# 40 gal breeder 36" high light LED Project



## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Hey everyone, so after seeing my friend raidendex upgrade his lighting to LED and how easy it was I've decided to take the jump and upgrade myself

I have a rimless 40g breeder that is in desperate need of an upgrade. I've had the current fixture for over two years and I can definitely tell the bulbs have decreased in output. This is what it looks like now 









you can see that sometimes the light isn't all that even but two years ago it was the best I could do.

I've been researching for a while on the best LED's for the lowest amount of money. At first I thought I'd go really cheap and just get the XP-Gs however I've noticed that the XM-L U2 lights produce the max amount of light per dollar spent. They're great

For my 36" fixture I've scouted out two aluminum bars that I'll mount the LED's to. I'm getting them local so it's going to save on shipping.
1/4 X 2-1/2 Aluminum Rectangular Bar 6061T6 come out $21.57

from www.myaluminumsupply.com

The optics will be bought from www.ledgroupbuy.com
I'll be using 40 degree optics at $21.48

The rest of the supplies will come from www.rapidled.com who also seems to have great prices. Has anybody worked with them before? 

How are the meanwell drivers? quiet?
i'll be getting 

2 Mean Well LPC-60-1750 
constant current drivers at $52
some adhesive stars, 20 for $20
the 12 XM-L U2 LED's will be $96
and the wires i'll be getting from a friend locally.

with shipping, I'm estimating for everything to come around $214.84


I'll be spacing the LED's every 5.14 inches and then 6 inches between the two rows.

Since I like keeping everything close to the tank I think i'll keep the fixture around 20" from the substrate. 

According to the excel calculator from hoppy I'm estimating around 113 par at the bottom using this set up. If it gets to be too high light and I start seeing algae then I'll raise the fixture or cover the LEDs since the driver isn't dimmable.

So what do you guys think? I haven't seen too many high light LED set ups. most of them are set up to be medium light
do you think i should change from 40 degree optics to 60 degree optics? i'll get more light splashing out but it'd reduce the spotting, and I'd save $13:red_mouth

give me some feedback


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

I was calculating how much this build was going to save compared to my normal set up

I pay $11.135 per 100 KWH
If I keep my current fixture which takes in 220 W for 7 hours a day, each year its going to cost me about $62.59 to run. If I upgrade and get this fixture then it should cost me about $18.82 a year. a savings of $43.77. This should pay for itself pretty quick


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

made a little excel sheet on the cost analysis of everything

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AohMct1Acl7DdFltdEtaUmU2a3ZtUzhIVlo0a2ZZVVE


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

excellent thread, I'll be following!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Thanks BS87, what size tank do you have? thinking about building something similar?

BTW, i just realized that i'm overshooting everything

i can do everything just fine with 10XML u2s and it can all run on a single driver. saving me more money!

so updated amount will be 
10 xmls $80
optics $17.90
adhesive $5
driver $26
heat sink $21.57

everything in total comes out to $163.55
even better than i thought!!!


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## Pen3 (Jan 2, 2007)

Are you going to mix in any colors or go all cw?


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## In.a.Box (Dec 8, 2011)

Did you remove the black trim yourself?


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## zonamav (Feb 27, 2004)

I'm following, got a 36" 50 gallon that I would like to go LED on eventually. Good luck and keep posting!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Pen3 said:


> Are you going to mix in any colors or go all cw?


Well when I saw my friend's tank I really liked the all cool white color. Right now I have a mix of 10,000k and 6,500k and I like that blend so if the spectrum on the led's runs around 8,000k that'd be perfect!



In.a.Box said:


> Did you remove the black trim yourself?


No actually, it didn't have a trim. I bought this tank from a guy for $20, the glass is pretty thick so it doesn't bow or anything.
Last year, the tank exploded








and i had to replace the entire back panel. I used super strong silicone and pretty thick glass and it looks great, doesn't need a rim or anything.



zonamav said:


> I'm following, got a 36" 50 gallon that I would like to go LED on eventually. Good luck and keep posting!


Awesome! a 36"x18"x18"? good dimensions
I'll try and document everything. That's the biggest challenge i found when starting the project, not that many people had documented their builds properly so I had to research everything myself.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Alright, I made a little diagram of what 10 LEDS will look like, how much overlap and how much spill over was going to occur.

i noticed that i should be moving the rows to 4 inches closer to each other, that'd give better spread laterally 
























the angles of the cones are only 20 degrees, I wanted to model how the bright spots will overlap. since the brightest light will only be in the first 20 degrees in a 40 degree optic.
















you can see the 2 inches at each end where the tank isnt getting bright light. oh well 

this is how the overall image looks.I changed how the LEDS are spread out on the bar, not every 6 inches but every 5.75 inches leaving 6.5inches on each end. that way more of the light is focused on the tank


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

monkeyruler90 said:


> Thanks BS87, what size tank do you have? thinking about building something similar?


40B here as well! Going to do T5HO for now, but LED possibly in the future!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

BS87 said:


> 40B here as well! Going to do T5HO for now, but LED possibly in the future!


40Bs are the best!!

I don't know. I definitely recommend going the LED way.
It's going to be a lot cheaper

This whole build is equivalent to 3 t5HO bulbs, it's only costing me about $164
Considering a 36" tek light cost $256.99 not including bulbs i'm saving a ton of money!!
LED is the way to go!
even if you want super high light you can get 12 XMLs instead of 10 and it'll only be about $220, way cheaper than a tek and a bunch brighter!


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

Well, I haven't purchased lighting yet, but I was going to stay low-medium light with a single T5HO hung above the tank, so for $70 I'm still ahead  You do give me ideas though...


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## GitMoe (Aug 30, 2010)

It'll take 4 years to pay yourself back in energy savings. How is that quick? Interesting build regardless. I'm not sold on the LED thing just quite yet. They look great and definitely use less power. Just not into having to build one from scratch at this point. Eventually a company will realize the market and start making usable planted tank LED fixtures.


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## zonamav (Feb 27, 2004)

Dont forget the yearly cost of the t5 bulb replacements, that accelerates the breakeven point faster.

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk


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## Pen3 (Jan 2, 2007)

right now i am all cw and 2 royal blue, but i want some more pop on red plants so i just got my warm whites and 2 violet uv from rapidled. i will probably try setting it up on tomorrow and see how it looks.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Adding colored LEDs usually means you get colored shadows in the tank, which can look very bad. If that problem doesn't happen you will probably like the added colors.


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## Pen3 (Jan 2, 2007)

the color led would be without lens to reduce the shadows


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

GitMoe said:


> It'll take 4 years to pay yourself back in energy savings. How is that quick? Interesting build regardless. I'm not sold on the LED thing just quite yet. They look great and definitely use less power. Just not into having to build one from scratch at this point. Eventually a company will realize the market and start making usable planted tank LED fixtures.


