DIY LED help

The Grizz · #1 01-15-2013, 04:34 AM

What size of a tank are you putting them over? Where are you getting your LEDs from? I know that both Modular & Rapid LED have reccomended amount of LEDs for the size of your tank. It helps take a lot of the guess work out of a DIY build.

makana · #2 01-15-2013, 04:40 AM

I had been looking at Rapid LED. I guess I will just use their formula. I was just hoping to gain some understanding on where the formula comes from and if it is accurate.

The tank I was planning for is a 20 high. The other issue I had was the size of the heat sink. I was thinking of going big so that I can distribute the light evenly but most of the lights you can buy are smaller so the light is mainly focused over the centre of the tank.

The Grizz · #3 01-15-2013, 04:51 AM

I will be talking with Martin tomorrow and see if he can shed some light on the subject for both of us as far as number of LEDS.

As far as your heat sink personally I would make it 12" shorter & 12" narrower then your tank. Anything bigger you will be shooting light past the edges of your tank which would be a waist.

makana · #4 01-15-2013, 11:52 PM

Thanks alot. Let me know what he says.

The tank is only 24x12. So do you think it would work if I made it like a strip light? I could go 12" long and an inch or two wide. If that would work I could probably fit it in the old freshwater light.

I was thinking that I needed to make the heat sink only a little bit smaller than the tank to get proper coverage.

The Grizz · #5 01-16-2013, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makana

Thanks alot. Let me know what he says.

The tank is only 24x12. So do you think it would work if I made it like a strip light? I could go 12" long and an inch or two wide. If that would work I could probably fit it in the old freshwater light.

I was thinking that I needed to make the heat sink only a little bit smaller than the tank to get proper coverage.

So after talking with Martin today there is really no way of calculating the intensity ( par ) before you build only after its together & running, then you can check it with a par meter.

Well if your 24" x 12" I would go with a 12" x 4" heatsink, use rapids reccomendations but order a few more just in case you want to add a few. I would suggest 8 whites, 6 blue & 6 royal blue for starters.

The Grizz · #6 01-16-2013, 05:55 PM

According to the formula on Rapid Led you would require 16 leds over your tank. I would still go with a few extra just in case. If you dont run them at 100% they should last longer i would think.

makana · #7 01-17-2013, 12:03 AM

Thanks for all your help! I find the entire topic to be a little too much like trial and error and really lacking in available information.

What are your thoughts on the cool white vs neutral white. The neutral white looks to cover more spectrum so I was leaning towards that. But having never seen the two myself I don't know what they actually look like. I'm hoping to get close to full spectrum but don't want it to look bad.

How about optics? I have read that you don't need optics on a tank under 24" depth. I read a contradicting article that said you need optics to achieve the equivilent of 150w mh regardless of depth.

The Grizz · #8 01-17-2013, 12:16 AM

It is a deffinate gray area for sure.

I didn't like the color of the Nuetral White in my build & have changed them all to cool white, much nicer color mixture with the blues. Nuetral whites have a bit of a yellow ting, where as cool whites are a nice clean white.

As for optics, as far as I'm concerned there are very much needed for all colors except for reds & green. Optics focus the light from the led downward instead of outward. Also any blues used for moon lights don't need optics as you just want the light to spread out wide.