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

[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!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Nice! Which tank are you running this over?

So, we just finished testing the PAR on my new LED that a friend of mine is building for me tonight. We're using 26 total emitters of 10w LEDs (12 x 10000k; 8 x 455nm Blues; 3 x 20000k; 3 x 6500k) for 260w max over a 5'8' x 2' x 2' 165g full reef tank.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

So, we just finished testing the PAR on my new LED that a friend of mine is building for me tonight. We're using 26 total emitters of 10w LEDs (12 x 10000k; 8 x 455nm Blues; 3 x 20000k; 3 x 6500k) for 260w max over a 5'8' x 2' x 2' 165g full reef tank.

My bad. Got lost in all those numbers before. I like the low profile look. Are the LEDs recessed or just mounted on the heat sink surface?

Also, who's the manufacturer of the 10W LEDs?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

My bad. Got lost in all those numbers before. I like the low profile look. Are the LEDs recessed or just mounted on the heat sink surface?

Also, who's the manufacturer of the 10W LEDs?

They are screwed onto the heat sink surface. My friend is going to add a 2" aluminum "shield" around the entire unit to block off the light so someone looking at the tank or walking by won't see the LEDs.

(more numbers to get lost in) Each emitter has a 100 degree spread which is perfect. 13 emitters per 5'8" heatsink and it's 12" wide, 2" tall. It's literally only 3.5" from the water surface, with good shimmer, full spread and no "spot lighting" or "disco ball effect". The two fans blow air up on the right side but most of the cooling is my conduction/convection. With all the lights on, there were still sections of the heatsinks that were cool to the touch and at most it was barely warm in parts. My friend will be adding pieces of aluminum on the open ends of the rectangular tubes which will make the fans more effective.

I can literally pick up the lighting unit with one or two fingers.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Just running the blues at half power and I've noticed one advantage of these LEDs is that even though none of the white lights have been on for at least 4.5 hours, many of my corals are still fully open. They usually closed up under the old moonlights within an hour or two of the MH going off. I'm liking this development

[Tom R]

Hi Anthony

The lights look great. You are definitely on the right track.

What a win win.

Better Par at half the juice.

I look forward to coming over for a real good look.

Tom R

[Reefgoat]

It's looking really nice. What manufacturer makes those 10w leds?