LED Recommendation Thread

[reefermad619]

Hey BMB. Got any actual power consumption reading for your build? There was a thread awhile back stating that some DIY rigs were using much more power that they should be. A friend of mine as a 24 LED setup using all 3 watt crees and his rig is pulling 125 watts of juice. I was just wondering if you experienced anything like this. Thanks.

[BigKahuna]

My LED journey is as follows:

I have my only current tank in my office so while I like the look of a fixture suspended over a tank sans hood I don't want people throwing stuff in the tank when no one is looking so I decided a hood is a must. I used to have a 3x48" VHO set-up which was fine but they got hot and raised my tank temp somewhat even with a fan and I hated having to swap out the bulbs when they reached their EOL. I added a Reef Brite blue 48" strip for a little actinic supplementation and loved the blue highlights it added so much I decided to go all LED and eventually added another 50white/50blue model along with a couple of big 36w 5500k PAR38's to add a little yellow balance to the decided blue look.

Recently I added a new Reef Brite XHO model 50/50 with the goal of eliminating the PAR38's but I found they actually work even better together because the shimmer coming off the PAR38's is nothing short of MH-like and the yellow cast give a more balanced look IMHO. The only problem I had was mounting the three RB's in my hood made it difficult to do any work in the tank w/o removing the hood. I came up with a solution that involved using the 3-way RB mount sliding on some aluminum T-Track held in place with some quick release cam locks so I can instantly slide the whole RB set-up back into the hood for more clearance when I want to and then slide it forward when done. It works so well in fact that I leave the lights far more forward than I had ever considered mounting them because the light looks better more toward the front angled back into the tank.

I really like having four distinct lights hooked up to my Neptune controller too. The blues are the first to come on (and last to go off), along with a fan to cool the hood. Then an hour later the standard grade 50/50's come on followed by the XHO's a little later and then finally the PAR's come on for a midday sun effect for about 5 hours. Then they all go off in reverse order.

I guess the whole point to my post is that how you start setting up your lights may not be how you end up and there is nothing wrong with building a component at a time and flesh it all out to your own taste. I couldn't be happier with how my lights all turned out but it did take a while to getting them where I wanted them to be.

[Felixc395]

Thanks bigkahuna, nice little review!

This is quite similar to my situation. I'm getting two AIs that I just ordered today and will be adding depending on how I like the look of two over a 75 gallon. Lets just say I'm really excited and am very anxious for them to get to my house! It's really an advantage over traditional forms of lighting that you can add modules and save money so easily.

[brassmonkyballs]

Originally Posted by reefermad619

Hey BMB. Got any actual power consumption reading for your build? There was a thread awhile back stating that some DIY rigs were using much more power that they should be. A friend of mine as a 24 LED setup using all 3 watt crees and his rig is pulling 125 watts of juice. I was just wondering if you experienced anything like this. Thanks.

no i haven't measured it. What did he use for the measurement? Couple thoughts...assuming he used 2 Meanwell ELN 60-48 drivers....each one is 60 watts...2 X 60 = 120W so if he used all of it then yeah its possible...the other thing is do you know what Cree's he is using? are they XRE or XPG/XPE?

You have to take the 3 watt rating with a little grain of salt sometimes. If a Cree XRE were running at 3.5V and pushed to 1.3A thats really 4.55 watts, if that were what he was running at then 24x4.55=109 watts. SInce we don't know which Cree 3w he is using and what his parameters are its hard to say whats going on...but you can see theoretically its possible. But take that same rig and run it off one driver with 2 parallel strings of 12 at 700ma and you just halved the power.....

It would be interesting if he could measure the voltage and current of each string at the LEDs and compare that to whatever he used to measure the total...probably a kill-a-watt or something.

I'm using XPGs and XPEs and they tend to run about 3.1V at about 1A so around 3W times 74 is about 220W theoretically.

[fns]

I was wondering what the correlation between PAR and Lux. I assume the more lux, the more par, but I'm not sure.

Also, have there been any reports of those aluminum U-channel's used in place of heatsinks causing heat problems? I have access to a bunch of scrap sheets of aluminum, and was wondering if I could just cut strips and bend them to make my own U channels. If I do, what thickness is ideal, and how long should the fins be?

