Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

[007Bond]

The fixtures will tilt front to back and left to right going to start with 4 fixtures 1 each end and 2 in the middle. I might end up adding 2 additional 2 in each opening.---Rick

[proietti]

If you are making a Kessil type cannon fitting I assume you will need to remove the lid?

[007Bond]

The fixtures will look similar to most that are described as "cannons". I think I'll put up a build thread on how they works when I get them made.
The fixtures will slide on a 3/4 pvc pipe running the length of my tank. They will have 1"pvc T's attached direct to the fixture that will slide over the 3/4 pipe,... the purpose, so they will always adjust their selves downward when I raise the trunk like hood. If they were attach rigidly to the hood something would probably break.
Here are a couple pics of how I am planning on mounting them, don't laugh at my art work

http://i.imgur.com/14tth7N.png

http://i.imgur.com/LYAvwU5.png

[proietti]

I see. Will be an interesting build.

[nady]

I updated the measurement of spectra custom 10W-multichips from the past. This time with more accurate spectrometer.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by proietti

That is a very hard question to answer. As brands they are both reputable within their fields. What you have to judge is efficiency of the bulbs. Epileds tend to be good at producing the violet ranges and Bridgelux produce most colours. The downside with Bridgelux compared to Cree or Phillips is their efficiency. You will find that most bridgelux leds tend to be very voltage hungry relative to lumen output and most will not run beyond the 1000mA range.

There is one other thing to keep in mind with Bridgelux. There is a Chinese and American company under using that name Bridgelux. The physical appearance of the chips is almost identical however the quality level on the US ones is much more consistent.

It would not surprise me if these were all made on the same product line but the higher quality ones and the seconds are separated to the two marketing groups.

[proietti]

There is a Chinese and American company under using that name Bridgelux. The physical appearance of the chips is almost identical however the quality level on the US ones is much more consistent.

did not know this fact.

[TropTrea]

My first LED build used Bridgelux LED's and has worked for 4 years flawlesssly. My second build I jumped at an company offering Bridgelux LED's for less than half of what the company I originally bought the Bridgelux LED's from. On a small 12 LED Fixture I ended up replacing 1 LED the first week it was running, and roughly a year in operation I started replacing one every couple weeks. Till eventually 8 of the 1`2 LED's were replaced at the 2 year mark. I noted to the company that I bought the original LED's from and they informed me about some companies that were selling fake Bridgelux LED's that they were getting from a distributor in China called Bridgelux as well.

[quiksilverchin]

If i wanted to run 10 of the 10watt chips that run at 12VDC and up to 1000mA, what would be the best thing to power them?

I found the 2.5 power supply boxes and I could buy 4 of them to get to 10 Amps.

Thanks in advance

[_Snuffles]

I've decided to jump into this and give it a try for one of my smaller tanks, but having a hard time finding a dimmable driver for a 10w or 2x10w for that matter. (Really new to led) I had recently purchased a 5x10w from ac-rc thinking it would be "up to 5 10w led's" but when hooking everything together , obviously that doesn't work.


I'm only using 3 10w:
1 cool white
2 hybrid

Basically just wanting the cool white on one driver and the other two on another if possible. I've tried finding just a single 10w dimmable driver and had no real luck. If someone knows where to find one that would be awesome.

[themaddhatter]

Hi there! I've been trying to slug through this massive thread to catch up on everything Ive missed during a 5 year hiatus from the hobby. I'm going to be setting up my fish room shortly, and my two main tanks are a 72"*18"*22" 125 gallon and a 72"*18"*18" 100 gallon. I plan to have one as a FOWLR the other (125) as a mixed Reef. What wattage would be recommended if I was looking to build 3 cans for each? I saw a listing on eBay for 3 50W chips with drivers, but I have no idea how it relates to T5s and MH. Here's the link http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...929749&alt=web.

