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Cultivated Reef

Comprehensive DIY LED Project List


evilc66

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Materials:

Heatsinks Ebay Heatsinks

I ordered 2 packs of these, they are 9.99 a piece plus shipping so $25.00

 

L shaped aluminum(1/2x1/2x3'), Al bar stock (1 1/2x1/8x3'), Al bar stock for mounting to inside of hood (1/2"x3')--- all of this was bout $12-$15 from Lowes/HD.

 

6- Cool White Cree XR-E LED from etg tech $36.00

6- Royal Blue Cree XR-E LED from etg tech $36.00

Thermal paste (radio shack) ~ 7.00

4-40 screws, and nylon washers (lowes), wirenuts ~ 15.00

wire- I used 18ga, but 22 would suffice- free (had on hand)

tap w/ handle and bit, i think about 10.00 (lowes)

2- 24V 6.2A power supplies from MPJA $39.00 including shipping.

2- bucks pucks from ledsupply.com $45.00

2- 80mm fans- these were tri cool adjustable speed from staples. I paid 10.00 each for them, but could be had cheaper, i just didn't want to wait to have them shipped. - 20.00 total

project box, and 2 SPST switches from Radio Shack- about 12.00

My fabricated "grid" of lights with ebay purchased heatsinks thermal glued and tapped to the back, centered on each LED

 

IMG_2536.jpgutf-8BL01lZGlhIENhcmQvQmxhY2tCZX-1.jpg

 

First i cleaned out all of the PC lights, ballasts, and other crap. Then i had to find room for the fans, i attached them to the inside of the hood with "mighty putty" Thank god for Billy Mays :) I also made a couple of brackets to attach the LED/heatsink assembly to the inside of the hood. This took numerous fittings, tappings of holes, markings and adjustments to get the assembly to be perpendicular. It was almost too big. Next time i will make it a hair smaller and it will be much easier to fit under the cover.

utf-8BSU1HMDAxNTIuanBn.jpg

 

The only visible modification from the outside of the hood is the slits that i cut in the top of the hood with my dremel. I could have made them straighter and more uniform, but this is the first time i had done this. They really do look good though. I had considered cutting a 2 1/2" hole for each of the fans. This turned out much better. Glad i thought about it for an extra hour or 2 ;)

utf-8BSU1HMDAxNTUuanBn.jpg

 

The bottom of the hood is pretty boring. I had to notch out the middle front of the Al for the middle screw that holds the acrylic cover in place. Also i had to cut the corners off of the front bar to enable to assembly to slide forward enough to fit in with the fans. One of the keys was to make sure that the fans were as parallel as possible to the bottom surface of the cover. This way the space was maximized. It was a tight fit... but well worth the maneuvering that it took to get it all in there.

utf-8BSU1HMDAxNTQuanBn.jpg

  • Like 1
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Good idea this thread Evilc. It's great to see how many people have took the plunge since you blazed the trail all those months ago !

 

After 3 months of success/growth (running at 50%) with my LPS i'm taking the plunge with some SPS frags now. Gonna ramp up the output to around 75% in stages (leanrt my lesson!!!) over the next few months.

 

Here's the spec of my own DIY

 

15 x Cree XRE Cool Whites ( 5 R2's + 10 Q5's)

15 x Cree XRE Royal Blues

3 x 700mA Luxdrive Buckpuck

3 x 1000mA Luxdrive Buckpuck

300mm x 250mm Heatsink

Acrylic Mount (custom made) with PETG splash Guard for LED's

 

Fade in and fade out controlled by ATMega Microcontroller (programmed on Arduino Dev Board) on 24 hour cycle.

 

All cooled by two Xilence Red Wing Cooling Fans

 

A few pics

 

LED_finished.jpg

 

LED_optics.jpg

 

LED_fans.jpg

 

 

Build thread : http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=174406

Edited by sweevo
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M@rine_lover

My 2 months ago Diyed lighting fixture for the 2ft CUBE tank.

 

Total dimension = 571 X 20cm

 

12 - Pure white SSC P4

10 - Royal Blue SSC P4

2 - Meanwell ELN-60-48D

22 - 40 degree lens

22 - round metal core PCB

1 - 3mm Aluminum plate

1 - 2mm glass as splash guard

1 - 3 ways RCA jack connecter (cannibalized from unwanted faulty LCDTV)

1 - RCA cable (Red-Fan, Yellow-RB Led, White-PW Led)

2 - 80mm LCDTV 12Vdc fans (cannibalized from unwanted faulty LCDTV)

Customized black 3mm acrylic sheet

 

Majority wiring was done behind the Aluminum plate so it's hardly visible of the wiring on LEDs side :rolleyes: .

