Home made 45 watt rapidLED refugium light

[Rjramos]

So I started with 2 aluminum heat sinks and 2 non dimable Meanwell Ballast. I purchased 2 fans and 15, 3 watt luxeon cool white LEDs from rapidLED. It was growing chaeto but a lot of whitening on the surface. Probably too intense. I researched the lights used for refugiums and found that more red and blue spectrum was used. So I spent about $80 more and bought 8 photo red cree LEDs, 4 royal blue, the dimmable ballast pictured and a dial dimmer. I disassembled the housings that I also made out of plexiglas and welded in the new LEDs. I did one light first and after seeing the much improved growth of chaeto. I did the same work to the other one. Amazing and something to feel proud of!

 

[andrewey]

Nice! Yeah, you can absolutely bleach cheato with these kinds of light! I had to slowly ramp up my first diy cheato light over a couple weeks. Looking good- nice work!

 

[Rjramos]

Nice! Yeah, you can absolutely bleach cheato with these kinds of light! I had to slowly ramp up my first diy cheato light over a couple weeks. Looking good- nice work!

Thanks! It’s deceiving cause by eye the photo reds don’t seem bright. But they do pack a punch! I have the dial on potentiometer turned down to quarter power.

 

[nomsmon]

Looking at building something similar myself, but judging by your pics my fuge is much smaller.

Mind sharing some rough dimensions of your refugium?

I'm not familiar with those dimmable ballast; do they have the LED drivers built in or something like that?

 

[Rjramos]

Looking at building something similar myself, but judging by your pics my fuge is much smaller.

Mind sharing some rough dimensions of your refugium?

I'm not familiar with those dimmable ballast; do they have the LED drivers built in or something like that?

My refugiums in 3 of my set-ups are relatively large and dedicated sumps. These are set up, elevated, and gravity fed and emptied, display to refugium, and refugium to another sump below. Sump below has return pump and skimmer involved. If you look at my threads you’ll get pictures of what I’m talking about. “Double stacked sumps”. I have custom made all my sumps/refugiums, sized according with Ecosystem Aquariums recommendations per Display Tank volume. So in 2 of my set ups, 120gal display, and dual 60gal frag tanks, for instance, the refugiums are 30”x 16” with only 12” height. Actual, mud and chaeto growth area is 22”x16”, so a lot of area to supply light.
I bought everything to put these 2 lights together. Aluminum heat sinks from “Heatsink USA” measuring app. 12”x7”.
The 15 3 watt LED’s, fans, and dimmable driver (which does not require separate drivers), the potentiometer to dim, lenses, and LED adhesive I purchased from RapidLED. The cases were made by me out of plexiglas, and LED’s wired and soldered in sequence. It took a bit of labor and money to built, but in the end I am satisfied with the performance and quality that just doesn’t exist in an equivalent bought fixture.