Actually the fixture should pay for itself in 2 years considering electricity use and 2 bulb changes ( $60 for 4 pc bulbs each time)
If I sell my current pc fixture I should be able to pay for the project instantly

GitMoe if things go well with this fixture I might start a small side project of building similar fixtures for low prices, similar to what AH supply is doing but I'd assemble everything. would you be interested? 


I really like the ability to light my plants at a cheap price and never having to change a light bulb again!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Pen3 said:


> right now i am all cw and 2 royal blue, but i want some more pop on red plants so i just got my warm whites and 2 violet uv from rapidled. i will probably try setting it up on tomorrow and see how it looks.


Hey Pen3, how did those warm whites turn out?
mind giving uploading a picture or the stats of your fixture?


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## lipadj46 (Apr 6, 2011)

:banghead::banghead::thumbdown::banghead::banghead::beer::screwy::screwy::thumbdown::banghead::what::what::what::what::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::screwy::banghead:


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## Cocobid (Feb 25, 2007)

I to want to build out a planted tank light. About to order a build from Rapidled for a nano Reef. They have a superb reputation in the Reef community. Here is where I would really need the help with LED's is the color selection. Your idea about removing the lenses is great. So if anyone has some input here with adding color would help us all greatly. Another company sells heat sinks that have the channels already built in for a splash guard & I believe they are in black. Not sure if Rapid is doing that or not? 
So good luck Oscar with your lights


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Cocobid said:


> I to want to build out a planted tank light. About to order a build from Rapidled for a nano Reef. They have a superb reputation in the Reef community. Here is where I would really need the help with LED's is the color selection. Your idea about removing the lenses is great. So if anyone has some input here with adding color would help us all greatly. Another company sells heat sinks that have the channels already built in for a splash guard & I believe they are in black. Not sure if Rapid is doing that or not?
> So good luck Oscar with your lights


Thanks Cocobid, hopefully it turns out well!
the heat sinks are big part of the build, I want to make sure that the LEDs are properly cooled. 

I went to Tractor Supply today to buy some mini pig food and stopped by their aluminum section. They had a good range of products but I think they're too thin for my needs
most of the bars were only 1/8" thick, they had one that was 1/4" but it was too narrow









The prices were pretty good if I was only running them at 700mah, here are the narrower choices. I could have gotten two of these for $8










considering the LEDs are going to be running at 1750mah they're going to put out a significant amount of heat, since I don't want active cooling such as a fan I think a thick aluminum bar should do just fine. 
I'll be ordering a 1/4" x 2-1/2"x72" bar from a local aluminum supply store and using that. Its going to run about $20.25.

However I was looking at the other choices, 1/4" x 2"x72" is only $16.20. Do you guys think that extra 1/2" will make a big difference? easy way to save $4 :icon_smil

Also I think i'm going to be suspending the fixture from the ceiling (if my other half doesn't complain:hihi and i'll be using this wire


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## Linsanity (Feb 23, 2012)

Very good planning, you will be a very nice LED light. Can't wait to see when it finish:icon_surp


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## Cocobid (Feb 25, 2007)

Are you going to have "fins" on your heatsink? They allow the heat to dissipate from what I have read, and mount your fan atop. Rather cheep to. Surf the reef forms they are the front runner is builds. Found a heat sink the other day with channels built in that allow you to slide the LED's if needed for light adjustment.Bet that is the direction HS will go in. Just makes sence. Wow has aquarium light moved in such a cool direction. Had my first salt tank in the early 70's. I following you..and good luck.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Cocobid said:


> Are you going to have "fins" on your heatsink? They allow the heat to dissipate from what I have read, and mount your fan atop. Rather cheep to. Surf the reef forms they are the front runner is builds. Found a heat sink the other day with channels built in that allow you to slide the LED's if needed for light adjustment.Bet that is the direction HS will go in. Just makes sence. Wow has aquarium light moved in such a cool direction. Had my first salt tank in the early 70's. I following you..and good luck.


to fin or not to fin, i've been thinking about this issue for a while. I'm a mechanical engineering student and i'm taking heat transfer right now. I approached my professor after classed and talked to him about the project and the conditions of the LEDs. He said as long as it's a good solid piece of aluminum that it will be able to spread out the heat pretty good. I think i'm going with the 1/4"x2-1/2"x36" bars. It's pretty thick and wide so i'm hoping that the whole bar will uniformly distribute heat rather than using fins and fans. This is only costing me $20.57 for both bars, usually fin heat sinks are much more expensive!

my backup plan if the bars get too hot is to get a small computer fan and make the air circulate above the bars. Lets hope i won't need it though :red_mouth



Linsanity said:


> Very good planning, you will be a very nice LED light. Can't wait to see when it finish:icon_surp


Thank you Linsanity, I actually really like your 36" fixture! i can't believe you had to attach the LED's to the stars themselves! you're hardcore! how are things growing in your tank?


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

I'm very excited !
In preparationfor this fixture I went out and bought a few goodies that I'll be needing. I went to the local hobby shop and tried to look for materials and spent about 2 hours there. They're awesome! They had no 1/4 inch aluminum bars so I'm going to go to the aluminum shop this week and pick them up. I did find some really cheap multi meters ,a 60 watt soldering iron, some cheap solder, and electrical tape. Then I went out to home depot and bought myself a dremel 3000, which is an amazing tool everybody should have!
I picked up 13 feet of 1 16th of an inch aluminum wire that I'll be using to hang the fixture, I also picked up 8 linear feet of 1 inch by 4 inch primed wood plank. Only about $11 worth of stuff. 

Hopefully rapid led will have the U2s that I need and I'll be getting my orders really soon


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## Algae Beater (Jun 3, 2011)

looks like its going to be a great build!! 

i recently set up a 57 with leds, and couldnt be happier!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Nice, what was your set up like?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

monkeyruler90 said:


> to fin or not to fin, i've been thinking about this issue for a while. I'm a mechanical engineering student and i'm taking heat transfer right now. I approached my professor after classed and talked to him about the project and the conditions of the LEDs. He said as long as it's a good solid piece of aluminum that it will be able to spread out the heat pretty good. I think i'm going with the 1/4"x2-1/2"x36" bars. It's pretty thick and wide so i'm hoping that the whole bar will uniformly distribute heat rather than using fins and fans. This is only costing me $20.57 for both bars, usually fin heat sinks are much more expensive!
> 
> my backup plan if the bars get too hot is to get a small computer fan and make the air circulate above the bars. Lets hope i won't need it though :red_mouth
> 
> ...


