My DIY LED for 28gal Deep Blue RR Cube

[magical2506]

Planning to build my diy LED fixture for 28 Cube. After searching for led big brands realized that my DIY LED will give best result for my cube tank.

Below is my plan diagram on 10"X12" aluminium heat sink.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Add a couple Limes, you won't regret it. Also cluster them closer together, maybe 4 clusters, it'll help blend the colors better

[evilc66]

Agreed. You would be better off with 4 smaller clusters at each corner of the heatsink. The colors will blend together better (closer the LEDs, the less color shadowing you get), and the coverage will be better when you spread them over a larger area.

 

As for the colors though, it could use some improvement. Nothing major.

 

First, ditch the cool whites. The primary whites only need to be 4500K neutral whites. They have far better overall color rendering than cool whites.

 

Deep reds are a touchy subject. Some like them, some find them annoying. Personally, I don't like them, and prefer using warm whites (~3000K) if I need to add more red to the light. The warm whites blend so much better and offer about the same overall effect.

 

Limes are also a good choice to add. They make the light brighter to the eye, as well as removing the purple tint that you can get from the mixture of royal blue with warmer whites.

 

If you would like to try out the idea of going with 4 smaller clusters, try this combo in each cluster:

 

2x 4500K neutral white

1x 3000K warm white

4x royal blue

2x blue

2x lime

2x violet (420nm, 430nm, or one of each)

[magical2506]

Do you have this cluster? Can you put some image of the tank with this combination. The colors I have choosen are based on one of the very successful tank of Mr. Microscope in this forum. I really liked the looks of his tank.

 

I also really appresiate all your sugeations...

 

These are the concerns of my Diy LED.

1. Low cost

2. Sound

3. Good looks with good sps growth.

 

Yesterday I have managed a used heatsink from ebay for $29 (some electronic heatsink ) 12" X 10" putting large heatsink to keep the 28 leds cool without fan (makes sound).

[evilc66]

I have arrays very similar to this, and the color is very good (not light color, but the color of the corals). Comparing pictures is tough, especially of LED setups. The cameras don't deal well with blue heavy light, and every camera takes pictures differently, so you can't really get an apples to apples comparison. I know that doesn't help you out all that much as you want to get an idea as to what to expect. All I can say is that a combination like I listed above will look very good.

 

You mention that you want to keep this low cost, but don't mention your budget. If we can have an idea of what that budget is, then there may be some suggestions we can make to find a middle ground that will work. But, I have no doubt that this will keep sps and clams very happy, and very colorful.

 

Also, having fans doesn't necessarily mean that you have noise. A great number of people fall into the mistake that you need a super high flow fan to cool these arrays. Really though, you don't need a ton. Having the airflow cover a larger area (larger diameter fan) is far more important than having high flow rates. You could easily cool a high power array with a 120mm fan that makes less than 25db of noise, which is basically silent. Going passive is great though for reliability. Whether you can actually go passive will depend on the final thermal load as well as the heatsink profile itself (something you haven't shown).

[magical2506]

evilc66: if I am using 4 clusters for each cluster with 13 led is not little much? as my tank is 20" x 20" and height is 16" also I will not use any optics on the leds.

 

I am planning two controller for blue base and white base each for two cluster. and planning to run 13-14 leds each controller.

 

My budget is around $200 with CREE and already spent $30 on heat sink. Will post the pic of the heat sink, its 12"X10"

 

below are some looks that I like to see in my tank rather than bright I like little bluish....

