JP's DIY LED Fixture

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by Six2seven

Wow I wish I would have read this thread before I placed my order. Tracking shows I will receive it on Monday. I have a 90g 48x18x24 my build plan is:

2 units - black anodized heat sinks 9x20 36 LEDs each.
Each unit will have 24 royal blues and 12 cool whites
Was planning on running 12 LEDs per dimmable "D" drivers, 6 drivers

I dont mind the costs and since Ive already purchased it, I will go that route. My questions is... is that the best option or should I go parallel saving some drivers? I will already have them so it's not a concern to return or save money I just want to know what is the best option in performance! Let me Know what you guys think.

I think you have a fairly good starting point for your build which you can later customize to optimize it to your own taste once you see the results.


If it were my build I'd spit the lighting on three cuircuits.

Cuircuit A a pre dawn Post Dusk with 12 Royal Blues on one driver.
Cuircut B a Dawn to Dusk would be two drivers running 18 Royal Blues and 6 Whites
Circuit C would be mid day with three drivers, the last 18 Royal Blues and the remaining 18 whites.

This will give you an intitial predawn post dusk look that is a very deep blue then brighten things up slowly till everything is on.

Once this is up and running you can then modify it for your personal color taste. If it is not white enough for you add some nuetral whites or replace some of the Royal Blues with Neutral whites depending on how drastic you want to change things. If it is not blue enough for you then swap out some of the whites for Blues or Royal Blues. With dimmable drivers you may be able custom tune it with those alone but if you end up turning some LED's down too low you will be loosing out on the total PAR.

[EJN]

Hi JP, I came across your thread and thought this looks perfect for me since my tank is about the same size. What a great tutorial, I am considering copying your design for my tank. I was wondering how your corals are doing, how pleased you are with the outcome and if you were to do it over again would you do anything differently (different LED combination, different heat sink, LEDs wired in series rather than parallel, etc.)?

Thanks,
Erik

[kcress]

I can answer this. The tank crashed and some of the survivors leaped out a tiny crack in the hood. This caused the fish to morph into Arrow Frogs.

The light has performed admirably through it all.

[EJN]

Interesting.... If he can part with one of his new frogs he could probably sell one of these freak fish/frogs to pay for his entire next build.

[hobbzz]

Wow great thread! Thanks JP for doing such a great job documenting everything! And thanks to Kcress and fishman for all the info. This cleared up a lot. Couple questions for anyone still looking.

The size of the fuse is determined by the max amperage you would want to run the leds at correct? I'm doing bridgelux, and the max is 680ma. I was able to find a 630ma fuse at the place Kcress listed earlier on. So if I'm understanding it correctly that would be the fuse for me to use.

What about the resistor? What determines the type? I'll be using the 60-48d as well.

[kcress]

Greetings hobbzz.

About fuses.. They don't actually come in as many flavors as we'd like so you have to work with what you can find. If you aren't using your LEDs in parallel no fuses are required as the LED driver should protect them. Same goes for the resistor. Use an ammeter in series with the string to set your strings operating point then power down and remove the meter.

If you interrupt and reconnect a string while powered it usually blows LEDs so never leave the string powered while you dork around and NEVER use some kludge jumpers that could 'wiggle' open and closed as current drivers will kick your LEDs a$$es if a break-and-make occurs.

However, if you are talking parallel strings and the current limit really is 680mA then yes those 630mA fuses are the closest commonly available value. Keep in mind that fuse ratings are directly related to the temperature. So if your fuses are put somewhere hot they will actually be a lower rating than you think.

The resistor is always chosen to be either 1 ohm or 0.1 ohm. 1 ohm is most common because it requires no thinking to use them.

They are strictly there to allow monitoring of your string balance without interrupting the strings to put in an ammeter. Interrupting the strings raises the chances of a screw-up as described above and inserting an ammeter changes the balance, (see Heisenberg Principal), and you want to measure the currents in-sit-tu warmed up and running, not with the power cycling all over so you can insert and remove the ammeter.

