DIY LED help

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by makana

Thanks alot. Let me know what he says.

The tank is only 24x12. So do you think it would work if I made it like a strip light? I could go 12" long and an inch or two wide. If that would work I could probably fit it in the old freshwater light.

I was thinking that I needed to make the heat sink only a little bit smaller than the tank to get proper coverage.

So after talking with Martin today there is really no way of calculating the intensity ( par ) before you build only after its together & running, then you can check it with a par meter.

Well if your 24" x 12" I would go with a 12" x 4" heatsink, use rapids reccomendations but order a few more just in case you want to add a few. I would suggest 8 whites, 6 blue & 6 royal blue for starters.

[The Grizz]

According to the formula on Rapid Led you would require 16 leds over your tank. I would still go with a few extra just in case. If you dont run them at 100% they should last longer i would think.

[makana]

Thanks for all your help! I find the entire topic to be a little too much like trial and error and really lacking in available information.

What are your thoughts on the cool white vs neutral white. The neutral white looks to cover more spectrum so I was leaning towards that. But having never seen the two myself I don't know what they actually look like. I'm hoping to get close to full spectrum but don't want it to look bad.

How about optics? I have read that you don't need optics on a tank under 24" depth. I read a contradicting article that said you need optics to achieve the equivilent of 150w mh regardless of depth.

[The Grizz]

It is a deffinate gray area for sure.

I didn't like the color of the Nuetral White in my build & have changed them all to cool white, much nicer color mixture with the blues. Nuetral whites have a bit of a yellow ting, where as cool whites are a nice clean white.

As for optics, as far as I'm concerned there are very much needed for all colors except for reds & green. Optics focus the light from the led downward instead of outward. Also any blues used for moon lights don't need optics as you just want the light to spread out wide.

[makana]

If I understand the math correct 60 degree lenses would give me a 34" diameter 20" from the bottom and almost a 14" diameter 8" down. So If the light is 2" above the water there is still great coverage for my size of tank. From what I have read it sounds like 60 degree optics should match 150w mh.

So given the size of my tank, without optics the colours I add for full spectrum should be ok if I put one of each in the centre of the light. I'm thinking one of each without optics: red, green, violet, and neutral white. Then cool white and blue/royal blue with 60 degree optics running down the length of the light.

Does that sound good? Do you think the 1.8" x 12" heatsink from modular led would be wide enough?

[The Grizz]

I would give yourself more room to spread out the LEDs more, it would allow you heatsink to dissipate the heat much better. If you have an old fixture housing you want to use go as big as possible & don't skimp on cooling fans to blow on the heat sinks, heat is an led killer.

[Ct_boi]

Hi guys I am setting up a 20g tall nano reef and wondering if anyone has used or know about aquastyle LEDs.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Ct_boi

Hi guys I am setting up a 20g tall nano reef and wondering if anyone has used or know about aquastyle LEDs.

Heard of them but never really look that hard at them.

[Ct_boi]

I've been looking into them allot and have noticed some good reviews. However I would like to know the type of custom price friendly LEDs most reefers are building. Please help. Thank u.