PRIMARY LED lit Custom glass tank
- Thread starter zachtos
- Start date
zachtos
Active member
The LED tank has been disconnected for 3 months since I salvaged the DC fan from it. I need to rewire the array and order another $20 power puck and fan/supply. Just haven't had time cuz I've been working on the 240G... maybe this fall?
*click my house to see why i've been so busy.
*click my house to see why i've been so busy.
zachtos
Active member
I would be more then happy to sell any of the LED arrays. They no longer function properly though. Several have died out and can use replacement. I may get around to repairing the Luxeon array, I may not... I really have not decided what to do w/ the nano tank yet. I haven't even decided what to put in my 75G yet either. If you want, I can sell you the old arrays and you could tinker with them if you like, but they don't function anymore at the moment.
It was never setup for a reef, but my luxeon project is still going strong after about 9 months on my freshwater planted tank. Everything is running as well as when I started it and plants continue to grow just fine.
(no update photos, but the setup is here)
http://webfiles.uci.edu/algomez/K2/
(no update photos, but the setup is here)
http://webfiles.uci.edu/algomez/K2/
...
zachtos
Active member
The tank... it LIVES!
I shall be reviving this project so update that subscription.
Parts have been ordered... I have discovered how to increase my output 2 to 3 fold which should bump the luxeon array up to the metal halide/T5 range. I am expecting anywhere from 10K-25K LUX, which would be similar to my overdriven T5 lights on my 240G tank (15K-50K LUX depending on location)
The new array will feature the same luxeon 3's, but now with special optical lenses which will focus the light and increase output by 80%. I also had been running them in parallel unknowingly at 50% current (40% output!). So by my calculactions I should get around 20-25K lux. That is right up there w/ metal halide and T5.
For all you others out there, this is a DIY PFO Solaris hood basically. A 'dumb' version w/o a microcontroller. Mine wil have the ability to control color temperature, but will require you to twist some knobs to do so. I could creat a PIC to control the array, but I am currently more concerned with output then anything.
I expect this to be the final revision... Revision 5. If I get unsatisfactory results, then I will be done with this array for good and will try to sell it on the forums.
*expect a new prototype posted in the next month*
I shall be reviving this project so update that subscription.
Parts have been ordered... I have discovered how to increase my output 2 to 3 fold which should bump the luxeon array up to the metal halide/T5 range. I am expecting anywhere from 10K-25K LUX, which would be similar to my overdriven T5 lights on my 240G tank (15K-50K LUX depending on location)
The new array will feature the same luxeon 3's, but now with special optical lenses which will focus the light and increase output by 80%. I also had been running them in parallel unknowingly at 50% current (40% output!). So by my calculactions I should get around 20-25K lux. That is right up there w/ metal halide and T5.
For all you others out there, this is a DIY PFO Solaris hood basically. A 'dumb' version w/o a microcontroller. Mine wil have the ability to control color temperature, but will require you to twist some knobs to do so. I could creat a PIC to control the array, but I am currently more concerned with output then anything.
I expect this to be the final revision... Revision 5. If I get unsatisfactory results, then I will be done with this array for good and will try to sell it on the forums.
*expect a new prototype posted in the next month*
zachtos
Active member
Results: Well, 8 hours of soldering and fussing with lenses later…
Watts consumed by LEDs and fan: 68W
Lux readings:
36†â€"œ 2000-2500
24†â€"œ 4000-5000
18†â€"œ 5000 â€"œ 6000
12†â€"œ 10,000-12,000
6†â€"œ 16,000- 20,000
0†â€"œ 70,000-100,000
*average LED output at water surface = 30,000 â€"œ 40,000
vs my overdriven icecap T5 lighting on my 240G
*average T5 output at water surface = 35,000 â€"œ 45,000
** Hotspots: these are average values, averages can change drastically moving just a few inches horizontally from the center point of one of the optic lenses. There are some very definite ‘hot spots’ created by the point source lighting. I would recommend keeping the lenses very close together if you were to create your own array.
