DIY LED Questions

[creefer]

Ok......here goes....

I have a really cool ADA 24 x 12 x 8 tank that I'm going to plumb into my existing system. This tank will primarily be an LPS frag display if you will. I'm planning to use it as such until my sps in the main system grows in enough to shade some areas for LPS. I would like to use a DIY LED system for this tank, but being a noob to DIY LED, I'm looking for some advice. I don't have much in the way of vertical space above the tank and will have to get creative on mounting. I assume I'll have about 12" of clearance above the tank to work with. Considering tank depth and distance from tank to proposed fixture, I was thinking I could do without optics, but am not sure.

Anyone have any ideas for me? I've considered a makers heat sink and getting some LED from LED Group Buy, but not sure of the mix. I was thinking 3 - 3 ups, 2 OCW, and 3 TV if I went that route, but am really interested to hear what the R2R LED guru's have to say.

So....bring it on....

 

[ReefLEDLights]

The Makers is a good heatsink, given its narrow width and your tank width you should not need optics. This will impact efficiency a little but given the height constraint a doable way to go.

If you're not fluent in soldering I would go the solderless route. This is a little more cost than the three up as you have three separate connectors and Stars. Troubleshooting a cold solder or other soldering errors is not fun.

The Makers heatsink is well thought out and includes the hardware for the BJB solderless connectors.

For best looks ensure the cool white are Binned at 7.5K and the Royal Blue 450-455nm. The True Violet are rather weak in brightness and will do little for growth. I would substitute the XT-E Royal Blue for better growth. Evaluate the looks and if you need more colour pop use the Semi on a seperate driver. This does add some expense but the results are worth it and your overall cost is still less than a factory fixture.

Bill

 

[creefer]

Thanks for the info, Bill.

I'm not really concerned about soldering. It's been a while, but I don't find it to be an issue for me. I think I'll enjoy it honestly.

I took some measurements this evening and as it turns out, I have very limited space above the tank. I have clearance of 10" above the rim in this situation, so if you assume the profile of a DIY with fan, I'm left with about 6" above the tank. It will make mounting difficult due to the constraints (pics soon to follow), but I think I can make it work and still look good.

What initially attracted me to the makers is that it looks much better than the "typical" DIY. This is in my living room and will be in the main field of view for anyone in the house. As such, it must be clean. I really think DIY is the way to go here given the application and seemingly, I should be able to do it much less expensive than buying a fixture.

 

[creefer]

The Makers is a good heatsink, given its narrow width and your tank width you should not need optics. This will impact efficiency a little but given the height constraint a doable way to go.

If you're not fluent in soldering I would go the solderless route. This is a little more cost than the three up as you have three separate connectors and Stars. Troubleshooting a cold solder or other soldering errors is not fun.

The Makers heatsink is well thought out and includes the hardware for the BJB solderless connectors.

For best looks ensure the cool white are Binned at 7.5K and the Royal Blue 450-455nm. The True Violet are rather weak in brightness and will do little for growth. I would substitute the XT-E Royal Blue for better growth. Evaluate the looks and if you need more colour pop use the Semi on a seperate driver. This does add some expense but the results are worth it and your overall cost is still less than a factory fixture.

Bill

Do you have any recommendations on quantity of LED and associated mix of colors?

 

[ReefLEDLights]

I would say a 1 LED to Gallon driven at 700mA works well.

This has a lot of exceptions. The first being acclimation and a natural sunlight cycle. The others the list goes on

For 6" above the water skip optics or selectively use them.

I really cannot comment on mix as specific Bins Of LEDs is huge in this.

If you can get the best bins I would go with 25 LEDs

10 XT-E Cool White driven at 1050 mA with a dimmable driver

15 XT-E Royal Blue driven at 700mA.

This will give you a nice look you may want to replace some of the XT-E Royal Blue with XP-E Blue for a finished Ushio look.

Using dimmable drivers allows you to acclimate and tweak the colour perfectly.

Bill

 

[creefer]

Thanks, Bill.