Aaron DIY led light build/24 gallon nano cube retrofit. reefLEDlights.com kit

[Aaron H.]

Aaron's DIY led light build/24 gallon nano cube retrofit. reefLEDlights.com kit

So i ordered my kit from reefLEDlights.com and wanted to post up my build on here.
I ordered the 24 XP-E kit with the addition of a 6 led High Noon kit, and 3 led moonlight kit. And also one red led for color. Totaling 34 LEDs

so yea, i hope its a decent build, this is my first one....

**this is a build thread i have on another forum, i started this back in july. so im just copy and pasting all this up at once, obviously this didnt take place in one night.***

Let's get started

Workin on getting the lights where I want them...

PRETINNING
.

ML= moonlight
HN =high noon
And then blue and white of course

 

[Aaron H.]

I have the blues attached to the heatsink.

Some more progress. I'm soldering the blue strand together now.

It's getting hot in here

 

[Aaron H.]

I wanted to test the LEDs. So I tested the first 4 and didn't think about it but I plugged in the driver first. Then touched the wires together and that cause me to blow 4 LEDs... I just wasn't thinking... But you live and you learn... So
If
You do this..... CONNECT ALL WIRES BEFORE PLUGGING THE DRIVER INTO A POWER SOURCE!!!!!!

So I lit 5 of them up and all I can say is these things are BRIGHT!!!

This is only 5 LEDs!

It makes me

Alright.. Back to work

 

[Aaron H.]

I anyone goes with a diy kit, I HIGHLY suggest using the solderless conections. Unless
Your an absolute expert at soldering... I had one lose connection (out of 68 connections (2 per led)) and it caused me to lose 3 more LEDs. So now I have to replace 7 LEDs. It would have been such a simple build if I spent the extra couple bux for solderless connectors...

 

[Aaron H.]

Alright...So I ordered 7 new LEDs.
Also, I picked up a project box to put all the drivers in. And also to house the potentiometers.

I'm gonna attach the drivers with Velcro so that if I ever need to remove or replace them, it will be easier than If I were to use screws. Plus since I have 4 drivers, I have to arrange them on their sides to get them to all fit.

The potentiometers should be like this once I drill the project box.

Once I get all that wired together, I'll drill one hole to run the wires to the light fixture, and one for the power cords. And when I arranged the drivers, I left enough room so that I can add a cooling fan, I'm not sure if/how hot the drivers can get, but I'm going to assume, as with most electronics, that after an extended time of running, they will get hot. So I'm going to install a fan and drill or cut some holes in the box and try to get a good air flow in between each driver. I'll get it figured out.

This project is taking me a long time, but I'm TRYING not to mess anything up since its my first time. Losing 7 LEDs was bad enough. I wanna make sure I know what to do for the 100g build so I can get it right on the first attempt.

 

[Aaron H.]

Drilled the holes for the potentiometers
And yes... The hole on the far left is a little low... Oops.

 

[Aaron H.]

I'm soo close to being done.
I drilled the holes for the power cords and for the wires that go from the drivers to the heatsink.

You can see the bigger hole for the power cords, and obviously the power cords with the braided wire sleeve that came in today. It's a pretty clean look if I do say so myself. But once I get a reef keeper, I will be able to run all 4 drivers off one single power cord, I just have 4 separate cords right now because I will have each one on an individual timer for the sunrise/sunset and moon light cycle.

I was able to run power to all drivers. I tested the white and blue today cus I wanted to mess with the dimming
When dimmed as low as it can go, I believe the potentiometers only take them to 20% power, so when I say 20%... That's as dim as I can make them lol

White and blue both at 100%

White at 100% and blue at 20%

Blue at 100% and white at 20%

And white and blue at 20% ... The camera adjusted so pics wont show a difference between 20 and 100%

And as you can see, I have a single red LED wired with the white for color enhancement. I was curious so I figures I would add it
I'm sooo close to being done.I did hold it over the tank tonight just to get a little tease of what it's gonna look like.... I'm beyond amazed... I can't wait until I get the colors tweaked perfectly. It's gonna look amazing.. And the shimmer is awesome. I've never had the shimmer effect, that's exciting.
Anyways. Yea. I'm almost done with this project. It's about time too... It's been 2 months since I first ordered this kit..... But I'm looking forward to building another one for my 100 gallon... That should be a piece of cake since I'll go with solderless. As long as I get everything I'm supposed to at once. It should only take me a couple days to get finished.

 

[Aaron H.]

I have the box wired up. Everything is ready to attatch to the hood.

This is the end that will attach to the fixture. I haven't done anything yet cus it will have to fit in the hold on the hood. But it's all labeled and ready to be connected

Next step is to actually put it in the hood

YAY!!!!

 

[Aaron H.]

The goal:
Fit this

Into this

 

[Aaron H.]

Spillin the guys all over the table

All cleaned out. If anyone needs any parts, lmk lol

So I just set everything inside just to see how it would fit....
The heatsink couldn't fit more perfect. ANY bigger and it wouldn't work with the stock splash guard. I can't even tell you how close this was.

Now to try to
Figure out how this thing is actually going to attach to the hood.... Brackets maybe?

 

[Aaron H.]

I made a trip to ace hardware with hood and heatsink in hand... Got a few weird looks and about 5 people asking me what I had.. I told one guy it's for growing special plants.... Lol
Anyways. So I walked around the store trying to figure out how I could mount this heatsink without drilling into the hood.... Well that idea didn't last long. So I decided to get some nice alan head screws I got 4 for the heatsink and 3 smaller ones for the splash guard. (I accidentally broke the post the screws screw into)

And so now I positioned the heatsink where it needed to sit and drilled 4 holes into the hood

I put the bolts in and this thing feels solid. And it's sooo much heavier than it was with the PCs

Everything installed and mounted. Fits like a glove.
The splash guard is very close to the LEDs so I think I will order a fan kit this week and install
It over the vents.

Now time to get the Wiring finished

 

[Aaron H.]

All I can say is. This is one super clean looking fitment (minus the screws on top of the hood, but they don't look TOO bad, I can deal with it). All the wires are gonna be hidden under the stock wire panel. You open the hood and everything is hidden

Feeding the wire harness into the hood

I used the Quick disconnect wire fittings so that I could take things apart in the future if I ever need to repair anything.
I labeled each color and wire

Next step. Testing the LEDs one last time. Put the hood back on the aquarium. And then adjust the colors to where I need

 

[Aaron H.]

Finished product

All lights on at once.

 

[Aaron H.]

Before:

 

[Aaron H.]

After:
********* THESE ARE TAKEN WITH MY IPHONE, THE QUALITY SUCKS AND YOU CANT REALLY SEE HOW MUCH THE CORALS GLOW SO PLEASE KEEP THAT IN MIND, I WILL TAKE BETTER PICS WITH MY DSLR LATER ON WHEN I GET A CHANGE***********

 

[Aaron H.]

and someone came out to say hey while i was taking some pics

 

[Troylee]

Careful man that's very powerful on that little tank... You could cook it in a hurry!!!! Besides that looks great man awesome job..1smile1

 

[Aaron H.]

No worries. That's why I got dimmable drivers. Everyone is dialed down as dim as it can get.

 

[FiReBReTHa]

Nice job on the build!

so much detailed work you did, I truly love it and the wires are nice and neat.

 

[Aaron H.]

Thanks! I wanted it to look As Original as possible. I didn't want it to look like a home made light. Besides the screws on the hood, you can't tell a difference from the outside. (besides the awesomeness that the LEDs make the display :-D )