# MY DIY LED Build



## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

I just put together a DIY project using 15 Cree XM-L Cool white T6 LED's which run around 6500k. The optics are 40 degree. The tank is 100 gallon acrylic, 20" depth. I have a 40 watt dimmable driver on them now which runs at 700mA. The mounting is a bit crude but I do plan on removing the legs and hanging the light rig. I wanted to have it so I can easily adjust from front to back of the tank for now. When put the rig on there and cranked up to full power the angels freaked out a bit and moved to darker ends of the tank as you can see in the pictures, lol.

I have one of those plug in line watt meters which is coming in handy. Full power is 32 watts and it's really bright! At 12 watts it is still quite a bit brighter than the 2 24" T8s I had in there. All the way dimmed it runs at a whopping 3 watts and visually looks about the same as with my previous T8s. The attached pictures are on the same manual camera settings, one running at 12 Watts and one at 32 Watts at full power.

I'm planning on going low to medium light plants and putting the higher light plants directly under the lights where there will be more lumens. Don't know how that will work out really. No C02 for now, just Excel once I get some real plants in there. All of the pictured plants are fake and came used with the tank. Running at 700mA is actually really low for these LED's. They are rated max current at 3000mA! If I want to go higher light is should be fairly easy to do, switching out drivers and changing the LED configuration a bit. Actually, I might have to add some real heatsinks then rather than the cheap aluminum U Channel on there now. They are running VERY cool now even at full so not really sure. They are rated at 700mA at 280 lumens each. At 2 amps, they should be 750 lumens each. I can't imaging how bright it would be with even twice the amperage however.


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## silvawispa (Oct 11, 2011)

Good to see another X-ML build


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## Milad LEDGroupBuy.com (Jan 29, 2011)

That looks great. Ive linked it up on our build threads

Starting to see more and more builds for planted tanks using XMLs


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## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

Hi Milad,

Thanks for helping me out with the questions I had, it really helped me in putting this thing together. I am very pleased with the light and can't wait to see how it performs with some plants under it. Being able to upgrade to a more powerful driver and reconfigure if needed is a big plus.


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## Milad LEDGroupBuy.com (Jan 29, 2011)

Schneeball said:


> Hi Milad,
> 
> Thanks for helping me out with the questions I had, it really helped me in putting this thing together. I am very pleased with the light and can't wait to see how it performs with some plants under it. Being able to upgrade to a more powerful driver and reconfigure if needed is a big plus.


You really think you need the extra light? With the more powerful driver its almost 3 times the light of what you are getting now on when maxing that driver.

Reason im asking is we are working on some DIY kits for planted tanks and its going to be using the 700mA driver.


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## Naekuh (Oct 19, 2011)

cool idea with the alu corner braces to make into a stand !


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## stephenpence (Mar 5, 2010)

so, i'm afraid to ask, but what did this build cost you? a few years back i wanted to do this, but I'm not near smart enough to be on the cutting edge.. so i'm glad i waited so i can just follow in the footsteps!!


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## Naekuh (Oct 19, 2011)

he's using 15 cree XM-L's which can run anywhere from 7-15 dollars each...

So just on the LED's he's probably spent over 100 dollars.
Then add the drivers and heat sink and the large amount of time invested to wire / setup.


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## Milad LEDGroupBuy.com (Jan 29, 2011)

That build is probably about $220 (using the high end XM-L which he used)
Putting it together is probably about a hour or so of work. Straight forward build.

Here is the parts list:
CREE XM-L Cool White T6
Inventronics 40w driver - 700mA 
Thermal Tape Preform 20mm Star
XM-L Optic - 6 Pack (40 Degree)


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## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

Milad LEDGroupBuy.com said:


> You really think you need the extra light? With the more powerful driver its almost 3 times the light of what you are getting now on when maxing that driver.
> 
> Reason im asking is we are working on some DIY kits for planted tanks and its going to be using the 700mA driver.


Hi Milad,
I have no idea really how much I will need truthfully. Like I said above, I couldn't imaging going to twice the light, so I doubt I would ever turn that powerful driver up to full power! The main reason I would change it out would be to put this driver on another tank and give me some more room to play with in case I want to move to fairly high light and C02. It is a pretty big tank. I would think most people you end up selling kits to would have smaller tanks. The tank is very bright so I will let you know when I get some plants in there! Honestly, I have a Marineland double bright LED on a 30 gallon and my low light plants are doing pretty well. I'm sure this will do a whole lot better judging from what I've read on those lights. There is no comparison to what I'm seeing just looking at how much light there is. I thought the pricing was very reasonable considering what people pay for good fluorescent lighting.


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## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

Naekuh said:


> cool idea with the alu corner braces to make into a stand !


Thanks! I should have posted pictures from the top so you can see it better. There are two U Channels about 3 1/2 inches apart running from one stand to the other. The LEDs are in two staggered rows, 6" apart on each row. Aluminum is just drilled and bolted together with stainless #8 bolts and and nuts with nylon inserts, lock nuts.


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## Naekuh (Oct 19, 2011)

Schneeball said:


> Thanks! I should have posted pictures from the top so you can see it better. There are two U Channels about 3 1/2 inches apart running from one stand to the other. The LEDs are in two staggered rows, 6" apart on each row. Aluminum is just drilled and bolted together with stainless #8 bolts and and nuts with nylon inserts, lock nuts.


yeah its so simple yet it adds that high tech look, thats the reason why i like it...

if i did it tho, i think i would extend it out a bit, and flip the L's so it wraps the corners of your tank for a more secure fit.


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## silvawispa (Oct 11, 2011)

I'm still running my 10 X-lm's on a passive heat sink at 2A over a 6ftx2ftx2ft.
10 at this brightness give light to see, but I think I'll need 20 more to get enough light to grow.
I paid a *lot* less for my 2100mA dimmable drivers than those advertised by Milad although they're not as neat.


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## Naekuh (Oct 19, 2011)

silvawispa said:


> I'm still running my 10 X-lm's on a passive heat sink at 2A over a 6ftx2ftx2ft.
> 10 at this brightness give light to see, but I think I'll need 20 more to get enough light to grow.
> I paid a *lot* less for my 2100mA dimmable drivers than those advertised by Milad although they're not as neat.


the ones Milad posts are known to be the best drivers u can get on the market.

Meanwells would come next to them, but if u look at the specs on the inventronics, you can see they exceed stats in some areas the meanwells are at.


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## Schneeball (Dec 28, 2011)

One thing I should have mentioned. Even not looking directly on top of the LED's before the optics where there to focus light, I got some stray light in my eyes trying it out. Be careful, lol!


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## kgbenson (Oct 29, 2006)

Looks great. What is the par on a setup like that? 

Keith


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## Ryi (Mar 29, 2009)

Interested in the par answer, please.!
I was going to play with some generic leds from DealExtreme over a 10 gallon but had to cancel my orders after over a month of billing but no shipping. Now I'm thinking about just stepping up to some reliable quality from ledgroupbuy and would love to know what you ended up with.

Thanks!


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