DIY LEDs - The write-up

[Soundwave]

troylee: The spacing of the modules is 2 feet. I centered them on each side of the 4ft tank.

dtech: The par skyrockets with optics. The problem, as mentioned is that it creates a spotlight effect and more LEDs would be needed to get the coverage, hence, not using them.

ChknWing: I need to get a kill a watt to find the actual usage. By all estimates with the LEDs and their requirements, this whole fixture should be using less than 175 watts while putting out more light than two 175 watt halides.

stugray: I don't want to even try to remove one of the stars. Not until one dies, anyway. The screw method works just fine but you have to be careful that no screw touches the leads and grounds the whole thing out. Also, I can't even imagine drilling and tapping that many holes!

skunkmere: Better than 175 watt halides.

Doahh: See above.

robert bell: I forgot to mention that I am using a sheet of plexi to keep the water away from the fixture... my bad.

barderer: The spectrum doesn't really count with this. There is no red emitted from the LEDs like MH and T5/PCs.

Canoe: I'm not getting that crazy with this. Maybe on the next fixture. The heatsinks stay completely cool with the fans. Also, if this thing lasts 5 years, it has paid for itself.

I hope I answered to all. Thanks for the interest!

 

[Curve]

That's what I was saying was that $608 is cheap. I have alreay started a shopping list to do a 6' with 100 white and 100 blue leds. You get the led's about 1.25 sheaper each when you buy 100 at a time. I also found some 300 watt led drivers. I want to do that many so I can get an even coverage and good par ratings everywhere.

 

[pmoneyt]

soundwave would love to talk more on this. i have a 48x24 tank is that lixture too narrow?

 

[hijinks]

what if you used 10k-12k led white fixtures.. would the par readings go up.. and what about better color.. less yellow

 

[Soundwave]

Trust me, there is ZERO yellow, hijinks. It looks beautiful.

pmoneyt: This fixture might work just fine but you may want to add another string on each side to make the spread from front to back a little wider. I'm using this on a 75. Throw any questions out there you may have and I'll do my best to answer them.

 

[eznet2u]

OMG!!!

I love this. I think I might try one on my Nano. Very thought out and concise write up. Thanks.

 

[Curve]

Do you think instead of 2 inches between each led you could go to 3" and get more coverage??

 

[hijinks]

how long has it been running on your tank.. and seen better growth/same or seems slower?

The pics look great.. just wondering about growth

 

[Soundwave]

Curve: if these were spaced any further, they might create the dreaded spotlight effect on their own. I didn't want noticeable color separation.

hijinks: It's been a whole 3 days. Hard to tell what is going to happen. Hopefully, though, It'll be good.

 

[hijinks]

great.. i'll keep my eyes out for posts on what you think

 

[Curve]

I guess the spacing would depend on how high you were mounting it above the surface. I will be trying this soon enough.

 

[reefer_man_mike]

the set up you created is comparable to 150 watt MH, 250 watt mh, or 400 watt mh? what are optics?

 

[Soundwave]

It's kinda in the middle, mike. The output is better than a 175 MH but not as high as a 250. Optics are lenses that focus the light from the LEDs.

 

[dogstar74]

Soundwave, You definately rock. I just hope these lights can grow the corals as well as the MH's have for so many years.

I was wondering if you could clarify for me...
The link you posted to the Cree white LEDs on stars, would that be the XR-E stars?
http://www.ledsupply.com/creexre.php

And if those are the ones you used, why not go with the MC-E stars? Cost difference aside. They are three times the lumens. There fore, could you not get away with using less? And since the blues in the spectrum are mainly to give POP and wow to the colors in the tank, and have little to do with the growth of corals, you could still use the royals XR-Es like you did.

Perhaps the MC-E LEDs would be better for someone with a deeper tank. Say, 24 to 30 inches?

Again, this is a great writeup, and I know that ripples will be felt in the aquarium world not seen since the days of the DIY Luminarc reflector plans hit the net.

Cheers,
Aaron

 

[g8gxp]

I copied this from another forum - comparison between the XRE and the MCE:

the MC-E on the other hand is FOUR of these led in a single package.
pos: more brightness but almost no size increase (of head)
neg:
1st: four times the current needed
2nd: four times the heat produced
3rd: much wider beam and pretty nothing to fight that
4th: other driver needed, next to impossible to drive it with full power from a single cell

 

[madadi]

if someone can figure out how to program dimer settings for sun set and sun rise im definitely going to give this a try.

 

[Soundwave]

dogstar: The MCE is a little complicated and driving it would be a nightmare all its own. The ones I am using are the XR-E models. I can't believe I forgot to add that in there.

madadi: I have an acquaintance who is working on that...

 

[Soundwave]

One side note, also. The blues are on their own power supply which allows you to run them as actinics:

 

[bebereef]

You make my mouth watering!

 

[KKamy]

Isn't there a way to wire this up in both series and parallel? Right now, if you have one of those LEDs burn out, won't that make the whole string go out?

Of course that would sure bring your attention to it faster I imagine if only one LED goes out, it might not be very noticeable to the eye (though your corals might notice).