DIY LEDs - The write-up

[wld1783]

3 - 4 feet up I would absolutely go tighter than 40. I agree with fishman, 20 will probably be about right. But you're definitely in the sort of situation where you need to buy a few optics and experiment, as there haven't been a ton of builds at that height.

+1

Just consider the efficiency of having a fixture that high. You might want to lower it and use a wider 60 or 70 degree optic for more PAR...Just food for thought.

Look over the PDF data sheets and that will help along with some hands on testing. Also be flexible. Optics are cheap, plan the build where you can raise and lower the fixture and you will have the flexibility of changing out optics as needed. Just don't go overboard with the adhesive required for some optics.

Bill

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

+1

Just consider the efficiency of having a fixture that high. You might want to lower it and use a wider 60 or 70 degree optic for more PAR...Just food for thought.

If the optics are chosen correctly, height will not alter efficiency, intensity, or coverage. A fixture high off the tank with narrow optics can be as efficient (or more so) than a lower fixture with wider optics, and can be built to have the same coverage and intensity of the lower-mounted fixture.

This is an advantage LEDs have over other forms of lighting - thanks to the wide selection of optics, we're not restricted in choice of mounting height based on spread or effective efficiency of the LEDs. Look at widmer's "projector" build for reference - it's something like 5 feet above the and and giving incredible PAR numbers, because he used very tight optics. I wish more people would do builds like that - it would really showcase the flexibility of LEDs, and it goes really well with the "rimless, no hood" look that's popular right now.

 

[TheFishMan65]

Go back to the bottom page 200 in the summary (probably the third post) there is some from Digikey that I think kcress pointed to.

 

[AJSTITAN14]

How many LEDs would I need over a 24x24x24 inch tank?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

AJ, check the summary on page 200, near the bottom. It depends on a wide range of factors. Most people would probably use somewhere around 30 - 40 LEDs for a tank of those dimensions.

 

[wfournier]

How many LEDs would I need over a 24x24x24 inch tank?

I was running 25 over an SPS tank that size but I recently swapped out four of the crees with a big ~12w Bridgelux.

 

[AJSTITAN14]

Thanks. That summary page was exactly what I was looking for.

I was thinking of running 36 LEDs 50/50 on two 3023-D-E-1000PmA Wired BuckPuck

 

[wfournier]

I believe the maximum number of LEDs for those buckpucks is 6 so you would need six buckpucks and a BIG DC power supply.

 

[AJSTITAN14]

My mistake. The LEDs are 3w not 1w each.

 

[PaulieReef]

Wow blown away, very helpful!

 

[Reefobsession]

Does anyone think that the Rapid LED kits are not worth buying? For my 30"X30"X24" tall cube I was looking to do the

ultra premium 48 LED kit
24 Cool White Cree XP-G R5 LEDs
24 Royal Blue Cree XR-E LEDs
48 Cree XR-E Lenses (Choose from either 40, 60 or 80 degree white or black lenses!)
2 Mean Well LPC-35-700W drivers
2 Mean Well LPC-60-1050 drivers
And I was going to add another ultra premium 6 LED kit
6 Cool White Cree XP-G R5 LEDs
6 Royal Blue Cree XR-E LEDs
6 Cree XR-E Lenses (Choose from either 40, 60 or 80 degree white or black lenses!)
1 Mean Well LPC-35-700W driver

What optics? I am going to build a canopy for my cube so probably 12" off the surface.
And do I need to get a dimmable driver if I have a reef keeper light? I want to be able to set up a lighting schedule that is dimmable so that I can have a dusk/dawn effect as well as cloud coverage.

 

[TheFishMan65]

IMHO the kits are not badly priced. Not as cheap as if you search for the parts, but a lot cheaper than one already built.

If you want dimming then you need dimmable drivers.

At 12 probably either 60 or 80.

 

[Mighunter]

Ok, I would like some help/advice.

I've plowed through many of the posts and the summary on page 200 and have educated myself as far as my brain can take me at the moment.

Here is what I'm working on...

- 265 Gallon (84" long 24" wide 30" deep tank)
- I plan on mostly soft corals at the moment but may tinker with SPS so I want enough light should I choose to try them.
- I have about 4-5 feet above my tank which will essentially be closed in. I do have an inline fan above the tank that I plan on hooking up to a humidistat.

From what I can gather, I should be looking at the following material for fixture:

1) about 200 led's (80 XP-G Cool Whites and 120 XR-E Royal Blues)
2) Drivers (16 Meanwells)
3) Heatsinks
4) PC Fans

So here are my first series of questions:

1) What advice would you all have on the number of LED's?
2) I'm not really concerned about how high above the water the LED's are, so lets say I wanted to keep it 2 feet above the water line, what does this do to the number of LED's needed, the type of optics that would be helpful and the spacing? ( I understand the "focusing" effect the optics have which leads to smaller spacing between LEDs)
3) Are there any build threads that demonstrate how these LED's are wired together and to each driver?
4) If I had 16 Meanwells, does that mean I need 16 outlets to plug them into?
5) Are the drivers typically mounted to the fixture itself (like the top of the fixture) or can you locate these remotely, say under the tank?
6) What is the difference between the Meanwell ELN60-48P and the ELN60-48D?
7)I would like the option to dim these and I must admit I have a bit more reading to do on this subject, but if anyone can get me started I would be most grateful!

