Ok all, been really busy but I did get a chance to work on this and actually have it running....
Let me just say if you are doing this on a red sea max you need the heat sink to be 4.5 inches by 20 inches. Exactly and it will fit in perfect where the old reflector was. I ordered mine knowing I would have to cut it and make it with 2 pieces. I would not suggest this. I would buy it the way it needs to be right off the bat. This would save a lot of time.
That being said the Kit I got from reef LED lights was great. Came with very good instructions and everything you need except wire, solder and iron.
In all my reading people have said to pre tin the LED's and the wire. I DID do this and I am so glad I did. Jus simply put solder on the pads of the star and pre sldered all the wire.
The hardest part was getting the heat sink installed due to my lack of measuring exactly. But once that was done everything else went smooth. I had measured out my spacing and went with 12 led's in each row. I did this as I was worried about spot lighting. and wanted side to side coverage. I mixed up half the 2 part thermo paste and mounted all the blue LED's. the paste sets up pretty quick so I did waste some of the first batch. So I mixed up about half of what I had left to do the white XPG's. This was enough to do the last 12 leds.. I let it sit for about 45 minutes or so while I cut all the wire and tinned it. By the Time I had that all done the LED's were secure and I started wiring up the Leds in series. I used white wire for the white leds and blue for the blue..... go figure right ? I trimmed a few of the wires along the way so that the wires fit perfectly. I thought about drilling holes and hiding all the wires but was kind of excited to get this done and back on the tank.
After all the leds were wired up i still had to get the drivers hooked up. I used the 2 Mean Well ELN 60-48 drivers. I took out everything from the stock setup but the 12v power supply and used it for the fans. Both drivers fit in the stock hood. I took the cover off the driver for the XRE royal blues and dialed it in to a nice 700mA and replaced the cover. This drives the XRE's at 70% and gives me good output and low heat output. I replaced the cover and that driver and put setup on the tank and turned it on. From there I adjusted the driver on the XPG r5's until I got the color I liked on the tank. it was pretty simple and made me appreciate the fact that I spent the extra money on dimmable drivers. I highly suggest it. The XPG driver ended up around 600mA when it was all said and done.
Both mean well drivers fit in the stock hood where the old ballast would fit. its a snug fit but everything fits in there . 2 drivers and the stock 12v ps. I went a head and hooked up the stock timer and made everything work just like it did before. Minus the stock led moonlights. I do still use the led stunner strips for dusk to dawn. I could of wired up the XRE royal blues for this but thought I would just use what I have and keep it simple. LEss cords coming out of the stock hood as well.
little sample of the wiring. I have to get more pics taken and posted.
All in all I am happy I did it. Learned a lot about leds for sure. I now ordered 2 new fans for the hood as the stock Red Sea MAx fans are getting noisey. So i will have to open the hood back up and replace the fans. Not a big deal but maybe then I can get some more pictures. Waiting to see how the corals respond. So far so good. The shimmer is great. No spot light at all. very good color spread. I am NOT using optics. leds are 1.5 in apart.
Will update more this sunday.
Mojo~
