LED build for idiots help pls

[kerry]

I wish we had 220V everyday outlets here in the USA. The homes here have just a couple for like the electric stoves, cloths washer, and AC units but, the rest are 110V. Our service is 220V but its split at the power (fuse/breaker) distribution box or utility pole.

[andthe_brain]

So could i use these drivers making a diy aquarium light? How many leds would be needed to sufficiently light up a 80 gallon tank? Would the same equation of using a 1/5 of the power needed by t5s?? I run 6 39w at the minute an i would need roughly 50w of led power??

[Ace25]

First tank, I use 24 LEDs on a 60G, it replaced 6 T5HOs. LEDs = 60w, T5s=324w, so yes, 1/5th the power on that tank. I do need to run both strings of LEDs at full power (1000mA on Cree LEDs) for this LED light in order to get good output.



Second tank, I use 48 LEDs on a 75G cube tank. It replaced a 400w MH + 4x 24w T5HOs. LEDs=100w, MH+T5=496w... so again.. 1/5th the power. Hmmm.. funny, I never actually did the math on those tanks like that, funny to see how they both come out the same. The 75G LED light can go up to using 144w at full power, but I overbuilt the LED light (first one I made) and I can actually only run the whites (24 LEDs) at 50% power, anything higher will nuke my corals.



Here is a DIY LED light I made for a fellow reefer that has a 60G cube (24x24x24). I used 26 LEDs on this one, 14 Royal blue, 12 Cool white + 4 moonlights.



After teaching another fellow reefer how to make his own LED lights he has gone on to build several himself. He had zero electronics, soldering, or LED experience before I showed him how easy it was. This one he just completed last night, 192 LEDs for a 240G tank.


On an 80G display tank, if it is a normal 4' tank, I would go with 36 LEDs minimum, 48 maximum. Again, distance from the top of the water to the LED light determines if your going to use optics and what type. On a display tank optics are super helpful and will easily give you 3x-4x more light output just by using optics, but the drawback to that is you have to mount the LED light high above the tank, 12" minimum.

[andthe_brain]

How many drivers are you using to light those beautys up?? Are they dimmable drivers? And are they 3w leds?

[Ace25]

All 3w LEDs, I personally use Cree for display lights. I find them by far the best. The last fixture, the 192 LED light, is all China LEDs. I don't expect them to last nearly as long as cree's from my past experience. For the big one he used 3 large meanwell drivers, the Meanwell HLG-185-42B driver which can handle up to 72 LEDs per driver instead of 24 tops on the ones I get. Normally your supposed to only run 12 LEDs per ELN driver but you can go up to 14.. per string, and you can put on 2 strings if you crank up the internal POT to 1500mA, which then gets cut in 1/2 with 2 strings so each one gets 750mA, which is perfect for Cree LEDs. On my first LED light, the 48 LED one, I actually ended up using 4 drivers, 12 LEDs per driver, because I was new at it and didn't know you could run more in series back then.

I use ELN-60-48 drivers (D or P model depending on how I want to dim them). D models use dimmer knobs and are manually dimmed, P models use PWM which comes from a controller like a Typhoon or DIM4 controller.

I usually get my supplies from www.RapidLED.com but you can shop around and save a few $ if you get parts from multiple places.

[andthe_brain]

I was also looking at mounting under a hood? Is that possible with these type of builds with evapration etc??

[Ace25]

My 48LED light is mounted in my canopy, just took out my MH/reflector, cut the hole out a little bigger, and set the LED light in where the MH used to be. I don't run the T5s anymore, this picture was when I first mounted it. I have a tall canopy though and the LEDs are 14" from surface of the water to the optics on the LEDs.

[andthe_brain]

Hmmm probably around 5 inches in my canopy...do you think i could get away with no optics? Maybe just increase the spacing between the leds for a more even spread?

[Ace25]

When I had the 24 LED light over my 29G I had it just resting on the glass top, no optics, and it worked just fine. You don't want to spread the LEDs out though, that won't give you any extra intensity. If you don't use optics you would want to almost double the amount of LEDs used in order to get the intensity desired for corals. When I replace the 29G with a 60G I simply added optics to the LEDs, raised it up, and I actually get more light out of it now by using optics than when I had it resting on the glass without.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUlInNEgVwk

[andthe_brain]

Gotcha...its sourcing the bloomin stuff is the problem. the only shop in the uk remotely close to rapidled is www.rapidonline.com i dont fancy getting things shipped due to our strict customs in the uk...its a real PITA