Final product. 15 whites, 7 blues and 2 greens. The reason for greens is because the whites are fairly lacking at the greens peak spectrum, so better safe then sorry. The only spectrum missing is 420nm, there are no LEDs that really reach that spectrum yet. There are ‘royal blues’ that hit 450nm but nothing at 420 really. I designed my array so the color spectrum is fully configurable. It made wiring much more complicated, but I think It’s worth the experiment.
full lighting, I would call this ‘12K’ I feel
Blues only
Greens and some blues only
attempt to dial to ‘14K’
The optic lenses, these focus the light from 145degree spread down to 45degrees, increasing output by around 75-85%. Combine that with wiring them each at a full 700mA instead of 350mA like I mistakenly did last time, and you come up with nearly triple the performance.
Hood rear view â€"œ all cables are detachable. You can see the color adjustment knobs next to each current regulator.
The rat’s nest prior to optic lens mounting
Hood internal view â€"œ I am now using optic lenses and more current regulators. The Middle optic was a real pain to mount because of the fan location. I ended up mounting it using a piece of a coat hanger. The rest are held down by 3 screws that squeeze the lens against the top of the hood. Believe me when I say, it was a total pain in the #%$& to get those LEDs to stay in position while I positioned the lens and screwed them down. Soldering was the easy part compared to that.
*Conclusion: The LEDs are just as powerful as T5, I don’t know about metal halide, but they measured the same LUX as my old 20K 250W DE HQI. The spread radius on this 6â€Âx12†array gave about 18â€Âx 12†coverage, quite impressive, but that is nearly $350 and 8 hours of work! Did I mention there is 0 heat transferred to the tank? The heatsinks get extremely hot but most of that heat exits the tank through the exhaust fan. I probably could add another fan or some small 5V fans to help the fuge lens, which is in the rear and runs much hotter. The heat will lower their lifespan if I don’t correct this. I feel that I could keep softies, LPS and SPS under these lights w/o problem given they produce the same lighting at the surface. You can keep them very close to the water surface as well. I am using an acrylic shield to keep them safe from salt spray. The LEDs should last 7-11 years based on our usage, but I’m sure that corrosion will rear it’s ugly head and ruin them prior to that. These are perfect lighting options for nano reefs, like I’ve said in the past, and great options for ‘office’ tanks that can’t have halide’s hanging above them.
*Future of this array and tank: I will add more photos, don’t worry. I will be drilling this tank and adding a 5G salt-bucket sump. I will use the LED in the rear for the refugium to export nutrients and also will create a mini DIY sulphur denitrator. The tank will be auto-topped off with limewater to maintain calcium/alkalinity. I will perform 50% water changes montly or weekly depending on need. No skimmer planned, but I do have a aquaCremora laying around. I will likely just swap the sump bucket w/ new salt water every water change using my 240G’s old water, which will be fine for this tank’s needs. I will likely pull some LR and zoanthids to start this tank, and will clip some SPS out of my main tank to try later. In the next month I’ll do all of this.
Watts consumed by LEDs and fan: 68W
Lux readings:
36†â€"œ 2000-2500
24†â€"œ 4000-5000
18†â€"œ 5000 â€"œ 6000
12†â€"œ 10,000-12,000
6†â€"œ 16,000- 20,000
0†â€"œ 70,000-100,000
*average LED output at water surface = 30,000 â€"œ 40,000
vs my overdriven icecap T5 lighting on my 240G
*average T5 output at water surface = 35,000 â€"œ 45,000
** Hotspots: these are average values, averages can change drastically moving just a few inches horizontally from the center point of one of the optic lenses. There are some very definite ‘hot spots’ created by the point source lighting. I would recommend keeping the lenses very close together if you were to create your own array.
Final product. 15 whites, 7 blues and 2 greens. The reason for greens is because the whites are fairly lacking at the greens peak spectrum, so better safe then sorry. The only spectrum missing is 420nm, there are no LEDs that really reach that spectrum yet. There are ‘royal blues’ that hit 450nm but nothing at 420 really. I designed my array so the color spectrum is fully configurable. It made wiring much more complicated, but I think It’s worth the experiment.
full lighting, I would call this ‘12K’ I feel
Blues only
Greens and some blues only
attempt to dial to ‘14K’
The optic lenses, these focus the light from 145degree spread down to 45degrees, increasing output by around 75-85%. Combine that with wiring them each at a full 700mA instead of 350mA like I mistakenly did last time, and you come up with nearly triple the performance.
Hood rear view â€"œ all cables are detachable. You can see the color adjustment knobs next to each current regulator.
