Just completed DIY led light for frag tank

[mikefish]

The tank:

Frag tank 18x18 x8

Light 6 in from water

 

The plan:

Blue channel: 8 royal blue, 4x 420nm 430nm violet, 1 deep blue. 700mA

White channel: 4 neutral white, 2 cool blue, 1 cyan, 2 lime green dimable 900mA

 

The incident:

Melted most of the white channel trying to find a bad connection. Had a real issue getting solder to stick to led broad while mounted on the heat sink.

 

The remedy:

Replaced bad leds and salvaged some 5 neutral and warm whites form an old nano build. Added one more lime. No cool blue or cyan to be found on hand.

 

The result:

This light rocks! The lime really does make it crisp and the royal blue is just the color I was looking for. I have had to turn the white down to 30-40percent because the par is way high. I have a par meter and I think this light can melt coral if I not careful. I used a makers heat sink and it stays cool with the fan. Fan is silent frameless fan from rapid led. Spread is good too. Worried I'll burn the corals I have in there so I turned it down and moved the Zoas and ricordia to the edge for now. Have some birds nest and other more light loving under the light looking great. I have a max spect razor on my 40 gal breeder DT and it looks dull next this light. After all the frustration I had, my wife said " why didn't you just buy a light you needed?" This build couldn't have worked out any better. I'll try to post photos tomorrow.

[Sailfish]

The tank:

Frag tank 18x18 x8

Light 6 in from water

 

The plan:

Blue channel: 8 royal blue, 4x 420nm 430nm violet, 1 deep blue. 700mA

White channel: 4 neutral white, 2 cool blue, 1 cyan, 2 lime green dimable 900mA

 

The incident:

Melted most of the white channel trying to find a bad connection. Had a real issue getting solder to stick to led broad while mounted on the heat sink.

 

The remedy:

Replaced bad leds and salvaged some 5 neutral and warm whites form an old nano build. Added one more lime. No cool blue or cyan to be found on hand.

 

The result:

This light rocks! The lime really does make it crisp and the royal blue is just the color I was looking for. I have had to turn the white down to 30-40percent because the par is way high. I have a par meter and I think this light can melt coral if I not careful. I used a makers heat sink and it stays cool with the fan. Fan is silent frameless fan from rapid led. Spread is good too. Worried I'll burn the corals I have in there so I turned it down and moved the Zoas and ricordia to the edge for now. Have some birds nest and other more light loving under the light looking great. I have a max spect razor on my 40 gal breeder DT and it looks dull next this light. After all the frustration I had, my wife said " why didn't you just buy a light you needed?" This build couldn't have worked out any better. I'll try to post photos tomorrow.

Sounds like you got it working good

To solder LEDs mounted on a heatsink, a good powerful soldering iron is a must. Normal 40W soldering irons generally made shitty joints, in my experience. After trying 3 different soldering irons (from 40W-100W), I bought a cheap $100 soldering station. Wow, night and day difference!

[mikefish]

I have a 100w weller gun. Not sure its that. Solder was old and that might be part of it. I took the led off the heat sink and it went much better.

[evilc66]

Pics, or it didn't happen

[mikefish]

These are the PAR numbers at the white channel at 50%. Blue numbers are along the front and the red numbers are the across the middle. The actual color to the eye is less purple than the photo, more blue and the greens are very crisp. I have to admit that when I turn the white channel down it does get some purple but its still more blue than purple. Purple is likely from the warm white leds. The point of this post is that the lime really balances the royal blue very well and makes for a crisp blue look. I really like the nanobox mix of lime but thought this might be a bit stronger for the money. I had a lot of the parts already and just needed the heat sink and a few leds. I might have to raise the light up a bit to avoid burning the corals in the center. I have turned it down to acclimate the corals to the brighter light. There are no lenses on the leds so the colors mix well. Here is a photo of the fixture and the fan. I build a frame for the fan from ABS sewer pipe and it fit really well. The fan is adjustable with a dimmer I bought on eBay. The support arm is t-slot aluminum, as is the stand. Yeah I spent more on the stand than the light, I know.