[proietti]

Before you go ahead and purchase your leds check out this link. It is very interesting and one of the most complete studies I have read on leds. I have now amended my fittings more in line with this study and finally I am seeing the colours that have been missing from a lot of led set ups. The link is
http://reefll.com/svet_v_rifovom_akvariume

[themaddhatter]

Thanks for the link! I will take some time to consider this before proceeding. The tanks haven't been set up yet so I have some time.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by proietti

Before you go ahead and purchase your leds check out this link. It is very interesting and one of the most complete studies I have read on leds. I have now amended my fittings more in line with this study and finally I am seeing the colours that have been missing from a lot of led set ups. The link is
http://reefll.com/svet_v_rifovom_akvariume

Yes there is some good information here but nothing really new. If you look at the total cost of there fixtures though even on a do it yourself bases you will be more expensive than getting the Pacific Sun fixtures complete.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you can create a light fixture for optimum coral growth, optimum florescence display, or optimum reflective light display. But you need to balance these out to your personal taste and desires, as when you increase one chances are you be hurting one of the other areas.

[themaddhatter]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

Yes there is some good information here but nothing really new. If you look at the total cost of there fixtures though even on a do it yourself bases you will be more expensive than getting the Pacific Sun fixtures complete.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you can create a light fixture for optimum coral growth, optimum florescence display, or optimum reflective light display. But you need to balance these out to your personal taste and desires, as when you increase one chances are you be hurting one of the other areas.

What are the Pacific Sun fixtures? I haven't encountered these yet.

[ReefLedLab]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

Yes there is some good information here but nothing really new.

Agreed. Because this article was published over 1.5 year ago and since this information was widespread

If you look at the total cost of there fixtures though even on a do it yourself bases you will be more expensive than getting the Pacific Sun fixtures complete.

You feel free to use any type of our 12x LED assemblies according to your requirements. If you would like to construct cheap fixture - you may use this assemblies: http://reefll.com/12xV1.0 if you would like to construct fixtures, based on assemblies, that has no any analogue, please use: http://reefll.com/12xV3.0

I would like to emphasize - no one of manufacturer of LED fixtures have the similar product. You may familiarise with this project here: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/4/lighting

[proietti]

Yes there is some good information here but nothing really new.

The part of this article which I found interesting and when I did the change to my set up really changes things was the addition of the PC Amber. I don't know of any fixture which uses the PC Amber. NOT TO BE MISTAKEN WITH NORMAL AMBER. The broad range spectrum of this led really make Pocillaporas, Stylos and Histerix look pink.

[Meddler]

Originally Posted by maglofster

I love LED builds. I have done a lot of them during a couple of years. Recently (the last 8 months or so) I started using LED multichips instead of the smaller 3W LED's. The reason for this was inspiration from Maxspect using them and also an online friend (Lasse, one of the best reefers in Sweden) bought a couple of multichips and was very successful with his builds.

So I did a conversion of my Giesemann pendant, taking away the MH's and putting a heatsink and some multichips into it. This build has given me 8 months of very nice light and consistent SPS growth.

My Elos 120 with DIY LED:


But recently I started thinking of converting the lighting on my 160 gallon cube. I wanted this build to have the smallest footprint possible and as much wattage / buck. So this is what I'm going to build.

2x200W (driven att 180W each) multichips with a combination of 20K and 453nm blue leds.
2x50W 10K multichips. These are going to run a couple of hours midday just to ensure the right spectrum for growth.

So four chips totaling about 460W but only during peak hours. Most of the day only 360W though. This is replacing MH's and T5's totaling about 700W.

To cool the chips I'm using GPU coolers for computers. Very cheap, very efficient. The ones I'm using are rated for 250W GPU's.

The cooler with all the mounting brackets removed:


The cooler with one chip mounted:


Still waiting for my drivers and 90 degree lenses, but I will share pictures when the lights are going through their "burn in".

So I know that this is 2 years old, but being a new reefer, and a PC builder, I had a crazy thought:

What if you took HO LED multi-chips, and cooled it with a PC Liquid-Cooled GPU block? I know you can't use the SW, because it would eat away at the brass fittings...but still. Creating a small loop with a standard GPU block would be SUPER quiet, and you could get away on the build for like....$250 for the cooling. THen you just add new GPU blocks to each chip.

Anyone else thinking this?

