Diy Whole Tank Led Lighting Retrofit

[Schmill]

Looking good, looking forward to the nighttime shot

 

[SuperColey1]

This is my plan for the mounting board. I took an old 29" T5 reflector and cut it into 1.75" pieces to mount the heatsinks and LEDs on. They will act as more heatsinking. The reflector part won't really come into play but may stop some glare from direct view through the gap between the tank and 'luminaire'

And these are the fans on the 'in' side of the 'luminaire'. The other end is identical. Yes before you ask I have turned the fans the other way round at the other end so they are not both blowing air into the luminaire. The left set of 4 will pull air in and the right set of 4 will pull air out.

So waiting for LEDs now. I have actually done 3 series and fixed them to the mounting board complete with their controllers. When I get the final 10 LEDs I will do the other 2 sets. Then all I need to do is to wire everything up and fit an acrylic sheet into the bottom of the luminaire to 'close' it off.

AC

 

[rabbut]

I'd be tempted to leave it open unless you antisipate a lot of splashing. Algea magnet waiting to happen and many Acrylics will reduce the amount of light passing through it, not to mention that they tend to scratch when you remove the algea, further reducing light through-put If you need to cover them, save some long-term £ and get a glass cover

Otherwise, it all looks good I don't suppose you have a link to where you got those LED's from do you? I'm doing a LED set-up for marine, but I want it dimmable. This means making my own controller(s) for the LED's, but I'm comming un-stuck finding the corrent LED's for the job. The highest output LED's I've found so far would require me to use 300 and something of them to do the job of my 150W halide... If you get good plant growth with these, I may give them a worl on my Marine...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[SuperColey1]

I'm not anticipating splash nor algae on the acrylic as I think it will need raising to about 12"/18" above the tank due to the brightness. The Acrylic is more to keep the air coming in from the sides within the unit rather than escaping downward to the tank. I don't want any more evaporation. lol

Link to the LEDs (cheaper to buy them in 5s at auction than buy it now on qty 20s

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=015

AC

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Brilliant. Looking at these potentially for marine as well. I dont suppose you know anyone with a PAR meter do you as I would really like to know what the par is like from these LEDS at different depths.

 

[rabbut]

They've given enough specs to work with though Barney, so we can sus if they are suitable

5 are roughly equivilant in lumen output, to a 150W halide Blooming heck, putting 10 of those over my reef to get the covearge would lead me to have to worry about my corals bleaching

Chears AC, thats realy helped me move along into my DIY luminere. Not at all painful on the wallet either at that sort of price

All the best
Rabbut

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah but from my understanding (which is VERY limited) I didnt think the lumen output was really a good way to check equivilent useable light?

Edit: Just had a look at the link to the ebay shop. Man they are a hell of a lot cheaper then the other ones I was looking at!

Dont suppose you can give a link to where you got the drivers and heatsinks from as well can you?

 

[SuperColey1]

I would look on the reef forums for their opinions on LEDs versus MH. From what I remember reading a few weeks ago people who were using the really expensive LED Solaris setups (not sure if they are hundreds of normal LEDs or high powered ones) weren't overly impressed with them!!!


Link to the drivers I used (1 driver per 3 LEDs in my case)
[URL="http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...N:IT&ih=015"]http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...N:IT&ih=015[/URL]

Link to heatsinks
[URL="http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...N:IT&ih=022"]http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...N:IT&ih=022[/URL]

AC

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Links arent working but thanks

To be honest I have not really read up that much on the putting together side of it (just been looking at the different LED types available and prices so far ). Not sure what the drivers are? Is it just a regulated power supply?

I was thinking of putting together a small unit to try over my frag tank first just to test what they are like.

Edit: never mind just found the specs on an LED driver and can see what it does know

 

[SuperColey1]

Try this link below for the driver:
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/3W-Power-LED-Driver-...1QQcmdZViewItem

a regulated supply will in fact not be too exact so it can overload the LEDs. The driver/current controller is acting like a limiter in this case to stop a chance of overload.

Here's the link to some heatsinks:
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bandnew-DDR-Ram-Cool...1QQcmdZViewItem

AC

 

[rabbut]

How hot do these LED's run? Would you condider heatsinks to be essential, or will just pushing air over their backs be sufficient in your opinion?

Thanks
Rabbut

 

[SuperColey1]

I've only had them running for a few minutes at a time to test my wiring and soldering etc so don't really know how hot they get but this picture is from another thread I was reading through whilst getting a plan together and you can see here that the alu bar is acting as the heatsink!!! Look how it buckles under the heat:

He also said that the temperature had risen a degree or 2 with the lights on.

For the price of those ram heatsinks then I can't see the point in scrimping.

This is Luxeons statement on them within their speccy info:
The LED is mounted on an aluminum metal core printed circuit board (MCPCB) acting as a minimum required heat sink.

Please ensure a sufficient cooling ! This LED can only be operated with an additional heat sink
Caution: The MCPCB can get very hot (~70 °C). Device failure caused by overheating voids warranty !


AC

 

[xxBarneyxx]

There is a lot of power being pushed through very small components and they do generate a LOT of heat (think in similar terms to computer CPU's) so they would definitely need good heat sinks and airflow. Of course the other option if you dont want fans would be to water cool them Copper pipe machined to have 1 side flat and two hose connectors on each end. Stick the pipe to the top of a row of LEDS with thermal paste between the two, stick a pump in a container of water and connect to one side of the pipe and then have a hose on the other going back to the container (yeah crazy idea but I don't think I could live with having a bunch of fans blowing constantly in my living room ). Should cool it better then just heatsinks and fans as well (works on my pc ).

 

[andywg]

Barney, some people have tried DIY LEDs on Reef Central. You need decent heat sinks, cooling and proper individual reflectors to get the best out of the LEDs. Basically, the DIY people failed (one of the designers from Solaris is on there offering help and insight into how they got theirs working).

The general feeling on PAR measured on RC is that they do a good job but won't replace MH just yet. When supplemented by T5s they can handle a mixed reef quite nicely, but won't be first choice on acro farms for a little while yet.

 

[SuperColey1]

The trouble with having lenses and collimaters on these is that then you see the individual beams going through the water which I don't want. I want even spread. If you do want collimators/lense/reflectors then they are cheap from the same source as the LEDs here:
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=023

The heatsinks I am using are much smaller than the ones that are made for Luxeons but then I'm using the hollow section of the old cut up reflector as extra and then 4 fans blowing in from the left side and out of the right. the unit will be enclosed at the bottom with the acrylic to make sure the air flow through rather than in the left and then out through the bottom.

These are incredibly quiet even when running 1 pair from a single 12V source. You can just about hear them if you put your ears close. With all 4 pairs (8 x 50mm fans) running from a single 12V source they then run slower and even quieter.

I am assuming there won't be a draught of cold air coming out from the right side as the air will be warmed from the heat they are removing.

We will see. These DIY efforts often need rethinking when finished. lol

AC