I'm disappointed in your professor.:frown: He missed a lot with his advice. Aluminum is actually a poor heatsink material. A heatsink needs to have a high specific heat, a high density, and high conductivity. Aluminum has a low density, making it relatively ineffective as a heatsink. Copper or Silver or Beryllium are much better heatsinks. But, LED lights don't use a "heatsink" as a heatsink. They use aluminum to conduct the heat from the LEDs away from the LEDs and dissipate it to the atmosphere. For that to work well with a high heat input the aluminum needs lots of surface area exposed to the air, thus, the fins. Without the fins, even thick aluminum bars will not work for LEDs running at high currents.


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## Algae Beater (Jun 3, 2011)

I was lazy and went with some manufactured LED strips from vertex. worth the money? YES. with no other changes made to the house, my power bill has come down nearly $30 a month, plus no more freaking bulbs to change! 



















the tank is 2 weeks old now and will soon be ready for the first round of stocking  

good luck on your build!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Hoppy said:


> I'm disappointed in your professor.:frown: He missed a lot with his advice. Aluminum is actually a poor heatsink material. A heatsink needs to have a high specific heat, a high density, and high conductivity. Aluminum has a low density, making it relatively ineffective as a heatsink. Copper or Silver or Beryllium are much better heatsinks. But, LED lights don't use a "heatsink" as a heatsink. They use aluminum to conduct the heat from the LEDs away from the LEDs and dissipate it to the atmosphere. For that to work well with a high heat input the aluminum needs lots of surface area exposed to the air, thus, the fins. Without the fins, even thick aluminum bars will not work for LEDs running at high currents.


Really? Dr. Chen made a quick MathCAD file showing the difference between the flat bar and a fin model using 5 fins on top. I agree that a fin heat sink works a lot better but it doesn't justify the price and the file showed the flat bar performed reasonably well (we assumed led would get as hot as 343°K and only passive air currents using 6063 alloy). The desired heat sinks will only cost $21 for both of them, compared to $70 for two finned heat sinks from rapidled.com (not including the extra cost in shipping) 
http://www.rapidled.com/1-4-x-36-aluminum-heatsink/

I would disagree, aluminum is a great heat sink. It is used in the cooling of many electronics and is even inserted in stainless steel pots because it has great heat transfer properties. Even a quick search in wiki and in my heat transfer book confirm this

" The most common heat sink materials are aluminium alloys.[5] Aluminium alloy 1050A has one of the higher thermal conductivity values at 229 W/m•K [6] but is mechanically soft. Aluminium alloys 6061 and 6063 are commonly used, with thermal conductivity values of 166 and 201 W/m•K, respectively. The values depend on the temper of the alloy.Copper has around twice the conductivity of aluminium and faster heat dissipation, but is three times as dense [5] and, depending on the market, around four to six times more expensive than aluminium. [5] Aluminium can be extruded, but copper can not. Copper heat sinks are machined and skived."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink

I'm planning on using 6063 alloy which has a great density and heat transfer properties. 
I agree that using copper or silver heat sinks would keep the leds at lower temperatures but the cost would be a lot higher. 
A search for the same dimension of a copper bar costs $117.94, even more than the leds themselves. 
http://www.amazon.com/Copper-Rectangular-Thick-Width-Length/dp/B000HZX44M

Using a heavier heat sink would only increase the price and make hanging the fixture more difficult. I bough 1/16" aluminum twisted wire capable of holding 120lbs. Which should be enough to hold the entire fixture. Using a heavier metal would make hanging the fixture more difficult since I'd have to reinforce the ceiling connection. 


And regardless of materials a heat sink is a heat sink



Hoppy said:


> The [leds] use aluminum to conduct the heat from the LEDs away from the LEDs and dissipate it to the atmosphere


And the definition of a heat sink is
" A heat sink is an object that transfers thermal energy from a higher temperature to a lower temperature fluid medium."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink
Therefore a rectangular bar of aluminum made of 6063 aluminum with dimensions 1/4"x 2-1/2" x36" and leds attached on one side and passive air currents on the other side is defined as a heat sink. 

I'm pretty sure the leds will get hot running at 1750 mah, and using a rectangular bar of aluminum 1/4" should help to diffuse the heat evenly, even if I feel the fixture is warming up too much then I can easily attach a $10 computer fan on one end and help disperse the heat, this should still be cheaper than getting a fin bar or a copper heat sink. 


I definitely I appreciate your post hoppy, it really made me search more in depth into the heat sink issue. I think you're the guru of led fixtures and its always nice when someone points out a problem in the design process.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I love to debate!! Your definition of a heat sink is a definition of a heat conductor, an entirely different function. A heat sink is a something that absorbs and stores heat. A heat conductor just transfers heat. Electronic "heat sinks" aren't heat sinks, but devices to transfer heat - heat conductors. Heat conductors need high conductivity alone, but heat sinks need high conductivity, and high heat storage capacity ( specific heat and density ). Aluminum is a great heat conductor, and when you provide a means of removing the heat from the aluminum, like fins and moving air, or water, it is a good way to cool something.

Do an experiment. Heat up a piece of aluminum foil, then touch it. It doesn't burn you because it doesn't hold enough calories of heat to raise your skin temperature. Do that with copper foil and you get burned.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Oh I agree with you on that one hoppy
we studied heat sinks in thermodynamics. a large body of water, molten salt, those are all heat sinks( something that can store heat). but I think in real world application and in the electronics field then a heat sink is just a medium to transfer heat to a fluid, a basic heat conductor. 

I'm hoping that the 2-1/2" wide bar will be enough to cool the leds, even with passive air cooling. 
I just looked at the specification sheet and it said the Peak/Classification Temperature (Tp) is 215 °C.

I'll drop by Dr. chens office and see what he thinks.



Algae Beater said:


> I was lazy and went with some manufactured LED strips from vertex. worth the money? YES. with no other changes made to the house, my power bill has come down nearly $30 a month, plus no more freaking bulbs to change!
> 
> the tank is 2 weeks old now and will soon be ready for the first round of stocking
> 
> good luck on your build!


omg Algae Beater did you really spend $349.99 on each fixture??:icon_eek:


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*eeek*

FINALLY rapidled.com got some of the XMLs! I've been waiting for a while but the wait paid off (saving nearly $25)

I made my order of all the leds, optics, pads, heatsinks and hanging supplies. 

I'll swing by the aluminum shop and pick up the heat sinks this week and i'll try building the fixture this weekend. then hopefully the supplies will come in next week and i'll get the fixture hung and take pictures of everything soon!

I'm very excited!!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

wow, that was fast shipping.

all the supplies came in on Friday. I have 99% of the things needed to build the fixture. michael is coming over tomorrow to help me out. i'll post picture when everything is settled.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Got all everything soldered on and tested and it looks super bright. all the plants are pearling!

i'll post pics/vids and steps of the whole building process tomorrow after my exam


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## zonamav (Feb 27, 2004)

Nice! Looking forward to pics...

