of an industrial PLC (Programmable logic controller) using two seperate 0-10 Vdc outputs, 1 for white, another for blue.

Yes the XM-L's do have a much wider "spectrum" than any of the other LED and are an excellent choice to get more Spectral Diversity in your fixture.

Are you going to run these off of a controller or just manual dimming?

BigAl07

12-14-2011, 07:34 PM

Siemens?

Seth81

12-14-2011, 07:48 PM

I'll be running these off of an industrial PLC (Programmable logic controller) using two seperate 0-10 Vdc outputs, 1 for white, another for blue.

Ha ha how did you know!? Yeah I got a S7-1200 serries CPU with some I/O modules. Ebay is a wonderful thing!

Seth81

12-15-2011, 07:21 PM

There is a massive LED aesthetics thread on RC you might want to read before you go with cool whites. Lots of people complaining the light is very flat, and they add reds and greens trying to improve the color.

I went with about 2:1 royal blue to neutral white and to color is gorgeous. After only 2 weeks it's still too early to say anything about algae growth, but I believe corals also need red spectrum.

Curse you for pointing me to that thread! I read through like 30 pages of it!! holly crap! Well after reading the whole thing I may end up swapping 50% of my cool whites with Natural whites. But I think I will wait till I'm actually done building my tank!

Reefer Rob

12-15-2011, 07:39 PM

LOL, I forgot to mention you need at least a case of beer for medicinal purposes while reading that thread. It keeps your head from exploding. Almost too much information!

Try this, I think it sums it up pretty good.
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=246394

cinci

12-15-2011, 08:32 PM

where did you get your drivers? i have been looking for some 200w dimmable inventronics or thomas reasearch without any luck. i wanted to use 2100ma and 700ma drivers.

Seth81

12-15-2011, 09:10 PM

where did you get your drivers? i have been looking for some 200w dimmable inventronics or thomas reasearch without any luck. i wanted to use 2100ma and 700ma drivers.

I got my drivers directly from Thomas Research, price was alright $85 for 100 Watt dimmable, and shipping was fast. They do make a 2100 mA 200 Watt driver, but its not dimmable. I think the largest dimmable version in that current range is 100 Watt.

The Grizz

12-15-2011, 09:43 PM

I got 120w dimmable drivers from Modular LED and he can get 200w dimmables as well.

cinci

12-15-2011, 10:17 PM

not anymore i guess. tried him. he refered me to future electronics who told me to use google to find high power led drivers. emailed the exact part numbers but no reply.
guess business must be good.

The Grizz

12-15-2011, 10:36 PM

Interesting, Martin just dropped off my 5 - 120w drivers about a week ago. Must be supply issues.

Seth81

12-16-2011, 05:14 AM

Well good news and bad news...Good news is I got photos bad news is I think I fried half of my Royal Blue LEDs!! The output wire from the blue driver came lose, I plugged it back in while the driver was on...and now all the Royal blue LED's I had connected won't work, and using my meter on diode check fail, they show a short circuit on on the Blue LED's I had connected.

Well at least I have an excuse to change up my led arrangments.

So here is a white paper with 9 Royal Blue and 12 Cool white LED's.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5015

White paper with just the cool white LED's

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5016

LED Array
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5014

Top side of one of the fixture
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5013

Under side
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5012

eli@fijireefrock.com

12-16-2011, 05:27 AM

coming along nicely
Sorry to hear about your fried led (sure don't take much to fry)
one rule is good to use check 2twice before plugins (I did the same thing but only with 6 led)
If by any chance you are planing to buy more let me know as I could use to buy a few pcs.
You picked the right drivers (thomas research, that's what I am using for over a year now with no problems)

Seth81

12-16-2011, 08:58 PM

Ok so after being upset all night about blowing half of my royal blues, I decided that I should make this an oppritunity rather then a set back. So after much research and reading through tons of opionions I decided that I would make up some new lighting options and get everyone to vote on what they thought was the best mix.

