evilc66 Posted July 10, 2008 Author Share Posted July 10, 2008 That will work for the Cree's but not the Rebels. Only place I have found a decent quality version that I liked was out of LED-Tech in Germany. Not very expensive, but they take a while to ship. They deal with Cree, Luxeon and SSC boards too. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 i wouldnt recommend you mounting your own LEDs especially the Cree LEDs... look how close the neg and pos is to the thermal.... just get a LED with the board already attached and leave it there. has does anyone have the P7 LED? what does it look like in a tank? compare it to a 14k MH? just need to see now many blue LEDs i need... Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 hey evil had led projects did you do so far? did i mess anything? Link to comment
Zombo Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 hey evil had led projects did you do so far? did i mess anything? AFAIK, evil's still working on some mods for some heatsink stock he scored from eBay - I'm waiting on LEDs from DX, I already have my bubk pucks and power supply. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 My pico is running great. I ended up fully populating the heatsink (remember, it was modular) and it's got 64W of LED running right now. Coolwaters, check the last few pages for some comparisons I have done against a 24" I4 Solaris. Interesting stuff. I'm working with a few people here (Zombo included) getting LED setups working on smaller tanks. I have been experimenting with a bunch of things recently, but nothing worth posting about. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 anything is worth posting. =p i just wish i got my camera to make it more interesting... w8 64w over a pico? wow im limiting mine to 15w on a 4g.... hopefully its enough for a very small clam and some rics. if not im going to have to dig up some of my old Cree P4 LEDs. if anyone wants i can see if i can rig up something like a 45w system. 3 X P7 with 4 X blue Cree at 3w or 3 blue and one green in the middle. cant w8 to see how mine turned out. evil how about taking some pics of your coral with those leds? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 I'm taking some pictures tonight. I hopefully will have them up tonight or tomorrow. I have two small sps frag that are growing nicely under the LEDs. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 has anyone considered using epoxy glue to seal the leads and exposed wires on their LED project? if DC hits the water then its all over... im planning to seal mine up around the lens. I'm taking some pictures tonight. I hopefully will have them up tonight or tomorrow. I have two small sps frag that are growing nicely under the LEDs. not to be the most annoying person in the world but how many lumens of white and blue are you using? and how far are they from the sps? my pico is pretty shallow...i want to get it up and running very soon. i dont care about the imperfections on it anymore... i have my old working LED system so i'll be using that since i cant w8 2 months lol 5 white and 5 blue leds. all together about 30w going to use my new cheap power heads...2 x 70gph is enough right? for a 3.5g? Link to comment
sheac12 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 evilc66 Think you could post your circuit diagram for the new driver you are using to power the LEDs? How many are you running off a single driver and at what current (350mA or 700mA)? Thanks! Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 sheac12, I posted the link to the driver a couple of pages ago. Go take a look. Coolwaters, I'm running about 2700lm right now (estimated cuz I'm using royal blues). My tank is only 6" deep and I have the acros on the sand bed. It's probably overkill (measuring over 630 PAR!!!!), but everything seems to be doing fine. I had thought about using epoxy or something similar to seal the exposed contacts, but because I have been doing so much experimentation with it, it diidn't seem like the right thing to do at the time. Anyway, I have a thin sheet of acrylic covering it from splashes and I have not had any corrosion issues in the months that this has been running. If you are looking into epoxy, try to find something that is thermally conductive. Just make sure that it is electrically neutral too (insulated), as some thermally conductive epoxies can be conductive. Mouser, Digikey and Newark should have something, but I don't know if they have it in small quantities. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Pictures as requested. FTS. The tank can be viewd from all 4 sides, although the back is nothing special. Please excuse the bryopsis. The chaeto is finally outgrowing the algae and it's starting to die :yay: This was the first acro that I picked up. It has colored up really well. Went from a pale baby blue, to a nice deep blue. The pictures don't do it justice. This is the second one. It was more of a rescue/experiment. Was totally brown and not looking happy when I got it about three weeks ago. You can see the new growth turning blue. Even the polyps are changing color. Some zoos Some rics. The first one has started to split. My pom-pom hiding in his home. While the tank is doing well, it is still quite young (6 months). I still call this a reasonable success. I am still going to be experimenting with some things on this LED setup. The color is more of a 12K. The picture show it more blue than it is. I like it, but I'm going to try changing the ballance of white and blue and see how it looks, and how things react (numbers and growth wise). I have my own lux meter and PAR meter now, and I can test all kinds of different configurations. As always, I'll let you know how it goes. Link to comment
