DIY LED Help

baseballfanatic2 · Jun 8, 2016

Hello everybody,

I need some serious help. I'm having trouble with making decisions.

First, I'm having trouble with what heatsink to go with and what size.

Second, I'm having trouble with how many leds to go with and what colors.

If anyone knows about leds, please help.

Right now, I have 12 royal blue on one driver, and 9 cool white with and 3 blue on another drive. This is what was run on my biocubr 29.

Now I have a rimless nuvo fusion 30L. I will be hanging the heatsink. Thanks In advance!

twilliard · Jun 9, 2016

Awesome heatsinks made by makersLED
http://www.ledsupply.com/led-heatsinks/makersheatsink-slim

Also get ahold of Bill from reefledlights here on R2R for your chips. He is a great guy!

baseballfanatic2 · Jun 9, 2016

twilliard said:
Awesome heatsinks made by makersLED
http://www.ledsupply.com/led-heatsinks/makersheatsink-slim

Also get ahold of Bill from reefledlights here on R2R for your chips. He is a great guy!

Thanks for the advice. This is what I was originally going to go with. But I'm scared about heat issues since it's so slim.

Also what color combos leds would you suggest?

And can you suggest a heatsink size? I was leaning towards the 30 inch size, but if I can get away with the 24 to save 20 bucks, I'll do that. But I am scared about having shadows. What do you think

twilliard · Jun 9, 2016

This is what I have used for several fixtures now. It's great for high wattage use.
http://www.ledsupply.com/led-heatsinks/makersled-heatsink-kit

For chip combos it depends on what you are after.

Here is my 30" fixture over my 46g bow front tank.

Equvlent to 2 250w metal halide lamps at about 20K spectrum

baseballfanatic2 · Jun 9, 2016

twilliard said:
This is what I have used for several fixtures now. It's great for high wattage use.
http://www.ledsupply.com/led-heatsinks/makersled-heatsink-kit

For chip combos it depends on what you are after.

Here is my 30" fixture over my 46g bow front tank.

Equvlent to 2 250w metal halide lamps at about 20K spectrum

I was looking at the heavy duty one. But idk. You don't think it will look to bulky for a 30 Gallo nuvo fusion. And the black slim has a nice black slim look. Hard decision.

twilliard · Jun 9, 2016

I think you would be just fine with the slim.
My 30" is using 55 chips

blitz49 · Jun 10, 2016

baseballfanatic2 said:
I was looking at the heavy duty one. But idk. You don't think it will look to bulky for a 30 Gallo nuvo fusion. And the black slim has a nice black slim look. Hard decision.

I'm using the same heatsink as twillard, but mines is 18" with 52 leds with fan. I showed you a picture before but here it is again. Makersled heatsink is one of the better looking heatsink. Since you are running only 24 leds than 30" heatsink would be a suffficient, you most likely can get away without using a fan. Plus, you can add more leds in future if you want.