# DIY LEDs w/ DIM4. Now w/ pics. Mods pls feel free to move to DIY



## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

Tossing around the idea of an LED build for a 75P. Looking for some opinions on doing so. Was/am going to go with a single or dual 24" T5HO about 8 inches the water to give you an idea, but since I'm going to purchase something, I wanted to at least consider LED's first.

I was thinking 12 or so Cree XM-L's with 40-60 degree optics?

Is it even possible and worth it to build a med light fixture for $200ish for this footprint? A dual bulb T5 would run me less than that with bulbs, and it's plug and play......


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

LEDs will very rarely be the economical option for light. DIY is just fun and rewarding, not a way to save money when it involves LEDs.


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

Agreed Hoppy, it definately wont be cheaper or economical at all. Looking at close to $100 more to go XM-L's vs T5HO's w/ Geismanns. Then again my entire build thus far has been miles from economical 

The build I'm contemplating is running 12 Cree's off of a DIM4. The ability to do sunrise/set and dimming would be the key reason to go with LED's. That and it would look slick. I guess I'm stuck as to whether thats worth the extra $100, don't care about the time and effort in the DIY, that's the fun part. roud: As long as it puts me in med light. 

Anyone have any idea if either 12 XP-G's or XM-Ls on a DIM4 @ 500mA would be sufficient?


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

Well...took the plunge and ordered some XM-L's and a DIM4 controller. Also grabbed a driver to have the option of really seeing what the XM-L's will do. Really looking forward to the DIY, just need a heatsink or some alu. u channels. 

If it's not enough light, and I doubt that will be the case, I can build it for my 13g and swap the T5HO.


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## silvawispa (Oct 11, 2011)

Excelent, look forward to seeing the build progress.
$200 is going to be tight...
Hopefully though, you won't be looking for new bulbs in 12-18 months and you can feel smug about the lower wattage of your light system compared to a t5 setup


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## WingoAgency (Jan 10, 2006)

Are you talking about a 75" x 45" x 45" tank? or are your units in cm?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

WingoAgency said:


> Are you talking about a 75" x 45" x 45" tank? or are your units in cm?


It is a 75P tank, so the dimensions are cm. Not a really big tank.


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

silvawispa said:


> Excelent, look forward to seeing the build progress.
> $200 is going to be tight...
> Hopefully though, you won't be looking for new bulbs in 12-18 months and you can feel smug about the lower wattage of your light system compared to a t5 setup


Ya not doable for $200 (for XML's anyway) when going with a controller.



WingoAgency said:


> Are you talking about a 75" x 45" x 45" tank? or are your units in cm?


I wish it was inches.....but then I probably wouldn't be trying LEDs.


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

FWIW, I love my 150w pendant over my 75P, perfect amount of high light. Check my sig.


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

CmLaracy said:


> FWIW, I love my 150w pendant over my 75P, perfect amount of high light. Check my sig.


I've previously gone through all versions of your set-up! :thumbsup: Looks very nice where it's at now. I bet it looks amazing in person. They all looked good IMO.

The only main reason for not going MH is the damage it would do to the hydro bill.....otherwise that would probably be my first choice. The sunrise/set feature with LED's kinda sold me.

**********

Thinking roughly (no real math done yet) 45 x 18cm for heatsink dimensions suspended anywhere from 15cm to 30cm. Having trouble finding examples of other builds with a similar tank footprint. Anyone know of any?


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## CmLaracy (Jan 7, 2007)

salmon said:


> I've previously gone through all versions of your set-up! :thumbsup: Looks very nice where it's at now. I bet it looks amazing in person. They all looked good IMO.
> 
> The only main reason for not going MH is the damage it would do to the hydro bill.....otherwise that would probably be my first choice. The sunrise/set feature with LED's kinda sold me.


thanks! :thumbsup:


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

LEDs are almost here :bounce:, just scored a nice 3' piece of aluminum channel, 3"x1" x 1/8" thick.

Trying to figure out if I can get the coverage front to back with 40deg optics with one 3" wide piece/bank, or if I should go with two. It will be suspended roughly 12" from the surface. I've seen a couple optic diagrams, the 40deg used 12" above on a 2' deep(front to back) tank it the spread looks to cover it nicely.

Will be using 12 XML's (maybe more), have mostly cool whites but also got some neutrals to maybe throw in the mix.

Anyone have any idea if I should use one or two chunks of 3" alu. channels to get the light spread front to back nicely?


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

*Attn Mods, feel free to move this to the DIY threads*

LED's arrived! Made my friday night......a bit odd yes, but i couldn't be more stoked. 

Took about 3-4 hours of casual DIY and a beer or two, but got as far having have of the 12 xmls soldered and Dim4 and the rest of the leds mounted. i ran out of wire before i could finish, which was a good thing as the optice dont fit with my wire/solder job  should checked after i did the first one. this project may end up in my 13g instead, well see how it goes.


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

good to go! power supply i received is no good, but turned the house over and found one good enough to test out the 6 leds that are hooked up. No optics, running just shy off 500ma, WOW. Very bright. Might not even bother with the optics....the iphone pic doesn't do it justice. This controller is very cool to say the least!


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

everything other than hanging the fixture and adding a splash shield is complete!

need to source a proper power supply to get it functioning as well as it can. the adapter shown is not mounted.

here some pics. got twelve running at about 300mA, tried it over my 13g, much brighter (and visually nicer) than my T5 and awesome shimmer....no pics of that yet...a little hard to do that on my own 





































Thats one bright chunk of aluminum!!!


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## salmon (Apr 14, 2011)

de-soldered and rewired the whole light. added some eye bolts for hanging the fixture which are also attached to a plexi splash guard. also attached all the optics....big difference

attached and wired in some mini fans I found in the house, came from an old biocube hood i salvaged from a dumpster. with only one fan running, it is cooling the majority of the alu channel at least half, and it's a tiny fan. all I'm missing is a good enough power supply to run it up to full strength and this light will easliy do the 75P in low-med light...perfect. on my 13g shown below, it would be way too much, more so than the t5h0 on it.



















http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/caseyyun/Aquarium Pics/photo-29.jpg










blurry cell pic, this is with out most of the optics on.


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