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Cultivated Reef

Custom Solana 34 Hood with DIY LED build!


Genj

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Purpose:

Thread to track the build and any future changes to my DIY LED light mounted in a custom 20x20 hood for my Solana 34g.

 

Design Requirements:

  • Avoid a tank that ends up looking as if it's filled with Winter Mint Listerine
  • Keep a large variety of coral, clams, fish
  • Multiple Channels that can be individually adjusted for intensity (dimmed)
  • Wiring that can be unplugged in order to remove the hood
  • Low Powered 'moon lighting'
  • Programmable on/off times with an intensity schedule

 

Lighting Channels:

  • 10x Royal Blue and 2 x Blue on Meanwell ELN-60-48D with pot
  • 8x Cool White and 4 x Neutral White on Meanwell ELN-60-48D with pot
  • 3x True Violet and 2 x 505nm Cyan on Meanwell ELN-30-??D driven at no more than 500ma with pot

 

Cooling:

  • 2x fans mounted to heatsink top and subsequently mounted to inside top of hood. Air pulling in from top, being pushed out of open rear of hood, or additional fans mounted in ready of lighting enclosure pulling air out of enclosure.

 

td6.gif

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Mr. Microscope

I think for colors, you will either want several blue (not royal), or 1 cyan driven extremely low. Based on what I'm reading in the LED color thread, the blue will produce cyan at a more even level. Like the red, I think the cyan could be distracting and make it mouthwashy fast. I think the neutral whites do the same for the red LED. They bring out the reds and oranges without being distracted. I'm designing a similar light and will likely just go with CW, NW, RB, and CB (or Blue). Trying to find the right layout on a square is proving difficult.

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Of note, I checked out the AquaIllumination Sol, and while I think it's a great unit, the problem with it is the requirement that it have around 8"-12" above the top of the tank.

 

Final dimensions are not yet in on the custom hood.

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Yeah, tweaking the LED selection as the Aesthetics thread develops.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the height of the assembly as it relates to the direction of the photons for use in photosynthesis? I see that some folks just go without; however, I'm getting the feeling from reading reviews and information from folks that have performed some analysis that it is important to consider the height, beam cone, water depth, etc...

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Evil, should I also include?

 

sink.jpg

 

 

In all seriousness. I must agree, my second design is a bit much. I've sent the design over to Chris and Nick; however, being the one without the experience, going back to the standard grid design that had 29 LEDs that is in post number 1 is fine with me. It also saves me a lot of money.

 

If 29 will work, then let me know, and I'll give the signal to Chris and Nick to back off the shoot for the moon design.

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Evil, should I also include?

 

sink.jpg

 

Damn right you should! Cat fur makes everything better :)

 

 

In all seriousness. I must agree, my second design is a bit much. I've sent the design over to Chris and Nick; however, being the one without the experience, going back to the standard grid design that had 29 LEDs that is in post number 1 is fine with me. It also saves me a lot of money.

 

If 29 will work, then let me know, and I'll give the signal to Chris and Nick to back off the shoot for the moon design.

You'r previous layout will work just fine for the area you are covering. If you want, just tell Chris to account for a 50% greater thermal load than you think you will need, and he will design the heatsink around that.

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Evil, or anyone else.

 

I'm thinking about adding a single 18 or 24w PC kit from Nanotuners to the hood as well I can squeeze one into the lighting space behind the LEDs. That being said, will this kit be all that I need, other than an on/off switch and a heat shield?

 

I'd like to bring more of the UV spectrum into the mix with this bulb, how about the 018w PC-R - UVL Dual Actinic (420nm/454nm) to start?

 

Or should I just go with a 420nm blue?

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Yeah, that's an option. The effect may not seem as dramatic though compared to the blue LEDs. I haven't seen a bulb yet that can produce the same effect as a royal blue LED. Plus, neither of the tubes in that bulb are UV (to any appreciable extent anyway). The Super Actinic side has it's dominant wavelength at 420nm, while the 454 side has it's dominant wavelength at 454nm (dur!), but spikes pretty hard at about 440nm.

