GU10 LED Build Thread (Chinese Ebay Lights)

[Chew_Magna]

Wouldnt they be a bit brighter without the lenses?

Nope, the lenses focus the light in one direction instead of it being spread out over a 180* area. Think of it like this, the sun is with no lenses, the sun through a magnifying glass is with lenses. Not that extreme but you get the idea.

 

I actually love the look of par38's with no lenses because it softens the light and totally removes the disco effect. It looks much more natural imo. You lose a lot of par but I think it's worth it.

[bubblealgae]

Hey guys after running these for oh however long (check my previous post im lazy). I have come to the conclusion I prefer a 2:1 blue heavy ratio more than 1:1 white/blue. This decision late in the game after already wiring my banks 1:1 made me lose my ability to have separate timers for white and blue (too lazy to go back and rewire). So I now run full lights each day 2:1 no big deal.

 

I would upload a pic but leds wont let you get a good in-person visual representation. I am real real picky about how blue my tank is for those of you who may think this will make the tank super blue, it doesn't. For whatever reason, I feel 2:1 makes it look more like 50/50 t5.

 

Heres a video:

 

Remember it isn't as blue as my iphone4 makes you think. Anyone who has leds will vouch that they are terrible for video recording.

 

P.S. Tang police do not click video I'm a bad boy.

[frankdontsurf]

I ordered from user luckzdl2008 on ebay.. I asked him to send me 60 degree optics as were recommended, the dude forgot my order, took an extra two weeks, and didn't include the 60 or even 120 degree optics and worse of all sent Warm White instead of Cool White. I got stuck with 30 degree optics..

 

I'm happy with the light spectrum AFTER I removed the optics entirely - the color banding is INSANE with the optics on. The problem with that is now the chips are totally exposed to the evaporating salt water and the chips seem to be attached to the heat sinks via the pressure from the optics.

 

I'm not happy because I know this is going to last a few months before the salt gets to the chips and driver.

 

You guys think with some thermal paste I'd be ok?

[TinyGiant]

If you have them mounted in a spot with good airflow with enough distance from the water you shouldn't have any rusting issues. None of my bulbs from my original build have rust.

 

Grab a. Hole saw and some thin plexi and make some custom lenses. Or set the bulbs on a sheet of thin glass

[bubblealgae]

I ordered from user luckzdl2008 on ebay.. I asked him to send me 60 degree optics as were recommended, the dude forgot my order, took an extra two weeks, and didn't include the 60 or even 120 degree optics and worse of all sent Warm White instead of Cool White. I got stuck with 30 degree optics..

 

I'm happy with the light spectrum AFTER I removed the optics entirely - the color banding is INSANE with the optics on. The problem with that is now the chips are totally exposed to the evaporating salt water and the chips seem to be attached to the heat sinks via the pressure from the optics.

 

I'm not happy because I know this is going to last a few months before the salt gets to the chips and driver.

 

You guys think with some thermal paste I'd be ok?

 

So sorry to hear that. Did you do anything to try and resolve it? Each time I delt with him he was very friendly. I would assume he would try and fix it. Please keep us updated.

[frankdontsurf]

So sorry to hear that. Did you do anything to try and resolve it? Each time I delt with him he was very friendly. I would assume he would try and fix it. Please keep us updated.

 

He just sent out Cool Whites this morning, but pretty much ignored the optics situation. Hopefully the Cool Whites come with the right optics - either way I'll probably go with none.The tracking number he gave me for the Cool Whites does not correspond to any package but neither did the one for the first order. He didn't respond to my complaint about the color mixup until I got PayPal involved, I don't think he meant to be a jerk about it, probably genuinely busy.

 

I've opted to build a new light hood with a fan, ordered some Artic Silver to glue the chips to the heat sink. Like TinyGiant said, with adequate flow I shouldn't have any issues with heat or rust anytime soon. I'm also making it wide enough to stuff another row of lights in there should I want to.

 

Would 16 3x3w be too much over a 10 gallon? The growth I've had in the last two weeks is bananas. My brain has much an 1/8 of an inch all around if not more. My acans colors are going wild with stripes of pink ive never noticed on it. My mushrooms are all splitting, frog looks the same, my ricordias look bigger too.

[DIY Reefer]

Hi everyone

 

I normally post on Reef Central but I decided to make an account here, so I could post on the official GU10 thread since I decided to make a GU10 fixture and now I am having problems.

 

 

On Jan 30 I built a GU10 LED fixture with 5 blues & 5 whites all are 3w versions. I built it into an old freshwater fluorescent fixture case with a little 12v fan. I made little vents on the ends of the fixture for air to enter and the fan would blow the air out the top. The fixture was placed flush on top of my tank with the glass lid. For a few months I ran it like this. The fan was always blowing out hot air, figured it was working. I few weeks ago two of the cool white LEDs started flickering! A hour later or so they blew out. So I set the fixture up off the glass lid about 2 inches, fans out take was now cool air. March 14 another LED Burned out. I took it out opened it up to see if it had enough thermal grease and noticed it did have much. I contacted the ebay seller and they sent me 3 new bulbs. Today March 25 another cool white bulb burned out although I am sure it is one of the original 5 bulbs that when through the "heat treatment". None of my blues have burned out though! I got the blues from china and the whites from New Jersey.

