Water cooled LED fixture

Paul B · Jan 14, 2016

Of course I have a copperband butterfly. How do you think the excess copper gets sucked out of the system?

Paul B · Jan 14, 2016

What do you know? It works! I am running a test now to see if it gets hot.
If it works and stays cool for an hour, I will make the splash shield and install it.

While this thing was warming up, I made some stuffed calamari that will knock your socks off. Squid is in season now here and they are all over the place.

redfishbluefish · Jan 14, 2016

Wow! The red light district....right in Paul's tank!

Looking good Paul.

And sorry, I don't eat fish bait.

Paul B · Jan 15, 2016

I eat all the fish bait I can get.

cracker · Jan 15, 2016

Off topic I know, Paul what's nature of filling You use in your calamari ?
Also I look forward to see how the red leds work on the scrubber. I purchased "Expressions" leds for my scrubber so far the scrubber isn't producing!

redfishbluefish · Jan 15, 2016

cracker said:
Off topic I know, Paul what's nature of filling You use in your calamari ?
Also I look forward to see how the red leds work on the scrubber. I purchased "Expressions" leds for my scrubber so far the scrubber isn't producing!

What do you think happened to the squid's tentacles?

It's in there........probably along with bread crumbs and some Italian stuff!

And I have no idea what "Expressions" LED's are, but I can tell you that the successful algae scrubbers I've seen have had red LED's.

cracker · Jan 15, 2016

Check these out .
http://www.expressions-ltd.com/Algae_Scrubber_LED_Light_p/led-grow-light.htm

cracker · Jan 16, 2016

Hey Red Fish There is more than one way to stuff a calarami ! LOL

Paul B · Jan 16, 2016

You are correct. The tentacles are finely chopped up, sautéed with garlic and put in the stuffing. I use Italian Bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, Extra virgin olive oil, a lot of finely chopped garlic that I first Sautee. A lot of fresh parsley. Old Bay seasoning and lemmon pepper. My secret ingredient is hot cherry peppers that come in a jar. I pour some of the vinegar from the jar into a blender with a couple of the peppers and grind that up. That goes into the stuffing. You have to soak the squid overnight in milk which makes them tender before you stuff them and bake them for no more than 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Then broil for exactly 2 minutes on each side. My family is Sicilian and owned a sea food market so I grew up on this stuff. We rarely ate meat and still don't.

The-Russ · Jan 16, 2016

I just did a read of this thread and it embodies everything I love about this Hobby. Especially when you said, I could have bought one for 1/2 the price, but everyone can do that.

Yur light fixture seems to be the perfect spectrum of lights and more importantly has that "Artistic" look/feel rather than the made in china, plastic cover.

Incredible build!!! You blew my mind when you decided to integrate a magnetic float switch to turn on the LEDs. REALLY??? WHO DOES THAT!!!

Thank you for a great 30 min of reading.

Paul B · Jan 16, 2016

Thank you The-Russ. I just love to build things, I also like to work with copper among other things. My entire house (and boat) is a conglomeration of DIY stuff as I rarely like the way things are designed. This Red LED for the algae scrubber I could have made out of a sheet of copper with some fins on it because red LEDs really don't get that hot. But I think it was a cool build even though it was unduly complicated. I had it running for an hour and the temperature only raises by 2 degrees so I know it is working. I just need to attach the splash shield because it will be mounted 3/4" from the scrubber and I don't want my tank water hitting it. The part where water could hit is also coated with clear enamel so it is not as dangerous as it looks. After I install this, I will look for some other silly thing to build.

Here are some pictures with the new water cooled lights.

Paul B · Jan 16, 2016

I installed the water cooled light for the scrubber.

I am not sure if I will keep it on as I want to see if any salt water splashes on it. Of course it is copper so that wouldn't be a good thing and I may add another acrylic panel on the back of it.

cracker · Jan 16, 2016

Thanks for sharing your secret calamari recipe, Particularly the milk soak and cook time. I have soaked shark steaks in milk, takes that bitter after taste out. I understand that some Folks up your way have been experimenting with skate and or ray flesh. Is this true?
Also concerning the scrubber. Are you still using the cement on the screen? Thanks

Paul B · Jan 17, 2016

My family owned a seafood business so we ate skate many times. I grew up on it. I am not a big fan of it but it is a very cheap fish and a lot of the older Italians like it. I am also an old Italian so I will eat it, but not go nuts for it. It tastes a lot like scallops, but not quite. It is usually cooked in a red sauce to make it a little better. I am also not that crazy for shark, but again, I will eat it. There are so many seafoods I love that I don't need to eat ones I am not crazy about.
I do have cement on my screens. I always use cement when I want to grow algae.

The-Russ · Jan 17, 2016

I LOVE the lights. They are very cool (literally).

Paul B · Jan 17, 2016

I wish I had some other type of light I could build with a water cooled theme. I am sure I will think of something.

Paul B · Feb 16, 2016

So the WCLEDS (water cooled LEDs) have been running for two months and so far no problems. I didn't have to replace any LEDs, the switch is still working and they are still running very cool. I have a lot of LEDs left over so I may build some other water cooled thing, but I am not sure what it will be yet. I didn't throw out my old air cooled LED fixture yet because I wasn't sure this thing would work but it seems it will run forever. I really like it.
These guys have absolutely nothing to do with this thread, but I just took this in Key Largo and thought it was cool.

The-Russ · Feb 19, 2016

looks like those guys could use an algae scrubber for their back.

Paul B · Apr 2, 2016

I am happy to report that there has not been even one problem associated with the water cooled LEDs. They run very cool and none of them failed. Remember I used old LEDs from a un working fixture.
I love it and wish I could water cool something else.

twilliard · Apr 2, 2016

Paul B said:
I am happy to report that there has not been even one problem associated with the water cooled LEDs. They run very cool and none of them failed. Remember I used old LEDs from a un working fixture.
I love it and wish I could water cool something else.

Nice Paul very nice!