is it possible to make a lamp with 12blues and 5 whites for under or at most $250? and would it be enough for me to keep sps on a 20L?

Sure the price is doable...
17x LEDs ~$102
3x buckpucks ~$48
MPJA 6.5A PSU ~$15
Which leaves about $95 for a heatsink, drills, nuts, bolts and shipping charges. Should be doable

Not sure about the SPS tho, might want to up the number of LEDs a bit for that, depends on depth too.

Thats more than enough LEDs for sps on a tank that size. Using such a heavy bias towards white will make getting an even color over the tank a little difficult.

I am slowly planning an LED fixture for my biocube 29g. Trying to do it as cheap as possible but still get good results. If that means I have to spend more then I am willing. Are these LED's junk? What is the difference between these and the Q4 on ledsupply.com? Will I be happy with these? Somebody let me know and if they are not a good choice, let me know where I should be shopping. Thanks.

They can work, but you have less headroom if you want to go higher brightness. There is about a 20lm difference between the P4 and the Q4 at 350mA. That gap gets larger at higher currents. They are nice and cheap, and are a quality LED. You will be waiting a long time for shipping though. Up to a month.

Ok. I don't think I want these then. So where should I shop? I seen you mention etg tech before they don't list there prices online.
Couple questions
1. If I call, which ones should I ask about?
2. Are there different model numbers, etc? All I know is that I want cool white and royal blue led's and also would like to light up the refugium in chamber 2 of my 29g biocube. Any recommendations on this?
3. Would the 24 volt power supply you typically recommend support 24 led's over the main display and three or so over the refugium?

Thanks.

With the XP-Gs, could you run, say, three white XP-G's in series along with 9 royal blue XR-E's off of the same Meanwell? They all can be driven at 1000mA and under, right?

well then I know my next project





I want the tank to look more blue... something closer to a 20k MH bulb (a good one, not one that drains everything out in blue) I was gonna go for this pattern: 2b-1w-2b-1w-2b-1w-2b-1w-2b-1w-2b

Will any of these LEDS work for corals?

http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Bright-Blue-5m..._ce_ai_-2_1_tit


http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Bright-White-5..._ce_ai_-2_1_tit


http://www.amazon.com/TerraLUX-TLE-3-MiniS...349&sr=8-37


http://www.hometrainingtools.com/bulb-led-...nt/p/MI-BULB10/

sorry but those wont do. simply not powerful enough. the 5mm leds have been spoken about several times. great for moonlights though.

So I am in the planning stage of LED supplementation for my 150w Viper over a NC24. My rock/corals are for the most part 6-10" from the surface and the viper is 12" off the water. My goals:

1. add enough Cree RB's to get fluorescence even during the day.
2. not burn my upper most corals
3. get enough blue to the sandbed corals
4. control dawn/dusk with RKL
5. upgrade in a yr or so to a full LED fixture

Equipment:
1x Luxdrive 3023-D-E-1000P (have)
6x Cree RB's
6x 60 optics
2x heatsinks
2x small PC fans
1x 24VDC 1A power supply


Is it enough LED's with the 150w MH - too many?
Does this power supply work?

What if I put a bunch of them? Still not strong enough?

A bunch does not make them stronger it just spreads out the coverage. You have to use LEDs that have a high intensity per LED.

You have to use the 3 w high power RB to supplement your main light.
Those are just too weak as supplement light.

i bunch of them together will only get you lumens but lumens doesn't translate to PAR levels. there is a thread floating out there on the lighting forum that Waterproof did, you should look it up. it will explain some. i believe it was called cree vs 50 5mm leds. a lot of heat, only last a short time and wiring all those together will be a pain. trust me, i know the CREE LEDs can get expensive but it is well worth it and if built right will last for many, many years (10-15years) before replacing a LED. at this point in time, there really is no cheaping out on a good LED unit.

You are good on everything except the optics. Use 80 degrees. It will give you more spread, and will not irritate corals that are higher in the tank. Make sure the heatsinks are nice and big, because that Viper gots really hot.

I know everyone else has touched on this in the last few posts, but 5mm LEDs are just not powerful enough to be considered for growth in a reef tank. They should be relegated to moonlight duties only. End of story.

Any suggestions on this idea? Can you run XPG and XRE together in series? Or can you run a WRX on WD40?

For whites, ask for XR-E Q5 WG bins. For the royals, just ask for XR-E royal blues. If you talk to Anna Lopez, she will know what you are up to.

The power supply will be able to support up to 6 drivers at 1000mA. With 6 LEDs per driver, you can run 36 LEDs per power supply.