One more, I plan on using the ELN-60-48D and running 13 XM-L's in a series, and plan to dim with my Apex. Do I still use the 10v AC to DC power adapter to dial in my driver, or does the Apex take care of it?

Thanks!

[WingoLED]

Response in Blue

Originally Posted by fns

I was wondering what the correlation between PAR and Lux. I assume the more lux, the more par, but I'm not sure.
YES and NO. The NO part:- Lumens are based on eyes but our eyes are not linear reacting to the light energy in different color(spectrum) even though the light energy may be the same. To better indicate what human beings feel visually, we use a formula in the Lux meter to express them what we human beings think the brightness is. Now that goes for PAR too, but this time they are formulated to be used for plants' photosynthesis. So the reading is designed to reflect better what the plants reaction is. The YES part:- Unless the light is very tight in the spectrum like LED, most commercial lighting technologies are a mix of spectrum and thus both the human eyes react to some of them while the chlorophyll of the plant react to some of them too, even though not necessarily the same. So in real frequently we find that higher Lumens bulb also yield higher PAR. Problem becomes even more complex-the meter you use. A lot of PAR meters also register green significantly in their readings but as scientists will tell you they are not of much use by chlorophyll in plants(hence the Zoa in coral), so the PAR value for coral growth is also an rough collectively assumption(not really exact) but yet yielding close results to what we expect them to be.

Also, have there been any reports of those aluminum U-channel's used in place of heatsinks causing heat problems? I have access to a bunch of scrap sheets of aluminum, and was wondering if I could just cut strips and bend them to make my own U channels. If I do, what thickness is ideal, and how long should the fins be? To calculate the proper surface area you need to know the total power of your LEDs, the heat co-efficient of the heat sink material and ...... I would just try to over do it than doing the math. If it's an passive heat sink design, you should not have the fins too tall as it will create channeling. The thickness of the aluminum base is to help the initial heat sinking when the diode fires up. There is a lot of heat energy when the LED is fired up, so you want thicker base over thinner base to quickly transfer all the heat energy away from a focal point and then let the fins to re-transfer than to the air. I myself would not trust an U channel thing from Home Depot as a heat sink unless you are using a fan to make it an active heat sink.

One more, I plan on using the ELN-60-48D and running 13 XM-L's in a series, and plan to dim with my Apex. Do I still use the 10v AC to DC power adapter to dial in my driver, or does the Apex take care of it?

Thanks!

[bif24701]

Were can you get CREE XM-L LEDs? I googled it but got nothing but forum threads and stores that have CREEs but not XM-Ls. Please help, lol

[fns]

Originally Posted by bif24701

Were can you get CREE XM-L LEDs? I googled it but got nothing but forum threads and stores that have CREEs but not XM-Ls. Please help, lol

try clay-boa

[bif24701]

Goggled clay-boa and got a dead link,

This is the fifth time I've posted the question no real link, or shop. Please help....

[Felixc395]

LED supply. I believe I've mentioned this before...

http://ledsupply.com/creexml-w280.php

[Felixc395]

Originally Posted by bif24701

From what I understand however occupied run the XMLwith a lower current you can get more lumens with less energy add more life, correct? That is why I am looking for CREE XM-L LEDs

Originally Posted by Felixc395

I believe LEDsupply.com has them. I'm not sure if I said that in this thread yet, so sorry if I'm repeating myself and being rude. That isn't my intention at all.

But I couldn't see a better DIY LED setup then with cree's and the XM-L is just really awesome.

If you build a fixture, make sure to post pics here, I would be more than eager to see!

Yep. Maybe you skipped over this post, I do it all the time! So no need to worry, I'm not trying to be rude.

[brassmonkyballs]

Originally Posted by bif24701

Goggled clay-boa and got a dead link,

This is the fifth time I've posted the question no real link, or shop. Please help....

Yeah RC blocks the link for some reason so I hope I'm not violating something but if you type in as all one word without the quotes "led group buy" .com then you will not get the dead link. I'm just trying to pass on the best prices for Cree LEDs. I've used them many times.

