DIY LEDs - The write-up

[DFason]

Here's the guys tank the 300 will go in. Very nice! It will be using 2 MP60's and all the wood is removable. I have a few other builds going on that way up there too.

8'x3'x3'

-Dave

 

[kcress]

That's a 300?!! From here it looks like a 55 or maybe a 70. Photographs... eh.

 

[S2minute]

Kcress, you guys are awesome thanks so much for the help. Alot of us would be more or less lost w/o you n fishman n willie n all the rest. You don`t realize how exciting this is to our hobby.

DFason, that`s an real nice location for the tank. A wall partition Seen from 2 sides! Nice house ya have there!

 

[PurpleMonster]

Blahhh just changed my mind.... please advise,

48 LED's over a 36X30X18
12XPG whites, and 36 XRE RB.
1 ELN-60-48D
1 LPC-35-700
1 LPC-35-1050

80Deg optics for the blues and no optics for the whites

24X8 heatsink

Will this on its own be plenty for my SPS? being that the tank is shallow? The diff drivers are going to be used in this fashion:
Dim blues on and off, and just turn on the other 2 at the same time bringing on my whites and rest of the blues in one shot. I'd run the dimmed ones in parallel in strings of 12, and the other two drivers of course will run 12 each.

this will become X2 once i go with my 48X30X20 in the next few months, but of course i want to keep my SPS plenty happy

Sorry for the bad pics

This currently has dual 250DE bulbs, with no supplement.

Thanks and sorry for being such a pain!

 

[Milad]

can someone explain the voltage on drivers? for instance:

if I had a 54v 1amp driver can I put 1 LED that is rated at 3.5 1amp? will the driver adjust itself? im talking about HLG drivers from mean well.

if not and the driver only adjusts itself slightly, how do i tell how many LEDs I should have on the driver? from what ive read it seems like there is a min voltage you need by the driver for a string of X LEDs but i haven't read anything about a minimum LEDS for a voltage of X on a driver.

 

[kcress]

Blahhh just changed my mind.... please advise,

48 LED's over a 36X30X18
12XPG whites, and 36 XRE RB.
1 ELN-60-48D
1 LPC-35-700
1 LPC-35-1050

80Deg optics for the blues and no optics for the whites

24X8 heatsink

Will this on its own be plenty for my SPS? being that the tank is shallow? The diff drivers are going to be used in this fashion:
Dim blues on and off, and just turn on the other 2 at the same time bringing on my whites and rest of the blues in one shot. I'd run the dimmed ones in parallel in strings of 12, and the other two drivers of course will run 12 each.

this will become X2 once i go with my 48X30X20 in the next few months, but of course i want to keep my SPS plenty happy

Sorry for the bad pics

This currently has dual 250DE bulbs, with no supplement.

Thanks and sorry for being such a pain!

What bad pictures? Those are just fine. Nice tank!

Ummm, that strikes me as short 20~30 LEDs...

can someone explain the voltage on drivers? for instance:

if I had a 54v 1amp driver can I put 1 LED that is rated at 3.5 1amp? will the driver adjust itself? im talking about HLG drivers from mean well.

if not and the driver only adjusts itself slightly, how do i tell how many LEDs I should have on the driver? from what ive read it seems like there is a min voltage you need by the driver for a string of X LEDs but i haven't read anything about a minimum LEDS for a voltage of X on a driver.

You have to look at the data sheet for the driver. It will say the voltage range. It isn't very large. A 54V may be able to come down to something like 40V?? That means you absolutely must have enough LEDs to add up to 40V, (if that's the case.) So to answer your question, NO.

 

[PurpleMonster]

Kcress,

Thanks for the input I'm going to use 48 led not sure if I miss typed something. Either that or do what Josh did and mix the T5 with strips of led. 4 banks of 12ledx24" and 2 24" T5.

I'm heading to the hardware store and try to find some 1" channel alum.

Thanks

 

[PurpleMonster]

Kcress,

Thanks for the input I'm going to use 48 led not sure if I miss typed something. Either that or do what Josh did and mix the T5 with strips of led. 4 banks of 12ledx24" and 2 24" T5.

I'm heading to the hardware store and try to find some 1" channel alum.

Thanks

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Purple, I think you're maybe a few LEDs short for your 36 x 30 tank, at least assuming you want an even distribution of light from edge to edge. I would also comment that your 3:1 royal blue to cool white ratio is going to be VERY blue!