With a 1 ohm resistor measuring the voltage across the resistor gives EXACTLY the current thru the string. If you measure 0.50V the you have exactly 0.50A running thru that string.

If instead you use a 0.1 ohm resistor you would measure 0.05V and that would mean 0.5A. The 0.1 ohm resistor can be a 1/4W type but you have to do that math each time. Your choice.

[hobbzz]

Thanks Kcress that cleared everything up perfectly! Now on to the fun part of finalizing the color mix ordering everything lol.

[sail33]

I may be late with this link but the thread started some time ago. This place has plenty of DIY stuff that could help you or the next person looking. I've linked the heat sink page but they have plenty of what you need in all directions of LED

http://www.rapidled.com/heatsinks/

[Troy56]

What a great thread! I am wanting to build a fixture for my 72 x 24 x 24 tank. I see posts saying it needs anywhere from 96 to 108 LED's?

I want to be able to run it through my Neptune Apex controller.

I recently saw a friends tank with an LED fixture containing white, blue as well as a few red and green LED's. It REALLY looked great! Had a slight blue hue to it, at least when I saw it. His was a considerably smaller tank than the one I am building for.

I really like the idea of the U channel instead of the bigger bulkier...and more expensive... heat sinks!

My problem is I am not sure the best way to split the LED's between drivers or how many drivers I would need to "do it right". What watt LED's are best to use? The more I read the more confused about this I become! I have been reading various threads for weeks now!

[swbyers]

I just built a 192 Led fixture for my 180 send me a PM and I would be happy to help, I would add Violets to your build as well IMHO I think the colors pop better under them and help out with missing spectrum, The Bigger drivers Rapid sells will do 6 stings of 12 for your blues, I would try and keep stings between 9-13 Led's and make sure they all contain the same number of LED's. Use resistors and fuses. Simple as that really.

[kcress]

Check out this current thread.. Your build sounds similar. Skip over the first stuff on high voltage drivers.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2240757

[Troy56]

swbyers.....I am new on here so have not had enough posts to be able to PM anyone yet.
kcress am checking out the thread you suggested.

Thanks!

[kcress]

Welcome Troy.

Don't pm anyone anyway as you should ask in your own thread. That way you can get multiple responses, ideas, and cross checking, and often - sooner!

[Louy99]

Nice led build read!

[billyzbear]

First off I really like this thread. It helped alot when doing my leds a year ago. I decided to build all RB leds and use my t5s for day light. I did 4 strings of 12 across 72".
It's been a year and I'm think to go full led. I have seen some led tanks and I'm not into disco effect. I don't have ine now but I am concerned if I put 2 strings of 12 cool whites I may have it.
Has anybody doing leds like this had the disco effect? Would 2 strings of 12 give me enough coverage for 24" across with no optics? Or should I plan 3 strings? What I have been thinking 2 rb strings, 1 cool white, 1 rb, 1uv, 1 rb, 1 cool white, 2 rb strings. I may or may not add a couple of red and green leds in the middle. How should I acclimate coral to new led setup?
Billy

[kcress]

We can't answer you because we don't know what your tank dimensions are. We do see you have coral.

The number LEDs you need is roughly:

LEDs needed = Tank width inches x tank depth (not height) inches / 16

LEDs needed are Cree types XPG and XTE running around 700mA with in about 5 inches of the surface. That's for hard coral. If you have softies then divide by 16 or 17. If fish only divide by 18 to 20.

This expects about 60:40 to 70:30 RB:NW mix.

Skip the reds and greens and use NW or WW instead of CW. You have the blue spectrum flooded with all the RB already anyway so don't add more via the CW.

For acclimation use dimmable drivers and run at 60% for several weeks upping 10% every 2 or 3 weeks. GO SLOW.

[TropTrea]

Where the Disco effect come is when individuals use lens on the LED's and the same color LED's have gaps in there beams when it hits a particular part of the tank. In these Gap areas another colored LED instantly becomes dominant and gives that DISCO look. With just 4 LED's you can cover most tanks fairly evenly without any lenses. However the LED's evenly spread throughout the area the less you chance of getting that Disco effect.