[Meddler]

I don't think the information is necessarily new, but I think many can see that a fair amount of the commercially available lights don't have enough emphasis on the violet/bright-blue end of the spectrum. Considering that 400-440nm is the highest rate of absorption, I would expect to see lights with a (roughly) following layout:

12 LED Puck:
3x 6500K White
1x 5500K White
2x 460nm Royal Blue
2x 440nm Bright Blue
2x 420 Pure Violet
1x 400nm Ultra Violet
1x 660nm Deep Red

Certainly, these could change. Some want to add green for coloration. The green spectrum will be made up in the 5500K, which puts out a dominant wavelength of 525.4nm. Some may want more UV for that effect. In the end, I would think that this should be the basis of a light, and we would ADD more LEDs to it to bring out the effect that we want. This way, the corals get their basic requirements, and we get the look we want out of our tank. That being said, that would require a more expensive fixture, as the added LEDs would only be for show, and would provide minimal, albeit some, positive effect on coral growth and health.

[007Bond]

Interesting,...how are you going to control them? Dimming? Divide them up in groups on separate channels? ---Rick

[Meddler]

Originally Posted by 007Bond

Interesting,...how are you going to control them? Dimming? Divide them up in groups on separate channels? ---Rick

To simplify I would likely run a 2-channel controller: Whites, Red, and UV on one channel, with Blues & Violets on the second.

If I had the option, I would rock a 3-channel dimmer, and put the whites on 1, blues on 2, and violet/UV/Red on the 3rd channel.

That being said, the risk is that if we use dimming, then we simply drop the violet and UVs down to make it look how we like and by doing that, we reduce the UV/violet in the light. Then we are back at square 1. So, to ensure that we don't fiddle, I would try (don't know if I could) to just leave it all on a single-channel dimmer. Maybe a per-pod dimmer.

I would also consider making small, 3-LED pods to go in between the main pods, to simply ADD some colors that I like to bring out the look I enjoy for my tank. The key there, just like above, would be to run the big pods at full power, and run the smaller pods to color it to my liking (ie. main pods at 100% and little guys at 40%). If they bleach, dial everything back equally (i.e. main pods back to 80%, and little guys at 32%) in lockstep so that I do not lose my violet/UV advantage while maintaining my coloring.

[007Bond]

Will be watching for any updates.---Rick

[themaddhatter]

Originally Posted by ReefLedLab

Agreed. Because this article was published over 1.5 year ago and since this information was widespread You feel free to use any type of our 12x LED assemblies according to your requirements. If you would like to construct cheap fixture - you may use this assemblies: http://reefll.com/12xV1.0 if you would like to construct fixtures, based on assemblies, that has no any analogue, please use: http://reefll.com/12xV3.0

I would like to emphasize - no one of manufacturer of LED fixtures have the similar product. You may familiarise with this project here: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/4/lighting

Has anyone got experience with this product? Looks intriguing.

[pwreef]

Originally Posted by themaddhatter

Has anyone got experience with this product? Looks intriguing.

Yes - ME
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2409905

[sanamyan]

Originally Posted by themaddhatter

Has anyone got experience with this product? Looks intriguing.

I use first version of these 12led assemblies for a long time. My first led lighting was build in 2011 (see here ). It had just two types of leds - Royal Blues and Whites (cool white + neutral white). After some time I build another one for the same tank and now used ReefLedLab 12-leds assemblies. The result was (and is) very impressive - due to high amount of violet spectra the fluorescent pigments really pop, the fluorescence is much stronger than before and the overall impression is great. That I missed in first version of ReefLedLab 12-leds assemblies is the amount of warmer spectra, but as far as I know this was fixed in next versions of ReefLedLabe products (which include some LEDs having warmer spectra). Anyway, even with the first (cold) version of these assemblies I have the best lighting I eveк had (and I started with metall-galides+T5 actinics, simple and more complex DIY led fixtures so I can compare).

The only problem is that due to high amount of violet spectra is is very difficult to took good photos of the tank. On the photos it looks muddy and odd with violet cast and deep black shadows, but in reality the overall color is very beautiful.