LED DIY Questions, Questions, Questions

[kveille]

OK, I posted this on my local site, but wanted to get some of your opinions as well. I have been following the threads here and on other sites about LED builds thinking in the near future I will want to replace my T5s with LEDs. I think the time has come and I am leaning towards doing a DIY job with LEDs. My electrical wiring experience is installing a ceiling fan or two and my soldering experience is when I modded my Playstation. I was over at a friend's house this weekend and saw his DIY build. He walked me through most of the steps and it seems pretty easy and straight forward. So I want to start looking at supplies and such.

I have a standard 120 (48x24x24). I want to install dimmable drivers to run each color (blue and white). I am also considering installing a few red and UV leds. Is there a standard calculation to determine how many 3w led lights I will need? Should I try to do 2 heatinks or one large heatsink? My understanding is that the optics determines how far the light covers at the bottom, so the lower the degree the more concentrated the light is. Is this correct? Would everyone recommend a 2:1 Blue to White ratio? It sounds like Cree leds are considered the best led, would it be a big mistake to go with another brand such as Bridgelux.

Do I need to consider anything else in my led decision making other than # of led lights, color, dimmable driver, heat sink size and optics?

 

[ReefLEDLights]

Be sure to read thru our forum here on Reef2reef to see what other people have done with their builds Reef LED Lights


http://reefledlights.com/led-my-tank-2/
will help you with figuring out heatsinks and quantities



Hope this helps get you started!

 

[ReefLEDLights]

just saw your thread in our forum :)

 

[kveille]

Thanks for the link. I think I have read just about everything on your site except that link. :wink: This is the type of information I am looking for. Thanks.

 

[kveille]

I forgot to mention that I have a center brace. Does that change anything?

 

[ReefLEDLights]

I forgot to mention that I have a center brace. Does that change anything?

sorry, didnt get notification of your response!

no, just means to slide the heatsink over a little bit so that way the optics throw the light under the brace so you get no shadowing and you are good.

 

[rkseaslug]

I have ordered LEDs from 3 different sites, Reef LED lights seem to have high quality lights. The premium bulb seem to have richer color. 2 royal blue to one white is like 20k MH. Be careful with the red, very bright. It can even over powere the white.
don't add to many reds. LPS with white base, like toadstools and leather corals look sick under red. Nano tanks don't need lenses, big tanks do to punch to bottom. To save some money, you don't have to dim the blues, just the white. I would do two heat sinks. One would be really heavy. Wiyh two you can spread out alittle too. Also 1 fiji purple t5 with leds look sick too.