No reason why not. They have the same forward voltage. WRX on WD40 could be interesting though

yes it does get hot- spent Friday at work making the perfect heatsink- from a video graphics card it has both a heatsink and attached circular fan - thinking one on each side of the viper and hope it'll help cool the MH
fans are 12v .3A - can anyone tell me if two of these fans and 6x Cree RB's
will affect my powersupply needs?

You can run both fans in series on the 24v power supply.

Oh, okay, thanks for all the help/info everyone!!

i visited a local reefer today to pick up some frags and he's running a DIY LED on his 150g tank. it was incredible. I proceeded to read this entire thread, and every LED build I could. great stuff here.

my plan is to replace the 250w hqi MH over my 21" x 21" x 18" rimless with LEDs. from what I have read it seems like 5 rows of 8 LEDs with 40deg. optics work work well for keeping SPS.

I would want to use Meanwell ELN-60-48D and dim these with the variable output ports on a Neptune Systems Apex controller.

my question is, is 40 LEDs the right number for SPS. but also is there any disadvantage (other than cost) to go to 46 LEDs which is the max recomeneded for 4 meanwells and dim them down?

4 Meanwell ELN-60-48D can run up to 52 LEDs (4X13). Cost and Space is the only disadvantage I can think of, because you could always turn them down if there is to much light. Turning them down would also cause the LEDs to produce less heat for the heatsink to dissipate.

Are the star shapped PCB's from cutter the same size as those from etg, or other places? I was wanting to prep my heatsink prior to ordering the stars, but I wonder if this is even possible?

20mm stars are pretty much the standard across the board, no matter who you get them from. 20mm spacing between screw holes is about on the money for any star on the market.

40 LED would work, and 46 would be better. The more LEDs you add, the better you can set up the coverage for the tank. If you are going to be running 4 Meanwells anyway, why not bump the number of LEDs if you can swing the little extra cost?

Why did you want to go with 40 degree optics on an 18" tank? That would work if you had the array sitting quite high off the water, but if not, 60 degrees would be plenty, and will give you better coverage.

I think there is a misconception when jumping into this DIY project, in that people think they need an optic. I think most people understand they need even spread and what they are looking for is a light diffuser not an optic.

That's very possible. Diffusers aren't needed so much when you run the LEDs without optics. They have a very wide natural emission angle (up to 110 degrees for Cree), so the coverage area is larger. Secondary optics are used to focus the light more so PAR levels increase. Tighter the optic, higher the PAR. It reduces coverage though.

Why are drivers needed on an LED display? What if I'm setting up some 5mm UV LEDs?

Drivers are there to set the current for the LED. It's far safer than using resistors when dealing with high power LEDs. For smaller LEDs, like the 5mm ones you are looking to use, you can use resistors. Just don't drive them all the way to the rated current. If it states 20mA in the datasheet, run them at 15mA. they will last a lot longer and will be more tollerant to changes in voltage.

my math skills were a little missing last night, but great the intent was understood. i felt 39 would be too few for my tank and the 4th meanwell would allow me to put 52 LEDs pretty close together, thus the 40deg optics to raise the intensity a bit. 60 sounds good too. I am excited for the dimming possibilities of LEDs.

i'll be sure to post my build as soon as it starts.

anyone aware of a future Group Buy on LEDs or drivers?

40 degree lenses will raise the output a lot. That would be like putting a 250W MH with a Lumenbrite reflector over the tank. That's some serious PAR.

How do I figure how many XRE's and XPG's in tandem I can run on the same Meanwell?

I have a couple questions. Im getting started on my new aquarium its a quarter cylinder 24" x 24" 36" deep. If I run 40 degree optics does anyone have an idea of what type of light levels I would see, and how far should the spacing be? Also I was thinking something around 100 leds but havent planned it out as far as rows and amount because im unsure of spacing.
Thanks

if you are going to use the meanwell eln-60-48 model that are in the threads, you have to add the maximum of the forward voltages of the LEDs to no more than 48 volts. so if you are using just X-RE's, you could only have 13 LEDs because the forward voltage if i remeber correctly is 3.7v





using 40 degree optics would give you PAR levels of a 250w MH. look up a few posts and you'll see. as far as spacing you should go with 1.5" apart. dont know how many LEds you will need with out planning it out.

that's pretty much what I am running on my tank now... with a ushio 20k it looks great.

would you think 39 Cree XR-E LEDs would be sufficient to keep light loving SPS with 60 degree optics mounted 4" above my tank? what about 39 Cree XP-Gs?

