Can I Build a Good LED for a 100g on A $400 Budget

[gunlocators]

Would you put each combination you listed with each drive on the same channel lets say

Channel 1 Driver 1 Pre Dawn to Post Dusk 20 Royal Blues. Running at 650 ma
Channel 2 Driver 2 Dawn to Dusk 10 Royal Blues, and 10 10,000K at 650 ma
Channel 3 Driver 3 Mid Day 10 Royal Blues and 10 6,500K's at 650 ma
Channel 4 Driver 4 Mid Day 8 Royal Blues and 8 10,000K's.

or would the lights need a different arrangement just hooked to the drivers as listed though. Hope that makes sense...

 

[rrasco]

I am personaly not a convinced that that the addition of UV or Red give an advantage without also creating problems..

I personally added a few red to my fixture. I have some UV, but decided against using them. There are 4 reds total on a 72 led system. I wanted to introduce as many spectrums as possible since leds tend to be very narrow in what they provide. I think they do change the color a little bit, but I like it. I think it helps bring out some colors. I have had zero cyano problems in this tank as well, so far anyways. WCs, good flow, GFO, and light feedings are all contributors to that though.

 

[gunlocators]

Also to get most out of each driver do I hook LEDs in series or Parallel

 

[TropTrea]

I personally added a few red to my fixture. I have some UV, but decided against using them. There are 4 reds total on a 72 led system. I wanted to introduce as many spectrums as possible since leds tend to be very narrow in what they provide. I think they do change the color a little bit, but I like it. I think it helps bring out some colors. I have had zero cyano problems in this tank as well, so far anyways. WCs, good flow, GFO, and light feedings are all contributors to that though.

I use Neutral Whites and they do produce a good amount of red. Bow if your using 20,000K whites they produce only a very very slight amount of red light so the addition of reds will not hurt anything, since you have so little red to start with. The difference between the different color spectrums is the ratio of red to blue. Lower K temps = more red less blue, highter color temps = more blue and less red.

 

[TropTrea]

Would you put each combination you listed with each drive on the same channel lets say

Channel 1 Driver 1 Pre Dawn to Post Dusk 20 Royal Blues. Running at 650 ma
Channel 2 Driver 2 Dawn to Dusk 10 Royal Blues, and 10 10,000K at 650 ma
Channel 3 Driver 3 Mid Day 10 Royal Blues and 10 6,500K's at 650 ma
Channel 4 Driver 4 Mid Day 8 Royal Blues and 8 10,000K's.

or would the lights need a different arrangement just hooked to the drivers as listed though. Hope that makes sense...

since your driver are 1.5 Amp and your LED's are rated at 700 ma you need to run two parrellel chains off of each of them. I have found that mixing LED's on a chain is not an issue as long as you are mixing them equaly.

As an example I listed Driver 3 with 10 Royal Blues and 10 6,500K's so what I would do is is run each series chain with 5 Royal Blues and 5 6,500K's. then you run the two chains parrellel to each other. When you power up the driver for the first time start with a near 0 cureent and use a volt meter to check the voltage across each LED. Find the one with the highest voltage. Than adjust the driver so that voltage does not exceed 3.6 Volts for your LED's. Slightly lower is better, like 3.3 Volts.

You can try matching string however if you keep the voltage .3 or more below the max rating on each LED you will be safe, without spending hours or days trying to match LED's.

 

[gunlocators]

OK how does this layout look to keep even amount of leds on each aluminum channel I wound up with 80 LEDs

Channel 1 Driver 1 Pre Dawn to Post Dusk
Parallel String 1 10 Royal Blues. Running at 650 ma
Parallel String 2 10 Royal Blues. Running at 650 ma

Channel 2 Driver 2 Dawn to Dusk
Parallel String 3 5 Royal Blues, and 5 10,000K at 650 ma
Parallel String 4 5 Royal Blues, and 5 10,000K at 650 ma

Channel 3 Driver 3 Mid Day
Parallel String 5 5 Royal Blues and 5 6,500K's at 650 ma
Parallel String 6 5 Royal Blues and 5 6,500K's at 650 ma

Channel 4 Driver 4 Mid Day
Parallel String 7 4 Royal Blues and 4 10,000K's 1 Red 1 UV
Parallel String 8 4 Royal Blues and 4 10,000K's 1 Red 1 UV

Also what do you think of this layout for a 29g Biocube on 1 driver but dimmable via my apex Seeing I will have a extra driver and ton of LEDs left over?