 

[kcress]

Purple; I just can't imagine keeping T-anythings and LEDs. There is no good way to build that in a manner that allows you to later dump the T-5s as you will want to do. Maybe a build with U-channel would allow that. ?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

The first time you have to replace the T5 lamps your LEDs will have paid for themselves!

 

[The Grim Reefer]

A couple ATI Purple Plus with the 3 to 1 Blue to cool white LED's could look very cool but unless you happen to have the T5 stuff laying around already I'd go all LED's and based on my 120 I'd say you'd want at least 72 LED's over that tank.

 

[kcress]

72 was the number I came up with too.

 

[PurpleMonster]

I appreciate all the input guys! my original plan was to go with 2 36 LED setups but my concern was the width of the tank that 30" so basically i wanted to create 2 fixtures that would light up a 24X30 area, this way when i upgrade to my 48X30 i will have no problems but i thought maybe if i can run a single 48 for now to keep my SPS happy when then add another one of these 48 LED setup once i got my new tank then i'd have more light but you guys have had plenty of expereience so i will stick to the dual 36 LED setups. Besides rapid led and reefledlights is there a site that i can get all my parts from? I was at lowes and hd today trying to find all the angle aluminum. I founds some 4 footers and 8 footers measuring 1/8" which was what i read on here is good. My only concern was that piecing it all together plus the hardware to bolt it all on came out to about 50bux so i figured i might as well get the heatsink This way atleast i have a fall back if my fans decide to die on me.

Original idea was a 16X5.6(or whatever they sell@ rapid and reefled) with 4 rows of 9 LEDs, 2 ELN -D types for diming capability. 12 whites(XPG cool whites), and 24 in parallel for the Royal blues(XRE). As long as this rig gets me a 24X30 coverage no problem i will jsut go with two of these and run them a bit dimmer until my new tank is here. oh and optics i was thinking either 70* or 80*

Thanks and again sorry for being a pain

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Perhaps you would be better off waiting to do the LED's until you upgrade your tank. Odds are prices will continue to come down and we are learning more about color combinations all the time.

For my tank I used 2x1 inch 1/8th thick inch aluminum channel with the LED's mounted inside the channel (didn't use optics). Got 6 4 foot long sections for like 70 bux shipped from speedy metals online. I run a couple fans blowing in from the rear but with 3" spacing I really don't think I need the fans. Closer spacing I think you'd have to have the fans. The back of the channel where the LED's mount is only like 110 degrees by the end of the day.

 

[widmer]

So is Cutter shipping the Cree XM series yet?

I'm planning on placing an order pretty soon to get a pile of royal blue XP-Es as well as a few warm white XP-Gs to use in a (terrestrial plant) grow light I'm making.

But I'd also like to go ahead and tie 5 of the XM series LEDs onto a $7 laptop charger w/resistor and run them at the full 3 amps they're rated for, and retrofit them into a floor lamp for a cool clean 5,000 lumens.

So has anyone gotten any of the XM LEDs yet?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I don't know if anyone has any yet, I have not seen it mentioned. I will be getting my grubby hands on some in my next order from them.

 

[widmer]

The more I think about it, the more I realize they're a fantastic deal...

For essentially the same up front cost as an XP-G, you could fit 16 of them on one of the standard meanwells everyone's using, or 8 of them onto a 1-amp buck puck that's on a 24 v supply, etc.

Depending on how you drive them, you can replace 3 XP-G's with one, as one of them is rated to put out more light than an MC-E, etc...

If you want to get fancy and non-aquarium-related, for ~$10-15 after the cost of misc wall wart converter and some aluminum, you could have a lifelong direct replacement for the average screw-in light bulb with one of these LEDs @1000 lumens/10 watts.

It's really pretty amazing. Can't wait till they come in more colors

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Agree 200%. I'm actually shocked that the sticker price is so reasonable. Now we just need to scrounge some optics sources.

 

[widmer]

OK one more rant on this topic then I'm done:

Cutter is charging $6.82 for the XM series at this time. If you are talking in terms of cost per lumens, it would be the same as if you were paying $2.28 per XP-G. That's a lot cheaper even than steve's-mysterious-inefficient-nonbrand LEDs (is the latter comparison cruel, unusual and uncalled for?) OK I'm done talking these up (for now :lol

DWZM- I would imagine that if they're essentially the same size, mounted on the same star, and have the same general lambertian radiation pattern as the XP series LEDs, the lenses would be interchangeable with XP-Es or XP-Gs, with basically the same beam characteristics.