Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build

[maglofster]

Originally Posted by ronreef

Got the Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 Plus 120W VGA cooler attached to the Kessil Gooseneck. It turned out pretty good.

Very nice!!

[maglofster]

Wow, over 100K views. I did not think this thread would be som massive when I started it. Very happy about this.

I have recieved far more PM's than I manage to answer. So sorry for not answering them all. But place your questions in the thread and I'm sure they will be answered.

Best regards,
Magnus

[Electrobes]

Originally Posted by maglofster

Wow, over 100K views. I did not think this thread would be som massive when I started it. Very happy about this.

I have recieved far more PM's than I manage to answer. So sorry for not answering them all. But place your questions in the thread and I'm sure they will be answered.

Best regards,
Magnus

Dude we need an update from you and I loved the video you made! How's your tank doing with these lights?

[maglofster]

Well, the tank is absolutely thriving. I have been a little busy with other stuff recently so haven't had the time or energy for another video. Tomorrow I'm off to Thailand for three weeks of diving and UW Macro photographing but come late August I think it's time for a video update with the tank.

[007Bond]

Ya, remember when your girlfriend went out of town, so you posted your build. Thanks for starting the thread.---RICK

[blackthunda77]

for those of you guys running your leds on a controller. What driver are you using? do i need to get one thats labeled dimmable? I have an apex controller and id love to test out my 20watt blue chip on my controller to adjust the intensity. Can someone explain this to me? These are the pieces i purchased and im pretty sure i cant dim this driver on my apex correct? If not which driver would you guys recommend for me to be able to do this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220773272950...ht_2064wt_1139

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270831508193...#ht_3254wt_905

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270865876938...#ht_1606wt_905

advice is greatly appreciated.

[Jeroen89]

This is a verry nice thread with lots of information.
I have a tank with this dimentions: 200 x 70 x 70 cm with 2 dividers.
Now, I have 4 x 250w mh 14.000k and I want to replace this with leds.
Witch leds do I need?
Is it enough to have 3 x 50w like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-40mil-50...item33779e0520
And some other chips of 20w 20000k?
Maybe its better to use leds of 100w?

Thanks for the help and information!

[RiddleEagle18]

Originally Posted by RiddleEagle18

Im currently running a nova extreme pro. Half the lights are 10k bulbs and the other half actinic. I currently have the actinics on for 12 hours and the 10ks on for 8 hours.

I want to go slightly more blue so Im looking at the 16k chips.

I have a 125 with 3 equal partitions on the top of the tank. I was thinking of building 3 pendants, one over each section, with each pendant in a sort of star formation.

1 50W 16k chip in the middle(total of 3)
2 10W 445nm on opposite corners(total of 6)
2 10W 450nm on opposite corners(total of 6)

I was planning on running the blues 12 hours a day and the 16k 8 hours a day. Do you think this will give me a good color balance similar to what I run now only slightly more blue?

Change of plans. What about this over a standard 125g. 3 pendants.

1 50w hybrid 20 20k/30 447-450 run 12 hours
2 20w 10k run 8 hours

Total of 270W total. Is that enough?

[chandiel]

Originally Posted by chandiel

hi.. i'm reading from 1st page to 50 page and still confuse to choose what led should i build.
my tank was 100cm x 50cm x 50cm

what should i build ? are 1x20W 20K white and 1x20W blue ? or 2x20W 20K white and 2x20W blue ?
also please help me to choose the driver.

does anyone would help me please ?

hi.. does anyone know the result (in my tank with 100cm x 50cm x 50cm dimension) if i use :

5pc
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pc-10Watt-1...item43b17194f4

and

5pc
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2pcs-10W-Act...item19d27e5799

in design like lassef like picture o attach.

are this design was good enough to replace my 2x39W T5 ? most in my tank was LPS.

please help me..

also if i use a 2x50W dimmable driver for each series LED (5xwhite and 5xblue) will it work ?

[sfsuphysics]

Originally Posted by ronreef

You're still saving over $100!

Not to mention the flexibility in power for the DIY build:

DIY build power output: 93.6W-187W.
Kessil A350 power output: ~90W max.

...and the DIY build looks good too!

I have to say though that I really would have expected a much larger savings, I mean compared to something like the smaller 3W led fixtures where you really have a major savings in price, take something like the AI Sol unit, someplace like RapidLED has a kit that even has the 3LED pucks just like the unit for about half the price. (nearly $200 savings).

I wonder what the actual light output of these overseas units vs something like a Kessil is too.

[ronreef]

Originally Posted by sfsuphysics

I have to say though that I really would have expected a much larger savings, I mean compared to something like the smaller 3W led fixtures where you really have a major savings in price, take something like the AI Sol unit, someplace like RapidLED has a kit that even has the 3LED pucks just like the unit for about half the price. (nearly $200 savings).

I wonder what the actual light output of these overseas units vs something like a Kessil is too.

