Aquastyleonline.com LED questions.

I would go with the 96 led kit, just because of the length of your tank.
I have 72 on a 60*30*29, 18 leds per c-channel. i'm thinking 20 leds per c-channel should you choose to use c-channels. you would need 5.
 
Considering an LED kit myself. My tank is a 180 (72x24x24) FOWLR (no plans for corals) have to admit the prices of these kits are attractive. My current lighting is a 4 bulb T5 Hamilton VHO 80W per bulb. The bulbs are odd sized and ONLY available via Hamilton and of course have a premium attached to them. It's time for new bulbs about $200 shipped. I was considering gutting the hamilton Fixture and retro fitting led's into it. My Hamilton with all 320 Watts of lights 2x actinic + 2x 10000K was EXTREMELY bright and in all honesty I am happy with the look of the tank with only 1 80w actinic and 1 80w 10000K running. The 320 Watts of heat from the hamilton fixture's bulbs sitting directly on top of my glass tops is also an issue and switching to LED's could literally prevent me from needing a chiller. For a FOWLR tank can anyone suggest a kit that would meet at a minimum my hamilton fixture with 1 each 80w actinic/10000K running. Dont want to spend extra money on something that will be too bright and turned down. but want adequate light for my fish.

Thanks,

Nick
 
For a FOWLR 180, I would think the 90 LED kits would be good. You are running 320w of lights and the 90 LEDs would be a little less, but the the lenses would give good spread over the tank.

I bought the 36 LED kits and just finished installing it over my 40 gal breeder using U channel from Lowes. I was very pleased with the result. I used all the kit parts right down to the wire connectors and I did not find anything that I thought needed to be replaced other than maybe the potentiometers. They tend to dim the light in large increments and do not have much fine adjustment. I read where someone replaced these with Radio Shack parts and the fine adjustment worked much better. I think I may change these out with the Radio Shack and see if it makes a difference.

After running 12 hrs, the aluminum was barely warm to the touch. The drivers were some warmer, but nothing approaching hot. I put spacers behind the drivers when I mounted them to provide cooling all the way around. I built a canopy enclosure for the U channel and mounted everything inside with two 120mm fans for cooling.

Here is the light over the tank, the U channel with LEDs attached with the material in the kit, and the layout of the 36 LEDs on the U channel. I bought the 18 white, 14 blue, 2 red, 2 UV. Not much in the tank yet, it mainly houses a mated pair of yellow head jawfish. I am considering coverning the 8 bulb T5 over my 120 gal to LED and just wanted to build this kit to get some exposure to DIY LED. Hard to beat for $126 landed at my doorstep.
 

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I would go with the 96 led kit, just because of the length of your tank.
I have 72 on a 60*30*29, 18 leds per c-channel. i'm thinking 20 leds per c-channel should you choose to use c-channels. you would need 5.

That's what i'm planning i want 18 leds for string and have 4, my tank is shorter front to back than yours mine is just 20", and overflow is coast to coast internal box, so final dimension is about 61", do you think is enough or i still need some more leds??
 
Anyone try these led's without the included optics? Just wondering if they still had good PAR readings at sand bed. My tank is 21'' deep and I was wondering if it would be good to go with or without optics. Thanks
 
i didnt test the par when i didnt have the optics on, but it was noticeably brighter after putting the optics on
 
I'm looking at trying these over a 40 gallon tank. The thought is to grab the 36 led kit with 18 rb and 18 cw and then adding four extra rb's. Hoping to get around to this befor Christmas and will post pictures etc then.
 
how did u guys protect the led lights from water evaporation or water splashing?? i heard about the spray u can use to protect it. do you spray that before you install the leds or after everything is set up??
 
how did u guys protect the led lights from water evaporation or water splashing?? i heard about the spray u can use to protect it. do you spray that before you install the leds or after everything is set up??

A thin sheet of plexi in front of led's.
 
For a FOWLR 180, I would think the 90 LED kits would be good. You are running 320w of lights and the 90 LEDs would be a little less, but the the lenses would give good spread over the tank.

I bought the 36 LED kits and just finished installing it over my 40 gal breeder using U channel from Lowes. I was very pleased with the result. I used all the kit parts right down to the wire connectors and I did not find anything that I thought needed to be replaced other than maybe the potentiometers. They tend to dim the light in large increments and do not have much fine adjustment. I read where someone replaced these with Radio Shack parts and the fine adjustment worked much better. I think I may change these out with the Radio Shack and see if it makes a difference.

After running 12 hrs, the aluminum was barely warm to the touch. The drivers were some warmer, but nothing approaching hot. I put spacers behind the drivers when I mounted them to provide cooling all the way around. I built a canopy enclosure for the U channel and mounted everything inside with two 120mm fans for cooling.

