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Innovative Marine Aquariums

New 6.5 gal tank Lit with LED's


electroland

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they are in segments of 4 look at the pictures i posted. the way you want to do it is figure out your power supply output and then that will tell you how many led's you will put in series. look at this site for how to hook up the led's http://www.theledlight.com/ledcircuits.html

 

you can get fancy with your circuit's but i made mine a simple as i could. i did this by just using the actual led wires bent over and soildered to the next row of 4 led's in the series one thing that i found it that you want to do this without using resistors, this is because resistors put off heat and that is what were trying to get rid of.

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Originally posted by zzpw3x

40 Watts?  Are you sure?

 

W = V * I, Watts for 1 LED = 3.2v * 0.020A = 0.064W

 

218 LEDs * 0.064W = 13.95W or around 14 Watts.

 

Did I calculate seomthign wrong here?  I am assuming 20mA LED's.

 

Dale

 

Electroland,

Could you give us the formula you are using? I tried this formula with the numbers you gave and I still can't get it to equal 45W :*(

I also tried that link to http://www.theledlight.com/ledcircuits.html and it won't let me add any more than 32 leds.

You stated that you are using 12.6volts. Where did this number come from? Is your 12V power supply really 12.6V?

Sorry for all the questions... I just think I need to find info somewhere for people who don't have an electrical background ???

 

Thanks,

- Chad

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i had a electrical engineer do the calculation for me at work... that is all the info he came up with. will have him redo the power consumption again for all i know you could be correct. try the other calculator that i responded to before check out this http://www.electronics2000.co.uk/calc/calcpow.htm

 

if you use the numbers 12.6 volts and 3600 milliamp it actually comes out the 45W and change

 

the powersupply i is rated for 12 volts but it actually puts out 12.6 volts if you check most powersupplys they will do the same.

 

one other note i don't have a electrical background at all i just like to tinker.

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ok wait, you run in a seriese of 4, then what do you attach them to? with 228 (at 3.6 volts each...) dont you need more volts? im not good with electrical...

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yes this is all ran off 12.6 volts. think of it this way you have a negative and a positive line to complete or use up the power between the - and + you have a series of 4 led's no matter what you do the positive allways has 12.6 volts the only thing you have to worry about is the amprage because that is your limiting factor. will the powersupply provide the load needed. you know one other thing that is cool about using LED's as a lighting source is that if your power goes out you can still run your setup off batteries :-)

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Each leg has 4 LED's, at around 20mA per leg.

 

218 LEDs' / 4 = 54.5 legs, so lets say 55 legs.

 

This means that 12.6v * 20mA * 55 legs = 13.86W in my opinion

 

A 12v power supply rated at a minimum of 1.1A (55 * 0.020) will power up 218 LEDs with no problem. A safety factor of 50% may be a good idea, so around 1.5A would be better.

 

I would love to see how your corals hold their color over a period of several months. Do you have any feel for if SPS's would be possible?

 

Dale

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i think the lighting would be bright enough. i used to have a 50gal reef with 220watts of CF lighting over it and i think this tank looks brighter of course it is total different setup. i think this tank needs to stabalize a bit more and then people can send me frags :-) to test in the led tank hahahaha

 

the nice thing sofar is the tank runs pretty steady temp ... right around 80 and my place is pretty warm always.

 

hey maybe someone out there using lamotte calicium hardness tests can help me out. what are we testing for caco3 or ca+2 ? and what should the PPM be on both of those ? i know that when you run the test it is a diluted test 12.9 to 1 so i think you have to multiply the results x 12.9 can some on clear this one for me ? see it really have been along time !!!! haha

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are you sure your tank cycled?? by the looks of your tank with the buttons doesnt look so good... rocks look kinda dead, no algae, and a 7.92ph.... man i hope im just being dumb and your tank is doing good... i would really like to setup a tank with led and be able to keep sps and have the shimmer of a mh.. that would be great...

 

taggin along

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man you know how to rain on a man parade ! hahaha BTW i was just joking humor just does not come over the same on the internet :-)

 

-->if your planning on starting over with a 40 long man thats alot of LED's i dont know if i could drill that many holes and still keep my sanity... <--( see this was a joke)

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You could get shimmer like MH with a 20w 50/50 coral life mini pc. You slo need strong surface agitation, and the light will do the shimmering.

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It's a little different to the eye. I had a 27W mini PC on the 5g and there was a little. With these LED's there's a lot. I'm almost certain the difference is that an LED and a MH are both essentially point sources, where PC's and VHO's are line sources. Like all else, it's all in the geometry.

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well just ordered some new led's cause i want to see how much brighter they are. they are 20000mcd whites and 6000mcd blues. the tank is doing well just got some shoorms and green stars today here is a picture of the tank. finally figured out how to get better pictures out of my camera.

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