However some individuals love the shimmer effect that is most noticable with Metal Hides. For this effect the more LED's you have the less shimmer you will have. But if yiour upgrading from T-5's you already have near zero shimmer effect.

As far as your set up goes have you thought about going the oposite direction. Mainly going with the Royal Blue LED's on a Pre dawn to post dusk time period, Then using the T-5's with one ATI purple plus and the rest of the bulbs being Blue Plus for dawn to dusk. And finally for your mid day lighting using Neutral Whites with possibly more RB on your LED's.

the reason I ask or bring this up is that RB LED's have a narrow blue spectrum from about 445 to 465 nm. If you at True Blues they cover from 455 to about 470 nm. But if you use the ATI Blue plus T-5's you get a spread from about 420 nm to 480 nm. Secondly with the Neutral White LED's it does not take a lot of Wattage to brighten up the tank and give you crisp reflective colors in the red and yellow range that often lacks with the cool whites.

[TropTrea]

This formula works for most individuals but it also has some issues. For one it is assuming that your running the LED's at 700 ma which is roughly 2 Watts each. Today you can get 5 Watt and 10 Watt LED's from Cree that are more effecient and will also bring down your cost. The output of light from one 10 Watt LED is roughly the same as 4 running at 2 Watts each. This will roughly drop your build cost to less than 1/2 of what it would be with LED's running 2 Watt each LED.

I will aslo agree with using Neutral whites rather than Cool Whites. However I do think that the Warm whites would be a bit too rich in the yellow and red part of the color spectrum.

Originally Posted by kcress

We can't answer you because we don't know what your tank dimensions are. We do see you have coral.

The number LEDs you need is roughly:

LEDs needed = Tank width inches x tank depth (not height) inches / 16

LEDs needed are Cree types XPG and XTE running around 700mA with in about 5 inches of the surface. That's for hard coral. If you have softies then divide by 16 or 17. If fish only divide by 18 to 20.

This expects about 60:40 to 70:30 RB:NW mix.

Skip the reds and greens and use NW or WW instead of CW. You have the blue spectrum flooded with all the RB already anyway so don't add more via the CW.

For acclimation use dimmable drivers and run at 60% for several weeks upping 10% every 2 or 3 weeks. GO SLOW.

[billyzbear]

I wasn't totally clear but my tank, t's 72" long by 24" across and 20" deep.
I really like the look of RB leds that's why I switched out some t5's. I have played around with bulbs try to get it just the way I want. I like it bluer but can't really see what color my fish are with all blue so I need to get total coverage of white so I can see them. My other problem is, I have 72" long tank and all 48" bulbs and ballasts. If I switched to 60" bulbs I can fit everything in the canopy. 2 rb, 1 white, 1 rb, 1 uv, 1 white, 2 rb. I can just fit it with 48" bulbs but there will be some dark corners. The canopy is 5" off of the water, if I raised it I could bet better coverage. I'm renting here so don't really want to start drilling holes for a floating canopy. I could make a light stand, hang canopy but with center external overflow, the way the stand is and room,it's going to be really hard to mount.
So if I had two strings of 12 leds mounted about 5" off of water without optics, would it give me enough coverage without dark spots? Maybe I'll just do three, to make sure.
I could get 2 blue strings instead of rb?
No cw, nw or ww got it. I really don't want too much red, nw then?
Uv leds good idea to add?
For some of us slow people. If I don't use optics, 4" apart leds with 12 leds per string, 2-3 strings white, 6 rb or 4 rb and 2 b strings and 1 uv string of 10 mounted about 5" off of water. I will not see a disco in my tank.

[ezlight]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

This formula works for most individuals but it also has some issues. For one it is assuming that your running the LED's at 700 ma which is roughly 2 Watts each. Today you can get 5 Watt and 10 Watt LED's from Cree that are more effecient and will also bring down your cost. The output of light from one 10 Watt LED is roughly the same as 4 running at 2 Watts each. This will roughly drop your build cost to less than 1/2 of what it would be with LED's running 2 Watt each LED.

