haha yeah i really do not have much electronics experience at all, it is fairly simple and I did get a lot of help from people and did a good amount of research

i've been really busy the last few days, here is an update with a lot of pictures! I drilled the holes in the acrylic splash guard for my fuge light, and of course after getting the drilling down solid on a practice sheet I drilled the real thing and then decided the holes needed to be a little bigger than what I had. Haha yeah whoops, I got some chips around the holes where the screws are, but nothing too major and it's really not too big of a deal for my first time drilling and first LED fixture also put all the wiring and buckpuck in a project box from radioshack and put the dimmer on the outside. i'm still planning on adding a small fan to the top of the heat sink. also got my arduino duemilanove in the mail!

one problem i have with the light is the overspill from the sides, does anyone have any idea of something I can put around the heat sink down to the splash guard to direct the light downward? here are some pics!

sweet action contraction!! i like it.

you can try white acrylic for some reflective properties. just a thought though.

Might be a good idea to paint the heads of those screws holding the acrylic in place with a couple coats of clear nail polish to help prevent future corrosion.

Nice work so far! You have any lences on the led's ?

Punch a few holes in that project box for ventilation. You aren't pushing that Buckpuck very hard, but better safe than sorry.

hmm i'm trying to find something that is a little easier to do by myself, thanks for the idea though


good call!


you mean optics? if so then no, i wanted a more even spread of light for the back of the refugium. would optics decrease the light spillover into the main tank?

will do!

drilled some vent holes

Much better

working on wiring in the mini fan, i have not gotten something to put this is yet or found a way to mount it, so i currently am running it sitting on it's side and shining through the back wall of the fuge. it really lights up the whole area of chaeto!

is there any reason not to leave this agaisnt the back wall of the tank to provide light? it solves my spillover problem and disperses light even to all the areas of the chaeto.

Try it. The tinted plastic will kill some of the light, but it should still work.

i have had it sideways against the back wall of my aquarium for two days now, i am keeping the power level at about 30% as of right now just because i have not wired in the fan yet, but it spreads very even light, better than mounting it above. I think I am going to keep it this way if the chaeto shows rapid growth. I will keep you updated

as far as the fan goes, can i just wrap the fan wires around the power wire and the buckpuck wire? basically i'm asking is it okay for the led wire to touch the fan wire?

Run it along side, yes. I don't know of I would wrap it around.

wired it up and got it working! i'm running it at full power with the small fan and the heat sink is at room temperature after about 12 hours of use. works great, I will make an instructional build thread for it soon!

couple updates:

i ran the 2 led's on full power last night for 12 hours with the fan and the temperature was perfect, however the chaeto is not used to this amount of light and i have two white circles in my chaeto where i absolutely blasted it with light...oops. i moved the light off the tank a little futher and dimmed it to about 50% for tonight

also i looked in the fuge and several micro jellyfish?? that's the best way i could describe them, they were about the size of the tip of a pencil and were pulsing around like a jellyfish, then would sink back down again. any ideas what this is?

could be little bit aiptasia

actually just did a bit of research and found out that they are hydriods: baby jellyfish that occassionally will show up in a filter area and generally disappear within a few weeks. however some types can survive for longer and they can possibly sting corals. i will have to keep an eye on these guys.

i have been running my LED fuge light for ten days now on about 40% power and i can definitely tell that the chaeto growth has increased significantly! it is a lighter green and less clumped that usual, but it appears very healthy and i am going to have to trim it down within the next few days or so

i haven't updated this for a while, i've been using my LED fuge light for a while now and i am running it at full power now. i am getting great growth from the chaeto and i trim off about a golf ball sized clump every week and a half or so to keep the flow in the back of the fuge going, i am very happy with the results and the LED's definitely are growing it very well.

i changed the design of my fuge light some, i put it in an actual case with a fan and mount the fan control and the LED dimmer on the back. also there is a plastic piece to direct the light more and some webbing to help break up the direct light because the chaeto was not getting even dispersion. here are some pics

Any updates on your growth?

bump

from what I'm reading, it seems like you are getting more useable light from the 2x2w LEDs than you got from 9w of PC.

Is that a fair read?

Adding wire to break up the light doesnt make any sense to me... Its just taking away light - not adding more light where it isnt getting to...

the wire is intended to take away some of the light, it is already running at a very low light level and the wire in the middle helps take away the direct light on the center of the chaeto. otherwise i found that the chaeto would bleach where there was intense direct light


yes that is true, however i would like to rebuild this to use a different white light color spectrum for better chaeto growth, probably with a lower kelvin rating


the growth has been very consistent and the results show that the LED fuge light from the side definitely does work to grow the chaeto

why not add some eggcrate -style light diffuser? it adds shadows, but also bounces the remaining light around to make it a little 'smoother'

i think when i end up re designing this i am going to use a plastic screen/mesh with very small holes for that