This is DIY. Saving cash is part of the satisfaction. Flexibiltiy is a big part of it too. For me, power output more than makes up any shortcomings even if the build cost was equivalent to a Kessil. It's not for everyone. Part of the attraction of the multichip LED light point source is to get away from having to wire up multiple smaller 3W LEDs. To quote someone who's built mutliple 3W fixtures, "And so much less annoying then the 3watt builds (I've built 5 or so 3w fixtures and they get annoying)."

Like I said, it's not for everyone.

[ronreef]

Originally Posted by Jeroen89

This is a verry nice thread with lots of information.
I have a tank with this dimentions: 200 x 70 x 70 cm with 2 dividers.
Now, I have 4 x 250w mh 14.000k and I want to replace this with leds.
Witch leds do I need?
Is it enough to have 3 x 50w like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-40mil-50...item33779e0520
And some other chips of 20w 20000k?
Maybe its better to use leds of 100w?

Thanks for the help and information!

That's a pretty deep tank. I'd start with a 60W (10000K/445-447 royal blue) hybrid for each section of the tank. Then supplement with a few more multichip LEDs to get each section up around 100W total.

[ronreef]

Originally Posted by RiddleEagle18

Change of plans. What about this over a standard 125g. 3 pendants.

1 50w hybrid 20 20k/30 447-450 run 12 hours
2 20w 10k run 8 hours

Total of 270W total. Is that enough?

How deeps is the tank? Though, sounds pretty good.

[gunlocators]

Tons of info here in this thread. I am wanting to build a LED setup. I currently run 2 - 250 MH and 2 Super Actinics on a 100G tank.

Dimensions is 60" x 20" x 18"
Top of Water line to top of sand bed is roughly 16 1/2 to 17"
Top of inside of my canopy to waterline is 10" I can cut a hole in the top of canopy to achieve a full 10" if needed then trim around those holes where the heatsinks would stick out.

Now what I like is Blue Lighting in the AM first off the a hour later my Metal Halides come on. the in the Evening the MH goes off first then the super actinics.
One thing I currently do not have is moonlighting I would like a nice royal blue at night.

With that said to achieve that and replace what I already have

AND if it was you building this what would you exactly use.

What heatsink, what LED's and how many. Also forgot to mention I want them to be able to be dimmed with my APEX if possible. I just got this tank running a couple weeks ago and it was a used tank. SO far only thing I have used is lighting which is OLD, tank, stand and canopy. I built my own sump/refugium drilled my holes for the bulkheads ect.

I currently have about 150# of mixed lived and dry marco rocks in the tank. And this week since my levels are all in check I moved 2 clowns, a snowflake, 2 BTA's and a lawmower blenny from my 29g biocube. I have several puling xenias from my live rock scavenged from my bio cube, I plan to grow SPS, LPS some mushrooms and some other things so I want these to have adequate and proper lighting.

Hope this is enough detail what I want to do and hope you can help with suggestions and places to order maybe links if you have them. Feel free to PM me if you can post a link... I was about to replace both MH Bulbs and Super Actnics but figure the price of those bulbs at the LFS I should be able to buy several items needed for a DIY LED Build...

Thank You Very Much Guys......

[Lassef]

Originally Posted by blackthunda77

for those of you guys running your leds on a controller. What driver are you using? do i need to get one thats labeled dimmable? I have an apex controller and id love to test out my 20watt blue chip on my controller to adjust the intensity. Can someone explain this to me? These are the pieces i purchased and im pretty sure i cant dim this driver on my apex correct? If not which driver would you guys recommend for me to be able to do this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220773272950...ht_2064wt_1139

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270831508193...#ht_3254wt_905

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270865876938...#ht_1606wt_905

advice is greatly appreciated.

You're right, you can not dim with the specified driver. It is difficult to find any good driver, but if you look at your chip specification it says that Forward voltage is 10 - 11 V and the proposed power is 1000 to 2100 mA. The following driver LPF-25D-12 have the specifications for Constant Current Region 6.6-12 V and provides 2100 mA in the area. It would be a good fit but is at max what your chip can handle. I would probably have chosen LPF-25D-15 instead. Constant Current Region is 8.25-15V at a current of 1.67 A. In the first case, you get about 21 watts and the second case about 17 watts. Both drivers can use the 1-10 V signal to dim and as I understand a Apex controller use such a control signal.

However, I have not tested this configuration, but believe that it works.

If you want to connect more chip to the same driver you ought to connect them in a serie. Find a driver that gives the prefered current and have a constant current region there the sum of your chip´s FV fit in. An example - you want to have two of this chips in a serie - find a driver thats give around 2000 mA and the constant current region include 20 - 22 V. LPF-40D-24 as an example

Sincerely Lasse

[Lassef]

Originally Posted by chandiel

hi.. does anyone know the result (in my tank with 100cm x 50cm x 50cm dimension) if i use :

5pc
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pc-10Watt-1...item43b17194f4

and

5pc
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2pcs-10W-Act...item19d27e5799

in design like lassef like picture o attach.

are this design was good enough to replace my 2x39W T5 ? most in my tank was LPS.

please help me..

also if i use a 2x50W dimmable driver for each series LED (5xwhite and 5xblue) will it work ?