I will aslo agree with using Neutral whites rather than Cool Whites. However I do think that the Warm whites would be a bit too rich in the yellow and red part of the color spectrum.

Would you mind explaining a bit more about the 5w & 10w leds? (I saw these wattages back when I was doing some research on it, but never asked the question) I also have a 180 that is still in planning stage, and I want enough LED power for SPS. How close can these be run? heat issues? How many on a string? Will it be as easy to balance each string as what kress as helped troubleshoot in this thread? How many drivers would we need to get same or better results than doing the 3w cree's running at 2w's? (speaking just wattage, not colors)

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by ezlight

Would you mind explaining a bit more about the 5w & 10w leds? (I saw these wattages back when I was doing some research on it, but never asked the question) I also have a 180 that is still in planning stage, and I want enough LED power for SPS. How close can these be run? heat issues? How many on a string? Will it be as easy to balance each string as what kress as helped troubleshoot in this thread? How many drivers would we need to get same or better results than doing the 3w cree's running at 2w's? (speaking just wattage, not colors)

Basicly the CRee LED's of interst to us presently are the

XP-E series that run at 1 Amp and 3 volts to give us 3 Watts
XP-G series that run at 1.5 Amps and 3.3 Volts for 5 Watts
XT-E series that run at 1.5 Amps and 3.3 Volts for 5 Watts
XM-L series that runs at 3 Amps and 3.35 Volts for 10 Watts

As far as Drivers go with the proper selection you can basicly run 14 of any of these LED's on a single driver. But you need to match the Current and total wattage. So for 14 XM-L you need a driver with 3 Amp outpout, at 47 Volts rated at a minimum of 150 Watts.

For cooling it is an issue with all LED's but only slightly increases with wattage. On 1 X 2 Channeling a 3" spread works good for 3 Watt LED's, the 5 Watt LED's would be better off with a 4" spacing and for the 10 Watt leds 6 inches . With added cooling fans you can reduce this spacing.

[jpccusa]

Originally Posted by EJN

Hi JP, I came across your thread and thought this looks perfect for me since my tank is about the same size. What a great tutorial, I am considering copying your design for my tank. I was wondering how your corals are doing, how pleased you are with the outcome and if you were to do it over again would you do anything differently (different LED combination, different heat sink, LEDs wired in series rather than parallel, etc.)?

Thanks,
Erik

Old questions, I know, but still worth addressing.
I did not have corals so the number of LEDs was determined to be in the low end. I am still very pleased with the system as it has performed flawlessly until now. If I were to build something different today, I would not get any cool whites, as it has been said before why. I would also look into the new high power LEDs, but that's for a different build thread.

Originally Posted by kcress

I can answer this. The tank crashed and some of the survivors leaped out a tiny crack in the hood. This caused the fish to morph into Arrow Frogs.

The light has performed admirably through it all.

As a summary, kcress nailed it.
The long explanation is that a glass heater broke inside the tank, killing mostly everything except the clowns and a few inverts (avoid glass heaters... use titanium instead).
A few months later one of the clowns from a pair jumped out of the tank through an opening in the back and landed on the acrylic cover of the tank.
I decided to transform the tank into a vivarium where I could keep plants and poison dart frogs.
Tank still under construction:

[kcress]

Hi JP!
Look nice.

How about a picture of one of your frogs.

[billyzbear]

Hey JP, did you have any disco effect with the way you placed your leds?

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by jpccusa

I decided to transform the tank into a vivarium where I could keep plants and poison dart frogs.
Tank still under construction:

I used to sell loads of those frogs in my store. Usually the people that got into them only stayed interested in them for a short period of time. The big issue was you needed to keep the system warm and very humid for the frogs. This was a perfect enviroment for mold to grow wild. And since mold spores are naturaly in our air the mopld was nearly impossible to prevent.