Advice fo small diy led

[Milad]

FYI if you dont have a controller and want to do sunrise and sunset and power your LEDs and have moonlights, check this out:removed

Just plug in one of the power supplies depending on how many LEDs you want to run, and you dont need any extra drivers and you can fully control it. Its designed for the nano guys to have control on the LEDs and save you money on drivers.

[msjboy]

lotsa cheap hong kong companies like http://www.aquastyleonline.com/ etc. just check our american counterpart sites like reefsanctuary, nano-reef, reef central etc.

msjboy

[megs_clark]

I just bought a 29 biocube off another member here. Theirs to many options on everything, lol. I feel like im going to be reading forever. The controler thing is neat. I read a diy journal and someone used a Arduino off ebay. Their only like $20 and it said you can buy seperate Buckpucks and hook them up to the one Arduino and controll how bright the lights are, like if the blue were to blue or whites were to bright you could lower them seperatly. It seemed like a cheap way to have that power lol. I was only planning on doing a led for my little 5.5g nano buy it sure seems like you can do an affordable one yourself for only a little more then it would cost to buy replacment lights.

Had anyone mixed in the true violet leds from the ledgroupbuy site.
Also for the ones you solder on, did you use a special soldering gun? I read you need a stronger gun and they looked to be about as much as the build would cost?

[MarkoD]

why not use one of those LED PAR 38 bulbs?

[megs_clark]

Id never heard of a LED PAR 38 bulb Mark. After a fast google It looked like they only have one Led in the bulb. Can you add more to them. I want some blue mixed in. The fixture lookes nice.

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by megs_clark

Id never heard of a LED PAR 38 bulb Mark. After a fast google It looked like they only have one Led in the bulb. Can you add more to them. I want some blue mixed in. The fixture lookes nice.

I'm pretty sure they have reef par 38 bulbs. With 12 LEDs blue and white. Just google reef par 38

[megs_clark]

bblinks, I just wanted to double check... im going to order the leds tonight, did you go with the Neutral white or the cool white?

[roblarss]

I am using an arduino to control my led lighting system. Its not a simple project. The arduino can turn the lights on/off at set times but as far as I know it cant dim a buckpuck directly.

If you want to just set the lighting levels to what ever pleases you and not change it then the buckpucks will work alone for that. They have a small current adjustment pot on them.

The arduino is good if you want to have a sunrise/sunset effect or led cooling system temp monitoring and dont mind figuring out a little bit of programming.

A couple of puckpucks would probably do a small system like that nicely.

I didnt use a special soldering gun just a cheap 100w one (maybe cost 25 bucks).

[Bblinks]

I think the best option and bang for your buck would be the rapidled bio cube kit. If you want to truly control it them opt for reef keeper system or apex. I am not very good at soldering but the offer solderless connectors for certain Cree LEDs that will make life a lot easier. IMO I think don't complicate things, try to make it as simple for yourself as possible. That way you have less chance of messing it up.

[Milad]

Also stick to the CREE LEDs that are proven to work.

Ive seen a some info on the bridgelux the aquastyle guys use and you basically need twice as many if not more, to get the same output as the CREE which throws the power savings out the door. Some guy had a comparison on them, ill link it if I can find it again.

The PAR38 would actually work real well for that tank. Just make sure you get a quality one like nanotuners sells. Only issue is you cant dim for sunrise sunset and you cant customize it to your tank.