 

I am thinking the whites are cheap and I need to find a different seller. Also I think I should rebuld the fixture to be more open air. I thought it would work since I have seen similar fixture made into old light cases on here WITHOUT A FAN!

Am I doing this right?

What can I do?

 

 

Current Tank Info: 55 gal. 1300 GPH Power Head, DIY GU10 39W fixture, Penguin 200 HOB, with 40 lb LR, 40 LS, CUC 3 Scarlet H, 3 Blue H, 3 turbo S, 1 bumble bee S, Red Linkia Starfish with 2 Ocellaris & 1 purple dottyback.

[mini_matt]

[mini_matt]

It seems like most people can't be bothered to read the thread and keep asking the same questions.

Re. Lenses, stick to 30deg I had 60deg and they were not as good, most of my corals just failed to thrive!

Re. Which bulbs, you want Cool white and blue.

Re. Colour mix, stick to 50/50 cool white and blue. I went for 4x1W and changed two chips over so that each bulb has 2xwhite and 2xblue chips in it, this gives the most blended colour and works well

[Chew_Magna]

It seems like most people can't be bothered to read the thread and keep asking the same questions.

Re. Lenses, stick to 30deg I had 60deg and they were not as good, most of my corals just failed to thrive!

Re. Which bulbs, you want Cool white and blue.

Re. Colour mix, stick to 50/50 cool white and blue. I went for 4x1W and changed two chips over so that each bulb has 2xwhite and 2xblue chips in it, this gives the most blended colour and works well

Not many people will read 78 pages lol. Granted there's a search function, but nobody knows those exist.

[DIY Reefer]

I added another fan instead of blowing the hot air out, it is blowing cool air onto the bulbs and now they run super cool!

[pensiveone]

I wonder if it would be safe to mount these on a wooden board? I was thinking of making a plywood canopy for these lights, but I am concerned about heat. I have a light fixture I modded with these and from what I have seen the ceramic bases seem to stay quite cool to the touch. Even the heat sinks on the lights do not seem to run very hot. Opinions?

[frankdontsurf]

I wonder if it would be safe to mount these on a wooden board? I was thinking of making a plywood canopy for these lights, but I am concerned about heat. I have a light fixture I modded with these and from what I have seen the ceramic bases seem to stay quite cool to the touch. Even the heat sinks on the lights do not seem to run very hot. Opinions?

I have mine in a wooden canopy I put a 6" wide piece of plexi along the lights to remove any exposure to splash and added a 80mm fan to extract heat and evaporate. I am running 9x 3x3w without any optics and 2" above to water line over a standard 10gal.

 

Forgot to mention my hood covers the entire canopy of the aquarium. Its next to the sink so I need the protection. Before the plexi and the fan it was hot and salty, hah.

[frankdontsurf]

A little update on my situation..

 

Received the Cool Whites I was missing, they seem a bit less intense than the Warm Whites I was using. Either way I'm pleased very much with the color and the corals are doing great.

 

If you decide to go my route and remove the optics totally you need to know that they are stuck on there with thermal GREASE not thermal ADHESIVE. When they heat up the chip does lose its grip. The grease is made to work with pressure as a heat dissipator - thermal adhesive is also good at conducting heat but works like a rubber cement or epoxy. I went ahead and redid all of my chips with Artic Silver Thermal Adhesive, they are protected by a piece of plexi that is about 7.5" wide and the lights fall dead center of that. I get plenty of creep on the plastic but the lights stay both cool and dry. For the price and given the fact the location of my tank requires me to have an enclosed hood these little lights get the job done for me.

[j.mccollum]

thinking of building a setup for my evolve 8. 12Lx9Wx12H back part of filter area no lit

was going for 6 bulb at 50/50 wire on 2 separate timers.

thoughts??

[andarooo]

Here is my attempt at a GU10 build for lights. I used to have some smd 5050s just to keep my easy corals alive. But, I wanted to venture out to a few harder things and I decided this was my best bet. Right now it is just 10 of the cheap-o $3 chinese 9 watt bulbs (or real world 3.7 watt bulbs) and I will see how these do for a few months.

 

Here is the link the the album: http://imgur.com/a/pJ7sy

[mcarroll]

[...]Received the Cool Whites I was missing, they seem a bit less intense than the Warm Whites I was using.[...]

 

If you decide to go my route and remove the optics totally[...]

 

You might find it useful or interesting to have a lux meter to judge intensity....usually it's at least a little surprising vs "eyeballing it". And lux meters are cheap (handheld) or free (smartphone app)....so why not?

 

Here is my attempt at a GU10 build for lights.[...]

Right now it is just 10 of the cheap-o $3 chinese 9 watt bulbs (or real world 3.7 watt bulbs) and I will see how these do for a few months.[...]

