led drivers? what can i build with this?

[Reef Puffer]

[Reef Puffer]

12 drivers in total.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

12 x 60w LED lights looks like.

[Reef Puffer]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

12 x 60w LED lights looks like.

thank you. but what does that look like? some cheap accent leds, or is it gonna light a 10 gal? maybe a 100 gal or 1200? what sort of life could this support? is it a basic moon light or grow some sps? these are the questions that arnt answered on the side of the drivers...

[mrhasan]

12x60W LED can make you blind

For tank, it depends on their placement, tank size and depth. But it is obviously an overkill for 10 gallon :P

[Reef Puffer]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

12x60W LED can make you blind

For tank, it depends on their placement, tank size and depth. But it is obviously an overkill for 10 gallon :P

thank you. i guess what im trying to figure out is, are these things useful (im looking to light a standard 120 gal and 40 gal sump)? im a total noob when it comes to led (and reefing really in general), and dont even know where to start. these drivers are available and if the price is right, i figured i might be able to build a half decent fixture? what does it cost to build something like this? where do i start? how much would i save by using these drivers? would i be better off with a different driver entirely? what am i getting myself into? should i just walk away now.....

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

If its over a 6' 120g then you should probably go with at least 4 units of 60. A lot will depend which emitters you use. Very high output/high efficiency CREEs will be more expensive but you need fewer.

I use 10w emitters and have 28 over a roughly 6' 165g mainly LPS reef with some sps. If I was going full SPS reef, I would probably add another 6 or 8 emitters. What I have now works very well for my application.

In your case, if you went with 10w emitters in sets of 6 per heat sink (i.e. 60w per heat sink/per driver), then you would have one every foot & a half or so. If you went with 5, then you would have them one every foot with 6" from each end.

If you're using 3w emitters, I would probably use more emitters, more heatsinks, but maybe not the full 60w per heatsink. My 10w have 110 degree spread so I get good coverage per emitter. 3w emitters will give you a different spread/coverage.

For instance, my EShine 60w Cree unit placed very close to the surface does not fully cover my RSM130 and if I raise it, I don't expect it to be intense enough at the bottom. These have 90 degree lenses. Each unit is roughly 16" x 6" wide. So I would need to use at least 4 or 5 over a 6' 120g IMO.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

BTW, forget using LED to light a sump. Waste of $$. A cheap clip on light with a 13w or 23w Phillips Daylight 6500k CFL bulb and you're done. Why spend a lot of money and effort to light a sump? Use the money on your display, not the sump.

[martinmcnally]

You will need to be careful with those drivers as they are up to 5A of current. Max for CREE LEDs is 1A or 1.5A for XML

In order to use those with CREE LEDs you would have to have at least 5 strings of LEDs in parallel to get that current down to an acceptable level. However you would need to plan on having more of that as if one LED failed in a string it would cause all the other LEDs to blow from over current.

Another limiting factor there is the voltage. Those drivers only put out a maximum of 12 volts. Each Cree LED has a forward voltage of approx 3.2 volts running at maximum power. So per string you could only have approx 4 LEDs. You are looking at a maximum of approx 24 LEDs per driver (6 parallel strings of 4 leds)

[martinmcnally]

You could also run 6 10watt LEDs per driver but they would have to be in parallel again because of that 5amp current output.