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

As I was hanging the fixture from the ceiling and making sure it was leveled one of the heat sinks falls in and the leds get all wet. :-\ 

Everything was turned off and I dried what I could. I'm going to let them dry for a whole day and I'll try taking pictures tomorrow.... if it turns on

How disappointing, got everything built and perfect only to have it fall inside the tank at the last minute. Ugghhh


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## APT (Jun 18, 2012)

Any updates? Dieing to see pics of the build process to sway me one way or another. Build my own or use T5HOs on my new 12g long


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## makutaku (Aug 19, 2004)

monkeyruler90 said:


> How disappointing, got everything built and perfect only to have it fall inside the tank at the last minute. Ugghhh



Don't feel so bad. Thanks for sharing. Your experience including this set back will help many others. I will now definitely take additional precaution when it's time to hang the fixture! :icon_wink


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## WoodRiverTroutBum (Jun 15, 2012)

I hope you don't think that gets you out of posting pictures. Weather it works or not, WE WANT PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Yep pictures and a full description of the build are coming! Just started a new job this week that's why it was perfect timing that I had all the supplies last week or else I would have had to wait another week to build it.


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## WoodRiverTroutBum (Jun 15, 2012)

Woohoo!!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*LED Fixture background*

Alright guys, sorry about the long wait. I started working at a new job on Monday so I've been a bit busy. But I'm so happy I got everything built last week 

So I'm an engineer and I really like planning everything, I did the cost analysis of doing 8, 10, 12 or 14 led bulbs. Either XML, XPG, bridgelux, even the cheap china bulbs. I was trying to get the most amount of light for the cheapest price. I did most of the calculations on this Google spreadsheet.

I learned a lot during my research. I had just taken Principles of Electric engineering, thermodynamics, and programming so I knew the basics of wiring circuits, programming arduinos and a little bit about heat transfer. So this summer I decided to jump on the wagon and build the fixture. A big thanks goes out to Samamorgan for the Led lighting Compendium he created. Hoppy for the excel sheet he created to calculate the PAR at the bottom of the tank. Schneeball,[email protected], Algae Beater, and Raidendex or Michael for all the info they gave me on their own LED fixtures. 

Since Raidendex lives nearby I kind of used him as a guinea pig for building an LED fixture over his 120 first. I used his mistakes to improve my design. :hihi:


The first thing that was really important to me was the efficiency. At the time I was using 4 55w compact fluorescent bulbs over the 40 gallon and had them arranged perpendicular to the front glass. It did a good job of growing everything but it would be awkward when only two of the bulbs were running. Either half the tank was in shadows or the whole tank was fully lit. When I ran all 4 bulbs over the tank I would always end up with algae. Since buying 4 new bulbs every year would have added up and the fact that they weren't lighting everything evenly just pushed me more to try the LEDs.

The second thing was that I wanted it to be bright! I'm trying to grow plants like L. Pantanal and erios and I already had the CO2 and fertilizers. I really liked the t5ho fixtures for the 36" but the price of buying the fixture, bulbs, and energy cost would have been too high over the lifetime of the fixture.
I used two major websites to help me out. ledgroupbuy  and rapidled , they had little FAQs and guides that were very helpful. The Cree website itself had all the specs of the bulbs and I used a lot of those to calculate the average light output. I really wanted to keep the fixture simple so I set up a circuit with the leds in series. The driver selection was a bit difficult but once I understood the forward voltage*current*number of leds= watts needed from the driver it all came together. I didn’t care too much about dimming the LEDs, my dream tank is a 120 gallon tank so when I get that I’ll invest in a dimmable driver. If everything was too bright then I would just raise the fixture.
Using the spreadsheet I realized that the cost would significantly increase going from 10 leds to 12 leds since I would need to use multiple drivers. Keeping it low cost and simple I chose the 10 led set up. Roughly it would have given me 81 PAR at 20 inches which put me in the high light range. 12 leds would have given me 113 PAR but I didn’t want to spend the extra $50 and turn the tank into algae heaven. 
Rapidled had the cheapest prices around but they ran out of XML U2 lamps a while back so I had to wait nearly a month before they finally got some in stock. I would have ordered from ledgroupbuy but their shipping was a bit higher and the extra cost would have added up to $20 more than rapidled. 
Once they finally got some bulbs in I placed my order coming to $128.90 , ordered the 40 degree optics from ledgroupbuy for $31.95 and then ordered my heat sinks which I was able to pick up locally for only $21.57 I went out to home depot and got 8’ of primed linear 2-1/2”x1”, 13’ of thin aluminum wire, 2 hooks, 2 sets of wire graspers and 1 snickers bar (most important part of the build) for $12.66. 
Together I spent about $177.02 on the actual materials. On the side I spent about $100 extra getting a multimeter, 60 W soldering iron and a dremel tool kit which I used to build, test and assemble the fixture. I didn’t count that in the cost since I needed that stuff anyway for other DIY projects.

Sorry, it’s so long, just wanted to give a bit of background info. I’ll post the build pictures on the next post.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*LED Build*

Alright so the actual build probably took about 5 hours to completely assemble everything. I was nervous about burning out the LEDS so I tested everything like 5 times before plugging it in. lol .Rapidled sent a complimentary led tester which was great, it runs off two 1.5 AA batteries and tests to see if the leds are lighting up before soldering them.








Once I had all the supplies I began by building the fixture housing itself. I've never done any wood workings so I just wanted something simple to put together and something clean and modern looking. The 8’ of linear primed 2 1/2'”x1” plank of wood was perfect. I made 4 cuts, two long pieces and 2 side pieces. Since I wanted to keep it nice and clean I cut everything at 45 degree angles and then used nails to bond everything. It was really simple to make and its very sturdy.


















I think it looks pretty good. I put 8 nails on the inside of two short pieces to hold the two heat sinks with zip ties. not 100% everything is staying this way so i didn't want to permanently attach them.
I chose the ¼” T6061 aluminum heat sink since it was cheap, local and it showed that it was able to disperse the heat properly. The guy was nice enough to cut the 6' bar into two 36” bars








Here’s my mini pig Lily helping me measure, she’s not very helpful though :hihi:








Instead of messing with messy epoxies I just bought 10 thermal adhesive pads. They were really easy to use and I highly recommend them. 








One major mistake that I made was that I stuck the LEDS with the Thermal pad onto the heat sink before pre tinning the LEDS. It was a mistake because it took twice as long to heat the pad and add the solder and making a nice bond. The heat from the soldering gun would dissipate too quickly through the heat sink and the pad would cool and the solder wouldn’t bond properly. It took me almost an hour just to tin the pads and then another hour to try and connect the wires. If I could do it again I would pre tin the stars and attach the wires before I even attach the thermal adhesive pads. Here are some pics of the sloppy soldering job.  But it works. 








I’m happy I didn’t burn the LEDS. I was so worried about wasting $80 worth of electronics. 








I soldered the leading wires from + to – in a series and then attached them to the driver. I had an extra computer 3 prong cord and used that to connect it to the wall outlet. 