[treefisher]

Something like this might be what I need for my tank here.

 

Do you mind giving a parts and price list, and maybe a quick build run-through?

[mikefish]

treefisher,

Here is the project parts list.   All but the heat sink, fan dimmer and wire cover can be purchased at Rapid LED.  Heat sink was from LEDgroupbuy.  Fan (dc motor) dimmer from Amazon.  Wire cover was from ReefLEDlights.  I am considering switching out the blue constant current driver with a dimmable driver.   Thats because my tank is a shallow frag tank, and even the blue channel may be too bright.  In deeper tanks that might not be an issue but flexibility is always better.  I don't want to know what the total price is......but its likely lower than a nano box duo with controller and mounting.   And I had much of the parts on hand.  Still want a nano box light but I like making reef gear, so I had to do this.  I'll add some build tips tomorrow.   One thing to remember is that you should like to build stuff and you need to take care in adjusting the dimmable driver so that you don't blow out the leds.   My mistake was testing them and overloading them before I finished the wiring.  Dumb mistake but a reminder on how fast you can screw up.   

 

 

$32   Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver- 900mA

$3   power cord

$10  10V AC adapter

$3  female jack

$6  Potentiometer 

 

$3.50  2-CREE XP-G3 Warm White LED-

$3.00   3-CREE XP-G2 Neutral White LED

$3.50   3-Philips Luxeon Rebel ES Lime LED

 

 

$13   Mean Well LPC-35-700 constant current driver- 700mA

$3   power cord

$3    8- CREE XT-E Royal Blue LED

$20  Total Spectrum Violet UV LED (4 led multi chip)

 

$16   MakersLED Heat Sink 6 inch

         LED mounting screws

$10   92mm Frmeless Fan

$2     ABS sewer pipe coupling 4 inch- cut with bandsaw to fit fan

$4     Angle bracket for fan and mount to arm 

$10  12V Ac adapter

$7    dimmer for fan 

$3    female jack

 

$10   wire

$3     wire rubber gaskets

$7     thermal grease

$10   wire cover sheathing (basilisk )

project box (used old modem box) for housing drivers and wire couplings and dimmers

 

[treefisher]

Wow, Thank you for taking the time to write that! That's more help than I anticipated. Thanks for the tips, too; noted.

 

I'm always building something. I like dealing with small electronics, so this project is right up my ally. I have some of the parts listed. Should save me a little money.

 

Can I ask how much dim control you have over the LEDs, and your PAR readings? I have a PAR meter also that could help with the project.

[mikefish]

I can dim the white channel but not the blue.   The white is dimmed to 30 percent and its still bright.  The reason I think it is too bright is at the edge my ricordia and mushrooms are small and convex, sign they have too much light.  And that's with just the blue channel.  Also the blue channel is only 700mA so if the royal Blues where run higher they would be even brighter.   Keep in mind it's only a 8 in deep tank.  On a deeper tank the cone of light will spread more with depth and the hot spot in the middle may tame down in contrast to the edges.    Also I could just go with fewer LEDs but I like the idea of a bright light and under driving  the leds for cooler operation and longer life.   It think dimming is needed on both channels so you can dial in the perfect mix of color and intensity.   I ordered a dimable driver because you got me thinking about this very issue.  This frag tank is plumbed into my DT and mushrooms in the DT are extended and growing.   Par in DT is less than 100 at the mushrooms.  My bird nest directly under the frag light is rocking out, bright pink with green tips, lovin the light.  Just need to be able to tame it down so the low light corals have a spot in the frag tank too.   The par values I gave are not the max but with the white turned down 50 percent.  If I turned the white up to max, par would may cause bleaching of the corals in this shallow tank.

[treefisher]

On 2/24/2017 at 9:37 AM, mikefish said:

I like the idea of a bright light and under driving  the leds for cooler operation and longer life. 

Me too

 

Thanks for the input here. I think A DIY very similar to yours is the way I'm going to go.