Generally - 100 watt LED replaces more than enough 2 * 39 watt T5. My choice would be however five pieces of 16 000 K white and 5 pieces of RB with different wavelengths (445 and 455 nm). I would use the lenses, at least to the white and put the chips in two rows of each color separately.

It is difficult to find a perfect drive for 5 * 10 watts. If you go down a little from the maximum current of 1000 mA thera are some including the HLG-40H-54B, which would give about 80% of the effect (about 40 watts)

Sincerely Lasse

[chandiel]

Originally Posted by Lassef

Generally - 100 watt LED replaces more than enough 2 * 39 watt T5. My choice would be however five pieces of 16 000 K white and 5 pieces of RB with different wavelengths (445 and 455 nm). I would use the lenses, at least to the white and put the chips in two rows of each color separately.

It is difficult to find a perfect drive for 5 * 10 watts. If you go down a little from the maximum current of 1000 mA thera are some including the HLG-40H-54B, which would give about 80% of the effect (about 40 watts)

Sincerely Lasse

thanks lasse..what lens do you prefer to use ? are 60 or 90 degres ?

[Lassef]

Originally Posted by chandiel

thanks lasse..what lens do you prefer to use ? are 60 or 90 degres ?

Depends on. Near the shortsides of the aquarium I prefer 60 degres - in the middle with your deepth probably 90 degre will be great. But there is no must, but its good if you get the light there it should be (inside the aquarium) and not on the glass.

Sincerely Lasse

[RiddleEagle18]

Originally Posted by ronreef

How deeps is the tank? Though, sounds pretty good.

72"Lx18"Wx22"H.

[chandiel]

Originally Posted by Lassef

Depends on. Near the shortsides of the aquarium I prefer 60 degres - in the middle with your deepth probably 90 degre will be great. But there is no must, but its good if you get the light there it should be (inside the aquarium) and not on the glass.

Sincerely Lasse

thanks you Lasse.
so..you means to separately 5white LED in 1 rows and the other 5blue led in 1 rows ? about the driver,can i use 50W driver if each row i build the led in series ?
if yes,then i need 2 long heatsink like what you build in picture.can you tell me please,where you get the heatsink ?

[blesk]

Lassef i cone du another build fore diffrent tank 48x24x20 inch i was think two pendants each vith 1-50w multy chip , 2-10w 10k , 2-10w 16k , 4-10w RB, should i need add any UV led vhot you think thanks for respond.

[sfsuphysics]

Originally Posted by ronreef

This is DIY. Saving cash is part of the satisfaction. Flexibiltiy is a big part of it too. For me, power output more than makes up any shortcomings even if the build cost was equivalent to a Kessil. It's not for everyone. Part of the attraction of the multichip LED light point source is to get away from having to wire up multiple smaller 3W LEDs. To quote someone who's built mutliple 3W fixtures, "And so much less annoying then the 3watt builds (I've built 5 or so 3w fixtures and they get annoying)."

Like I said, it's not for everyone.

no I get it, saving cash is great, I just thought it would be more of a cash savings.

[Lassef]

Originally Posted by chandiel

thanks you Lasse.
so..you means to separately 5white LED in 1 rows and the other 5blue led in 1 rows ? about the driver,can i use 50W driver if each row i build the led in series ?
if yes,then i need 2 long heatsink like what you build in picture.can you tell me please,where you get the heatsink ?

Power LED´s shall be connected in series - its easier that way. If you use the driver I mentioned - yes you can take the 5 whites in series to one of the drivers and the 5 blues in the other chain.

The heatsink i got from Ebay (somewhere) The other construction (arround the heatsink) I found at my job, it is two covers from a cable duct. Use your imagination

Sincerely Lasse

[ronreef]

Originally Posted by sfsuphysics

no I get it, saving cash is great, I just thought it would be more of a cash savings.

The bigger point is power output flexibility.

[Lassef]

Originally Posted by blesk

Lassef i cone du another build fore diffrent tank 48x24x20 inch i was think two pendants each vith 1-50w multy chip , 2-10w 10k , 2-10w 16k , 4-10w RB, should i need add any UV led vhot you think thanks for respond.

If you with UV mean 405 - 420 nm, mayby its a good idea to have 1 pcs 420 nm to each pendant. The problem is that they are expansive but there is normaly possible to run them arround 20 watt. If I should built a pendant like that, I probaly should replace the 4*10 watts RB with one 420 nm 20 watts and one 445 nm 20 watts. The blue in 50 watts multichip is normally 455 nm. In this way - you have the whole blue photosyntetic active spectra in your pendant

Sincerely Lasse.