The rat’s nest prior to optic lens mounting
Hood internal view â€"œ I am now using optic lenses and more current regulators. The Middle optic was a real pain to mount because of the fan location. I ended up mounting it using a piece of a coat hanger. The rest are held down by 3 screws that squeeze the lens against the top of the hood. Believe me when I say, it was a total pain in the #%$& to get those LEDs to stay in position while I positioned the lens and screwed them down. Soldering was the easy part compared to that.
*Conclusion: The LEDs are just as powerful as T5, I don’t know about metal halide, but they measured the same LUX as my old 20K 250W DE HQI. The spread radius on this 6â€Âx12†array gave about 18â€Âx 12†coverage, quite impressive, but that is nearly $350 and 8 hours of work! Did I mention there is 0 heat transferred to the tank? The heatsinks get extremely hot but most of that heat exits the tank through the exhaust fan. I probably could add another fan or some small 5V fans to help the fuge lens, which is in the rear and runs much hotter. The heat will lower their lifespan if I don’t correct this. I feel that I could keep softies, LPS and SPS under these lights w/o problem given they produce the same lighting at the surface. You can keep them very close to the water surface as well. I am using an acrylic shield to keep them safe from salt spray. The LEDs should last 7-11 years based on our usage, but I’m sure that corrosion will rear it’s ugly head and ruin them prior to that. These are perfect lighting options for nano reefs, like I’ve said in the past, and great options for ‘office’ tanks that can’t have halide’s hanging above them.
*Future of this array and tank: I will add more photos, don’t worry. I will be drilling this tank and adding a 5G salt-bucket sump. I will use the LED in the rear for the refugium to export nutrients and also will create a mini DIY sulphur denitrator. The tank will be auto-topped off with limewater to maintain calcium/alkalinity. I will perform 50% water changes montly or weekly depending on need. No skimmer planned, but I do have a aquaCremora laying around. I will likely just swap the sump bucket w/ new salt water every water change using my 240G’s old water, which will be fine for this tank’s needs. I will likely pull some LR and zoanthids to start this tank, and will clip some SPS out of my main tank to try later. In the next month I’ll do all of this.
rodjer_ramjet
New member
Hey I see we have something in common I have recently finished my lighting fixture for my tank using leds, how are you going with heat dissipation?
my unit uses 18 white 10 blue 4 green and 4 uv approx 420 nm
Are you using PWM to modulate brightness?
Do you know anyone with a Quantum meter (PAR meter) would be interesting to see what you get,
I am yet to source one,
for current control have you thought of using the LM-317 voltage regulator as a current source? just for a safety and using the pwm as your main control. I second that the buck controllers cost a mint.
cheers Andrew
my unit uses 18 white 10 blue 4 green and 4 uv approx 420 nm
Are you using PWM to modulate brightness?
Do you know anyone with a Quantum meter (PAR meter) would be interesting to see what you get,
I am yet to source one,
for current control have you thought of using the LM-317 voltage regulator as a current source? just for a safety and using the pwm as your main control. I second that the buck controllers cost a mint.
cheers Andrew
zachtos
Active member
Where did you find 420nm LEDs? Do you have a link to the spec sheet?
I'm using 5K potenitometers to control the brightness, they are referenced to an internal 5V reference inside the powerpucks. I think they are used to lower the maximum current and that is it.
I so wish I had access to a PAR meter. I suppose I could create a thread at michigan reefers and see if anyone does. Should be the same roughly as the PFO solaris though, considering that I used all the same parts basically.
Problem with voltage regulators is that with LEDs, there is thermal runaway, where they start to draw more current and their forward voltage changes with temperature. I can't recall why, but there is a reason that you have to use a current source. I know it has to do with forward voltage bias changing when the LEDs gets hot. That's basically why all my other arrays burned out. The powerpucks I use maintain a voltage that forces the current to stay at the same level in the string. maybe someone else can refresh me as to why you can't use voltage regulators or current limitting resistors.
I'm using 5K potenitometers to control the brightness, they are referenced to an internal 5V reference inside the powerpucks. I think they are used to lower the maximum current and that is it.
I so wish I had access to a PAR meter. I suppose I could create a thread at michigan reefers and see if anyone does. Should be the same roughly as the PFO solaris though, considering that I used all the same parts basically.
