Gone LED

[MorganAtlanta]

I have switched my scrubber from 24" T5HO over to LED. Originally, I built the scrubber SM100 style, except I made it taller (10") so that it used three T5HO lights on each side, for a total of roughly 150 Watts. For the new LED setup, I used 10 660nm reds and 4 630nm reds on each side. They are "3 Watt" LEDs, but I'm running them at around 500mA, and their forward voltage is around 2.2V, so the total wattage being used is only around 30 Watts.

[attachment=2:326cfw5t]scrubber_leds.jpg[/attachment:326cfw5t]

As part of the conversion, I cut the scrubber box down from 24" to 20", because a 24" box was awkward to fit in my stand. The heatsinks are 20" by roughly 6", and running 15 Watts each, they don't even get warm to the touch.

[attachment=1:326cfw5t]led_scrub.jpg[/attachment:326cfw5t]

When cutting the box down to 20", I also cut down the size of the screen from 22" to 19". It is 9" high, so the potential growing area is still 171 square inches, double sided, which is capable of much more filtering than I currently need.

The first week's growth is greener and more lush than I ever got with T5HO, and at only 1/5 the wattage. Very nice. I plan to move the heatsink up some so that the light is more centered on the screen, but since I'm not feeding nearly as much as I could be, for right now, limiting growth to the bottom 6" of screen is fine.

[attachment=0:326cfw5t]scrubber_oneweek.jpg[/attachment:326cfw5t]

The total cost of the conversion was something like $220, and was quite easy to do.

Heatsinks $40 each
Drivers Meanwell ELN-30D $30 each
LEDs $20 for 10, shipped to US from China
Wire, epoxy, solder, connectors, etc. $20

I'd highly recommend going LED from the start rather than T5 at this point for anyone planning to build a scrubber. The growth with 660 nm red LEDs seems proven. The initial cost of LEDs is similar to that of a T5HO setup, and there are a number of advantages, including no ongoing bulb costs, lower energy costs, no issues from adding heat, and more flexibility in the size of the screen.

Stats:
Acrylic box "SM100" style scrubber
Screen: 19" x 9", double sided
LEDs: 10 660mn + 4 630 nm on each side, run at 500 mA, roughly 3" from screen.
17 hours on - 7 off
Fed from drains at about 700 gph
125 US gallon mixed reef tank, 10 months old

[jwoyshnar]

Great looking. I just set up my led scrubber with 660's. I hope to get growth like yours


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.542338,-75.959401

[kerry]

Nice LED build and great results. Here is another source for heat sinks: http://icamanufacturing.homestead.com/Heatsink.html . I use them for my electronic needs and have had great service from them.

[simon wright]

looking good . love the growth you have . think i will have to go led on mine aswell , looks like all the led scrubbers are doing verywell .

[MorganAtlanta]

I've had a few more questions about details of where I got things, etc, so here is some more info:
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I ordered the 660s off eBay from LED-DNA, and the 630s off eBay from BestShop2008HK. Both are China based sellers. They ship directly to the US. It took around three weeks for the LEDs to arrive.

The drivers are Meanwell ELN30D-48. You don't need any resistors, and you can put the 14 LEDs in series, so the wiring is easy. I ordered the drivers from WattSupply.com. I used the dimmable version, but I think the non-dimmable would be fine, and the wiring would be easier. Just check the voltage range of the driver you get to make sure it matches requirements of the number of LEDs you have. I would avoid really cheap power supplies because the hassle of replacing one if it blew wouldn't be worth any money saved.

I used Arctic Alumina thermal adhesive to glue the LED stars to the heatsink. For the wires between the LEDs, I used "thermostat" wire. I think it was 20 or 22 gauge solid wire. I soldered the wires to the pads on the LED stars. This isn't as hard to do as you might expect.

For the wires between the power supplies and the heatsinks, I scavenged wires with male "type M" connectors from old cellphone/electronics/toy power supplies I had laying around, then bought some female "type M" connectors from Radio Shack. I drilled a hole in each heatsink to mount the female type M connector.

I built the scrubber box using black and clear 1/4" acrylic. The design is basically an SM100 style, but it is not as wide (20") and is two inches taller (10"). I cut the acrylic from 24"x18" sheets myself, but if I had to do it again, I'd order the pieces already cut to size from Tap Plastics. I glued the box together with Weld-On #16. The thicker #16 is much better for getting good bonds than the thin stuff.

[MorganAtlanta]

Second week's growth was even better than the first. I am soooo happy with the move to LED. If you are building a scrubber and thinking T5... DON'T DO IT!!! Go with LED!!

[vira]

Second week's growth was even better than the first. I am soooo happy with the move to LED. If you are building a scrubber and thinking T5... DON'T DO IT!!! Go with LED!!

I"ve also built a SM 100 style with 2 screens viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1236 using CFL's . The result is acceptable but, with yr reccommendation,I'd like also to go LED. I have a question though. Have you put lens onto your LED's ?. If so,what are their angles ?

[kerry]

Lens's burned my algae. I had to take mine off. I use 3W 660nm at about 1.5" to 2" away.

[Aeros]

I'm building pretty much the same thing. My plan for light diffusion is sandwiching two acrylic fluorescent light diffusers together with a drop or two of Weld-On.

[rygh]

Looks great!
Interesting that it works so well with no blue at all. A slight surprise.
But no big surprise to me that LEDs work well.