 

Lighting running for 10hrs daily and the temperature is less than 34 degree with the 2 FANs.

 

btw, New fresh 32 LEDs project with white fixture is on the way. It able to fix another 4 LEDs to total of 36 LEDs for future expansion :P . Stay Tune :D !

 

DSC00023.jpg

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Edited by M@rine_lover
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I'll be sure to post my build thread once I get my project started. Still waiting on my heatsink from heatsinkusa and my leds and drivers from the gawd himself. :P

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so i just came back from a second tour to the sand box, and i was trying to put together a LED setup but never got around to it since i had to leave.... currently im building my new tank. I built a 28X21X16(water lever of like 15", from what i have been reading im guessing i would be ok with about 30LEDs. My other plan is that i might just go with my original plan and build another tank 30X24X16. Shallow reef so im guessing i dont need too much light but you guys are the experts :) if i can go with 24 LED's that would be better save me some cash lol.

 

16RB(40deg optics)

14Whites(40deg optics)

CNC PSU

5buck pucks (with pots)

8X12 Aluminum heat sink with 2 fans on top.

 

Will be making the canopy out of black 3/8" Cell cast acrylic routed to have a splash guard.

 

 

Please let me know if this is a good list of items to buy.

 

thank you, and great setups everyday someone just goes bigger!

 

 

post this in the ultimate led guide or start a separate thread.

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All I wanted was shimmering effects. I got that and more with just 6 CREE XRE RB, 1A Luxdrive Buckpuck w/pot, 24V 0.85A power supply (home found). NEP and LEDs are 8" above and sandbed is 13" below water level. LEDs are 4" apart with no optics, although I thought I needed them. Here are some pics and a short video.

 

IMG_0033.jpg

IMG_0034.jpg

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IMG_0038.jpg

...LEDs only, with flash

IMG_0039.jpg

...LEDs only, without flash

IMG_0040.jpg

IMG_0043.jpg

IMG_0044.jpg

...little closer

IMG_0047.jpg

 

short clip

th_MVI_0054.jpg

 

Inspired by Evil.

Edited by MerDoX
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi guys, Decided to post my LED build as well for the convenience of those looking to jump to the LED side. Come join us, you will never regret it. Like evil always said, its just impossible to show how much power this things have, pictures don't do justice, its hard to get nice pics with Royal Blues. You have to see it to believe it.

 

Basically my setup is 12 LEDs total 6/6 powered by 24V 5A power supply and 2 dimmable buckpucks. Using 80 degree optics. Fixture deimensions are 6.5"x6.5"x3.5"

Here are the Pics, build thread in Signature

 

DSCF1482.jpg

DSCF1485.jpg

DSCF1488.jpg

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Gdubsvdubs@gmail.com

This was my first light, I made it today, for my 3 gal underneath my 12 gal rimless cube. pictures are from my iphone so their not very good, the iphone really seems to dislike LEDs.

used 2x cree R2 white

3x cree q5 RB

planning on using one more R2

ended up putting optics on all of them, probably dont need them but I like em.

 

also the tank above has one q5 RB to help the 70 Watt halide

 

made my own constant current drivers

gonna add a fan tomorrow.

 

someone was asking about time and money so i figured i'd list it.

 

time= 2-3 hours, mostly looking for things like screws.

money= around $45

$0 heat sink off an old broken amp.

$10 15v-24v 4 amp power supply (hope it doesn't burn the house down)

$5 x5 Leds

$1x 5 optics

$3 for driver

gonna add one more R2 so +6

 

 

dbc70629.jpg

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Edited by Gdubsvdubs@gmail.com
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Here's a quick post of the lighting for my iReef pico.

 

CreeArray176.jpg

 

CreeArray12817.jpg

 

And a shot on the tank. It looks much more blue/purple in the picture. I guess I need to figure out the white balance for LEDs :D

 

FullTankShot1.jpg

Edited by Ron99
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Busted pictures.

 

Hmmm, not sure what the problem is. They show up on our Canreef forum and I am pretty sure I added them correctly here. Does nano-reef not like Fotki for some reason? Any suggestions?

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Hmmm, not sure what the problem is. They show up on our Canreef forum and I am pretty sure I added them correctly here. Does nano-reef not like Fotki for some reason? Any suggestions?

 

It's weird. If I right click on the broken image icon and choose to open image in a new tab they come up alright. Does that work for anybody else?

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So this is 31 projects listed so far. Not bad, but I know there are more. Looks like I'm going to have to go hunting.

 

Ron99, your pictures seem to be working now.

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