Here is the light over the tank, the U channel with LEDs attached with the material in the kit, and the layout of the 36 LEDs on the U channel. I bought the 18 white, 14 blue, 2 red, 2 UV. Not much in the tank yet, it mainly houses a mated pair of yellow head jawfish. I am considering coverning the 8 bulb T5 over my 120 gal to LED and just wanted to build this kit to get some exposure to DIY LED. Hard to beat for $126 landed at my doorstep.


Thanks for the pics. I'm thinking about going this route with a new 40B I'm planning.
 
sorry for the confusion but what exactly would you be screwing the plexi glass to on the kit? wont there be distance between the glass and the heat sink?
 
For a FOWLR 180, I would think the 90 LED kits would be good. You are running 320w of lights and the 90 LEDs would be a little less, but the the lenses would give good spread over the tank.

I bought the 36 LED kits and just finished installing it over my 40 gal breeder using U channel from Lowes. I was very pleased with the result. I used all the kit parts right down to the wire connectors and I did not find anything that I thought needed to be replaced other than maybe the potentiometers. They tend to dim the light in large increments and do not have much fine adjustment. I read where someone replaced these with Radio Shack parts and the fine adjustment worked much better. I think I may change these out with the Radio Shack and see if it makes a difference.

After running 12 hrs, the aluminum was barely warm to the touch. The drivers were some warmer, but nothing approaching hot. I put spacers behind the drivers when I mounted them to provide cooling all the way around. I built a canopy enclosure for the U channel and mounted everything inside with two 120mm fans for cooling.

Here is the light over the tank, the U channel with LEDs attached with the material in the kit, and the layout of the 36 LEDs on the U channel. I bought the 18 white, 14 blue, 2 red, 2 UV. Not much in the tank yet, it mainly houses a mated pair of yellow head jawfish. I am considering coverning the 8 bulb T5 over my 120 gal to LED and just wanted to build this kit to get some exposure to DIY LED. Hard to beat for $126 landed at my doorstep.

Hello!
How did you set up the drivers on your build? Did you do one driver per strip or did you do it based on color. I really like the build. I am going to try to cram 14 LED on 1''x36'' U channel and put 4 of those over my 58 gallon oceanic tank. Any thoughts on led placement and wiring would be appreciated. I've got 4 drivers that power between 12-20 leds. Also I dont know if its just me but those little wire connectors in the kit...I am not sure how to use them. Any help on this would be appreciated.
Regards
Cham
 
hi all!!

im also looking at these led for a wile now..
but cant realy decide what to do..
i spoke to the fellow and i can get 6500k, 10000k , royal bleus and bleus..
(will not be using the red and uv leds since i dont believe in gaining some usefull extra pice of the spectrum aquariums..)
these led wil be for a 17 gall..(45x45x35 cm)
how many do you suggest to use( i want to be able to keep some nice sps in the future but just some easy ones and at the top / middle of the tank..)
and what ratio of leds??
i want a fresh color that shows the colaration of the corals at the best..
the dimentions of the fixture will be:
20cm wide 40 cm long the leds sink around 2,5cm into the fixture and will be screwed on a 18x40 heat sink..
the fixture it self will hang around 15cm above the water..
hope some one can help me out on this..

ps im going to power them by meanwell ELN 60-48 drivers..
 
Do you want 2 drivers and independent dimming? I think with these LEDs you need 7 minimum on those drivers to stay in their voltage adjust range (24V min). The max for a single driver is 13 LEDs. So you can go anywhere from 7 to 26 LEDs, but i think with 2 drivers (ideal) and 7 or 8 on each is probably the number you want.

As for the color, i have 2:3 10K white to royal blue, with blue dimmed slightly and its an ok balance, but the white is too clean. I am waiting for some 6500 LEDs still and will try one fixture with no 10Ks at all first; still 2:3 white to blue though. I figure with a little less blue coming from the warmer whites it may end up being spot on, letting me turn the blues up a little more.

However, you will not have that option if you want to keep the colors separate and at roughly 14-16 LEDs. I would probably do 7:9 whites to blue, but am not sure how many of which white to use... I might get the package tomorrow, so i may have more input then.
 
how long did it take to get your order from them? I ordered the 90 kit last week going to mix them in with my t-5 for now.
 
how long did it take to get your order from them? I ordered the 90 kit last week going to mix them in with my t-5 for now.

Mine took about two weeks. Sat in Japan for a few days before they showed up.

I am getting ready to wire them up this weekend, got the fixture made, so I will let you know.
 
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