 

[gunlocators]

bump

 

[nemosworld]

two things:
1: that is going to be one blue tank.
2: i would put the red and violet in the center somewhere.
ok three, order some 10k or 6500k whites and do a 1 to 1 on that channel with all the blue.

 

[TropTrea]

Fro the picture you will have a ratio of 48 Blues to 28 Whites. Tat is basicly a 1 to 1.7 Ratio. This is personal taste and some people go as white as a 1 to 1 ratio and others go as blue as a 3.5 to 1 ratio. I think you have a nice comprimise here.

As far as the UV and REd led's are concerned with there present location I woud expect to see two pink corners to your tank. Red LED's kick the color to pink and UV LED's also trick the eye to think things are more purple than they are. Also the spread of the light from those two corner positions will concentrate on those corners and probably not cover the entire tank. My suggestion would be move them to position 6 and 15 with the UV's on the rail more to the front and the Red on the rail more to the rear.


On the 29 gallon tank again move the red and the UV to the center, one behind each other. Keep in mind with only 14 LED's running at 650 ma you probably will not have enough light for any high light demanding corals. I personaly would run at least 18 LED's on a tank that size.

As far as the row of all Royal Blues that is not all bad. This can be a very nice pre dawn post dusk light with the row having the UV bulbs in it comming on for dawn to dusk, and the remaining two rows for mid day.

 

[gunlocators]

Cool sounds great plus i have plenty of LEDs to donate a few more to the 29gal build

 

[gunlocators]

Oh with all said I assume running on dimmable drivers I can tune the white to blue ratio some that way if needed correct?

 

[gunlocators]

Here another revised layout does this look right plus went with 20 LEDs for 20gal

 

[psteeleb]

Here another revised layout does this look right plus went with 20 LEDs for 20gal

I like this layout the best, and I think you will be happy with it. Can't wait to see it come together.

 

[TropTrea]

It is looking much better fore both tanks than the prior lay out. I would simply put the all blue string in the front on the big tank with the others all falling in order so your bottom rail becomes the back.

Yes you can use adjustable drivers. I would however run the all blue rail on a set driver close to its max. Then on your Muid day drivers have the Blues all together and the whites all together so you can balance there color for your taste.

 

[gunlocators]

Looking at maybe doing 5 single rows on another style heat sink I really like. Its not too much more than the cost of what I was going to build

Going a different direction with my fixture going to go with this 4ft heat sink kit its pretty sweet. Also I tinned all 4 pads on all 140+ LEDs today to prep them for install what a long process...

and thinking about this layout since it can do 5 rows of LEDs max 30 per ft

this is still 80 leds

 

[gunlocators]

Ok Well got my heatsink kit in at about 7:30 I have been feeling like crap but made some progress. Next is soldering everything in and wiring everything up. It took me for ever to install 176 Nuts 176 Screw and 176 Nylon Washers then set in all the LEDs oriented the right way. I have to go buy some fuses and resistors tommorrow and a 12v walwart for the PC fans. Radio Shack hopefully will have everything i need.....

 

[psteeleb]

looks great

 

[stormrider27]

That looks great! Would you mind sharing where you got the heat sink?

 

[nemosworld]

Makersled heatsink

 

[AliciaP]

I'm currently waiting on multichips to arrive to put together my less than $100 LED for one side of my tank. if it does well, I will add to it for the rest of the tank and add some red and green. The way I see it, I can't afford the big name awesome LED lights, but if this doesn't work, I'm only out $100, not up to $800 when the other lights don't work as good as I had hoped.