DIY LED Frag/Fuge light

[evilc66]

Ok. I couldn't pull that lamp fast enough with the red LED in it. It was literally making me sick to my stomach!

[disaster999]

lemme go back and look at it again, maybe with you mentioning about the red LED i will notice something as well

[disaster999]

question on my LED setup. so on the driver, it mentioned the output current is 650mah+/-5%. I measured my string of LED and the voltage im getting is 39.5V

 

simple math yields each LED is getting around 3.3V. does that seem right? am i really driving my LEDs at 650mah?

[doctaq]

i beleive red leds foreward voltage tend to be 2.2ish

 

if that is true your other leds are getting about 3.4 which is reasonable

[evilc66]

3.3v sounds fine. LED voltage changes with current, and the values listed in the datasheets are just expected maximums, not hard fast numbers.

[pazhope]

Why kind of heatsink are you using?

[disaster999]

pazhope, im not really sure what kind of heatsink i have, but i just found that locally in the electronic store i was getting my supplies from. it gets the job done and i dont even have to add a fan for it.

[disaster999]

its been 7 months since i built this light.and so far it has worked out for me pretty well. it went 7 months without a fan and it never got hot. it barely got warm in the winter months when temps dropped to 10c weather.

 

one thing i really didnt like is the color blending of the light. because of the design constraints i had, i wasnt able to mount the light that high. the LED spacing was a bit wide which leads to blue and white spots. some corals were too blue while others are yellowish. the initial LED config was a bit too yellow as well. there were more white than blue which wasnt appealing so i did a little rearranging, removed some whites and added more blue. helped the color a bit, still have spotlight effect and the lights didnt blend too well.

 

with the new sump i recently got, i decided it was time to upgrade my light as well. the old light had 7 blue, 4 white and 1 red. this new one have 10 blues, 6 whites and 1 red. i did 3 rolls instead of 2. needed an extra driver and with the increase of LED on a similar headsink size, i had to add a fan as well. here is the finished product taken with my phone.

 

with the new sump, the water level of the frag area is a lot lower and i was able to mount the light a lot higher this time. the colors blended together really well this time. with the increase of LED, the red wasnt all that overpowering. i ran the light without the fan and it sure got a bit toasty, but the fan kept the temps in check. ill post more picture of the setup later on tonight

[disaster999]

more pics

 

 

 

 

overall very pleased with the light. it puts out a TON of light. the 10 blue, 6 white and 1 red gives off a really good color. its not too blue or white. the red is not overpowering at all and it gives a nice touch of color.

 

one thing im surprised about is, the light is a good 6-7" off the water surface and with the 60degree optics, the spread isnt as wide as i hoped. directly under the light is very bright. but just outside the light the intensity quickly drops.