 

or

 

 

 

[evilc66]

It's not as much as you think, and really the number of LEDs used is for color rendition, not overall power. The overall intensity is controlled by the amount of current applied to the LEDs. If you don't need as much power, then get drivers with a lower max current. Really though, if you are looking to go with a heavy sps tank, you are going to need a pretty powerful setup. If you want to thin it down a little, try dropping it to this per cluster:

 

1x 4500K neutral white

1x 3000K warm white

3x royal blue

1x blue

1x lime

1x violet

 

That's only 8 more LEDs than you had listed in your original layout. To keep it to two channels, run them like this:

 

Channel 1:

 

neutral white

warm white

lime

blue

 

Channel 2:

 

royal blue

violet

 

It's not ideal, but it does make the number of LEDs per driver the same. Now, 16 LEDs per driver is a little much for some drivers, but not impossible. Meanwell has a new driver that looks to fit the bill. It's the NPF-40D-54. It has 54v output (that will allow you to connect up to 16 LEDs per driver) at 760mA. That will be plenty of power for this array. It's dimmable via a variety of means, and is fairly cheap at under $30 each. Most driver that you may find that are cheaper will have only 48v output, which will limit you to about 14 LEDs per.

 

You can find the drivers here:

 

http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-NPF-40D-power-supply.html

 

You will have to call to order though, as their online ordering isn't working right now.

[magical2506]

If I keep 7 led in each segment....and reduce the controller, what should I change? reducing a royal blue will give little blue look? or I should remove warm white and keep the lime?

[magical2506]

little change in mind, as my tank is square and having corner overflow, I am planning to make 3 clusters of LEDs front two clusters having 11 LEDs and near the overflow may be 5 or 6 leds. That way I can make more light to the display areas and making one cluster to the area around corner overflow.

 

Thinking as follows...any suggestions?

 

CLUSTER 1 AND CLUSTER 2 : 4RB 2CB 1CW 1WW 1LIME 2TVIOLET = 11 LEDS

 

CLUSTER 3 : 2 RB 1CB 1WW 1TV

 

 

Does it looks good? I like little blue over all and like both color and growth.

[evilc66]

You can do that, but color imbalances between clusters can make for uneven color throughout the tank. The differences here aren't that great, so it may not create a problem, but as a general rule, it's not advised unless that's a specific feature that you want.

 

I noticed in your other thread that you are looking at using LDD drivers. That's good, but I'm curious on a few things. First, why two 1000mA drivers and one 700mA driver? Second, I may be reading into this wrong, but are you planning on connecting one driver to one cluster, effectively making each cluster dimmable in brightness but having not control over the color? I would say that is a mistake if that's the case.

[magical2506]

Thanks evilc66: I figured out the maths successfully after some research.....I am planning 1 LDD 700 and one LDD 1000. Now if I put some blues to 700 they will give less light but red/violets are very less in count so I removed some cool blue from LDD 1000 and added twice cool blue to LDD 700. I have placed the order to LEDgroupbuy and Typhon controller. I will post the final planning diagram very soon and definitely with some questions.....

 

 

Thanks Again..

[evilc66]

Seeing as the LDD drivers are so cheap, and you are using a multi channel controller, why not spring for a few more drivers and give yourself more control over the light by putting discrete colors on separate drivers?

[magical2506]

Actually I am completely new to this LED stuff. I know I have option I am planning to screw the LED with nylon ring, So that in future I can upgrade by just adding driver and some leds.

 

I like to see how it colors up first. Upgrading is always an option and will also be cheap.

[magical2506]

Here is my updated LED Design Diagram with Meanwell LDD drivers. LDD 1000 can run 1-16 3W LEDs with maximum drive current 1000 and LDD 700 can run 1-16 3W LEDs with maximum drive current 700. I wanted to use only two drivers so I drop 1 CREE Blue (1000) and put 2 CREE Blue (700) in the LDD 700, because Red and violets are already only 5 count. So Now LDD700 have 11 Leds and LDD1000 have 14 Leds.

 

I can put some more colors in LDD700. But before deciding I want to look how the tank looks so that I can decide if I have to put BLUE or WHITE or RED.

 

I am planning to screw the CREE to the heatsink with thermal grease. Using shoulder to connect the wires so that I can upgrade the fixture if needed.

 

do the power supply seems OK?

Any other concern? Let me know.

 

I still have to go though the manuals of the controller. I will update again as the shipment comes. Till now $269 including shouldering stuffs and digital Multimeter. Still have to learn lots of things to complete this fixture.

 

Thanks all