Beginner LED Project

Biotopes

Biotopes

New member
Hey all! Before I say anything, this will be my first DIY LED project, so I apologize in advance for the questions that will be answered so easily by most of you guys ;)

I am starting a new 55 gallon aquarium, and have looked at aquarium specific LED's, T5's, Metal Halides, and RGB LED Floodlights.

I talked to a member on here (Percher) and he has helped me tremendously, I was going to go with the spotlights, but he said his dimmed after some use. So then he recommended going with a DIY LED project. The two links at the bottom are what he recommended, and what he used.

My main concern with building my own LED system is that I am not sure on wiring, and especially plugging what I built into my wall. I have some experience with electronics, mainly small, AA battery powered robotics. The two links at the bottom are "10W Super Actinic Blue+White Hybrid Led" and
"55mm Cooling Fan Heatsink Cooler"

Basically 50/50 10W LED's and a 55mm cooling fan with a heatsink. I'll describe my concerns with them separately.

50/50 10W LED's :

I am wondering on HOW to wire them, is it basically soldering positive to negative for each LED? So that it comes out to four LED's in a row with the charge going: positive, negative, positive, negative, and reversed on the other side? Because the LED's are 10W, I am going to get four of them (supplemented with some UV and blue LED strips).

55mm Fan :

With this it has a plug at the end, then it has what seems to be positive and negative, can I just clip the plug off and add the fan?

---

So, on top of those concerns, I am not sure on how to power it. Percher said he uses the Mean Well driver, and that it would be ok to power 4 LED's (which is the amount I'm going to use). Is it ok to attach all the LED's, and two fans?









http://www.ebay.com/itm/360757816563?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370795644232?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

http://www.rapidled.com/mean-well-lpc-60-1050-constant-current-driver/
 
well first off...the output voltage of the driver is about 48V, then after you add the leds at 11v a piece, you're left with only 4 volts to run the fans. Although this particular fan doesnt give its operating voltage, it's safe to say it runs at 12v as most all computer fans do.

It would be all right to grab a 12v 500mA or 700mA power supply like a phone charger and splice it to power your fans separately.

so to answer your question...no, you cant just splice them all together, you need to have a diff power supply for the fans.

additionally...you will take the red output of the driver to the + terminal of the first led...then take the - terminal of the first led and go to the + terminal of the next led...keep doing this for all the leds until your left with the - on the last led and connect that to the black wire on the driver.

On top of all this, eventually you will want a broader light spectrum if you want to keep sps well. This means some 390nm to 430nm leds and maybe some blues towards the greener side (470-500nm) so keep that in mind, but for right now...start with this and make some mistakes. that's how you learn!
 
And wiring a switch would be as simple as just connecting it with the right terminals? I am going softy's, so I should be fine for a while :)
 
I hate to be spoil sport, but the heatsink is COPPER. Copper is very bad in the reefing world. I would opt for a similar heatsink in aluminum. Also, cut the do half of what you planned in a blue/uv hybrid light. Even the softies will love it. Just my opinion. Good luck
 
2clown said:
I hate to be spoil sport, but the heatsink is COPPER. Copper is very bad in the reefing world. I would opt for a similar heatsink in aluminum. Also, cut the do half of what you planned in a blue/uv hybrid light. Even the softies will love it. Just my opinion. Good luck
Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know before I bought them, and what do you mean by "cut the do half of what you planned" ? :)
 
Depending on how high you put the lights will determine if you need to worry about copper remember all wire is copper so just keep it high enough that water isn't splashing all over it
 
Copper heatsink would be bad if it dropped into the water, yes. Then again so would a live aluminum one... Don't drop it.

But, copper on the heatsink will cost more than aluminum by quite a bit, and i doubt the benefit of better cooling is worth it on something like LEDs until you really make compact cannons out of them.

As for the fan on that driver, its not gonna work and not because you would want to wire it in series and run out of voltage... But because if you did that you would be pushing current through it at a rate i highly doubt its designed for, ending up burning the motor. Wall wart at 12V, as mentioned before, is all it needs.
 
I did dig through so stuff in my house and found a couple little fans. The most likely candidate is a fan from a halloween costume that runs off of two AA batteries. How hard is it to convert something like that into a fan I can plug in?
 
Ok, so I totally rethought my design.

I have done some research and decided that I am going to go with 3, 50W Cool white LED's from eBay, each attached to a small heat sink (waiting on someone to answer my fan question to decide on adding a fan) and add a blue LED strip from eBay just in front of the white's for accent. Can I run three 50W LED's on a 150W LED driver? Or should I go with a 200W driver to be safe?
 
If you plan on growing coral I would advise against this strategy. Maybe keep the same overall plan, but switch those 3 cool whites into a dreamchip ....something like this:

http://ac-rc.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=158

but smaller. you're just noy going to get a good response from your coral with the light being cool white dominate. Typically you'd be better with cool whites at 20-40% of max with the blue and uv taking up the rest...as a starting point.
 
I did forget to mention that you'll want a separate power supply for the fans. That is completely my fault. They are 12v at 0.5 amps but have run them at 12 volts, 2.5 amps with zero issues to date.

2clown said:
I hate to be spoil sport, but the heatsink is COPPER. Copper is very bad in the reefing world. I would opt for a similar heatsink in aluminum. Also, cut the do half of what you planned in a blue/uv hybrid light. Even the softies will love it. Just my opinion. Good luck
Click to expand...
They aren't copper. They are anodized aluminum. Kind of misleading for them to make them appear that way, but harmless otherwise. I bought a crap ton of them a while back and cut up a few for some other non-reef projects.

There is nothing wrong with the 50/50's, especially if you are just starting out and not sure what direction you want to take your tank. Its a good starting point and you can modify your setup over time with the knowledge you gain. Some corals will do very well under 50/50 lights (my Trachaphylia has insane growth under 50/50s...my softies all have decent growth), some will adapt but it isn't ideal, some will want more full spectrum as stated, and some just don't like LEDs.
 
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