I then realized something bad . The optics don't fit. I remember reading about this in to Fizzout’s thread  but I didn’t think it would happen to me. 
















Well I just did the same thing he did, I altered the optics to fit the rapidled star. [URL="http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1840324&postcount=12”] here is his solution[/URL] I’m happy I bought that dremel, I just used the disc attachment to cut out the extra space. 








Afterwards they fit perfectly, although I feel like there should be a notice to people buying the optics from ledgroupbuy.com and using stars from other vendors. I remember I read on their website to not use superglue so I just bought a cheap hot glue gun and glued the optics on the leds. It works pretty well now but for the first two days the optics kept falling off because I didn’t have enough glue holding them on. The led would get hot and the silicone would weaken and the optics would fall into the tank. It was a pain until a put a significant amount of hot glue on each one and around the exposed wires, now I don’t have to worry about water rusting the lead connection. 
















AND THEN after testing every single connection 3 times and making sure I wouldn’t burn the electronics the moment I was waiting for, I turned it on. IT WAS AMAZING! The video self adjust so it doesn’t show how bright they are compared to normal daylight. I would say the beam is tighter and brighter than my current 4 55w CP fixture. I love the light, I love the shimmering that I get, the crazy pearling, how bright everything is and the energy savings 

http://youtu.be/kzy_tKSMxZk
http://youtu.be/lFXD5GNKBn8 
(don't know how to embed these )

My tank looks like a bottle of sprite! And in the past week I’ve noticed a big change in the plants. The l. arcuata that seemed to grow tall and green is now more compact and getting a nice red shade. My favorite l. sp mini is getting that beautiful red hint on some of the leaves. The crypt gecko is getting bronze, green and even purplish colors. I’m hoping to get some rare picky plants and seeing how they do under the light.
I did the math previously and from 20” above the substrate the PAR should be around 81, however when I actually hung the fixture I lowered it and it is now about 16” above the substrate. At this distance the PAR should be around 148. And the best part is that the beams are more focused on the middle of the tank, there’s not too much direct light shining on the front of the tank which means I don’t have too much spillover, little algae growing on the glass and since I have my ET and pogo helferi in the front of the tank then they won’t grow like crazy and keep a nice controlled foreground. Also the spotlighting effect is really nice for my fish since it creates areas where there is lower light and that is where my fish congregate. The cardinals look great under the new lights!
I have to admit that everything didn’t go smoothly at first. I came home on Monday and tried to adjust everything at 11pm and I guess I didn’t zip tie the bars tight enough but the right heat bar fell right into the water. I grabbed it quickly but I could tell the leds got wet. I ripped everything apart and tried to dry it. Thinking I would damage the leds I just let everything dry out for two days and then ran everything again. Turns out the leds are tougher than I thought. I heated them up for multiple minutes and cooled them down multiple times, I dropped them in water I shook them a lot while hanging the fixture and they STILL turn on. These are amazing. I can’t believe they’re going to last 10+ years. 
SO here are some pictures. 
Here is the front shot, the light is only about 5” from the tank.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*Results*

Now that I'm semi finished with everything I feel really happy. The total cost of everything came out to $177.02 so far. If i sell my old set up for $120 and considering i'm saving $106 in electricity and bulbs per year then by next year the fixture would have been fully paid for. So I'm very happy. The hardest part was searching for the right components and looking for the best price. There's a lot to study before building the fixture but if you do the right research and read enough threads then you should be prepared to tackle everything. 

After letting the leds run for 7 hours a day I've noticed that the bars feel a bit warm. They're not scalding hot and i can leave my hand on it for a few minutes without too much discomfort. 









Just to make sure the leds are running at high efficiency i've added a temporary fan system (aka my notebook cooler turned upside down)

















with this the bar doesn't get too hot at all. around body temperature








so my next addition is to go buy some small fans and wire them to blow some air across the top. I know i wanted a passive system but getting a few fans blowing on the bars won't be too bad, and it still beats paying $30 more for a fined heat sink which would have required fans anyway. 

Another issue that i'm getting used to is the color of the light themselves. I've been used to the cool white that comes out of the 10,000K bulbs that I had so it makes a slight difference seeing the 6,500 K light. They're all Cool white XML-U2 leds, any suggestions on adding that cooler tint to the light? would adding blue leds make any difference? probably not. as long as the plants are happy and pearling then i'm happy. A really nice effect of the leds is the shimmering i'm getting on the ceiling. I love having the light suspended and seeing the water shimmer about my living room. totally worth it 

http://youtu.be/yb4W_FEqGWo

I'm very happy with the light right now, theres a few tweaks that I want to make. 

I want to add magnets to the back and to the wall so that I can push the fixtures towards the back to make it easier on trimming and water changes.

I want to add a moonlight so I can see the fishes swimming around at night.

I want to add some fans to make sure everything stays nice and cool.

I want to paint the fixture black but it won't match the stand since it is some greyish color. Should I just leave it white and let it blend in with the white walls? thoughts?

I was thinking about covering up the top part to make the fixture more clean looking and hide the bars and drivers but I really like the shimmer on the ceiling and it might block off air flow. I'll leave it as is but if i find a cheap piece of plastic or wood to cover it up then i'll do it. 


So here are more pretty pictures

Fishies hanging around the foreground 











































































Great shot, wish I would have had the water level a bit higher so it makes the tank look a lot prettier. and i think next time i'll remove the hoses. I really think now that the light is hung its time to use lily pipes. They look a lot cleaner.



























have to get rid of all these crypts!









top shot









OH and i was getting a lot of white scum. i'm guessing protein build up. I read somewhere it might be due to lack of surface agitation. I made this diy surface skimer and its working out pretty well


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## APT (Jun 18, 2012)

Great write up, nice work on the build!!!

Tank looks amazing!


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## makutaku (Aug 19, 2004)

Thanks for taking the time to explain. It helps a lot!


I am considering suspending mine like you did. Probably 12" above tank connected to the 14' ceiling.

Can you provide more details on how to attached the wire to the ceiling and to the fixture ?


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

Nice build! Cheap too. The fans will help for sure. The wood surround looks very nice, how heavy is it? I was thinking of making one out of thin Acrylic and painting it.


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

Your pictures make it seem that a bit of spotlighting is going on. How high above the tank is the fixture again? I'm wondering if it's just the darkness in the room that is making it stand out.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

BS87 said:


> Your pictures make it seem that a bit of spotlighting is going on. How high above the tank is the fixture again? I'm wondering if it's just the darkness in the room that is making it stand out.


Well the fixture is only 16"from the substrate so probably 2-3" from the top of the tank. There is a bit of spotlighting since its so close but if i raise the fixture to 4" from the top of the tank then its not noticeable. 