Problem with voltage regulators is that with LEDs, there is thermal runaway, where they start to draw more current and their forward voltage changes with temperature. I can't recall why, but there is a reason that you have to use a current source. I know it has to do with forward voltage bias changing when the LEDs gets hot. That's basically why all my other arrays burned out. The powerpucks I use maintain a voltage that forces the current to stay at the same level in the string. maybe someone else can refresh me as to why you can't use voltage regulators or current limitting resistors.
zachtos
Active member
also for heat dissapation, I'm using 1" x 1" aluminum heat sinks on the back of each luxeon 3 star combined with one 12VDC fan to suck the hot air out. I think they are all fairly warm but the fuge optic could use more cooling near the rear. The Engineers I talked to at lumileds said they think the array would be fine with 'active' cooling and small heatsinks alone would likely do the job.
zachtos
Active member
All the materials needed to drill the tank
3 minutes of drilling later. The damn full of water kept the drill very cool. I'm so amazed that the $5 glass hole saw from ebay worked so well. Thanks Lau**
Pre tank stripping
tank is now stripped. I removed the background to gain more display area. I loved the background, but it served it's original purpose, to test if greatstuff foam would be safe and gain experience before I did the same thing for my full 240G reef. I also removed a divider from the back of the tank for a bigger refugium and spray painted the background flat black.
DIY 1/2" spray bar painted black and a DIY 3/4" durso standpipe
Here is the tank w/ the new spray bar and durso standpipe
"But Zach, I'm scared and confused, why did you glue all the liverocks together using great stuff foam?"
-The reason I done this is because the rocks used to collapse all the time in the nano reef. When you have small rocks, they tend to not stay in place as well as they do w/ heavy rocks in a regular sized reef. I was hoping this solution would work...
Ladies and gentleman... the amazing floating rocks.
*Up Next*
-trimming down the amount of foam in the live rocks so they stop floating... I hope.
-cover the exposed foam parts w/ glue and sand.
-add 1.5" of sand to the display, rubble rock, macro and heater to the refugium... of course water will come soon.
-finish the 5G sump using a 5G pail and a maxijet1200 for the return. (reason for this is for easy water changes and more stability)
-coral (zoas and sps) will come later. also will create a mini sulfur reactor for greater stability, and will attach my auto topoff device to add limewater to maintain calc/alk.
Island1Day
New member
hahahahaha, that must've been the funniest thing I've seen all day today...thanks much...made my day!
zachtos
Active member
Full tank shot with the new complete foam live rock. I coated the foam with superglue and sand to conceal the foam. It looks very real now. And yes, it no longer floats now that the foam is saturated with water. The flow from the closed loop setup is very nice, no dead zones that I can find yet. I calculate 35X turnover in this tiny tank!
shot of the side w/ the refugium showing
top down shot showing the overflow areas in the rear
very simple ultra cheap sump. Includes maxijet1200 for a return and a autotop off float switch. To perform a water change, simply remove the lid, and swap the bucket w/a new one full of clean water. Nothing is inside the bucket, just more water volume to add stability.
Shot of the top of the water, you can see the reflection of the LED optics... yes, there is a shimmer effect.
*soon I shall add zoa frags and a green clown goby.
zachtos
Active member
Well, I have added a mini sulfur denitrator to my system. It basically is a simple device that acts as a low oxygen chamber for anerobic bacteria to convert nitrate to nitrogen gas, which simply bubbles out of the system. Read more about them here.
I also added about 8 frags of zoanthids. I'm fairly new to fragging for myself, so I think I did a lousy job and many of the zoanthid colonies wont make it since they have glue on the top of their polyps. We'll see which ones survive. It's not a big deal anyways, my large 240G reef has plenty to spare, it's just a bother to get them out. The one SPS I put in there isn't happy, probably because the tank is having a mini-cycle. I'll post as things progress.
I also added about 8 frags of zoanthids. I'm fairly new to fragging for myself, so I think I did a lousy job and many of the zoanthid colonies wont make it since they have glue on the top of their polyps. We'll see which ones survive. It's not a big deal anyways, my large 240G reef has plenty to spare, it's just a bother to get them out. The one SPS I put in there isn't happy, probably because the tank is having a mini-cycle. I'll post as things progress.
