coolwaters Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 well its been a while since i posted this stuff and its really outdated... i'll dedicate this to intense LED lighting for nanos. i'll post my pics once i get a new digi cam...turns out my dad returned my old one...after 4 months? lol costco ftw anyhow... these are the things im planning to get. not buying it now though... 1. P7 C-bin LED 2. Expensive Blue LED, Mid expensive Blue LED, Cheap Blue LED 3. Big Len 4. Regulator 5. a 12v DC power supply with a good amount of amps. 6. Thermal Compound, Or this thermal glue they found the regulators i have. http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1640 im not a lens fan from bad experiences but this one seems pretty promising. I got some ideas on how to mount it for better efficiency. also i'll be using my old regulators not the number 3 i posted. i cant seem to find it on that site anymore but it says its 755mA but i remember testing it at 1050mA...anyways i'll be wiring them in parallel to get 2100mA or 2265mA if its 755mA. i have 3 so it should be enough. since iv been talking to DE for a while about getting more LEDs they finally got a few blue LEDs to chose from. i recommend buying just blue LEDs if your going to get reds, greens, ect order them at different times. i got way too many greens and not enough blues before... im confident that any of those LEDs will be fine. you just either have to use more power or get more LEDs. i'll be using the mid-cheap LEDs since i already have them. i'd be using 4 blue LEDs at 3w each but if its too blue i'll lower it to 1.5w. too complicated to do a sketchup... but its going to be PC fan - heatsink - LED - Len - light diffuser. i'll be mounting the LEDs down with bolts so i wont be using the thermal glue. also i'll be using arctic silver 5 since i still have some left. Extra. here some nice LED LED strip light that can be powered by a standard 12v power supply. 3w 5.28" Blue LED bar 8w 8.46" Blue LED bar since they use high currents a good size heat sink is required and a fan if recommended. Let me know if im missing anything. ETA on the is 2 months...lol Link to comment
Sushi Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 looking forward to seeing progress. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 im looking forward seeing progress soon too... i found these if u want to go cheap XD http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDeta...spx?TranID=3292 i even got some to see which is better XD btw money is on the edison though... i cant stress enough on how well u plan your heatsink cuz thats the number one killer of LEDs. HEAT! if u want to go long term invest in a good heatsink or spend sometime planning out one. with PC fans cuz even big pieces of heatsinks will become overwhelmed my the smallest LEDs over time. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 What are you doing this for Coolwaters? I thought you got rid of your tank? How big you going this time? And hurry up with those pictures, I'm impatient Link to comment
BennettOZ Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 I will be following this closely, as you may know, i tried some LEDs already housed in a "bulb" and it just wasn't giving me the results that I wanted. To get a good coverage of light it would have to be nearly 12 inches over the tank. ... I still want to go with some type of LED system... I guess i will be holding off again until I see the outcome of this. Thanks evil! Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 its just for when i get the chance to go back to reefing again. heres some pics of the stuff. most of my stuff the LEDs (i still need to mount them on the stars...) btw the ones that arent on stars are the cheap 1 watt LEDs. i still need to compare them. The one on top is the Blue LED i ordered 6 but they only gave me 1...but its been corrected and 5 more is being sent. And the one between the rows is the RBG LED. im not sure if i want to use the red but i need some green XD. not needed but heres my shroud and fans. recommend getting a 12v fan that runs at low amps. somewhere below .2A if possible. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 iv decided on using just the blue/green part of the LED. no need for the red. im also deciding on putting the LEDs close together or not...if i do so then i wont be getting blue or yellowish shadows. but then again having them close together is a heating issue too. i can use a light defuser like i planned on doing a while ago. but i can lose up to 80-90% of my light...but we'll see. anyone with some tips to help me out im all ears Link to comment
brianjfinn Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 How are LEDs compared to MH? Do they have similar PAR ratings? Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 solaris and the other LED company (forgot the name..) they use Luxeon and Edison LEDs. they also tested the lights and their results said that LED are better...im betting on that its better cuz the light is so dense like MH. im in this for the advantages like low heating issues and easily controlling the light color (kelvin) levels. they also give out a pretty sweet shimmer. not to mention the 5+ years bulb life. Link to comment
BennettOZ Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 im in this for the advantages like low heating issues and easily controlling the light color (kelvin) levels.they also give out a pretty sweet shimmer. not to mention the 5+ years bulb life. I would agree that those that are experimenting with LED lighting, are not interested in just "better than MH", but other feature like Coolwaters has mentioned, My main reason for wanting to do LED is because of the heat. I am tired of dealing with constant top offs due to heat evap on the nano tank! Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 in my experience my 30w T-8 bulb raised my tank temperature +2 degrees. but when i ran my prototype 22w LED it seem to have gotten colder O.o and i was using a digital thermometer. +/- .02 degrees (F) it seems trying to make this thing low profile is next to impossible... im looking at something like 2 1/2" thick... i'll find time 2morrow to throw in a heatsink plan. but its not going to be 100% completed soon since im still w8ing for the blue LEDs... Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 well it seems that my parents took the soldering gun away... guess im going to need to buy my own 2morrow... Link to comment
