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

[Hustler]

Well some news is good news LOL
I really want to see your led build... Im buying some knock offs in the mean time bit if they work half as well as they seem to Ill just follow this thread and pop out a big set to match

[reefwars]

looks awesome greg man glad to see its finally coming together

[The Grizz]

Well today I received a package of more LED goodies, delivered by Mr. Modular LED himself Martin.



5 - 120w drivers


1 - 75w driver


1 - 75w driver for XP-G High Noon kit ( requires a higher output amperage )



Still need to get the 2 - 38w drivers for the Red & Green LED's & also thinking of getting a 3rd on of these to give me 6 controllable channels on my controller

[fishytime]

holy crap man......your gonna need clearance from air traffic control to fire that thing up!

[The Grizz]

So I finally got a chance today to start building the heat sinks for this tank. I have decided to do 2 - 39" x 12" heat sinks both will have 136 LEDs but will have room for more.

Got my main plates of 1/4" aluminum cut & 48 pieces of 1/8" x 1" aluminum flatbars as well.





First 5 flatbar fins tacked on:



Now 10:



15:



20:



And finally the last 3:





As you can see in the 2nd last pic I removed the very first flatbar fin, yes this was planned because I am going to wrap the whole out side of the 1/4" plate with some 1/4" x 2 1/2" flatbars.

[lastlight]

ok that's hardcore! so do you need to lay anything down as far as a paste etc to maintain ideal heat transfer between fin and plate?

[The Grizz]

I cut some 2 1/2" strips out of a small sheet of 1/4" aluminum on my tablesaw, then cut a notch into them for my 1/8" clear acrylic cover.









Added a 1/4" x 2" strip across the front but have to add something below the groove to hold the acrylic flat.

LED side:


Fan side:

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by lastlight

ok that's hardcore! so do you need to lay anything down as far as a paste etc to maintain ideal heat transfer between fin and plate?

No with aluminum the heat will transfer evenly on its own as it is a very soft alloy and a great for dispersing heat.

[lastlight]

Do you have plans to paint it somehow and does doing that reduce it's ability to cool in any sig way?

Thing looks awesome. What a beast!

You should make a DIY lumenarc style mh reflector with an aluminum shell with fins on the top (for me)

[Bblinks]

Holy smokes Grizz. Thats friken amazing. can't wait to see it when its all done. keep them pictures coming. nice work.