 

3x1w bulbs as suggested in this thread are around 2 watts in real life, so you're probably providing about double the intensity you want to be. Be very careful/patient in acclimating corals under these lights due to the possibility of bleaching. All my corals that were at or near the surface of my 18" deep tank bleached with the 3w lights. If your tank is shallow, then all your corals are "at or near the surface".

 

More watts are only needed for ultra deep (>30") tanks.

 

-Matt

[bubblealgae]

It seems like most people can't be bothered to read the thread and keep asking the same questions.

Re. Lenses, stick to 30deg I had 60deg and they were not as good, most of my corals just failed to thrive!

Re. Which bulbs, you want Cool white and blue.

Re. Colour mix, stick to 50/50 cool white and blue. I went for 4x1W and changed two chips over so that each bulb has 2xwhite and 2xblue chips in it, this gives the most blended colour and works well

 

I use 60 deg at 6 inches off water surface no issues. Also I am back to 50/50.

[bubblealgae]

Ok guys lets see if I can get this right. Back on page 23 of this beast thread there was a guy who went by Philip271. He posted some very helpful images of several types of gu10s in use shined onto a cutting mat. I contacted him and found out he had closed his storage account but was kind enough to email me the pics so I can repost them. Enjoy

 

Previously stated by Philip271

"Some beam shots. all bulbs are placed 22" above the cutting mat. grid on mat are 1 inch squares. camera at the same height with same settings for all shots below. all bulbs are cool whites. no other lights on in the room."

 

Why 22"? One can only assume he was factoring in a 10" high tank with the light above the tank at 12 inches? A 20long is approximately 10 inches high after factoring in the substrate. I personally am using 4w 60deg at 6-7 inches off water surface but that's on a 55 and a 75 gallon.

 

3 watt 30 deg

 

4 watt 30 deg

4 watt 60 deg

5 watt 60 deg

[mcarroll]

In one respect, 22" makes these sorta useless since the distance from the light to the water surface (12") is what really matters for coverage.

 

If you ignore the measurements, they are sorta interesting as far as illustrating the different spread between 30º and 60º lenses though!

 

-Matt

[mini_matt]

has anyone got any bulbs for sale in the UK? just had my first two go after 3 years of service

I'm also looking for a load of cool or warm white (if anyone ordered them by accident) for my living room/kitchen/diner i need 9off thanks

[bubblealgae]

In one respect, 22" makes these sorta useless since the distance from the light to the water surface (12") is what really matters for coverage.

 

If you ignore the measurements, they are sorta interesting as far as illustrating the different spread between 30º and 60º lenses though!

 

-Matt

 

Matt

 

Not quite sure I follow your logic here. Since this light travels in a cone shape knowing the spread of when it hits the surface is irrelevant. Your input would be helpful if everyone had all their corals right at the waters surface which you and I know isn't the case typically(excluding frag tanks). The measurements were restated as a guide of scale not to be nitpicked. These photos would be useless without details explaining the distance used in them.

[mcarroll]

 

Matt

 

Not quite sure I follow your logic here. Since this light travels in a cone shape knowing the spread of when it hits the surface is irrelevant. Your input would be helpful if everyone had all their corals right at the waters surface which you and I know isn't the case typically(excluding frag tanks). The measurements were restated as a guide of scale not to be nitpicked. These photos would be useless without details explaining the distance used in them.

 

No offense intended...perhaps "useless" was a bit strong/lacking explanation. (Any criticism was purely intended to be constructive, and probably refers to info. or explanations in prior posts.) Please allow me to explain

 

Surface measurements are more useful and better for most of our purposes for a number of reasons.

 

One reason is that beneath the surface, the light at the edge of the cone becomes significantly attenuated by reflection and refraction.

 

More or less, the only significant light entering tank, is at pretty much vertical/0° angle - the more angle, the more reflection/refraction. This is one reason why the ultra-close layout of bulbs is important to our design. You can see the approximately 3" radius of max intensity on your 30º photos, in fact. The light outside this radius is already comparatively very dim if you measure it...once you account for water's reflection, refraction and absorption this dimming effect becomes much more pronounced and this light becomes fairly insignificant beneath the surface. Makes the ceiling/room look cool though!

 

Another reason is that variables like turbidity, flow, surface waves (lensing), rock and coral structure (shadows), etc all make the underwater environment essentially random. Any lab-measurements in open air intended to predict in-situ measurements beneath the water in a live reef tank can be relied upon to be incorrect. (Try a waterproof PAR or lux meter and see how wide the fluctuations in readings are in any given spot.) The upside is that all reefs, regardless of their below-water-specifics, do well with "full sunlight" levels of illumination, which are completely easy to verify at the water's surface.

 

Allow me to point out that your measurrements and pics were not useless, but in fact illustrate the comparative spread of different lenses/bulbs really well! Thanks!

 

-Matt

[Deny]

does anybody have any updates on these lights? After a few years, does it still one of the "best" cheap alternative for reef?

[mcarroll]

 

does anybody have any updates on these lights? After a few years, does it still one of the "best" cheap alternative for reef?

 

I think they are awesome.