 

Super Actinic:

SuperActinic.jpg

Notice that the spectral output stops basically at 400nm, just shy of UV. It does trail off to just below 380nm, but the output at that point is so low that it won't make a difference.

 

454:

454.jpg

Most of the spectral output again stops at about 400nm, but there is a tiny spike at 365nm. I don't think it's enough to make any appreciable difference.

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So if I do something like this, I would really need a PC bulb that is nothing but the super actinic. Does anyone make one of these for PC lights in 18w form?

 

I've got to be careful with this, as I don't want to ruin the look of the tank, nor do I want to forget about the TV LEDs that I'll be putting in there.

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All true actinic bulbs will be about the same, and won't dip much into the UV end of things. The TV LEDs will produce the same effect as the true actinics, like the Super Actinic.

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I dont know anything about LED's but I think they may be a flaw with the functionality of your hood. I noticed you have an approximatley four inch hinged door on the front of your hood diagram. I took some quick measurements of my solana. The rear chambers are 4.5 inches from the outside of the back glass panel. It appears that you are trying to center your LED unit within the 20 inch opening you have inside the hood. I would rather center your your unit with the first 16 inches of the hood, thus centering it over the actual display portion of the tank. I would leave the hinged option you designed but have that be on the rear portion of the hood so you could access the rear chambers without taking the hood off. You could then put a nice pair of access doors on the front of the hood so you could still feed your fish/coral. I did not see how tall your hood is going to be but thought it would probably be around 6 inches from the top of the tank. If so you would have plenty of room to get a pippette in there to spot feed any corals. I appologize if I missed something or mis read your diagram. Good luck and I can't wait to see how it turns out.

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Thanks Evil. I'll play around with it and see what I get.

 

Jae, very good point you brought up. I was unable to measure the space that was lost to the components of the tank. If I leave the tank as it is, then I will be overhanging the rear portion of the tank by at least 1". As the depth of the heat sink is targeted at 12"---- 4" inch hinged front, 1/2" for enclosure spacing and then as you said 4.5" for the rear, leaving me with 11" to work with.

 

I'm also checking to see if I can narrow the HS now.

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Like I said I don't know much about LED's but even if you reduced the heat sink by 1 inch the light still would not be centered over the display portion of the tank. I dont know the actual spread of the LED's so it may not be a big deal. Good luck can't wait to see your tank set up!

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Jae, I'll definitely have a thread detailing the tank and the LED parms. I plan on posting a video of the tank along with the lights with me actively changing the voltage via the pots to show how the tank looks in real time.

 

Anyone care to comment on using XP-G or XR-E for my setup?

 

I've told Nick at Nano-tuners to go with expedience; however, if I have a choice I'd like to get some input from the community. Cost between to two doesn't matter really. Also, keep in mind I'm not running any optics, and that the Blues, Whites, and Cyan/Violets will have their own dimmable channel.

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As of right now, you will have to run XR-Es for the neutrals and cool blues. We are expecting XP series LEDs in those colors soon, but not sure exactly when.

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Ok, so the RB, CW are XP-G?

 

Obviously the TV doesn't matter, I get what I get based on your recommendation. :D

 

Cyan will probably be in the same boat as the TV, just whatever comes in, is what I get.

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Mr. Microscope

I met a guy at the frag swap that builds lots of LEDs. He has a solana 20x20 and said that 24 LEDs was a good number (maybe even more than enough). You could probably reduce the amount you have there. I'm guessing you could also lessen the footprint of your heat sink too.

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Yeah, I'm having the HS size reduced for spacing reasons.

 

 

Doc, you think that might still be the case even for no optic LEDs? If it becomes and issue, I can move them, or I could sand the acrylic with some very fine grit sandpaper or liquid polish like Novus to act as a diffuser....

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You can go with XR-E's on the cool whites and royals. It's still plenty of light for a setup like yours.

 

Evil,

 

Is the CREE XRE-WG-Q5 on Star = Cool White?

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