Water cooled LED fixture

[Paul B]

She seems fine and went to some kind of Yoga thing in a pool so I guess everything is OK. Thanks for asking.

 

[mcarroll]

Love the yellow wirenuts reminds me why I have arthritis lol

I actually do like wire nuts (tho most folks don't know correct usage - number of wires, correct size, incorrect treatment of wire ends, etc.) but have you ever tried Wego lever nuts?

 

[Paul B]

No, but the wirenuts were only temporary. I will solder everything when I am done testing. On big jobs we used regular bugs but if we had to splice live, we used something like that but they had allen wrenches in them

 

[twon8]

The system is finished except for the acrylic splash guard and some bleeder valves to get the air out of the system. It is being tested on my bench to see first of all how it runs and second, how efficient the cooling system is.


Here is the heat exchanger. I still need to put it in a housing and I may build another one to connect to it depending on how much cooling I need. It has been running for 15 minutes and the pipes and heat exchanger are only slightly warmer than room temperature.

That is fantastic. You should file a patent for a water cooled LED light.

 

[Paul B]

No more patents for me, I already have two, that's enough. The thing seems to be running fine with a few small issues. I need to build in some air purges and the pump could be stronger. It pumps enough volume but it not powerful enough to purge the air so I get bubbles. But it is running almost room temperature.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Too late to patent anyway. Once published, it is no longer proprietary and therefore can not be patented. That is, the horse has already left the barn on this one.

Looking good Paul. Keep the updates coming.

 

[Paul B]

Good, anyone nuts enough to build one of these, go ahead. It is still running about 80 degrees, not to bad.

 

[Paul B]

I re-designed and re built the water pressure switch and although it works better, I am still not happy with it so I can't install this fixture over my tank yet. That and I need to get a bunch of stitches out of my hand. The pump I have works good enough to circulate the water through the fixture, but it is hardly powerful enough to push the plunger all the way up in the switch so that it maintains a magnetic connection with the magnet switch to keep the LEDs energized. I need a stronger pump or a lighter plunger in the switch. There is a magnet in the plunger which weighs quite a lot and pushes back on the tiny pump a little too much. Tomorrow I will go to a LFS to get some of that cheap, thin walled plastic tubing they sell and build a much lighter plunger. If that works better, I will get the acrylic shield and find some help to aid me in getting this thing over the tank without dropping it in the water.

 

[Paul B]

Completed heat exchanger. I am so glad I decided to build it rather than buy a car heater core. It was a fun build and a core would have been very heavy and over-kill as I don't need that much cooling. I am getting the stitches out of my hand tomorrow and if I get the time I need to drive to the Bronx to buy the acrylic to make the splash guard. Then it is ready to install.
It was a fun build and I am rather proud of this thing.

 

[Paul B]

I just installed the new water cooled lights and they work perfectly. They seem brighter than my old lights and they should be because there are almost twice as many LEDs. I am running them a few inches higher than the old fixture for a day so the corals have time to put on sunscreen. So far I am very happy with it. The only complaint I have is that now the back of my tank is lit up and I don't like that. These LEDs have no lenses so the light goes all over the place. I will think of something to alleviate that.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Paul, I just pulled 55, 90 degree lenses off one of my fixture (A Mars Aqua). You're more than welcome to have them. Not sure how you can fix them to your fixture because I believe your beads stand off of a round pipe. They appeared to be originally attached with a drop of glue. Fits right around the bead. Here's a picture with one right-side up and one right-side down. You don't get to keep the nickel...that's just for size comparison. Let me know if you want them and I'll mail them to you.

 

[Paul B]

I am not sure if they will fit. I can't tell from the picture but do they fit just on the LED or do they get attached to the frame or heat sink around the LED itself? The picture on the left is dark so I can't make it out. But I do want the nickel

 

[mcarroll]

It's not that simple unless this is a dimmable LED rig - he said it's about twice as bright as his old fixture already.

90° lenses give about a 40% boost in intensity commensurate with the reduction in square footage of light.

I could be mistaken but I think I remember this fixture not being dimmable.

Lowering the fixture to its primary position (or a bit more) might solve the problem.

 

[redfishbluefish]

It does not get glued to the bead. Actually I just went to take another picture with a bead in place and the lens back-lit, and found that the lens friction fits right over the bead. So what you have is that the bead fits into the hole snuggly (no glue needed) with cut outs on either side of the hole to fit the electric contact "wings" of the bead. Here is a photo of the bottom with a light shinning up through the lens and a bead in place. Hope this shows it clearly.

 

[redfishbluefish]

It's true what @mcarroll says about intensity. The reason I removed them from my Mars Aqua is that I had the intensity turned down so much (because they were laser focused), and this was not allowing the fans to come on. (Yes, believe it or not, Mars Aqua has the fans connected to the pots, and if they don't hit a minimum voltage, the fans don't come on.) So I pulled them off and could now turn up the pots so the fans would now run, without burning my corals.


Go HERE, to post 18, to see the Mars Aqua with and without lenses.

 

[Paul B]

That looks cool. Here is one of the LEDs. Do you think your lens would fit on this?
I have light scattered all over the place and I don't like it. I also don't like to see the back of my tank and lenses may help with that. Lowering the fixture will also help. These LEDs are not dimmable and I don't want them to dim. I built my old fixture to dim and I never dimmed them. If your lenses work, will I be able to buy some more of them someplace as I need 72?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Paul, PM (conversation) me your address and I'll mail these to you.....and then you can play with them yourself. And Yes, they will friction fit right over the bead, assuming the bead is firmly attacked to the copper contraption. With these lenses you might want to raise the entire fixture to get the spread.

 

[twon8]

On Amazon You can buy these $10 for a pack of 20 in 60,90,120 degree lenses. They ship directly from China and take less than two weeks to get here

 

[mcarroll]

I usually figure the whole fixture backward from the amount of square footage I want to light and then end up with the correct amount emitters at the end.

The one tank I have lit like this at home barely even grows algae on the glass at all. I scrape it about once a year whether it needs it or not.

It's one way to do it. . My other tank is under a Maxspect Razor... Dark corners in the tank, light all over the room. It's a nice fixture in its own right, but it is what it is as well.

LEDs - with much thanks due to lensing - are awesome.

 

[Paul B]

This is my old fixture. I love the color but it was very under lit