Ultimate LED guide

[xarg0n]

Hi All,

 

I am new to this forum, though my query is not releated to lighting for nano-setup, I hope I will

get some direction on it.

 

I am currently planning for a 150Gal reef tank. Before I start the tank and

get all Inmates, thought that I can start with building the lighting fixture first. The Tank dimension would be

72x18x18 inches. I have planned to go with a DIY LED lighting fixture. After various searches over

Internet I found this equation that LxB/18(where L & B are in Inches) can give the right number of 3Watt

LEDs that I am going to Need for this tank. The number comes to 72. However I have planned to go with 108 LEDs in total(Thats 1.5 times), so that if in future I get an opportunity to increase the tank height

I can still use the same fixture. I will be using Cree XP-G2(Neutral White & Warm Whites), XT-E(Royal Blues), and Luxeon Rebel Cyan (505nM) LEDs for this entire build.

 

I have already found that The neutral Whites and RBs are alone enough to deliver all that coral needs,

but wanted to keep few Warm Whites and Cyan to have some color punch, for visual pleasure.

 

I will be using 48 NW & 48 RB each, and 6 WW & 6 Cyan each. I am attaching the LED distribution plan

, which I have prepared, Please provide your valuable inputs for the same.

 

[jedimasterben]

For every 24"x24"x24" area, you want to use around 8x NW, 16x RB, and 4x blue. Cyan is used very sparingly and without lenses

 

If you use the 4000K 85CRI Rebel ES instead of the XP-G2, then you won't need any warm white.

[xarg0n]

For every 24"x24"x24" area, you want to use around 8x NW, 16x RB, and 4x blue. Cyan is used very sparingly and without lenses

 

If you use the 4000K 85CRI Rebel ES instead of the XP-G2, then you won't need any warm white.

Hi Jedi,

 

Thanks for your Input, Rebels are highly unavailable in India. That too for 6 Cyan Rebels with Shipping it is costing about $60. Can I reduce the total number of LEDs used in the plan ? If I can by how many ? keeping in mind my tank height would be 18".

[jedimasterben]

Where are you planning on ordering your LEDs from?

[xarg0n]

The Cyans I have seen in LEDSupply.com. The Cree modules will be getting from Taiwan

[jedimasterben]

I'm going to suggest being very, very careful of ordering American-made LEDs from anywhere but, as they have a high likelihood of being counterfeit, especially from Asia.

[Electrobes]

I have a DIY fixture I pieced together from RapidLED for my 40Br, running for about four or five months(?) I've got growth but color is still a bit "meh" for me... and I am guessing I limited my options when I used only two LEDs. I'd like to incorporate more color, but will always prioritize coral health/growth before looks. Here's what I've got now:

 

14CW (Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver)

20RB (Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver X 2)

2RB on low voltage adapter (Moonlights)

 

The above is being controlled by my Apex, and dimmed via the Apex VDM

 

 

If you could change this, what would you subtract, and what would you add (Including the driver)?

 

I am honestly curious to hear y'alls opinion on this, especially since I thought CW's were the most suggested white LED's. I had no idea NW were so popular over CW. I would love to add some more color variation/options to my DIY fixture.

 

Here's how my tank looks now (I forget at what time of the day this was taken... don't know if my High Noon programming kicked in or not):

 

 

 

Not sure if this pic is helpful but here it is anyway:

 

 

Thanks so much for reading!

[Electrobes]

Taking a look at Nano-Reef's other LED guides, now I'm looking at this possibility:

 

- 16 RB (Cree XT-E's I already have)

- 08 NW (Cree XT-E)

- 08 Hyper Violet (Exotic)

- 04 OCW (Exotic)

 

I have three meanwell ELN-60-48D drivers, but would also pick up an Inventronics 40watt 700mA driver.

 

It makes me sad as I blew a ton of money on the prior LED's but honestly, I feel like this would be a much better color option, plus would be more beneficial to the corals. How much of a pain is it to use both The solderless LEDs from RapidLED and the solderless from LEDGroupbuy? I've never used LEDGroupBuy's before...

 

Here's my proposed schematic based on the full-spectrum guide (My heatsink is a 4 X 9 LED schematic):

 

RB HV RB HV NW HV RB HV RB

NW RB RB NW RB NW RB RB NW

RB OCW NW OCW RB OCW NW OCW RB

RB HV RB HV NW HV RB HV RB

[KnH]

Just a quick question,for a small pico,

I was looking at steves led 3 ups.

If I Had to pick just 3 LEDs, what would be the best combo

all 3 powered off the same driver,

4k,RB,CB?

[Noobeef]

Greetings,

 

I am going to be going from a 40b to a 72" length, 18" width, 20" deep (essentially just setting two 40bs next to each other). I currently have a couple acros, a clam, and montis (along with an assortment of softies). How many Par 38s do I need to adequately cover? I was thinking six of them using pendant lighting fixtues from Lowes/Home Depot. Is that going to be sufficient? I need an answer quick because my window of opportunity will close quickly as I somehow convinced my wife to do this by explaining we can paint the wall behind the fish tank in between the move...She really wants that wall to be a different color. LOL.

