Led light question

[monocus]

been thinking of taking it apart and soldering in some 3 watt luxeon stars

[Seamazter]

Guess that says enuf for me, thanks for the help men.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by monocus

been thinking of taking it apart and soldering in some 3 watt luxeon stars

I wouldn't. Two issues. First the drivers would probably not have enough voltage and power for a switch to 3W emitters. You would need to replace the drivers as well so at that point you might as well go DIY as LEDs and drivers are the big cost. Second, heat would probably be an issue as I doubt they have much heatsinking for 1W emitters and it looks like no fans either.

[monocus]

your right-no fans-for the size of it i would need 1 new driver-going to be building my new lights for my 220-thought i would order a few extra 3 watters and drivers-never hurts to have a couple of extras

[tinman]

Originally Posted by monocus

your right-no fans-for the size of it i would need 1 new driver-going to be building my new lights for my 220-thought i would order a few extra 3 watters and drivers-never hurts to have a couple of extras

hey guys i'm following your thread on leds and i want to get rid of the power compacts in my red sea max 130d due to the heat they put out. i would like to stay around 4 watts per gallon the unit now has 2 55 watt 50/50 bulbs any sugestions on what i could use?
thanks,
kevin.

[monocus]

go to www.ledsupply.com/luxeon-leds.php and then click on diy led projects and then led fish tank light.after looking on e-bay ,alibaba,etc,i figure it would be best to make my own led lighting as i want separate timers for each colour of light-be roughly the same as buying them.you can also type in luxeon star led ,where here there is a engine to configure your wattage to how many lights etc.i'm just trying to figure how many luxeon stars i would need for a 220 gallon 2x6x3 deep

[Ron99]

Watts per gallon doesn't really apply with LEDs. It's more about how much PAR you want for a given depth and then choosing optics and the appropriate number of LEDs for that. For an RSM 60 degree optics should be plenty. So that means spacing LEDS 2 to 2.5 inches apart in the rows and then having the rows about 3 inches apart.

What are the dimensions of the RSM?

As for LEDs, I would go Cree instead of Luxeon. The Crees are brighter and more efficient then the Luxeion right now. Cree seems to be leading in LED technology and Phillips has fallen behind.

For the 220 Gallon you will need a crapload of emitters. I would suggest contacting ETG technologies (http://www.etgtech.com/) as they can probably give you good pricing on a larger quantity of Cree XR-E stars and optics. With the depth on that tank you will probably have to go 40 degree optics which means keeping the LEDs 1.5 to 2 inches apart. That is lots of LEDs You could go 60 degree optics if you only keep lower light stuff in the bottom 12 to 18 inches.

If I were building for a 220 I would go 5 or 6 rows depending on how much PAR you think you will need. You would probably have to do two rows of heatsinks as finding a 2 foot wide heatsink is near impossible. So I would build 4 arrays using 8 inch wide by 30 to 32 inches long heatsinks. Each array would have 3 rows of 14 to 15 LEDs for a total of 168 to 180 emitters You will then need 14 meanwell 48V drivers like the ELN60-48. Rough ballpark estimate on cost would be $2000 to $2100 for LEDs, drivers, heatsinks and optics. Bank on maybe $400 to $500 hundred more for misc. parts, fans, wire, aluminum for mounts etc. So $2400 to maybe $2600. Not bad all things considered as an Aqua Illumination setup for the same sized tank would probably cost you $5000 but it is still a big up front investment.

[monocus]

as the canopy i made has 2 slide out shelves for accessing the lights(shelves are 31''x21'' holding 2 28'' coalifes each) i was going to make 2 26x15 arrays.i was also thinking about not using optics or adding them at a later date.i have a whole shop full of tools so building them isn't a problem