Uttery stupid simple LED for $40

[blasterman]

Currently my favorite tank is my 20L that has evolved to 1/3 zoa and 2/3 SPS. Utterly under rated tank for budget and flexibility. This obviously creates a lighting dilemma requiring two different light and much different intensity. Im still not sure what I'm doing with this tank so I'm keeping things cheap for now.

My SPS side side is covered- my modded Mars Aqua with lenses removed handles montipora like a champ.

For the softie side I just used spare parts. 4x XPG3 royals, 1x XPG3 neutral white, a 7" scrap piece of 4x1 C channel aluminum, and a 700mA meanwell LPC driver. Super glued the solder less LEDs and away we go. Maybe $40 in parts.

In terms of color it could use a cool blue or cyan to temper the purple cast of the neutral, but its still pretty darn good for a fixed ratio of LEDs.

Because my tanks are glass covered to reduce evap I just set the light on top of the glass. With bare LEDs the coverage is excellent. The birdsnest in the pic is partially under both lights and grows like a weed.

Lighting is soooooo over complicated in this hobby and muddled with pseudo science its almost its own parody.

 

[Karen00]

Thank you for posting this, especially because it is pico specific which I'm looking to do. This helps so much! So based on your pic I'm assuming this is one of those led strips you can cut to size?

 

[Udest]

Yes could you give us more on those led's

 

[blasterman]

Those are Cree XPG3's which are the highest current production royals of practical use. They will take two amps, but the heat becomes formidable.

I'm sick of soldering so I get them mounted on solderless PCBs so all I have to do is snap the connector wires. Took 20 minutes to build. The bam bams would would like me to toss a full amp driver on there but the other zoas are fine. The birdsnest is growing horizontal and doesn't want more light either.

I just tested a Radion XR15 blue on that tank and it did not do as well as I thought vs both those cheap lights.

Rapid LED has all this stuff.

 

[Karen00]

Those are Cree XPG3's which are the highest current production royals of practical use. They will take two amps, but the heat becomes formidable.

I'm sick of soldering so I get them mounted on solderless PCBs so all I have to do is snap the connector wires. Took 20 minutes to build. The bam bams would would like me to toss a full amp driver on there but the other zoas are fine. The birdsnest is growing horizontal and doesn't want more light either.

I just tested a Radion XR15 blue on that tank and it did not do as well as I thought vs both those cheap lights.

Rapid LED has all this stuff.

Ty! I definitely want to try something like this!!

 

[Udest]

Looks like you want get some thermal paste and some old heat sinks and you'll be able to make quite the light.

 

[blasterman]

For this side of the tank its fine. Metal is warm to the touch so thermal is not an issue.

For a shallow tank though and some glass to sit on this is disgusting amounts of bang per buck. Just 5 LEDs driven at half power and a $15 driver has that kind of growth. None of that UV /violet nonsense, no setting ramp up and down time. Just grows stuff.