How can I DIY an LED solution to replace 150W Metal Halide

[enigmatic]

Hi,

 

I'm completely new to LED so please excuse my newbie question.

 

I'm currently running a light fixture over my 5ft planted aquarium that includes 2x 150W Metal Halide lights.

 

I'd like to remove using the MH lights so started looking at alternatives and this has brought me to LED and a DIY solution. I found www.ledgroupbuy.com and I'm here to get help and advice on what I'd need to buy to replace each MH light.

 

Can someone please give me pointers to what parts I'd need to buy? I'll likely continue to run the 2x 54W T5 planted tubes as well at this point so I'm interested in building something to just replace the MH and augment to light in the tank at a much lower cost than running the existing setup.

 

For reference, the tank is 5x2x2 and I have about 50cm of water from the top of the tank to the substrate. The tank is heavily planted, running CO2 and EI dosing.

 

 

I'm in Australia so will need a power supply that can be used over here.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Chris

[jedimasterben]

If you're looking for drop-in replacements for the halides, you could use two of the 'plants' version of the Lumia 5.1. They will have more output than the 150w halides, so you may need to up your dosing and such, or run the Lumias with less input current (say, dim them to 400-500mA from 700mA).

 

If you do individual LEDs, then you can space them out across the heatsink and tank, and you wouldn't need the T5 bulbs at all, further reducing your power consumption and bulb costs

 

Individual LEDs, for high light, you'd need around 60x LEDs, half warm and half cool white, using 60 degree lenses and hanging 8" above your tank will get you at least 80 PAR at the bottom of your tank.

 

All of the LEDgroupbuy power supplies and Inventronics drivers are universal input voltage, so you can run them no problem.

[evilc66]

Jedi, I'm shocked you didn't suggest using Bridgelux Vero's for the alternative to the Lumia 5.1 instead of 60x individual LEDs.

[jedimasterben]

I would have, but look what subsection it's in - not stepping on any toes

[enigmatic]

Thanks Jedi - I like the look of the Lumia. I've found this article about what is needed:

http://ledgroupbuy.zendesk.com/entries/24847592-What-do-I-need-to-power-the-Lumia-5-1-LED

 

Again, apologies as a newbie but if I wanted to order 2x Lumia for plants do I need to double up on the parts listed here? I will want to dim them and perhaps at some point down the line look at adding some automation in (?!?).

 

I have a separate plan to replace the T5 bulbs and that will be phase 2. Near term I want to remove the use of the MH - if I get extra light at a lower cost that is a bonus :-)

Jedi, I'm shocked you didn't suggest using Bridgelux Vero's for the alternative to the Lumia 5.1 instead of 60x individual LEDs.

 

I've had a quick look into the Bridgelux Vero but the spec I found says the colour range is 2700K to 5000k. I need to be around 6500K for plants or am I looking at the wrong version? Do I need to ask this question in another topic/area of the site?

[jedimasterben]

6500K LEDs are nothing like 6500K halides or T5 bulbs. 6500K LEDs contain mostly blue light (as they are cool white, the higher the number the less phosphor they have applied to them, all white LEDs start as blue) and you get far better growth from plants with red light, which will come from warm white diodes - with the caveat being that warm white diodes are really warm, 2700-3200K, and tanks don't really look all that great under them alone.

[enigmatic]

Thanks again Jedimasterben.

 

So are you saying that even with the Lumia that the tank will appear warm.

 

As above, I'm really new to all this and finding myself out of my depth with all the options. I initially saw this DIY article and would give this a try but it is all white and his tank is devoid of plants:

http://derekmolloy.ie/diy-led-aquarium-lights-tutorial/

 

It won't replace my MH but I'm just wondering if I should attempt a variation of this as a start but with some red and blue included to give more balance for plants. That then begs the question how many red and blue should I add if I was to start with say 8x white LED?

 

I favour replacing the MH and an all in one solution would help me get started before taking on a bigger project to replace the T5 tubes but perhaps a smaller project could add more light as a start.

[jedimasterben]

The Lumia has five channels, two warm white, two cool white, and the last has five deep red and five royal blue. The royal blue helps to bring the color temperature up a bit, but I'd say after what I've seen of it (it's the only Lumia I haven't personally tested) I'd say that will all the channels at the same current, overall color temperature is around 5500-6000K, so still in cool-ish white range.

 

You can definitely use individual diodes along with red and blue, but the blue would really only be for raising the overall color temperature, so if you're using cool white LEDs, you'll want to avoid using a lot of deep red and royal blue together as they'll mix to make a purplish hue that would look strange over a planted tnak

 

The Lumia (or another multi-chip white LED like the Bridgelux Vero series that evil mentioned) would be one of the simplest replacements for the halides, but would give you some good experience for replacing the T5 tubes

[enigmatic]

Thanks again Jedimasterben.

 

I'm looking to place an order so have started another topic as I'm not quite sure what I need to include in my order:

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/343364-help-with-shopping-list-for-2x-lumia-51/