stephen.davis.
New member
Finished my LED light for my 55gal tank.
10 Cree xpe royal blues
10 Cree xte 6500k whites
46" x 2" heatsink
2 x 50w dimmable drivers.
To start i dont like the look of hanging lights. Not sure why just distracting. I also enjoy playing with leds and thats why i went this direction.
A few things about my tank. Its a older used 55gal, this is my first saltwater tank so trying something small to see if i have the dedication to make it work.
Our house is very small and space is limited so i opted not to have a sump. Because of this my coralife skimmer hands on the side of my tank which is a big reason i decided to build my own light.
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I decided on cree xpe and xte. The cool whites i can run at 1.5A and the royal blues at 1A.
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I used a 46" x 2" x .5" heatsink. Used artic silver 2 part thermal adhesive to mount them.
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The front cover is 6" x 49" x .090 aluminum. I also used the artic silver to mount the heatsink to this aluminum sheet. The LEDs are about 2" off the top of the tank with no optics.
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Then i added some brackets to the back. This made it stable and also acts as a mounting point for my drivers.
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The drivers fit nicely with the dimmers mounted to the back side of the plate. I have not finished up my wire work yet so forgive the messy look. For now im using my multimeter to see my exact amperage settings. I have toyed with the idea of adding built in amp displays for both channels.
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Im at the end of cycling my tank so right now i have no fish or coral in the tank.
Im new to the forum, and using taptalk and photobucket so i apologize if i made any mistakes in uploading these pictures.
10 Cree xpe royal blues
10 Cree xte 6500k whites
46" x 2" heatsink
2 x 50w dimmable drivers.
To start i dont like the look of hanging lights. Not sure why just distracting. I also enjoy playing with leds and thats why i went this direction.
A few things about my tank. Its a older used 55gal, this is my first saltwater tank so trying something small to see if i have the dedication to make it work.
Our house is very small and space is limited so i opted not to have a sump. Because of this my coralife skimmer hands on the side of my tank which is a big reason i decided to build my own light.
I decided on cree xpe and xte. The cool whites i can run at 1.5A and the royal blues at 1A.
I used a 46" x 2" x .5" heatsink. Used artic silver 2 part thermal adhesive to mount them.
The front cover is 6" x 49" x .090 aluminum. I also used the artic silver to mount the heatsink to this aluminum sheet. The LEDs are about 2" off the top of the tank with no optics.
Then i added some brackets to the back. This made it stable and also acts as a mounting point for my drivers.
The drivers fit nicely with the dimmers mounted to the back side of the plate. I have not finished up my wire work yet so forgive the messy look. For now im using my multimeter to see my exact amperage settings. I have toyed with the idea of adding built in amp displays for both channels.
Im at the end of cycling my tank so right now i have no fish or coral in the tank.
Im new to the forum, and using taptalk and photobucket so i apologize if i made any mistakes in uploading these pictures.