So this option is the brute force methode, I would have to run the CW's and the NW's at 50% as to not be waaay too bright. But would achieve an equal balance of NW to CW, they would both be on the same dimming control. Then also have an equal ratio of royal blue to regular blue, also on different dimmers, but on at the same time. Draw backs are cost, and pain of wiring. The big advantage here is different color lights are clustered together, plus this option allows for flexibility.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5017

Next option just cuts back the number of regular blues.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5018

Here I swap out half my CW's with NW's, and keep a 2:1 ratio of Royal blues to true blues.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5019

Or lastly I swap out all my CW's with NW's and have a 1:1 ratio of royal blues to true blues

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5020

Let me know what you guys think

Edit: I'll probably run the regular blues at around 25%

Cal_stir

12-16-2011, 09:33 PM

option 3

Reefer Rob

12-16-2011, 11:02 PM

Seth81

12-18-2011, 04:52 AM

I like option 4, but you're going to be dialing the whites way back.

What is the effect of true blues? I think there was a warning about the windex look with too many.

I have 18 nw and 38 rb all at 100% 750mA. I think when I first set it up I thought it was a little bluer than the Phoenix bulb I was running, but I'm used to it now so I can't tell.

True blue are suppose to bring out the orange colors of your corals, but you have to make sure they are on really low. Option 4 is decent, but I was thinking that with option 4 I should have more royal blues, because i'm using XM-L for my whites, at 2800 mA and most people use much less powerful natural whites with a 2:1 ratio to royal blues. So maybe keeping half of my cool whites and only 20 royal blues is a better idea?

StirCrazy

12-19-2011, 03:07 AM

would stay away from true blue, realy make tanks look bad.

I like #4 the best but change the true blues up for true violet.

Steve

mseepman

12-19-2011, 04:21 AM

I am planning to use some true blues in my build...if you check out my build thread you can see that I've done clustering like you are suggesting in option 1. I haven't fired them up yet..still wiring things up.

Seth81

12-19-2011, 06:19 AM

would stay away from true blue, realy make tanks look bad.

I like #4 the best but change the true blues up for true violet.

Steve

Do you have experience with the True Violets? if so can you chare your thoughts? Would you run the Violet at a high current? Also any suggestions on where I would buy them? Found some 350 mA 420nm Violet LED's on Ebay for cheap, no idea quaility though. I found some at aquastyleonline, price is right too.

Seth81

12-19-2011, 04:12 PM

I've got a thought, slightly against what everyone else is doing. But listen to my reasoning before jumping to a conclusion.

Since I am using XM-L's at 2800mA for my whites which are close to 4x more lumens then most peoples XP-E's at 1000 mA, I will need a lot more of lumens in the red part of the spectrum to balance out the color. So why not add Warm whites XP-E's (much cheaper then XM-L's) on dimmers of course to my existing cool whites and dim as necessary, use the warm whites as more of an accent lights then as my main led's ( I guess I could achieve the same thing with a few red LED's but just worried about red being too red, and disco effects. So this is kinda what I'm thinking about doing now.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5072

I addeded another cluster to my design (5 clusters now, 4 previously) just becuase it helped balance out the load on the drivers better, and better spread too incase I want to run optics in the future. Also i saw some pics with true violet, and I really liked the effect so I decided to through a few in there. I was considering Cyan too, but I would want it to be on a seperate channel from everything else, and from a technical point of view I think 4 color channels is already a bit much.

I've been obsessing about this for the past few days so please let me know what everyone thinks of this config.

I will have to buy three more drivers, tons more LED's and also I had 4 0-10Vdc channels on my controller, two of which I wanted to use for speed control for some Hydor's... I guess I'll just have to buy another output module......I just hope my wife doesn't take my credit card away!!

Reefer Rob

12-19-2011, 05:29 PM

Not enough blue
You should run your XP-Es at 700-800 mA
Get XP-G Neutral whites.
Too many True Violets? No experience with these.
Take a break :smile:

Try clusters of 3: 1 white with 2 blue/TV (less TV)

...JMO

Seth81

12-20-2011, 07:17 AM

So it ain't blue enough eh? Ha ha ok, well let me know what you think of this option:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5080

In this latest version I went with a warmer bin of the neutral whites to mix with my cool white XM-L's. I already have my XM-L's and the drivers @ 2.8Amps which can't be used with XP-E's or XP-G's unless I get very creative, so yeah I am keeping the cool whites, and will just mix in the neutrals. Thoughts?

