led lighting? - Page 2

mseepman · #11 12-10-2010, 04:46 AM

If you are unsure about building your own (or hiring someone to build it) then you might want to take a look at one or two of these with CREE lights in them.

https://www.fish-street.com/key_aqua...ategory_id=118

I am planning to build my own too and if you have the budget, Milad appears to be the right track for making a great light so he might be the right person to do it for you.

roblarss · #12 12-10-2010, 04:59 AM

Well I did mine about 2 years ago and have had an expensive learning curve.

With the knowledge out there now that can be reduced significantly. I paid about 4 bucks an led and the drivers - meanwell CLG-150-24A - were about 250 dollars for both. I made my own custom heatsink since I couldn't find one in canada and heatsinkusa was to much for shipping - i was trying to be a cheap bugger.
Within months of running one test panel - around 60 LEds i had the entire panel failed due to heat - lost most of the leds. Redesigned the heatsink with fans and now have not lost a single LED in almost 2 years.

The failure was the result of not having a splash shield - acrylic plate - between the water and the LEDs and not having any fans running.

Now I swear by LEDs. Cost me a bit more than a Metal halide setup but I have zero heat issues in the tank and only 300 watts power consumption - probably less with the drivers running only 75%.

Milad · #13 12-10-2010, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roblarss

Well I did mine about 2 years ago and have had an expensive learning curve.

With the knowledge out there now that can be reduced significantly. I paid about 4 bucks an led and the drivers - meanwell CLG-150-24A - were about 250 dollars for both. I made my own custom heatsink since I couldn't find one in canada and heatsinkusa was to much for shipping - i was trying to be a cheap bugger.
Within months of running one test panel - around 60 LEds i had the entire panel failed due to heat - lost most of the leds. Redesigned the heatsink with fans and now have not lost a single LED in almost 2 years.

The failure was the result of not having a splash shield - acrylic plate - between the water and the LEDs and not having any fans running.

Now I swear by LEDs. Cost me a bit more than a Metal halide setup but I have zero heat issues in the tank and only 300 watts power consumption - probably less with the drivers running only 75%.

did you end up putting a clear acrylic splash shield on the leds? what height are they above your water?

Milad · #14 12-10-2010, 05:21 AM

Ryan if you want to build your own, you can check out my led thread and also the parts list post (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...4&postcount=12) with the prices and links which im keeping up to date

your tank is slightly smaller than mine so it would be close to the same LEDs. Im doing 144 LEDs instead of 120 but I think you would still need to two 3 modules unless you only have one brace in the middle for 5 foot then you can do two big modules.

I could build one for you for half the price of the commercial ones but if you have time, and are not in a huge rush to setup your tank then I would just build one your self. Its really rewarding and you dont need to know too much about electronics. the hardest part is probably soldering and thats more tedious than hard.

Im aiming to do mine under $1500

also, do you have a controller? if so you can dim these bad boys and make a nice sunrise and sunset.

roblarss · #15 12-10-2010, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milad

did you end up putting a clear acrylic splash shield on the leds? what height are they above your water?

I have 2 modules with an acrylic splash shield spaced about 0.5 inch from the leds. I have both modules hanging 3.5 inches above the water line. The modules and drivers sit in a frame made out of 1" x 1.5" aluminum angle hanging from the ceiling.

I am looking at later changing out the drivers to ones able to have a pulse width signal to dim them for sunrise/sunset but that is in the future when I finish building my new controller.

sphelps · #16 12-10-2010, 03:26 PM

I believe the rule of thumb is about 1 LED per 12 square inches. So if the tank is 60" long and 18" wide you'd need at least 90 LEDs. With SPS you always want to go over the recommended base line so personally I would be aiming for between 120 to 144 LEDs. I wouldn't use 40 degree optics as they don't actually spread the light evenly over a 40 degree spread, they will concentrate most of the light at around 20 degrees which can create hot spots which although not noticeable to our eyes I don't think it's ideal for coral. 60 degree optics would be better IMO but I'm no expert.

The all in one kits are really easy to build, anyone who has used a soldering iron before can easily do it.