Finally doing a LED lights project. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I was thinking about using the par 38 led light screw in light bulbs, but the bulbs are kind of expensive and I thought I'd get better life doing it not so compact.
40 gallon breeder salt water/ 20g sump
Materials-
LEDs
(10) 3W XTE Cree Royal Blue
(10) 3W XPE Cool White 6k-6.5k
(10) 3W Chinese Red
(10) 3W Chinese Warm White
(2) 3W Chinese UV
I have no experience buying these. I've read Cree LEDs are the best and the Chinese LEDs are inexpensive, so I ended up mixing and matching Bought them on Ebay. I'm planning on using all the LEDs except for the red color, which i'll be using 3. It was cheaper to buy 10. I should have bought more cool white. I looked for Cree 10k, but their cool white was only offered in 6k. The 3w Crees are about $1.20-1.50 each, the 3w Chinese are about $0.30 each.
Power Supply / Driver
The Crees run at a higher amperage so I purchased a 1A driver. The Chinese run at 750mA so I got different drivers for those. I got various sizes that drive different number of LEDs. These are cheap on Ebay. The 1A driver was $10
Lens
I don't have the Cree lenses yet, but the Chinese lenses fit nicely. I got 45 deg beam focus. Around $0.30-0.50 each
Heat sink -
4x2 aluminum channel 60" - $45 shipped. Buying an actual heat sink is expensive. This channel has a good amount of surface area for heat dissipation and more than adequate due to the mass of aluminum. I cut it in half for (2) 30" pieces.
Thermal Epoxy
To glue the LEDs to the aluminum. You need a tiny amount since you're gluing 2 flat surfaces
Extension Cord
Cut an end and wired it to the led driver
Wire
Wire
Here's a picture of the aluminum channel, LEDs, drivers and lenses
A layout of the LEDs. The white ones on the bottom are Cree, the black LEDs are Chinese. Wiring is simple, just + to -.
I drilled holes in the channel and tied it with string.
Here's a picture of the tank with 1 of the 2 channels installed
http
/imgur.com/7JCMzKb
http/imgur.com/CciTr6Z
I need to get the lenses for the Cree lights which i haven't received yet. The light is very spread out. The red didn't seem to blend too well with the lenses so I took them off. I still don't have the UV LEDs installed yet, and I still have 6 more Cree royal blues. It should be 51W total (6-Cool White Cree, 4-Royal Blue Cree, 3-Red Chinese, 4-Warm White Chinese @3W ea).
40 gallon breeder salt water/ 20g sump
Materials-
LEDs
(10) 3W XTE Cree Royal Blue
(10) 3W XPE Cool White 6k-6.5k
(10) 3W Chinese Red
(10) 3W Chinese Warm White
(2) 3W Chinese UV
I have no experience buying these. I've read Cree LEDs are the best and the Chinese LEDs are inexpensive, so I ended up mixing and matching Bought them on Ebay. I'm planning on using all the LEDs except for the red color, which i'll be using 3. It was cheaper to buy 10. I should have bought more cool white. I looked for Cree 10k, but their cool white was only offered in 6k. The 3w Crees are about $1.20-1.50 each, the 3w Chinese are about $0.30 each.
Power Supply / Driver
The Crees run at a higher amperage so I purchased a 1A driver. The Chinese run at 750mA so I got different drivers for those. I got various sizes that drive different number of LEDs. These are cheap on Ebay. The 1A driver was $10
Lens
I don't have the Cree lenses yet, but the Chinese lenses fit nicely. I got 45 deg beam focus. Around $0.30-0.50 each
Heat sink -
4x2 aluminum channel 60" - $45 shipped. Buying an actual heat sink is expensive. This channel has a good amount of surface area for heat dissipation and more than adequate due to the mass of aluminum. I cut it in half for (2) 30" pieces.
Thermal Epoxy
To glue the LEDs to the aluminum. You need a tiny amount since you're gluing 2 flat surfaces
Extension Cord
Cut an end and wired it to the led driver
Wire
Wire
Here's a picture of the aluminum channel, LEDs, drivers and lenses
A layout of the LEDs. The white ones on the bottom are Cree, the black LEDs are Chinese. Wiring is simple, just + to -.
I drilled holes in the channel and tied it with string.
Here's a picture of the tank with 1 of the 2 channels installed
http
/imgur.com/7JCMzKbhttp
/imgur.com/CciTr6ZI need to get the lenses for the Cree lights which i haven't received yet. The light is very spread out. The red didn't seem to blend too well with the lenses so I took them off. I still don't have the UV LEDs installed yet, and I still have 6 more Cree royal blues. It should be 51W total (6-Cool White Cree, 4-Royal Blue Cree, 3-Red Chinese, 4-Warm White Chinese @3W ea).