Also yes you can run XP-E's at 1000 mA according to the data sheet, but probably best to avoid the maximums of any device.

Also true violet is know for popping out the colors in corals as well as it is thought that true violet significantly aids in coral growth as corals use a significant amount of light in the 390 - 450 nm spectrum for photosynthesis. The only spectrum not really covered very well with NW/RB/TV is the cyan 480 - 500 nm range, which supposedly makes oranges and pinks pop. Only thing is that from what I have read, this should be used very sparingly. But it does looks like it may be worth it. I found this comparison on Nano builders, it really helps put blues into perspective.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5077

Lampshade

12-20-2011, 12:39 PM

Reefer Rob

12-20-2011, 07:50 PM

You're probably going to want to play with things even after you're done. I would drill and tap your heat sinks so you can change you LEDs if you want to make changes.

Everyone has their own taste in colors. Based on what I like and since your CWs are going to be crazy bright, I was thinking more like this:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=655&pictureid=5081

Might be too blue for you?

Lampshade

12-20-2011, 08:01 PM

Robs suggestion looks good, you can also throw wider lenses on the whites to get less Intensity and more spread to help out.

Seth81

12-21-2011, 03:16 AM

Looks great, i've been watching your build on these and you've done some great research. One thing to look at is what your corals will activly use. With LED's you can put out a wavelength very close to what the corals will need, and also what makes them bright. check out:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/9/aafeature - article on fluorescence, the chart at the bottom shows the excitation wavelength of most common coral's fluorescence
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/206/22/4041.full.pdf+html - Paper on how corals respond to light, interesting info on polyp extension based one what wavelengths are present.

It's great that you are taking a mix of blue's and some TV. The mix should hit the peak's of lots of different corals providing great results. This is where LED's far surpass any other tank lighting, because you are going to hit everything in the 400 - 550 wavelength, and not just have one peak in there like most halides. Can't wait to see the results.

I read all of the first link, and most of the second link that you suggested, they were really interesting thanks! What I got out of it, is that if one wants to have some really florescent corals, one should have the 390-450nm range covered. And I would expect rapid coral growth in the 400- 500nm range. Which I think a mix of true violets, royal blues and a little true blue maybe the answer.

One thing I noticed though is that the 420nm true violets don't have too much of the 390 - 400nm range. I am tempted to throw one 400nm LED in per lighting strip, or use 410 nm violets. Anyone on here have any experience in the near UV spectrum? Results?

Rob, still not blue enough for yeah eh?! Ha ha! I was looking through some of your pictures, your tank doesn't seem that blue to me, do you mind briefly describing your lighting setup, and any reasoning behind all the royal blues you recommend? I do understand that lighting preference is very subjective. In one of my pics with 3 RB's to 4 CW XM-L's you can see that the light is already fairly blue.

Personally I had hoped to vary my lighting conditions throughout a 24 hour cycle, towards night I would have a very Avatar thing going on with lots of florescence and actinic light :biggrin:, as it got later in the night switch to more of a violet dominated color. During the day I would go with more of a bright white look more like MH's. And in the morning more of a warmer color.

Nano

12-21-2011, 03:21 AM

One thing I noticed though is that the 420nm true violets don't have too much of the 390 - 400nm range. I am tempted to throw one 400nm LED in per lighting strip, or use 410 nm violets. Anyone on here have any experience in the near UV spectrum? Results?

I dont have any experience per say, but I recently added a true blue and magenta (or violetish color) panorama stunner strip, and my colors have really popped! its too early to speak for the coral growth though currently

Seth81

12-21-2011, 03:28 AM

What about this ?

...whats that you say? "It ain't blue enough!"

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5083

It occurs to me, that I maybe pulling my classic over thinking move on this project.

