ajay88 Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 I've been working on my lights for my Fluval Edge for a while now. I already have a topic started in General Discussion http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=267708. I have my Heatsink ready to get drilled and I just wanted to get a second opinion on the placement of the LED's on the heatsink. All my LED Stars are Cree chips and have a 3W rating. My UV emitters are purely for show and have a cumulative output of 3W. Ill upload some pictures soon... I will post a picture of the fan system once I get the LED's mounted. Link to comment
y0smokey Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Holy overkill batman. Are those all 3watt Crees? Link to comment
glazer Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 oh man.. you missed a couple spots on the heatsink, looks like you could get another dozen or so on there! I hope you're using dimmable drivers or at the very least small output drivers... I've got that may emitters laid out for a 20 gallon tank and it's almost too much. Steve Link to comment
ulver982 Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Looks great! I like the amount of LEDs you're using. You might as well go balls to the wall if you're gonna do it. You're definitely going to have some good color blending with that many LEDs and how close they are together. I've got 18 LEDs on my biocube 14, and I want to add more haha. What color mixture are you using for your LEDs? Link to comment
tipastar Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Wow....super sun tan. I'm doing my fluval fixture to but I followed Waterman's build with 5 RB and 6 CW on seperate dim drivers. I already modded my hood to bring it forward about 2 inches but my biggest concern is the spotlight affect and spread because the more recessed in the hood the lights are, the more apparent shadows will show. In addition, the closer an LED is to the wall of the hood, the darker the shadow will be so I moved my array closer in together toward the center of the heatsink to give a softer angle of light. We'll see how it goes though.. I'm waiting for PCBs for my RB. I have the CW's tapped already. Link to comment
ajay88 Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 Sorry I haven't given an update... Yes they are all 3 watt cree chips Yes they will be on dimmers by row The original order of color is the last picture on my first topic. the reason there is so much room left on the heat-sink is because rather than taking the drilling method for running the wires, I decided making a channel by each column of LEDs would be easier.The LED's are currently mounted on with thermal grease. I have going to use the thermal adhesive, but i wanted to make sure I would still be able to use the LED's if i ever outgrew the edge. i also have a small amount of silicon in the individual channels and around my soldier points to ensure the cable does not get snagged. I have roughly finished putting the Fixture together and will be sure to upload a picture in the morning. I have one problem with my project... since I have each column wired separately for precision switching and dimming, I have 6 sets of wires coming out of the back of the heat-sink, not including the 15 UV LED wires!!! I need to be able to route theme through the back of the tank in a better way. I am currently using this fixture, and although I admit 72 watts of cree LED's might me a little overkill,the overall lighting in my tank looks beautiful. Link to comment
ajay88 Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 Keep in mind, my wiring is still a little rough... First Pic is of my UV lights on, and the latter is of my lights on at full blast. Im having doubts in the amount of royal blue lights I have, Let me know what you guys think! Link to comment
tipastar Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 I think you did a really nice, clean job there. Do you have a pic of it sitting on the fluval? I have a similar splash screen with plexi but haven't afixed it to the heatsink yet. Wanted to see how yours looked in the hood. Your hood is stock, right? Link to comment
Dustin11 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 WOW, super nice build! Very clean! I currently have 6 3w leds on my EDGE. 2 neutral white and 4 royal blue, and its plenty of light! What UV leds are you using? Link to comment
ajay88 Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 I think you did a really nice, clean job there. Do you have a pic of it sitting on the fluval? I have a similar splash screen with plexi but haven't afixed it to the heatsink yet. Wanted to see how yours looked in the hood. Your hood is stock, right? Hood is stock, I dont have a pic of the cover of the tank, but I can let you know that it sits on the tank exactly as the original tank was designed to. I specifically cut the heatsink to those measurements. Link to comment
tipastar Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Gotcha...so it sits on the opening much like nano-tuners fluval led fixture?!? Link to comment
ajay88 Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 WOW, super nice build! Very clean!I currently have 6 3w leds on my EDGE. 2 neutral white and 4 royal blue, and its plenty of light! What UV leds are you using? they are the Little Dot SMD LED's on Superbrightleds.com I would have been done with this project, but these lights were out of stock for a while so I had to wait... Gotcha...so it sits on the opening much like nano-tuners fluval led fixture?!? I just checked Nano-tuners' fixture; mine is not like theirs. They mounted theirs on top of the opening, i have mine in the cover. I originally was going to hang the fixture in the cover using the mesh on top as a hook, but since i did the measurements a little too well, the fixture actually gets wedged in the cover just a bit and stays in place. Whats even better, the fans on my heat-sink are closer to the top and doesn't blow the warm air back in the aquarium. Link to comment
BoricuaNY Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Really nice set up, I've got a edge I'm setting up,. and thinking of building a DIY LED set up. Looks great! Do you have any pics of it over the tank? Link to comment
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