My DIY LED fixture(in progress)

[imsobored152]

ok, im working on my LED light fixture. Sorry no pics yet.(later or tomorrow)

Its going to have 6 citizen CL-L220 series 16watt 12v 1.4A leds

Its divided into 3 sections with 2 leds on each section, spaced out over my 36" long. My fixture will be expandable if I choose to add more leds/heat sinks to it. There are no plans for a dimmer at this moment. But it may happen in the future. and there are no blue leds. again, maybe down the road. Once the leds are mounted i'll get pictures. then again when theyre lit.

 

there are no plans on a hood for the tank. its goin topless.

 

I managed to score a free heatsink 12"x12". Chopped it up into (4) 3"x12" sections. Im only using 3 though. I have limited tools and abilities, so its not the cleanest and prettiest cuts, and a little lopsided, but after saving hundreds on a light, I wont care. I finished mounting the heatsinks onto my cross beams and drilled the holes for the leds. unfortunately I broke the tap, so i'll finish tomorrow. only 4 more holes to do. My fixture will be mounted onto the wall using door hinges, so it'll lift up with ease. just from holding it against the wall it looks like the heatsinks will stop the fixture right at 90 degree angle. if not ive got L brackets I can use as stoppers. I just need to mount the leds and order my power supply, and i'll be set. and considering that my whole project cost around $50, im not complaining. we'll see how it turns out.

 

P.S. I managed to get the leds and heatsink as freebies, so thats why the lower cost

 

[Mustang Boy]

through my quick google search it seems that there are a few different options in that series of LED but the highest K rating is only 5000k so im not sure how well those would work for growing corals and im not to sure how much your going to like the color with no blue LEDs

[imsobored152]

as it is now, the tank sits empty anyways. it'll be a while before its all up and running. I may down the road add some blue to the fixture. we'll see. Im not even sure what kind of tank I plan on keeping. it may just start off as fowlr. funds permitting I may switch to a reef tank. I don't have any plans set in stone yet. Thanks for the input

[imsobored152]

all holes are drilled, tapped and leds mounted. Yes I know one of them isnt straight. I somehow was WAY off when I drilled it so I had to angle it so I could get a clean hole drilled and tapped. you wont notice once theyre on anyways. I should have the power supply order by weeks end. So next pictures will be lit ones.

[Apoptosis]

You may need more than 6 leds over a 36 inch tank. Most people doing pico led builds have 6 to 8 leds. JMHO

[imsobored152]

I take no offense to opinions. Cause thats all they are. I welcome others opinions. Once I have the power supply I may just fill it with tap water just to see what it looks like.

 

But everyone elses build they use the crees. 3w whatever they ares. these are 16w 800 lumens. So we'll see. Everyone ive talk to about this has never used an led similar to this. And nobody has a definite answer as to how it will turn out.( not even evil). Like I said before, my system is expandable, so if it is necessary to add more I can easily. Ive got about 7 more of these leds laying around. I cant wait for my power supply so I can light these babys up.

[evilc66]

Seriously, try it and see how you like it. While the LEDs we use are lower output by comparison, we use so many of them for coverage. A higher output LED can cover a slightly larger area when it is used higher off the tank and still achieve the same PAR. The LEDs you are using don't have a very good efficiency compared to the Crees, but considering they are free, it's worth a shot

[farkwar]

Those LEDs put out 1100 lumens each at full power. So 6600 lumens.

http://ce.citizen.co.jp/lighting_led/en/products/2008.html

 

A 150 MH puts out about 12000 lumens or so, nominally.

 

I'm still on the bottom of the learning curve of these new high power LEDs. But following along.

[evilc66]

Matching lumens is a bad approach for sizing up LED setups compared to MH. Example is my 12" Satellite retro. Way more PAR than a 70W MH, that produces about 5200lm, while the LED setup puts out about 1000lm, all for ~36W.

[imsobored152]

ok a quick peek at the lights in action.THERE IS NO WATER IN THE TANK. This was taken on my cell phone, so quality isnt the greatest. in the beginning its the normal lamp in the corner providing the light. It'll go dark as I cut the lights and try to plug the leds in, in the dark. This is only 2 leds at .4amps under powered. I managed to find a supply that outputs 18v-36v 1.05A The leds at full power run at 1.4A Enjoy

This is NOT where the leds will stay, just there to get a quick video. They'll be mounted above the tank on the wall

 

2 LEDS lit at .4amps UNDERpowered

[Mustang Boy]

i think it looks pretty good i cant wait to see light with some sand in there so there isnt so much reflection of light off the bottom of the tank and i would definitely recommend putting some blue LEDs inbetween those whites if not for anything else other than aesthetics

[imsobored152]

well thank you, I cant wait to get all 6 lit together. two is hella bright, but 6? gunna burn out the retinas. I'll probably experiment with some blue within the week. No sand until I get my funds situated. Also need a skimmer, filter and all the other stuff. that goes along with an empty tank

[Apoptosis]

Any updates?

[kevivoe]

Matching lumens is a bad approach for sizing up LED setups compared to MH. Example is my 12" Satellite retro. Way more PAR than a 70W MH, that produces about 5200lm, while the LED setup puts out about 1000lm, all for ~36W.

 

Has anyone measured PAR of MH versus T5 versus LED? I'd like to see some comparisons of all together in the same water filled tank.

[evilc66]

It's all subjective to the equipment used. I could use an Odyssea 250W MH, an Odyssea T5HO fixture, and a decent DIY LED rig, and the LEDs would blow them out of the water. Change it up to a 250W Radium in a Lumenbrite reflector, and an ATI Powermodule, and the same LED setup doesn't look nearly as good. There are plenty of PAR numbers posted around the net for almost any fixture you could think of to be able to compare against an LED setup.

[imsobored152]

I guess it has been a while for an update. Not much to report on, I have all 6 lit up. Still no blues yet. I'll probably start the tank with just the whites, then add the blues later when I can afford them. Tank sits empty still, tossed a few pieces of dry rock in to show. First pic is my old design with the heatsinks on the bottom of the L arms, other pics the heat sinks are flipped to the top of the arms. Im also close to starting to cycle my tank. Ive got 40lb of aragonite sand, 32Lb of dry rock, heater, koralia 1, IO salt mix. Just need my test kits and to finish my stand. Skimmer and another koralia will be toward the end of the cycle. I plan on adding walls and doors to my stand to cover up the sump/fuge. I just finished the sump/fuge yesterday, made out of a 10g tank. Had a few leaks when I tested it today. I just finished patching it up, so tomorrow will test again.

 

Close up of dry rock with leds on

[imsobored152]

Finally got water and my dry rock in the tank. First pic is nice and cloudy, second is after 8 hours. Still a bit cloudy, but I can see now. and yes I know I still need some blue leds. SOON

 

[Neya]

Finally got water and my dry rock in the tank. First pic is nice and cloudy, second is after 8 hours. Still a bit cloudy, but I can see now. and yes I know I still need some blue leds. SOON

 

 

nice!

I hope it works well as far as growth and exceeds expectations. Without a meter or testing it's impossible to say right now.

 

I could probably nab cheap or free LEDs from family but who knows what they could really be or how they would work. Or mostly, how hard it would be for a noob like me to wire up.