Reefer Rob

12-21-2011, 04:24 PM

There are no pictures of my current setup out there yet. They are all of my old 180, which was lit by 3 250W halides with T5 supplementation.

My current setup is a 75G standard with 56 3W LEDs, 18 NW and 38 RB. You've obviously been doing way more reading than me, but I decided on this because people had posted on they got a nice balanced color and a 14K look. I think its a little bluer than that.

My decision was really about aesthetics, but the corals are really responding fantastic. I'm trying not to get too excited about it since its only been running for 3 weeks, and there could be problems with LEDs I might not notice for a few months, but... oh no here I go again.

The colors change of the few corals I have has been amazing! A couple of the remnants from my 180 that I've been growing out under a 150W halide, that were never really that exciting, have morphed into truly stunning corals. With your added colors you may get even better results, who knows. Like I said, just make sure its easy to change them if you don't like what you're seeing.

Seth81

12-26-2011, 07:56 AM

Well I think the winning plan is below. It should allow for more then enough flexibility that I should be able to dial in a lighting option I like. I would consider running optics on the Cool Whites, Neutral whites, and the royal blues. I only would consideroptics becuase I have a very tall tank 38" to be exact, so light penetration may be an issue. I hit a little snag with the tank so it will be a while before I will actually have the fixtures over the tank.

The wiring is going to be messy as I had only planned on Cool whites and Royal Blues. It would be a little less messy if I bought another 100 W 2.8 A driver so I could split my Cool whites up better, but cost is starting to be a factor. For those of you potential DIY'ers I really don't think there is much of a cost savings by doing your own lighting, by the time everything is said and done, I am sure I would have spent at least $1200 plus many many hours of research. But in my case with an odd shapped tank, the desire for full lighting control, and me being super particular DIY is the only option!

BTW the snag is that the shop I had lined up to build my curved wooden panels is no longer able to do it. And apparently curved wood panels take like 60 - 90 days to manufacture...plus they need my steel frame while they do the build.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5085

Seth81

01-07-2012, 08:32 PM

So I ordered all the new/replacement LED's. I got the royal blues and the Neutral whites from Cutter, and the TV and UV from Aquastyle online. I like Cutter as you have choice of bin, but they take forever to ship from Austrialia. Now its just a matter of waiting! I'll post on this thread again when I get everything installed.

A big thank you to everyone who has been participating in this thread!

Cheers for now

-Seth

Seth81

09-18-2012, 02:51 PM

Just thought I would update this with a few things I have learned from running my DIY lights for a while now.

1. UV and True Violet LED's bring out a little bit of extra color, and at night I can make the tank glow purple instead of blue...but IMO don't seem to be worth it if I were going to be doing it over.

2. Running XML's at 2.8 amps is a difficult venture. I was using thermal tape, becuase it can be removed if necessary, however at 2.8Amps the star PCB's tend to get hot enough to make the Thermal tape adhesive start to let go, and if nothing else is holding the PCB against the heat sink...prepare for burnt out LED's! I have burnt out at least 5 XML's because of this thermal tape and am now going with arctic silver compound for a more permanent bond. Also a heat sink fan is 100% necessary!

3. I really like the Color I get with Warm White and Cool white mixed. Cool white by itself is missing something, and warm white by itself does not look good.

4. I do like the amount of Royal blue LED's I have. With my whites fully on I can still get a nice color. And for night time I have to cut back my blues to about 65%

5. If you are troubleshooting LED's do not attempt to trouble shoot while your LED driver is energized!! I burnt out an entire bank of LED's this way.

I will be adding a 5th CW led per LED strip, mostly becuase I can...so why not? Ha ha ha...

mseepman

09-18-2012, 03:10 PM

Good to see the update. Did you take any pictures lately? How are the corals liking your light?

Seth81

09-18-2012, 03:32 PM

Good to see the update. Did you take any pictures lately? How are the corals liking your light?