0823angeles Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Can't wait to see the progress, sounds like a plan that will work!!! Hope things go well for you Coolwaters Link to comment
BennettOZ Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 well it seems that my parents took the soldering gun away...guess im going to need to buy my own 2morrow... That wasn't very nice of them now was it...... Some hide dirty pictures under their bed, your going to have to hide LEDs and a soldering gun. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 lol they found my DIY 250w MH set under my bed... glad they didnt throw it out. my sister took me outthis morning so i didnt have time today...i'll get my soldering soon. for now i'll just glue everything together. Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 alright i got bad news again...turns out my 2 part heatsink compound adhesive was in the tool box along with the soldering gun...either im going to have to spend another $10 to get it or try to get everything back... so when they get home im going to raise hell! Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 8, 2007 Author Share Posted December 8, 2007 here i requested BLUE RED and GREEN LEDs on dealextreme. now they have it http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1775 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1777 i would totally recommend using at least one GREEN LED on a setup of about 8 or more LEDs. since solaris lacks a lot of green...also green is the most noticeable spectrum your eye detects. so basically to the naked eye your tank has more "shine" to it. sorry for the delays...guess i'll just finish everything at once and post it in one big update. Link to comment
121a Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 wow, 5 bucks a pop. I was going to make a custom 9x9x9 cube and light it with 10x1w LEDs. I'm not going to do it now, but i really want to see how this turns out! Good luck! Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 8, 2007 Author Share Posted December 8, 2007 $5 is nothing...since its a CREE LED (one of the best reliable LEDs out there (excellent on quality too) btw its 3 watts. not one. the white ones are about $3 a pop so my 9 LED array will cost me exactly $36 not bad compared to $900 for the smallest solaris hood. im going to house the regulators on top of the plate between the fan and heatsinks. it shouldnt get too hot. Link to comment
121a Posted December 8, 2007 Share Posted December 8, 2007 oh i assumed it was 1 watt. wow 3watts that sucker must be bright! Link to comment
reefeze Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 sick... if this turns out to be better and most cost efficient than the 70w DIY MH setup... im going to do it too... let me know!! Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 9, 2007 Author Share Posted December 9, 2007 its not even close to cost effective to a 70w MH...well not yet. im guessing it would be $126 for the power supply and LED. (to equal 70w) (about 30 LEDs) and the heatsink/fan system your going to put on it will determine the rest. FYI i found that just one inch away from my 22w LED array i noticed a bit of heat. (not much) but theres some heat. but after about 3 inches way i felt nothing. btw if u use blue and white LEDs it will look brighter but actually its not since BLUE LEDs give out about 30 lumens so far. and the white is about 114lm per watt now. i think... oh i assumed it was 1 watt. wow 3watts that sucker must be bright! lol its like looking at mini 70w MHs. Link to comment
Gomer Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 lets try and play some numbers here. Lets assume that the spectrum is the same as well as lumen efficiency. We can also assume the most ideal case of no glass top, a perfect reflector for teh MH and ideal angle to minimize reflection off the water....so lets just pretend the losses are the same (an LED will be better in practice) A typical high power LED will be run at 3.7V and 700mA for 2.6watts per emitter. Assuming all the above, you need 27 LEDs to equal a 70watt MH. I'm willing to bet that you will need a substantially smaller amount though as you get more light from the LED to your tank then you do with MH (with good LED optics) Link to comment
lanceleaderx Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 27*2.6 = 70.2 watts, i thought LED will save some power -_+ http://ballastwise.com/category.asp?FID=19&level=1 cheap LED ballast Link to comment
coolwaters Posted December 9, 2007 Author Share Posted December 9, 2007 O.o yeah...i think lol i understand everything u just said. also the increase of surface area increases since u have 27 LEDs in stead of one big bulb. the standard voltage is now 3.2-3.5v (the lower the better) if u want to Solaris experience get a dimmable LED driver and wires some switches on it so u have control of how many LEDs are on. im just giving out ideas and how many difference ways u can do this. 27*2.6 = 70.2 watts, i thought LED will save some power -_+ http://ballastwise.com/category.asp?FID=19&level=1 cheap LED ballast i wouldnt recommend using thos LED drivers since their really not for this type of project. basically its a stabilized 12v DC power supply made for things that take exactly 12v. Link to comment
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