Zombo Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Nice pics, evilc66! The water on my 9g will be (to the sandbed) roughly 12", so I'm hoping the PAR/PUR output of the array we're working on will have the punch needed to support some SPS growth. Still waiting on my LEDs, although I have power supply and buckpucks in house. coolwaters, if you can afford to, buy the buckpucks with external pots, that will give you the advantage of being able to "tune" the color output to some degree... Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 nice pics i wonder what the difference is if u use lens. =) somehow it reminds me of a 14k 70w MH. O.O whats up with the overflow lol. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Ya, it's a little big, but it does work well. I needed it for three reasons: 1) needed surface skimming 2) needed a way to control the flow (without resorting to ball/gate valves) 3) needed it to be quiet. All acomplished. It's not as obtrusive when you are looking at the tank in person. I have been threatening to change it to something a little different, just been preoccupied with other things. Zombo, amaizing what a DSLR will do to the quality of pictures. Knowing how to use it doesn't hurt either. Oh, Coolwaters, I don't think I need any more PAR in that tank by adding a lens/reflector. I think 630+ PAR is more than enough (BTW, thats more than a 400W MH at 12") Link to comment
Zombo Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 I think 630+ PAR is more than enough (BTW, thats more than a 400W MH at 12") Are you sure man? I mean, you might want to bump that up just a bit more! Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Bump it any more and I'll have to start dosing spf50. I'll know it's too much when my crab ends up with a sun tan!! Link to comment
Zombo Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 I'm just in a pissy mood as DX just bumped back the date for the Crees again Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 Thought you ordered from KD Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Ya, it's a little big, but it does work well. I needed it for three reasons: 1) needed surface skimming 2) needed a way to control the flow (without resorting to ball/gate valves) 3) needed it to be quiet. All acomplished. It's not as obtrusive when you are looking at the tank in person. I have been threatening to change it to something a little different, just been preoccupied with other things. Zombo, amaizing what a DSLR will do to the quality of pictures. Knowing how to use it doesn't hurt either. Oh, Coolwaters, I don't think I need any more PAR in that tank by adding a lens/reflector. I think 630+ PAR is more than enough (BTW, thats more than a 400W MH at 12") glad the overflows worked out. i wish i built something like that before... cant w8 to see it when its covered in coraline. you can save some power by cutting back some LEDs and adding lens but again i got some bad experiences with lenses DX has better prices i think. i made some money off KD though. messed up some random orders... anyways. i decided to w8 until something better then the P7 comes out...and just use my P4 30w system for now. i hope my parents dont see it =p Link to comment
Zombo Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Thought you ordered from KD Nah, DX. They have a bulk deal that if you order 3+ of any of the Cree's, they're cheaper and you get free shipping. Cheaper than KD by about $5.00 Link to comment
evilc66 Posted July 22, 2008 Author Share Posted July 22, 2008 Hmm. I paid $28.99 for 5. Thats $5.78 each, and you have to buy 10+ to come close to that with DX Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 I bought 13 total for $63 nice. did you but it with the board? i find it bloody hard to solder it without it...and if the leads fade your screwed... i have to tape a the wire on because the solder just wont stick anymore... Link to comment
Zombo Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 nice. did you but it with the board? i find it bloody hard to solder it without it...and if the leads fade your screwed... i have to tape a the wire on because the solder just wont stick anymore... Yeah, they came mounted on stars Link to comment
coolwaters Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Yeah, they came mounted on stars where did you buy it? DX? cant find a deal like that... Link to comment
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