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Innovative Marine Aquariums

High Density LED Build UPDATE


Trick

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Ok, most of the LED's i'm using are from http://www.ledgroupbuy.com . I decided to build a project like this because I liked the idea of having a small fixture that sits high over the tank all while throwing off adequate light and having good coloration at the same time. To accomplish this I would need the most power i could get in the smallest package at the best price since i don't have a large budget.

 

In order to put all these high output LED's in a small space i would need really good cooling, so i searched for the largest CPU heatsink i could find(a thermaltake server fan/sink). Heat pipes and active cooling are a must in this project since there are so many LED's being run close to their maximum capacity in a small space. Also, another member here stated that the stock fan on the CPU would most likely run very loud. He was right, it sounded like a small aircraft taking off. So i looked into a quieter fan and i found an excellent solution, an adapter that would mount a much larger fan to the heatsink from frozen cpu. I also found an absolutely silent fan that puts out the same airflow as the thermaltake fan.

 

Everything in this project is built upon the fact that I will be using 4 Cree NW XM-L's running at 2.67 amps (dimmable of course) which i purchased at LEDGroupBuy.com. In order to balance out the color I'm using 15 XP-E Royal blues and 2 XR-E Cool Blues. I did search for the elusive royal blue luxeon rebel es's but i could not find them in a 3-up pattern or at an affordable price, otherwise i would have used those. Milad at LEDgroupbuy.com really has the best price for one-up stars(that i could find), and they were more than enough so i used those.

 

That being said, if i had a larger budget and a mansion i would be using 45 LED Emiters in a 3-up pattern with 10-30 degree optics and the light would be hidden/recessed in a ceiling maybe 20-30 feet above a larger rimless tank. ( i can dream right?)

 

 

 

Video:

 

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Seems pretty cool i'd just make sure the copper never is exposed to any elements from the tank... Im sure a normal cpu heatsink with an oversized fan would work as well and be a lot cheaper too

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I'd definitely do some testing to see what type of temperatures I was getting. You may not be able to reach 1000mA, but most people don't end up running their LEDs that high anyway. LED's can't tolerate nearly as high of temperatures as CPUs, but this seems to be a large heatsink meant for one of the new 115 watt CPUs. My biggest concern will be the noise. This is a server heatsink with only a small 70mm fan. Most server heatsinks are unbelievably loud when running at full power, especially if you'll be keeping this outside of a rack.

 

I didn't realize the AMD 6000 series heatsinks had a perfectly flat base. This will be great for people wanting to use them for other purposes.

 

Edit: couldn't find reviews of this heatsink yet, but here's comments on the noise from the previous one that was also rated at 48dB:

"Noise. If you like hearing a 747 taking off right next to you, then by all means buy this cooler. I"

"this thing sounds like a portable hairdryer."

"I can hear it from the other side of the basement some 80 feet away.. I think it's making me deaf.."

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Good points, It says online that the LED's have a 150 degree C junction temperature, which is somewhat higher than the cpu's which are at 80? I'm not sure 100% on how hot the CPU's can get. Anyway, I plan on running the XM-L's at 2650 mA unless i can find a cheap 2 amp driver or buck puck. The XM-L's will go right where the heat pipes cross the copper base.

 

Also, i'm going to use 40 degree optics on everything.

 

I didn't realize the AMD 6000 series heatsinks had a perfectly flat base. This will be great for people wanting to use them for other purposes.

 

Yeah it took me forever to find a fan sink this size that was flat with substantial cooling.

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Hmm, do you know if i could put a "quiet" fan on it? Can you realistically compare its noise to something? Thanks for the heads up, i might have to keep looking then.

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Just found This!:http://www.bayreviews.com/computers/22278-thermaltake-g34-cpu-cooler

In the article they get an adapter from frozen cpu that allows a larger 120 mm fan with 70 CFM compared to 40 CFM.

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The main problem is the stock fan runs at a maximum 6000rpm. If you don't need that much cooling power it will be much quieter. That bigger fan modification should also help. Keep us posted if you go through with it; the flat heatsink face is awesome.

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Soooooo.......... I priced it all out. Still less than 300$ and i get a kickass light to boot. I'm still unsure of the color combo though. Should i use all NW or just CW or both for the white? And how much CB should i use? I thought we had stated in the LED aesthetics thread that we only need a small amount of CB. Only 15 stars will fit on the heatsink so it's gotta count and i want to run everything as high as i can.

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I'm just about to pull the trigger, but i'm debating on the LED scheme I'll be using XM-L's for the white, XP-E for the blue and royal blue and Luxeon Rebels for the 3up royal blue stars. Everything will have 4 degree optics and dimmable. I want it to have a 12-14k color scheme running at max (2/3) power. I will however be running the XM-L's as 2700 mA. max. everything else will be at 700 mA.

1st Scheme:

 

B-RB-WW-RB-B

RB-(3upRB)-NW-(3upRB)-RB

B-RB-WW-RB-B

 

Or

 

B-RB-NW-B-RB

RB-(3upRB)-WW-(3upRB)

RB-B-NW-B-RB

 

What i'm really unsure about is the white LED's. Should I maybe switch one out for a Cool white? or Have all warm white, What, anyone have

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hello, just thought i would show you what i did. i built a small led fixture using a cpu heatsink too, heatsink is like 3x3 and i put 6 leds on it. i have 4 rb and 2 nw running at 700ma. i put a small 50mm fan on top blowing into the fins and its only running at 6v so its silent. with this setup the heatsink never even gets warm, maybe 80-85 degrees max. i dont think youll have problems with your build.

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Nice, i want to do something similar to what you did. What do you think of the color? and the NW to RB ratio?

 

i really like the 2:1 rb to nw, its looks really nice. i built another diy led fixture for my 6 gal nc and i mistakenly used 1:1 rb to nw, it looked awful, luckily i have a controller and dimmable drivers. i even swapped 2 nw for cw, even so i run the nw at 30% and the rb at 65%, so like 2:1, but still dont get the same color as this fixture at 2:1.

post-61543-1315709280_thumb.jpg <--- 6rb at 65% with 4nw and 2cw at 30%

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i haven't seen any with ww, im thinking its gonna be to warm. people went from cw to nw, to add warmth to the reds and oranges in tank and it did the trick. id say stick with nw, rb and maybe a couple b.

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I'm doing 3 drivers and they are all dimmable. For the XM-L's i'm using a Meanwell LPF-40D-15. for the XRE CB i'm using a 700mA dimmable buckpuck and for the XP-E's i'm using an inventronics 700mA 40w driver from LEDgroupbuy.

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