I think that is it for now, I'm sure I'll have many more questions to come!

 

[chrisfowler99]

You're tank is pretty much the same size as the one I will be setting up. Mine is 265g as well, (84"(l)x23"(w)x31"(d))

My initial setup is 144 LEDs, 60 cool white (XP-G), 12 neutral white (XP-G) and 72 Royal Blue (XP-E).

I am building, though, with the thought in mind that I may need to add another 72 Royal Blue.

I will be using two Meanwell SP-320-24 power supplies.

I'm doing the DIY Typhon controller and DIY LED driver (by dwzm).

I'd be concerned about using 16 Meanwells...look for a post from kcress explaining the startup current with these drivers. I'd really recommend looking at a couple of larger power supplies.

I plan on running around 1 foot above the water and I'm looking at using a combination of no optics, 45 degree optics and 65 degree optics, but I'm not positive about the ratio yet. I've got some testing to do on that.

At 2 feet above the tank you may need some even tighter optics. I'm not sure what tighter optics are available for the XP-G/E LEDs.

I don't know that I'd recommend mounting the drivers under the tank. Too long of a run for the power lines, IMHO, though someone more knowledgeable may know better. I will be putting the drivers in my canopy as far out of the way as I can.

 

[Tbduval]

It trips me out to hear 16 drivers. I dont even own 16 forks or spoons in my house . Go with what chrisfowler99 said and use a larger MeanWell driver. Look into the HLG series. I would check to make sure they have PFC on driver if you are planning on using 16. Krcess said something in a post about a fire risk. Optics are something you need to play around with to see what works but somewhere between 40 and 60 would be my guess. On my large build I plan on using 40 degree mounted 16" above the surface.

 

[Reefobsession]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Help me choose my Lighting. I either want to go all LED or T5 and LED.
If I were to go all LED, I would go for the DIY kits from Rapid LED.
I would go with
54-3W LED's
27-Cool White Cree XP-G R5 LEDs
27- Royal Blue Cree XR-E LEDs

OR

24-3W LED
12-Cool White Cree XP-G R5 LEDs
12-Royal Blue Cree XR-E LEDs
24" ATI 4 bulb fixture with 3 Aqua blue plus and 1 fiji purple.

AND.... Do you guys hink that half white and half royal blue is a good mix or should I go more blue and less white?

 

[wld1783]

If the optics are chosen correctly, height will not alter efficiency, intensity, or coverage. A fixture high off the tank with narrow optics can be as efficient (or more so) than a lower fixture with wider optics, and can be built to have the same coverage and intensity of the lower-mounted fixture.

This is an advantage LEDs have over other forms of lighting - thanks to the wide selection of optics, we're not restricted in choice of mounting height based on spread or effective efficiency of the LEDs. Look at widmer's "projector" build for reference - it's something like 5 feet above the and and giving incredible PAR numbers, because he used very tight optics. I wish more people would do builds like that - it would really showcase the flexibility of LEDs, and it goes really well with the "rimless, no hood" look that's popular right now.

Ive found that some tighter optics are less efficient than wider ones in some cases as you pointed out they block some light.

I measured the difference between a snap on 70 degree optic against a 60 glue on optic on a Cree XR-E set up and found that my PAR Meter at 24" read more PAR from the 70 than the 60. This is of course only two samples.

A comprehensive optics test would be a nice thread comparing different optics say 60 vs 60, 40 vs 40 at a higher mathematically corrected height, ect...Dont forget the 80 Degree at a lower height...

Lots of options

Bill

 

[Tbduval]

Reefobession- What the dimenisions of the tank? I see it's a 93 cube. If it was me, I would run just LED's but I am kind of favor LED's. Either way would most likely work well. Remember that the XP-G's put out about 30% more light and most people that run them go with a 60RB:40CW. HTH!

 

[Reefobsession]

Reefobession- What the dimenisions of the tank? I see it's a 93 cube. If it was me, I would run just LED's but I am kind of favor LED's. Either way would most likely work well. Remember that the XP-G's put out about 30% more light and most people that run them go with a 60RB:40CW. HTH!

30"X30"X24"tall
Thanks for your reply. I wish the kits from Rapid LED could be more adjustable. I would love to do 60% RB and 40% XP-G.
Do you think that 54 is to much or to little for my tank?

 

[sahin]

Can somebody help me with this intended wiring of LED's and the driver:

I have:

1 x Meanwell LPC - 48volts and 700mAmps (model is LPC 35-700)
I have 24 cree Royal Blue LED's (XRE's).

Ordinarily, I know that you can only wire up 12 of those LED's in series which will drive them at 700mA.

Now can I split the current in two using that 1 meanwell and have 2 x parrallel circuits (each string obviously running LED's in series but two strings in parrallel?

Basically running 24 Royal Blues at 350mA from that 1 driver?

Many thanks.