DIY led fixture for small algae scrubber

kwandrsn

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Im buying a tank that has a small algea scrubber in the sump and its currently lit by 2 compact florescent bulbs and I am wanting to build led fixtures for it instead

Was planning on ordering 2 - 6" heatsinks like the picture.

I know nothing about leds

I was gonna but cree solderless bulbs but I dont know which color and how many to order

The heatsinks come with fans how do I power them. I would like for the fans to only run when the leds are on

And what driver do I need for the leds. And do they need optics? Something adjustable would be nice. Any ideas would be extremely helpful

Like I said I was going to use 6" heatsinks. And maybe blue and red leds

Thanks
 

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TJ's Reef

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Look into CPU coolers, I found these heatsinks with fans attached for around $12 each to use as my Fuge lights.
DSCF0103.jpg


I picked up a cheap wall-wart 350ma to run fans and a Mean Well 700ma constant current driver to run 10 3w emitters. These pics are old and since updated to Cree LED's with 2 each RB and CW on corners and a single Red 630nm in center which I feel to be a good overall spectrum for algal growth.
DSCF0137.jpg
DSCF0140.jpg


Cheers, Todd
 
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kwandrsn

kwandrsn

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So 5 bulbs per side would be enough? What optics do you recommend? Why a walmart fan when there werenfans attached. I want a dimmable driver but will the driver also power the fan?
 
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kwandrsn

kwandrsn

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Ok im getting confused when looking for a dimmable driver.

I was planning on ordering leds from rapid led and I seen the nano dimmable that can power up to 10 leds. I want a driver that I can have options if I want to add more leds if needed.

I was looking at dimmable drivers on ebay and I can get a 50 watt dimmable driver for less than the nano driver on rapid led. If I buy the 50 watt will it be too powerful and burn the leds up? Like I said I want options incase i decide to add more leds or remove some. Im gonna start with 12 leds total
 

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So 5 bulbs per side would be enough? What optics do you recommend? Why a walmart fan when there werenfans attached. I want a dimmable driver but will the driver also power the fan?

I use this to light a 36" x 18" refugium section of my sump and 30 watts of LED's seems to be plenty enough to grow a variety of Macro Algae. You can successfully use just Red and Blue emitters for algal growth but I wanted to see the actual colors of algae and be able to temporarily host Coral frags if needed. I ended up not using any optics on the Cree LED's to get better spread. Not Wallmart but a 350ma wall wart power supply ie phone charger etc... you just need to be in the 5-12v and 300-600ma range, Goodwill's sell these cheap for around $1.50 or so.


Cheers, Todd
 
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kwandrsn

kwandrsn

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Can anyone suggest a driver or explain how I figure out what I need.... the rapid led site doesnt say how many watts the cree solderless are
 

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volts X amps = watts

I'm not sure exactly which led you're looking at but usually they are 700ma (.7 amp). The max amperage of the driver tells you how bright they will be, while the voltage tells you the min-max bulbs you can wire in series. So the amperage will stay the same no matter how many you have stringed together, but for every LED you add the voltage will drop. The LED should say something like "Forward Voltage 2.3v @700ma." That means that running at full brightness, each bulb will reduce the string by 2.3 voltage. So lets just say the bulb says 2.3 volts @ 700ma.

So the nano dimmer says it runs at a max of 700ma, which is good cause you don't wanna blow up your LEDs, and it says that it will operate between 9-36 volts DC. To learn the minimum number of bulbs you can use on the drive, take the minimum voltage of the drive (9v) and divide it by the forward voltage (2.3v) 9/2.3=3.91. Since you can't use 3.9 bulbs you round up to 4. Same thing for max just round down. 36/2.3=15.65 15 LEDs max. Wire them in series NOT parallel.

BTW, 2.3v is the forward voltage is the red cree bulbs. They put them on the page with the boards that need to be soldered but not on the solderless ones.

CREE XP-E Red LED - Rapid LED

I'm sure those will work fine, but like I said before, I think the go to red algae bulb is the Philips bulb. They offer that solderless also.

Solderless Philips Rebel ES 660nm Deep Red LED - Rapid LED

I would do a little research on that bulb. "Turbo R Floyd" does allot with algae scrubbers and knows allot about the LEDs and should be able to help you out there. Whichever of the two bulbs you use that driver will do great.

HTH,
Taylor
 
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kwandrsn

kwandrsn

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Ok thanks. I may try the rebel bulbs... like I said im gonna start with 10 or 12 bulbs but I want to get a driver that I can add more if needed in the future... maybe a max of 20 bulbs... ill do some research on that. I just wanna leave myself options
 
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kwandrsn

kwandrsn

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In series you mean one led to the next and to the next and so on right? What if bulb says max 1400. A 700 will still be powerful enough? I think one of the royal blues I looked at said max 1400
 

thejuggernaut

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Also, if you do a little math you'll realize that they aren't really 3 watts. .7a (700ma) X 2.3v = 1.61 watts. Don't let it confuse you. All the manufactures do it. I think they use to be 3 watts but as they improved they could produce the same light with less power. But for the normal public, calling it a 1.6 watt would make them think it was a lower power bulb, so the industry just kept calling them 3 Watts. I don't have any proof of that, just my theory. Maybe they should be called 3 watt equivalent bulbs. Just like they started doing with CFL bulbs.
 
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kwandrsn

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Yeah... ok so when looking at drivers I only need to worry about voltage?... where does the wattage come into play. Like a 50watt driver... 100watt... 25 watt and so on?
 

thejuggernaut

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yes you go from positive on the driver to positive on the first led, then the negative on the first led to the positive on the second led and so on and so on until you get to the last led and the negative of that one goes to the negative of the driver.

A little picture
Series vs Parallel Wiring

The blue bulbs would run at half power attached to that driver. If you wanted to run them at full power you'd need a second driver cause if you ran the 700ma bulbs at 1400ma they would die quickly..like in minutes...
 
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kwandrsn

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Thinking about running 5 of the phillips deep red and 2 of the royal blue per side for a total of 14 leds
 
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kwandrsn

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So this driver
http://www.rapidled.com/0-10v-dimmable-nano-driver-with-potentiometer/
Says 0-10v but it also says 9-36v so thats a little confusing and it also says 3-10 leds so im wanting 14 but if I figured it out right it will work perfectly and I guess if I get to a point where I need more I can buy another driver... what do you think....

Also do you think that 7 bulbs per side will be enough?
 

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