DIY led for 40glns
 

i have been thinking about building a canopy full of led bulbs as tightly as possible for my 40glns reef. replacement for my 400w halide and 200 mogul florescent light that emmits alot of heat.
so today i received my led bulbs 7 days earlier than expected.
tommorrow i will be purchasing the power relay,some wiring, fans, soldering gun(well a new one)plexy glass,quick dry liquid plastic,resistors and some wood.

specs.aprox. more detail will follow.

power supply 120-24VDC 8Amps steady stream
fans any 2 fans fitting the hood
plexy glass i will start with 24"by 7.5" drill 300 oval holes
liquid plastic to cover all the wiring for water corrosion
200 led-blue-150,000mcd 0.5w 10mm 40degree angle 3.8v 100mA 5-chip
100 led-whiye 8000K 300,000mcd 0.5w 10mm 40degree angle 3.8v 100mA 5-chip
50 resistors 15 ohms
photos and step by step info will follow

What are you going to use to drill oval holes?

1/8 circular drill bit drilling in a staight line shape

A small soldering iron vs a soldering gun may be a better choice. LEDs are pretty sensitive to excess heat. The tip on an iron is smaller than on a gun which should make the job easier. Consider a small heat sink as well when soldering.

If you already know all this, ignore. In any case I thought it might be good info for those less DIY inclined.

I don't think those regular LEDs will work. They may look bright but they don't produce enough PAR. You have to use high power 1w or 3w LEDs and to do that for a 40 gallon will get expensive. Also, if your tank is any deeper than 12" you need optics with the LEDs which means more LEDs packed tighter and higher cost. I am pretty sure the ones you have will not even come close to the performance of your MH. Sorry. I would suggest checking out the lighting forum at nano-reef.com as alot of folks have been experimenting with LED lighting over there and they have a good handle on LEDs, PAR and optics to penetrate down into the water.

IMO if you do this correctly it could cost 1000 dollars or maybe more.

+1 there is no way those LEDs will produce enough PAR in any depth of water. You need LEDs like the Cree XR-E, Lumileds Luxeon, etc. With optics your LEDs are actually spaced farther apart... optics are larger than the chips themselves most of the time (even mounted). But indeed, do check out nano-reef.com, they seem to be the pioneers of this sort of DIY craziness.

+1 I'm building LED spotlights and they will cost (minimum) $160 a piece for what I need. More if I get fancy with them. I'm using these as spotlights, not for an evenly illuminated appearance... and lighting a 20 x 8 x 9 tank with 3 of them. So for a 6 gallon tank, I'm spending in the region of $500. Though this not all at once (nice thing about LEDs is they're sort of modular... you can add more if you need to or as budget allows)... and I do plan on growing SPS. I'd say I could cut probably 150 bucks off that estimate if I was only planning on keeping softies.

EDIT: And I didn't vote because I don't quite understand the poll question? Do you mean how easy is it to do DIY LED setups? If that's the question, I'd say pretty easy with some basic electronics and electrical knowledge, and a soldering iron. And do lots of research beforehand so you're sure about what you're doing or hope to accomplish. Good luck!