To be honest I set the fixture lower than I planned because I was scared the wire would snap, drop the fixture and crack the glass. So far the light is still holding on so I'm going to raise it when I'm finished adding the fans. 






BS87 said:


> Nice build! Cheap too. The fans will help for sure. The wood surround looks very nice, how heavy is it? I was thinking of making one out of thin Acrylic and painting it.


I'm not fully sure, I'd say probably less than 10 lbs 
You know, I had the same idea. I was thinking of using black acrylic to make the fixture housing but I couldn't find thick black acrylic anywhere. The problem was that I needed at least 36" for the long parts and finding a sheet that long was very pricey. Also the color was never right, I only found thin lightly tinted pieces. Nothing that would block out the light completely. 

If I could have found the right piece of acrylic then I would have made it out of that. It would have been more modern looking, and apparently bonding acrylic is really cheap and easy. 
Granted the entire 8foot plank of primed wood was only $5. You can't beat that! 








makutaku said:


> Thanks for taking the time to explain. It helps a lot!
> 
> 
> I am considering suspending mine like you did. Probably 12" above tank connected to the 14' ceiling.
> ...


Sure I'll take more pictures tomorrow


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## zonamav (Feb 27, 2004)

awesome thanks for the write up!


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

monkeyruler90 said:


> To be honest I set the fixture lower than I planned because I was scared the wire would snap, drop the fixture and crack the glass. So far the light is still holding on so I'm going to raise it when I'm finished adding the fans.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Ahh ok, that makes sense.
As for the Acrylic, I plan on buying a cheap clear sheet at HD ( there is a 36"x48" .09" thick piece for ~14$), and painting it black with a glossy krylon fusion type paint. I'm sure it won't come out the way I'm imagining it. I'll post pictures when I eventually build my fixture in the next two months, and if looks like poo then we will know


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Just raise the fixture about 2" and it made the light look a bit more spread out. no more spotting, although more of the tank is brighter so all my fish have gone into hiding. I think i need some cheap dither fish like danios to get the other fish coming out. 

I added a small 5v fan running off an old cell phone charger and it actually keeps the whole thing pretty cool. the last led opposite the fan is barely warm to the touch 


oh and the whole hanging kit probably cost me $6. $2 for the wire, $2.5 for the wire crimper and $1.50 for the hooks that hang from the ceiling.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

hook. comes with this clip that you drill into the wall and then it opens in there to give a sturdy connection. it can hold up to 50 lbs








view from the top of the ceiling









crimper to make little loop in wire
very cheap, I got two packages so i can make 4 loops in total

















just using a computer fan too cool everything. might upgrade to two smaller fans blowing from opposite directions. I definitely want a quieter fan, this one is a bit noisy but its only running on 5v and .48mah









this way it is sucking air from around the driver and cooling it and then blowing the fast air across the heat sinks. To be honest its working better than i expected, the leds closer to the fan are cold. I barely feel any heat. The ones furthest from the fan are barely warm to the touch.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

zonamav said:


> awesome thanks for the write up!


Thinking about making your own led fixture?


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## sampster5000 (Oct 30, 2010)

I love the pig! So random and awesome!


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

Any new pictures now that it's higher?


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

So everything is growing very well, the l sp mini is getting some beautiful color and the l arcuata turned into a beautiful bronze color and reached the top of the water in 3 days. I'm very excited for this build, everything is growing (even the algae :hihi and the LEDS are being kept cool. I love the shimmer of the lights on the ceiling, i couldn't have asked for a better upgrade

here is a cell picture of the lsp mini and the pogo stellatus narrow in the background.










the tank is now 20 inches off the substrate and there is more even spread and not too much spillover


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Nice build, we gotta get together and figure one out for the 55. I am not in the mood to drop more $$ than I need to when I have a DIY nut living ten miles from me. LOL

Plus there is that little issue we all were chatting about yesterday at the meet about me burning down my house..


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Rescaped the tank so the erios and downoi get more light, got rid of some of the cryps and moved others to the back of the tank. Going to sky craft tomorrow to find some magnets and fans. 

Can you run computer fans in series?


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

demonr6 said:


> Nice build, we gotta get together and figure one out for the 55. I am not in the mood to drop more $$ than I need to when I have a DIY nut living ten miles from me. LOL
> 
> Plus there is that little issue we all were chatting about yesterday at the meet about me burning down my house..


Yeah demonr6 I'll look into something for your tank.


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## TaDoey (Jun 14, 2012)

Any updates?


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

yeah, the light is doing great. my plants are growing like crazy

I've kept the same fan instead of buying a new one. Still haven't had time to stop by Skycraft and pick up some strong magnets. I also decided to keep the light white since it matches the white wall behind it, helps blend things in. Since its summer my electricity bill has spiked up so i'm not sure how much money i'm actually saving. 
here are some pics. The light is so intense that I've had to prune every 3 weeks to keep things looking nice.



































in the beginning I was dosing religiously and keeping a short photo period but since I started a new job I've let the tank unattended. I always do water changes and feed the fish but I need to automate the dosing. Sometimes I forget. so as a result I've had a bit of BBA 
















But all the plants are growing nice and healthy. I did kill some downei but thats because I placed it in the wrong part. 










and who said you couldn't get red plants with LEDs running cool white. 
taken with a cell phone camera, no manipulations









that l.arcuata is bright bronze










by the way is anybody in need of snails


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## bitFUUL (May 14, 2010)

This is one of my fav tanks, it's a jungle! Those are a ton of snails, what kind?


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## Land_lubber (Aug 28, 2012)

Nice tank. I reckon you should of gone with the 60 or 80 degree len's though, you would of got better coverage.


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## TaDoey (Jun 14, 2012)

the snails look like MTS. How did you get the snails to all gather in the one corner?


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Land_lubber said:


> Nice tank. I reckon you should of gone with the 60 or 80 degree len's though, you would of got better coverage.


Actually the spreadsheet showed that there was a significant loss of PAR when using higher degree optics. Right now I have minimal spill over from the sides of the tank, all the plants get the right amount of light with minimal spotting. I think if I would have used the higher degree optics then the shimmer would look crazy


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

I have a ton of MTS! I have no idea why they like to bunch up in a corner, my only guess is that I have the co2 too high and its irritating them at the substrate. Usually I only saw them at night.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*Lights are broken!!!*

Oh no, bad news. I came home tonight and it looks like the lights are on the fritz. they turn on but only at 1/3 power. They look very dim. I'm not sure what could have happen, they were working just fine yesterday. 
I contacted RapidLED and I'm hoping for a reply soon. they have great customer service so i'm sure they can help me out. 

what do you guys think? I've changed outlets, i've checked for stray voltage, none of the led's are burnt out, the driver isn't overheating, nothing major has changed at all.