I haven't had many SPS coral long time, infact my first SPS was only two weeks ago. But my softies like this frogspawn are doing very well. My rose bubble tip and my green bubble tip actually hide from the light and they are near the bottom of the tank. I've had some Zoa's for about a month, and they are doing excellent at the bottom third of the tank, they are staying nice a close to thier host rock and aren't extending at all, and they have grown lots of new polyps. My Divisa (kinda like frogspawn is also doing amazingly well seems to have gown a lot, I don't see much skeletal growth though.

I'll try to get some tank wide pics once I fix my burnt out XML's.
Unfortunately I order them from Australia, so it takes a while.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5594

I only recently (like yesterday) figured out how to take much better more true to life night shots, now if I could only get the shooting through thick curved glass thing down...

StirCrazy

09-18-2012, 11:12 PM

1. UV and True Violet LED's bring out a little bit of extra color, and at night I can make the tank glow purple instead of blue...but IMO don't seem to be worth it if I were going to be doing it over.

2. Running XML's at 2.8 amps

you think that the XML's might just be a bit to powerfull for the TV to overcome? the systems that the TV makes the big difference on are the ones where all the LEDs are the same type. so all 1000ma or 800ma ect.

Steve

Seth81

09-19-2012, 06:38 AM

you think that the XML's might just be a bit to powerfull for the TV to overcome? the systems that the TV makes the big difference on are the ones where all the LEDs are the same type. so all 1000ma or 800ma ect.

Steve

Well the UV effect during the day is not even noticble in the least. But at night it does seem to make the green colors more vivid then the royal blues.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5595

Below I took two shots of two pieces of Acropora with the exact same camera settings (in manual) and also with same white balance. You'll notice when the UV/TV's are on the Acro in the foreground is much brighter green and the on in the back as well. This effect is very much deminished on the acro in the background as I turn up the royal blues, becuase the royal blues will wash out the faint green produced by the UV/TV.

Keep in mind I have about 80 watts of Royal blues vs 36.5 watts of UV/TV. Also the Royal blues really made the reds in the tank pop more so then the TV/UV. But this could just be becuase I have much more RB wattage.

Seth81

09-19-2012, 06:55 AM

Two more pics I took with UV at full and RB at half power

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5597

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=5596

Seth81

08-12-2013, 03:55 PM

I just thought I would update this a little. So I have recently upgraded my DIY LED's. I went from 5 pendints to 7, added extra UV LED's and also added cyan LED's. Oh and most importantly I added a second fan to all the heat sinks!

I am very happy with the color and brightness thoughout the tank!

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=649&pictureid=6262

Seth81

09-27-2015, 06:36 AM

Well I guess I will never be doing that again! For other people who try the DIY LED experience, make sure you have a splash guard!!

Also from my experience, I would have spent less just buying off the shelf solution.

byee

02-21-2016, 08:19 PM

Also from my experience, I would have spent less just buying off the shelf solution.

Where's the fun in that??!

Like yourself, I also started to build my own LED fixture but decided against it the light spectrum is crucial. My buddy also built his own to replace his MH lights which resulted with him losing lots of his corals in his 220g tank. Unfortunately, he sold his MH to finance his LED build.

I also built 3 x Arduino based controllers based on the - UK, RC x 2) before I decided enough was enough and purchased a Neptune. Spent hundreds & hundreds of dollars never mind the countless hours of tinkering with the controller. All I have to show for it multiple Aurduinos, TFT touch screens and add-ons.

Need to consider your time and prototyping costs vs buying off the shelf. Regardless, you've gained a wealth of information building the LED fixture which you can brag about to your friends and fellow canreefers.

mike31154

02-21-2016, 11:34 PM

I have no regrets building my unit. Still going strong almost 4 years now. April will be the anniversary. I kept it simpler than most with only basic controls & used 10 watt multi-chip LEDs as opposed to single 3 watt jobs. Sure there was some trial & error, a few boo boos, but all in all consider it money well spent in my case. If I were to do it again, I may try fewer, larger multi-chips that are now available. Commercial fixtures were much more costly when I started my build & the selection was nowhere near what is out there today. If something breaks on mine, I can fix it, don't have to wait on a vendor or manufacturer.