[Felixc395]

Anyone who has an LED tank, please post pics for others' reference. We need some pics in this thread! And who doesn't love pics.

[fns]

ya i thought i fixed the link, but it kept changing it to clay boa. I think its because the site isnt a sponsor. maybe thats why they block it.

[fns]

this was my tank when I first set it up. Everything was moved form my 120 into the biocube. The 120 had 800w of radiums on it


this is my tank 6 months later

[brassmonkyballs]

Nice

[Felixc395]

More info fns! Lights are??? That's more like it!

[fns]

Ya I just realized that I didnt say what lights I had on mine. I did this a while back, it has 10 Cree XRE col whites, and 14 Cree XRE Royal blues. I am running 4 buckpucks with a wired in potentiometer, so I can manually dim them. I also have 2 Kai domain UV leds in there. I'm not sure if they really do much, but it's kinda neat to see the tank with all the other lights dimmed down.

[Mental1]

Anybody have experience with this fixture?

http://www.championlighting.com/prod...592&bestseller

[TheFishMan65]

Bridgelux are not as efficient as Cree so you will pay more for electricity. In terms of spectrum 2:1 white:blues IMHO will be too white. Also I would double check that the blues are royal blue not just blue. And finally they need to work on their math:

Power 300W (144x3W)

Oh the picture does not have 144 LEDs either, but that may just be the picture.

[brshriver]

I am doing a build for a 110. It is 60x18 and 24 inches deep with a really deep sand bed. It has been running for 5 years.

I Ordered a 10x52 heat sink, 52 RB (E line), 19 CW (L line) and 7 NW(L line). A Meanwell HLG 185-48a and a Meanwell 120-48A drivers. I also went with the pre-shaped self adhesive thermal adhesive pads to speed up the build I hopefully they can be removed with a scraper in the future if needed. If not, so be it.

Do I need two or three fans fans mounted on the heat sinks? Are people still doing that?

[roni]

Thanks for starting this thread.

I've got a 300 DD I'm setting up. I was going to go with T5s and probably still will but I was wondering how many AI sol modules I'd need to reasonably cover the tank. SPS would be concentrated in bommies immediately under the modules with the last 3" on each side completely clear of glass and about 6" in the front completely clear.

[bif24701]

Originally Posted by Felixc395

Yep. Maybe you skipped over this post, I do it all the time! So no need to worry, I'm not trying to be rude.

That you Felixc, I got it, lol.

[cs12109]

I ran through a quick design for my 300 gallon tank LED system. Using the mid tank depth as a reference for the requried lux level I calculated the following:

Height over tank: 18 inches
Surface to Mid Tank depth: 15 inches
Distance to Mid Tank: 33 inches
Illumination Spot Size: 24 inch radius (assuming 40 degree optics (+/- 20 degrees))
Total lumens per LED: 500 lumens assuming CREE XM-L driven at 750 ma (Note I used slightly less than the 560 lumens for design margin)
Total Flux density: 430 lumens/m or 430 lux for a single LED
Number of LEDs required:
12 " spacing = 16 LEDs (doubles the Flux density to 860 lux due to overlapping radation pattern)
8" spacing = 36 LEDs (1290 lux)
4 " spacing = 144 LEDs (six times flux density to 2580 lux)


Now the question is what level of flux density do I need for SPS corals?
Also I need to account for the reduction in flux density for blue LEDs.

Any comments and/or recommendations would be appreciated.

[Felixc395]

Originally Posted by roni

Thanks for starting this thread.

I've got a 300 DD I'm setting up. I was going to go with T5s and probably still will but I was wondering how many AI sol modules I'd need to reasonably cover the tank. SPS would be concentrated in bommies immediately under the modules with the last 3" on each side completely clear of glass and about 6" in the front completely clear.

No problem. Thanks for posting! With a 300 gallon tank, it might tank quite a few modules. It's very hard to say... But if I were you, I would start with 4 modules and work my way up to 6 or even 8 if you really want that many. At first, you don't really need that many fixtures. Right now, I'm only going to use two modules until my tanks need expand. Eventually I'll use three or four, but not needed now. Hope this helps! Any other questions, just ask here!