Here is the link to the video of the light being plugged into another socket and then being unplugged. it stays on for a second, usually they turned off immediately.

half dim








driver at its current configuration


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## nwozniak (Oct 15, 2012)

*lights not working...*

sounds to me like your driver bit it. LED's typically will be on or off if they 'burn out' with them staying on after the unplug it sounds like the internal varisters are not working properly. I could be wrong though. Keep us informed as to what happens with this!


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

Last post, it turns out one of the wires was a little loose

I've had this fixture for 5 years and have loved it

Last year, the same thing happened where the last LED burned out the wire ( the LEDs do get hot and I forgot to turn on the fan to cool the heat sinks) so the lights turned off for a week. Killed a bunch of my plants 
I decided to move over to a dimmable driver and got one of the meanwell LDDs and a Storm controller

it runs great and I love the dimming feature however it only runs at 1500mA so the lights are bright but not bright enough to trigger pearling. The plants struggled for a while, they turn green and survived but nothing was turning red or growing like crazy. 

In August I moved places and I turned off the tank for a few months. This last week I restarted everything but decided to update the light

I've been researching a ton of options and here is where I stand.

I only have 10 XMLs, they run great at low current but high current really makes the plants look great. I searched for a dimmable driver that would run at 1750mA or higher but nothing worked for around 32V. I didn't want to add more LEDs or take away any as the spread is quite nice . 

After talking to RapidLEDs ( I Love them) I decided to go and buy 2 Mean Wells ELN-60-27Ps which can run 5 XM L2s at 2300mA. 

Although this is high and I'll need active cooling it'll mean that I can use the Storm controller to have a proper sunset and sunsrise feature. 

I'm hoping to get the new drivers next weekend and have it all up and running. 

Hopefully new stronger drivers will enable me to grow high light plants.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Duh! misread your post.. Never mind.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*2020 update*

I can't believe I built the original fixture back in 2012! 
It has survived so many rescapes, 4 different moves from Florida to California, and a few different modifications.








Original fixture with LED driver hung inside the light fixture 2016

I had been using the original Meanwell LPC-6-1750 driver for 5 years and it worked out well, but I did have a few LEDs burn out and I wasn’t a huge fan of the light turning on and scarring the fish. The 1750mA was powerful and it ran the 10 XML-U2 not too hot where I would sometimes leave the fan off. 
In 2017 I wanted to update the whole set up to a dimming configuration and went back to RapidLED to get the Coralux Storm LED controller, a Mean Well LRS-350-36 power supply, and a few 1500 and 700 drivers. I have always loved the cool white LEDs I had but wanted to set up some blue moonlights as well as some green and red accent lights. 









Moved driver down below the stand since it was too big to hang 
I set up everything up and surprisingly it all worked out however I hated the 1500mA driver, I felt like they were on but were dim compared to running them at 1750mA. I left it like this for a couple of months until I lost interest on the hobby since most of the plants stayed green and boring, I probably had medium light that would grow plants but not enough to make them pearl or turn red.









Boring plants 2017

I also had some issues with the livestock dying due to infrequent water change and finally killing everything by using super cold water on accident during a water change. The tank remained filled but empty for almost a year until in April 2018 I went back to RapidLED to get new drivers. I wanted to stay with dimmable but needed something higher juice. After seeking their advice, I got 2 Mean Well ELN-60-27P dimmable drivers and separated the two light strips into 2 banks of 5 XML2s . This worked out quiet well as I was able to control the forward and rear lights independently and set a staggered sunrise which made it more gradual than before. I should have used the fan to keep everything running since I did end up having 2 LEDs slowly burn out. Not sure how hot the aluminum bars got but they were never scalding to the touch so I felt fine.
Later that year I got really into other sports and couldn’t keep up with the tank maintenance, I did have a lot of plants overgrow the tank and ended up losing some tetras. The good part about having the controller was that I was able to turn down the light and barely keep everything going. 








2018-2019 set up
I’ve had it like that for almost all of 2019 and just recently decided to get everything back up to its former glory. I always wanted to add an additional bank of lights but wasn’t sure how to wire them up. I saw RapidLED had a sale on warm whites and decided to go out and buy 6 more. The problem was locating another aluminum bar, I searched online but shipping was a pain. Luckily I found another source here in San Diego that was able to provide a 36”x2”x.25” T6061 extruded bar. A bit narrower than the 2.5” I used before, but it was able to fit right in with some air gaps. 
I created a cross pattern so that 5 cool whites would be on the front and rear bars but split the 6 warm whites in the middle. They were going to be using 80-degree optics so a bit softer light.

















This is the set up that I ended up using









2 bar set up









new 3 bar set up










They’re all wired in series which has worked out so far for me. During the build the rear bar was easy to set up, but the forward bar was a problem as I accidentally blew out one of the LEDs. The driver runs min 5 LEDS and I had unwired 1 cool white which left 4 and while testing the soldering connection I blew out the first LED on the bar ☹. It was ok, I had a replacement and modified the location of the LED.
I used thermal paste adhesive, so I only had a few minutes to get everything situated and glued down. The key is preparation, I got everything set up and was able to run through and paste all the LEDs right where they should go.
The next day I hung the fixture back up, 20 inches from the substrate and ran the controller to 80% power. I feel like they’re much brighter and they’re not running too warm to the touch. The warm whites are ok, I usually prefer more cooler light. If the cool lights were ever on sale I would have bought a bunch of those. I’m sure the warm whites may bring out a few more of the reds on the plants and some cardinals that I’m stocking up on. 
My next plan is to set up 2 small fans and allow the lights to maybe go up to 90% brightness but only for an hour boost. I want to make sure the CO2 is dialed in before running full blast. I want to go back to growing needy plants and maybe selling some packages in the future. 









(please don’t judge the tank, I’m trying to grow everything back)


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*new LED Colors*

So during this whole quarantine period, I thought it would be a good time to revamp the aquarium and see if I could update the lights. From my last post I was able to add 6 more warm white XML2 lights on the middle bar and I felt like the tank got a bit brighter but I wasn't able to fine tune the colors or make any moonlights.

I had a few more LDD drivers and red/green LEDs that I wanted to mess around with.

I had posted a question back if I could run these drivers using a regular DC power supply that I had from old electronics. 
I set about tweaking the set up and got the LEDs to work using a 12 v 1400mA power supply and the 2 LDD 700mA drivers









I was able to set up channel 3 for the 3x XPG photo red LEDS and channel 4 for the 2 XPE green LEDs








It all looks a bit messy and I'm actually very surprised I didn't electrocute myself or burn any of the LEDs out.

I added the 3 red, 2 green to the center bar in between the warm whites 









and was able to fine tune it for a really cool red sunrise/sunset effect. not as nice as the new fluval 24/7 features but still pretty cool. The main point was not to have a super bright light just suddenly turn on/off and scaring the fish and this has actually achieved it.









The green is actually really bright and I have had to turn it down otherwise it makes the tank look very green but I think it makes the Neon Green Rasbora look amazing in the tank. Their green stripe definitely stands out a little more.

