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Thread: LED Wattage Question

  1. #1

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    LED Wattage Question

    Hi All. I am building a UAS roughly based on HOG3 and need some input. My plan is to combine two hog shells into one longer unit with screen and strings as attachments surfaces. I expect the usable area to be about 72 sq. inches. I want to use dimmable Current-USA TrueLumen "rose red" LED strips mounted to the glass inside the UAS. Each 10" x 0.5" strip has 4 X 1W leds that produce both 440nm blue and 660nm red light. How many strips would be enough?

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    Well the HOG3 has six of the 3w LEDs, so two of these would be twelve of the 3w, or thirty six of the 1w. This would be nine of those strips.

    The new HOG3x has 50% more LEDs for water up to 0.5 ppm phosphate, which would be 12 or 13 of those strips.

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    Thank you, that about what I expected. Can I assume that screen and strings surface is equivalent to a double sided screen? Also, what if there are not enough phosphates and nitrates in the water for such a large scrubber?

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    Yes, strings are 2-sided.

    If there are not many nutrients, then the screen will just grow less. Of course you could always feed more.

  5. #5

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    Using these strips would work, but would be somewhat expensive. They also would take up a lot of room which you may not have.

    There are less expensive lighting alternatives out there using red LED's that others have used successfully.

    72 sq inches is 8" X 9". I suggest looking online and finding something with the total watts you need with red and blue combination. The Current LED's are aimed at lighting fish only tanks that don't need the intense light sources and certainly not aimed at scrubbers.

    I used a 30 Watt version of this http://www.ebay.com/itm/2014-10W-20W.../221366740133?

    successfully.

  6. #6

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    I think you might be thinking of the truelumen PRO version. This is the led strips that I will be using:

    http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-...en-led-strips/

    They are not exactly cheap, but the first LED panel I bought for this project off ebay died before any algae had a chance to grow on the screen. These are very compact 0.5" wide x 0.2" thick and are submersible. Here is what I am thinking:

    Click image for larger version

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  7. #7
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    Each strip measures 10″ x 0.5″ wide and features four 1 watt high output LED chips
    You still need to go by the wattage, even if expensive. Each strip is 4 watts. However if very near the growth surface, like in your picture, they will probably be good if spaced 1" apart.

  8. #8

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    Be careful. The current strips are "water resistant" not totally waterproof.

    I suspect that they would short out if submerged.

    There are some lights available that are 100% waterproof that you can use.

    I have tried some so called "water resistant" lights and ran into problems.

    I think you have some good ideas, but you need to do some more research. I have seen some threads here that discuss different lighting alternatives that people have used.

    If you are using individual LED's in an array, you really need more than 1 Watt to be effective enough. - again, from my experience.
    Last edited by rleahaines; 10-22-2014 at 08:00 AM. Reason: added more information

  9. #9

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    Thank you for pointing that out. Current-USA site clarifies their definition of water-resistant on their FAQ. I guess the strips will have to go on the outside. There is theoretically a 10% loss of light when it passes through glass, but 36 watts figure already factors that in.

    I am not sure how far apart I can space the strips through. I was planning to join the hog shells vertically to create a 6" by 12" surface and 9 strips side by side would tank up 4.5". I may be able to stagger them abit so the leds form a checker pastern. Putting the strips on the outside glass would give me total of 2" distance between them and the surface.

  10. #10
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    Since you probably would need to seal them in epoxy anyway, it might be easier to just wire some 3w stars and seal them.

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