Should be more than enough. It would be nice if the XP-Gs came in blue also, but they don't. XR-Es are plenty.

We'll hope that a blue comes out soon, since they seem to run about the same price as the XR-E but have a good bit higher output.

I'll probably use white XP-G when I (finally) get to ordering everything for mine since they are a higher output at about the same cost. Maybe this will tempt me to wait a little longer.....

So what would be the best/most cost effictive way build a unit for my new tank. I got it just so I could build a led light for it. Its 20"x20"x15" tall and I want to be able to keep sps and clams. Do I need to do 9 rows of 9? Will I need optics? Did you ever find a way to make this dimmable? Will I need to add a few uv leds?

9 ROWS OF 9 !!!!!!! holy cow!!.. i would say halve that.. maybe 4-5 rows of 9.. the 2 foot thickness makes it alot more .. definately dont NEED 81.. and its only 15" deep so dont need optics.. the SPS will love it..

I notice in most (all?) builds, the wires between the LEDs are water-side. Is this how it has to be given the heatsink fins? Is this not a concern for shorts from the unlucky water splash?

i think most people that have them exposed (no splash guard) paint over the solder joints with either epoxy or clear nail polish.. i have mine resting on the glass lid so i have no problem there..

it just easier for people to wire it that way. i prefer going through the heatsink but you do have to worry about fraying your line, cutting it to the right length and working around the fins. you waste a little more wire this way too, but it does look cleaner.

xracer is right though. no matter which way you wire it, use clear nail polish to seal the solder joints and the screws from moisture. it will rust very quickly if there is not an adequate splash guard. you also need to keep the salt creep off the lenses of the LEDs

I stongly suggest not running any LED array without a splash guard of some kind. Once the array turns off for the night and the heatsink cools, it forms condensation and will start killing things.

If 2.5in spacing w/ 60deg optics = 150W and 1.5in spacing w/ 40deg optics = 250W, what would 1.5in space w/ 60deg optics yield?

Ya'll are freaking me out with the talk of 1.5in / 40deg optics for tanks roughly my size (20in x 18in x 20in deep [18in after sand bed]). I want it all in terms of flexibility of growing what I want in the tank... I don't want to spend $500+ on LED lighting and realize that I don't have enough oomph. (Fear is the mind-killer!)

I would be perfectly happy having high-lighting corals up high and low-lighting corals down on the bottom. But the balance being clams in the sand bed. That looks fantastic.

I have another question, how many XR-E LED's would I need to keep Acros/SPS in a 2.5 gallon tank?

TANK DIMENSIONS WOULD HELP.. BUT I WOULD SAY 6...caps lock

the spacing has nothing to do with the MH equivalency, it has to do with coverage mostly. if you took one LED and put a 40 optic on it, it will be 250 w MH right underneath it. but since it is only a 40 degree beam, it will not cover the entire tank. so thats why the spacing. you need the over lap of the beam from the LEDs to blend the whites and blues together and avoid spotlighting. the general rule is the tighter the optic, the tighter the spacing (=more LEDs). so if you have fear of not having enough oomph, build a universal setup. that means no more than 2"separate from the LEDs in a row and nomore than 3" between them. just purchase different sets of optics (80, 60 and 40 are commonly used). they are ususally $1each. that way you always have the option of going back and forth between the optics to suit your needs. etg tech sells them for $1 and the LEDs for around $6, but the minimum order is $100. also look up nanotuners. they are now offering the same LEDs that we all use with no minimum and around the same price. from what i'm seeing, it will soon become the one stop shop for all of your LED needs. Thanks to the guru, GAWD himself..EvilC66. check out the "lighting by evil" section. it has most of what you need there.


like xcracer said. dimensiones?

I honestly don't know the dimensions of a 2.5 gallon... I THINK its 12"x6"x8". So, I'd need 3 x Royal Blue Cree XR-E Star and 3 x 107 Lumen Q5 Cool-White Cree XR-E Star and I'm good to go for Acros/SPS?

2.5 (mini-tank) 9.5liters 13 x 6d x 8h 33.0cm x 15.2cm x 20.3cm
i personaly would use 8 LEDs on a 4led by 2 row setup. the LEDs would be 2"apart leaving you with 2.5" spacing frm the edge of the tank to the first LED n the row.
you could also use 6 straight down the middle with 1.5" spacing i between.
the first one gives you better coverage

Dude, you're freaking yourself out. You don't need 40 degree optics on an 18" tank. You could get away without optics, but if you are looking for a good range of lighting levels, use 80 degree optics, and stick with 2" spacing.