Bump: 

Bump:

Bump:


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

So schedule I was playing around with the dawn/midday/dusk effect and came out with this 










It allows me to ramp up the CO2 1 hour before the main lights start ramping up. I put the blue moonlight LEDs on the same timer as the CO2 so I could have a visual confirmation that those are turning on

The red lights turn on around 5:00pm 
The rear driver with the white LEDs turns on at 5:30pm and starts ramping up followed by the front driver at 6:00pm
The green LEDs are pretty strong so they just come up for a small amount during the day period 

The lights on a 2 hour ramp up period but I may turn it down to 1.5 ramp up and have more bright times.

I've had this running for about 3 weeks so far and haven't seen any major issues with algae although I have noticed the plants have really perked up and started growing differently. The rotala green has longer thinner leaves and the myriophyllum tuberculatum red has started growing larger redder leaves.
Will try this 2 hour peak period for another 3 weeks and then slowly ramp it up to a max sun period of 5 hours and a 1.5 ramp period up and down, so 8 hour photo period total.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*PAR reading*

I was curious to see how strong the light is so I was able to borrow a PAR meter from Greggz and after several modifications I was able to narrow things down to an ok setting.



Originally the light was set up 18 inches from the substrate and the bars were spaced only 4 inches apart from each other 

I took 7 readings across the 36 inches of the tank, back, middle, and front, and then 3 heights at bottom of tank, middle of tank, and top of the tank. 









I got a strong beam in the middle but bad distribution on the edges. So I moved the bars slightly further apart and I was able to get some of the corners better lit. Now the entire light is 19 inches from the substrate and the two outside bars are 8 inches apart. 



























I think overall this puts me in high light which is what I wanted but one thing I am thrown off by is the spectrum/PUR/and temperature of the lights. At the bottom, center of the tank, I see it's strong but I notice the peak barely has any blue spectrum and strong middle which is not useful for the plants. 









So this has me questioning. I show high PAR in the middle which is what I want but is the spectrum not going to be useful to getting the right colors to come out on the plants?

I still have another driver, should I go out and buy some blue LEDs and try and incorporate them into the bars? or just test it out for a while and see how the plants turn out? 

I have 10 cool white LEDs and 6 warm LEDs and the tank doesn't look too yellow but I am a fan of cooler running lights so maybe having some blues might change that. 

The next post I'll make a complete summary of all the purchases I've done. I want to see how much this light has cost compared to going out and buying a fancy Twinstar or Fluval or Kessil fixture. They're expensive for the 36" light and I wonder if I would have the customization with the controller going the DIY or just waiting until these lights came out. 
The new LED lights have the sunrise/day/sunset setting built in and even expand on it using bluetooth but they're much more expensive.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Keep in mind the Seneye has a directional sensor. Measuring light "off axis " is somewhat problematic.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

so things have been growing well for a few weeks but I decided to upgrade this a bit more. 

on the labor day sale I went out and bought some more LEDs. going to try and find some cheap aluminum and I'm going to make an additional strip of light for the rear as I've seen those plants stretch and move to the middle of the tank. my hope is if I have another strip near the back of high strong light then the back will get nice and bushy and I will be able to redistribute the other strips to move them forward and spread out the light.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

*Make it blue!*

I love that this thread has more than 17,000+ views! that's awesome, makes me feel good that hopefully people are reading this thread and learning through my experience. 

I think my favorite part of this forum has been the DIY section and learning how people innovate their way through the hobby. Yes, you can go out and buy all this equipment and have it all look pretty and work flawlessly however I find a certain appreciation and connection with making my tank myself and engineering what I need.

From the last update I had added 6 more warm whites to the tank and I saw the plants enjoyed the extra light, definitely saw more growth, pearling, and some of the plants changed colors slightly to a more redish hue. However I personally wasn't too pleased with the spectrum, I like my whites on the cooler spectrum vs the warmer one so I tried to see if I could change it. 

I was a bit upset that RapidLED had discontinued their cool white XML2 lights and only had the warm whites, good news is that they were half the price as before. I went out and bought 6 more warm whites but also 4 royal blue XPG3s. I had 2 of the same spectrum blues for my nighlights a while back and knew the type of light they gave off. I was hoping the blues would counteract the warm white and make it a little cooler. 

The other issue I had was finding the heat sink, I wanted to try heatsinkusa but didn't want to pay for shipping and waiting for it to get here. I went to my local metal's shop in the city's industrial area where I had bought my previous 36"x2"x1/4" 6063 aluminum bar and found that they had the same dimensions but in 6061 for only $9 instead of the $25 that I paid before. I ended up grabbing a 2 1/2" wide bar of the 6061. I read the 6063 does better in corrosive environments and so far the bars have held up really well, I don't think the area above the tank is going to be an issue and I'm hoping the 6061 does just fine. 

I came home last week and had the heat sink, LEDs, grabbed two extra 1500mA dc-dc drivers, and was ready to get started. 









I ended up making the 6 additional warm whites on the rear of the tank and spread 4 royal blues throughout the 4 corners. I didn't realize how powerful the royal blues ended up being, they did a great job in counteracting the warmer colors and I feel like I have a different spectrum all together.









The back row of 6 ww are only set to 80% brightness for now, the blues are only at 50% and I like the color. I might turn up the back lights up more in a bit once the plants settle in, I would hate for the algae to take over. 









The camera makes the tank look more purple than it actually is but in person it looks more blue. 








Plants are pearling like crazy 

I have maxed out all the channels on the controller 
channel 1 - 5 cool white, 3 warm whites xml2
channel 2 - 5 cool white, 3 warm whites xml2
channel 3 - 3 photo red xpg2
channel 4 - 2 green xpg2
channel 5 - 4 royal blue xpg3
channel 6 - 6 warm whites 

I have really enjoyed the sunrise/sunset feature on this. 











The reds come on first, then the blues, the back lights, and then the two main white strings.

I'm going to test how things play out for the next couple of weeks and see which plants enjoy being placed in which spot, I know the middle is the brighter spot but I'm hoping with the back row the plants start growing straight up. 

Also, if anyone in San Diego has a PAR meter I think I want to measure the strength of the lights again and see how things are looking now, I know the back corners were the weak spots before but hoping that now I can grow lush plants there now.

PS. I'm using this same AC/DC power supply to power the 1500mA DC-DC drivers for the lights. I really wanted to drive these white and blue lights at 2000mA however there was no DC driver in that range so 1500mA will have to do.


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## zemnar (Sep 6, 2013)

Great job, monkeyruler90!

The tank looks great and love the light build out, as well as the research you put into it!

Even your trials and failures were interesting to read about and gave us something to think about and show us that even best laid plans can run into "real-life"...

I appreciate the time you've taken to keep us updated, thank you!

Brian


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