Grizz's 300 gal 8'er / LED Heat sink build / Opinions on LED lay out needed

[martinmcnally]

This confirms my theory that you are actually building a new batman call sign haha

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Dez

Have you worked with thermal glue before? I used it on my LED build - it's designed to transfer heat, even if you screw the LED starts onto the heat sink directly, you should put some thermal glue for maximum heat transfer.

Looks great!

I was going to go with the thermal glue but it would get cooked when I welded it all together. I think there is a product like silver solder that is very thin, heat it up & pour it in & it will seal everything together.

Originally Posted by Hustler

Looking good bro, Cant wait to see the parts all come together
I think if i go this route I would rather brush it then cover it anyways..... Always have a soft spot for brushed alum

I was also thinking of going with brushed.

Originally Posted by cuz

Very nice!!!
I think heatsink # 16 is crooked!!

lol
teasin!!! You should be building these for Modular to market!!!

Martin and I have been working together to build these he has been great to deal with. I think these would be to expensive to build for market compared to extruded heat sinks. I had the plate left over from a project and just had to buy the 1/8" x 1" flat bar.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by nanomano

Looks Great Greg! Did you make the Heat sinks too??

yep

Originally Posted by nanomano

I will totally pay you to make me some sexy heatsinks when I do my tank upgrade next winter! and a stand too if you are up to it!

Im down for that, always like to build things for other peoples set-ups

[Nano]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Im down for that, always like to build things for other peoples set-ups

Nice much obliged man! Not sure when but most like a year, So I will be in touch! I'm doing an all led build too, probably either 125-150 gallons 6 feet long not too sure what else haha, I've been watching the progress on this thread and I just get so excited, I can wait to upgrade and learn how not to be such a reef noob!

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by cuz

Very nice!!!
I think heatsink # 16 is crooked!!

lol
teasin!!! You should be building these for Modular to market!!!

Agreed, you have some great handy work there Greg!

Please hurry up, I wanna see this beasty filled!

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by martinmcnally

This confirms my theory that you are actually building a new batman call sign haha

OK Martin, this is where I need some of your help. Here is how I have the LED's laid out thus far, what do you think?

Any other opinions are welcome as well.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

Agreed, you have some great handy work there Greg!

Please hurry up, I wanna see this beasty filled!

GEE WILLACURES Levi!! I just started this today what more can you ask for.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by nanomano

Nice much obliged man! Not sure when but most like a year, So I will be in touch! I'm doing an all led build too, probably either 125-150 gallons 6 feet long not too sure what else haha, I've been watching the progress on this thread and I just get so excited, I can wait to upgrade and learn how not to be such a reef noob!

We where all noobs at some point, except for Dez, Kien and Levi I think they were all born with SW in there vains. I am still a SW noob on some things and will never ever say I know everything there is to know about this hobby

[sphelps]

From my experience with some experimenting over thinking the layout of various LED colors doesn't pay off. I did the exact same thing with my fixture and spend a bunch of time and effort to layout each color so they were all distributed evenly and mixed in as much as possible with my hopes of avoiding color spots and lack of blending.

The fact is it's not that important. You're better off doing rows off each color just like a T5 fixture. It keeps things much simpler and wiring will be easier, plus might even be better for heat distribution. Believe it or not you won't notice a difference in color distribution on a tank your size if you do things like this or stagger them all over the place.

One thing I also would have changed on mine is using 1W for colors like green and red, they don't really offer much except some additional spectrum adjustment which is purely just for effect. The problem with the 3W is they are still a tad bright even when fully dimmed since you can only dim down to about 5% or so and. I have 7 3W reds and I never put them past 10%. I've also actually had to completely turn my reds off for a while due to crazy algae blooms which immediately stopped with the red cut off.

Also get yourself an infrared temp gun and watch the temp on those LEDs, I found they run a little warmer than the typical star mounted ones. Doubt you'll have a problem with that heat sink though but maybe just encase, especially those ones that are really close to each other.

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

We where all noobs at some point, except for Dez, Kien and Levi I think they were all born with SW in there vains. I am still a SW noob on some things and will never ever say I know everything there is to know about this hobby

Don't discredit yourself that fast buddy you got some pretty wicked salty skillz yourself! I would argue we really never leave the "noob" state, always stuff to be learned in this hobby!