Grizz's DIY Heat sink & LED build / showing all colors

[The Grizz]

I put all this in my build tread for the 300 gal 8'er but thought I should do a DIYthread to make it easier to find.

I finally got a chance today to start building the heat sinks for this tank. I have decided to do 2 - 39" x 12" heat sinks both will have 136 LEDs but will have room for more.

Got my main plates of 1/4" aluminum cut & 48 pieces of 1/8" x 1" aluminum flatbars as well.





First 5 flatbar fins tacked on:



Now 10:



15:



20:



And finally the last 3:





As you can see in the 2nd last pic I removed the very first flatbar fin, yes this was planned because I am going to wrap the whole out side of the 1/4" plate with some 1/4" x 2 1/2" flatbars.

[The Grizz]

I cut some 2 1/2" strips out of a small sheet of 1/4" aluminum on my tablesaw, then cut a notch into them for my 1/8" clear acrylic cover.









Added a 1/4" x 2" strip across the front but have to add something below the groove to hold the acrylic flat.

LED side:


Fan side:

[The Grizz]

Added a couple pieces of 1/2" square tube to mount the fans onto the heat sinks.

[The Grizz]

Laid out all the LED boards from Modular LED for one heat sink and came up with this so far.



LED legend

CW - XP-E Cool White
CW HEW - XP-E Cool White High Efficiency
NW HEW - XP-E Neutral White High Efficiency
HN - XP-G Cool White ( used for high noon kit )
RB - XP-E Royal Blue
B - XP-E Blue
G - XP-E Green
R - XP-E Red

[Delphinus]

Are those tig welds because it's aluminium and whatnot?

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Are those tig welds because it's aluminium and whatnot?

No tony not TIG welds, I have an aluminum spool gun for this type of work. It's easier to tack with the spool gun vursus needing to use 2 hands for the TIG.

[claymax]

excellent. just great. this is LED deliciousness

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Laid out all the LED boards from Modular LED for one heat sink and came up with this so far.

I'm looking at your first layout of colours. The white seem to be mostly around the edges and the blue/royal blue/other colours are in the centre area. Wouldn't you want to mix them up a bit to even out the colour, or is there a particular reason to have the whites along the edge?

Really looking forward to seeing these LEDs on your tank

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Beverly

I'm looking at your first layout of colours. The white seem to be mostly around the edges and the blue/royal blue/other colours are in the centre area. Wouldn't you want to mix them up a bit to even out the colour, or is there a particular reason to have the whites along the edge?

Really looking forward to seeing these LEDs on your tank

There is a row of XP-G Cool Whits down the center, they are the brightest of all the whites. They are my High Noon kit & wil be on at the highest % from 11:30 - 1:30.

I am think of adding a 3rd fan to each heat sink but even with just 2 you can feel the air flow at both ends of it.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by waynemah

I likely missed it, but do you have contact info or a website of where you got the LED's? I like the plugin idea and I'm planning to LED my 12G nano

They are from Modular LED located in Red Deer & site sponsor.


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