I have a DIY fixture I pieced together from RapidLED for my 40Br, running for about four or five months(?) I've got growth but color is still a bit "meh" for me... and I am guessing I limited my options when I used only two LEDs. I'd like to incorporate more color, but will always prioritize coral health/growth before looks. Here's what I've got now:

 

14CW (Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver)

20RB (Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver X 2)

2RB on low voltage adapter (Moonlights)

 

The above is being controlled by my Apex, and dimmed via the Apex VDM

 

 

If you could change this, what would you subtract, and what would you add (Including the driver)?

 

I am honestly curious to hear y'alls opinion on this, especially since I thought CW's were the most suggested white LED's. I had no idea NW were so popular over CW. I would love to add some more color variation/options to my DIY fixture.

 

Here's how my tank looks now (I forget at what time of the day this was taken... don't know if my High Noon programming kicked in or not):

 

 

 

Not sure if this pic is helpful but here it is anyway:

 

 

Thanks so much for reading!

I just want to let you know that your monti is awesome. It grew up really nice. My montis always grow kinda flat. That one has excellent facets.

[hyewiz]

Whats is your recomanation for a smal Pico 12.3"Hx10"Wx10"L tank Its my starting tank before dving into larger one. Your expertis is important.

 

 

Thak you

[Nocturnal]

Can anyone point me in the right direction for places that sell LEDs? I'm only seeing the couple vendors here (don't have what I am looking for) and then a bunch of random websites that have way too many products to narrow down my search.

 

I'm trying to find the phillips rebels and bridgelux BXRAs to compare on my build.

 

Thanks

[jedimasterben]

Newark or Digi-key for BXRA, Steve's LEDs for Rebels and Luxeon M.

[Lieke]

Wow, great information! Thanks for the post

[pyrokidd89]

hey guys I'm looking for some quick advice and thoughts. I have a led array that I bought and it currently has 3 meanwell ELN-60-48p drivers and I'm looking to convert it to using LDD's. I didnt set up this array so I dont know what the drivers are set at, How can I find out what current the drivers are at so I can know what current LDD's to get.

 

so the current set up:

string #1: 9x NW Cree XP-G's run by one ELN-60-48p I assume at 1000mA

string #2: 9x RB Cree XP-E, 2x UV, 1x turquoise, 1x red run by one ELN-60-48p I assume at 700mA

string #3: same as string #2

 

I would like to know how to measure the current output of the mean wells. how many and what current of LDD's and what power supply wattage I should need

 

Thanks in advance

[jedimasterben]

Put a multimeter in line with one of the strings and turn it to DC current.

[schlosser_jr30]

Sorry if a little off topic but I am not that handy to do a DIY led. I am about to order from Reef Radiance. Rick is awesome to work with and i have heard great things. Price point and quality both look good.

[jedimasterben]

So what's the post here for?

[Lingwendil]

so guys, ive got two fixtures over my 20 long. both consist of 1 OCW, 3 NW 6RB on rapidled 6x10 heatsinks. the reds are shorted out due to a wiring issue a while back. i was going to add true violet but never did. growth is great, but the tank has a pinkish color to it. i was trying to figure out which leds to add to the fixture in order to bring the color more of a blue. the color is kind of 20k looking right now, and im thinking i was going to add either cool blue or turquoise/cyan to counteract the color. any ideas? all existing blue/white leds are from ledgroupbuy and are cree xt-e.

[jedimasterben]

Blue and cyan would help get rid of the look.

[Paul3x16]

What you guys think about this light i just bought it!! http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/orbit-marine/

[jedimasterben]

[gabe3eb]

2 channel (LDDs) dimming Arduino project I'm working on. I selected my heatsink and I could fit up to 12 LEDs on it (3x4) but originally came up with an 11 LED design (4,3,4). I would like for it to be as full spectrum as possible, but am not sure if I have enough LEDs to put too many random colors on (especially with only 2 channels). I suppose I could go to 3 channels if it allows me to do something more full spectrum. The purpose of doing this project for me is to learn and try something different. I have used RB, B, NW, CW mixes on some of my previous fixtures and liked the color. Could I add UV or Cyan or Red or Green without making it too out of whack?

 

Was thinking 2 NW:1UV:4RB:3B:1Cyan. Would adding Red or any other wacky colors like WW work here? NW, RB and B would be Crees and still uncertain on the UV or potential other colors. Thanks for any feedback (looking at you ben ).

[xarg0n]

I need a help. I was building an led fixture for one of my buddys, the XTE royal blues glow haphazardly in a series. I have got 12 XTE royal blues in that, first 5 and last 2 are glowing but not the 5 in the middle. All leds are tested Ok individually. The driver power is also adequate , using meanwell HLG-60H-36B dimmable module. So I have two parallel set of leds having 12 in each series. I checked the voltage drop across all leds, is over 3 v for the ones glowing , the current is passing through the leds not glowing and I dont read anything useful across them as voltage drop. What might be the problem ?. Is it due to uneven solder joint resistance on the star bases(round). Leds are absolutrly okay, I can make them glow with two AAA battery. :/

[Horerczy]

Voltage might not be high enough.