New Custom LED is KILLER!!! DIYed by local friend (not myself)

[mike31154]

Plenty of alternatives to DIY a LED build without soldering these days. Modular LED is one & there are PAR, MR16 & E27 base spotlight bulbs available. I think there are even star LED boards available with leads already on there for quick connection.

[Bblinks]

DUDE! That looks amazing. LED are the future of this hobby. I am a stronger believer once you try it out you will never go back to anything else. Tank looks good. I hope that powder blue is doing good.
BTW I just installed all 9 of the AI on my tank and boy is it ever bright. I fricken love it. Come by and check out the new 300 some time.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Just remember to dim it down or you risk bleaching out your corals.

[Bblinks]

I think 5 hours at full blast should be okay, don't you? I got mine amped up from 10-12 the 12-5 100% 5-11 amp down.

[mike31154]

Any updates on your LED fixture? You mentioned you were still trying things out & it was a bit of a prototype at this point. Interested in any changes or news.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

OK. Time for an update.

So we're onto V2 or Version 2 of my LED unit using 10w emitters. My friend built V2 with more aluminum bars to create a bigger heatsink so NO fans are needed. It's completely passive cooling and no problems even at full power. Warm but not hot to the touch. I changed out the mix of colours to 6 x blue 445 nm; 6 x blue 455 nm; 3 x 6500k whites; 3 x 20000k whites & 10 x 10000k whites. I like a very blue look to my display tank so I may even switch out some 10000ks for more blues.

As for how well V1 & V2 work for growing corals, I picked up a branching hammer mid-July with about 8 big heads and a few baby heads. Now it has a total of 47 heads on it (as of tonight) and the entire "branch" is covered when the lights are on. So roughly went from 17 to 47 heads in 3 months.

It took a while for the LPS to adapt to the higher intensity of 10w LED emitters but now I can blast full power if I want (280w total over a 165g) without any issues. I usually have the blues on 100% and the whites at 60-80% though cause I like the bluer look.

Will post pics this weekend hopefully.

[StirCrazy]

looks good, any better picture of the fixture its self?

where are you guys getting these 10 watt LEDs from?

Steve

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Mine were ordered from DealsExtreme.

Good components, but terrible service. Too long to get my last order of emitters.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

looks good, any better picture of the fixture its self?

where are you guys getting these 10 watt LEDs from?

Steve

fleabay

[byee]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

OK. Time for an update.

So we're onto V2 or Version 2 of my LED unit using 10w emitters. My friend built V2 with more aluminum bars to create a bigger heatsink so NO fans are needed. It's completely passive cooling and no problems even at full power. Warm but not hot to the touch. I changed out the mix of colours to 6 x blue 445 nm; 6 x blue 455 nm; 3 x 6500k whites; 3 x 20000k whites & 10 x 10000k whites. I like a very blue look to my display tank so I may even switch out some 10000ks for more blues.

As for how well V1 & V2 work for growing corals, I picked up a branching hammer mid-July with about 8 big heads and a few baby heads. Now it has a total of 47 heads on it (as of tonight) and the entire "branch" is covered when the lights are on. So roughly went from 17 to 47 heads in 3 months.

It took a while for the LPS to adapt to the higher intensity of 10w LED emitters but now I can blast full power if I want (280w total over a 165g) without any issues. I usually have the blues on 100% and the whites at 60-80% though cause I like the bluer look.

Will post pics this weekend hopefully.

I've been sitting on the fence on the 1W / 3W LED's for the past year. I'm considering building a 10W LED setup for my 120g tank.

Do you have all the atinic's (blue 445nM and 455nM) LEDs, 10,000K & 6,500K and 10,000K on separate timers?

How do you have the 455nM, 445nM, 6500K, 10,000K and 20,000K LEDs arranged over the tank for each of the runs?

Thanks in advance!