tank build journal FijiReefRock.com

[darkreef]

Prove it

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by darkreef

Prove it

I will show you alright...lol

too busy yesterday and today but I am still going to show you...

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Here is what I accomplished late last night...

Drilling the holes needed on the LED emitters and the heatsink then placing the LEDs on then the lenses goes on..

Placing scotch tape on the face of the LEDs keeping the emitters from finger marks and dust as I learned i n the past how to kill the LEDs


Not sure why the lighter was in that picture


On to drilling 2 holes in each LED using a press drill



Now placing the LED on the heatsink to mark for drilling into the heatsink.



Now marking it




Into the drill press...was painful and frustrating doing all those heatsinks one at a time but had to finish



And voila



Chine clean the heat sinks and the back of the LEDs for assembly...



Excuse me as I cannot remenber the name of this electronic piece ...I will just call it temperature set breaker for now,its purpose is to break the circuit between the driver and the LED to save it as if by any chance the fan on the heatsink fails.Hope that made sense..



The above part will be soldered to the + side of the LED.
below is the soldered - side of the LED



There you see it soldered to the + LED side with the shrink tape waiting to slip through



I left out some micro detailed information if anyone is interested please let me know and I will be happy to get into specific details...

Tonight I will glue the lenses on and put the fans in place and possibly wire some of the LEDs and test over the tank..

[FishyFishy!]

Lookin good!!!

[sphelps]

LED build looks nice so far. Heads up on the copper though, while it's thermal conductivity is better it's capacity is lower so more dependent on fans for convection. However the reason you'll never seen copper heatsinks for aquarium LED fixtures is because unlike aluminium it oxidizes quite rapidly with a little humidity, especially with salt. So blowing air from around your tank will quickly cause the surface to oxidize and make the heat sinks less efficient.

[darkreef]

I second this , copper and silver are the best conductors. But they corrode ever quickly .
That's why there always sealed away in wires . Aluminum is usually used becuse it disperses the heat effected zone evenly threw out its surface area .

Would the corrosion get into the aquarium ?
I don't have the answer to that

[UQUOTE=sphelps;888030]LED build looks nice so far. Heads up on the copper though, while it's thermal conductivity is better it's capacity is lower so more dependent on fans for convection. However the reason you'll never seen copper heatsinks for aquarium LED fixtures is because unlike aluminium it oxidizes quite rapidly with a little humidity, especially with salt. So blowing air from around your tank will quickly cause the surface to oxidize and make the heat sinks less efficient.[/quote]

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Yes copper thermal conductivity is best for what I am building.In the past 2 year been running same setup over my frag system but kept the heat sinks running 24/7 without having any corrosion issues and keeping in mind the arrays will be about 2feet over the water line...
I guess I will have to play around with it and see but like above from past experience the only maintenance I had to do is take the the heatsinks down 2wice a year and blow the dust buildup.

A question for all as I cannot remember (my memory is not serving me well these days.lol.)
Does a higher gauge wires than required from the LEDs to the drivers is any issues?

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Wow I cannot believe its been a month since I updated my build...
This is how far I got.

all electrical work,plumbing is finished to the tanks and the fish room.

Water,rocks,few corals and some fish happy in their new home.

Light I love the clean look I have and the room above the tank as the light are way over the tank with plenty to reach a depth of 31" with no issues.

Now I am stuck with either doing drywall or wood or maybe mosaic tiles as the entire facing of the wall to the aquarium?
I need to come up with an answer in the next couple days as I plan on finishing by the weekend


Oh ye I will post some photos and a video of what I have so far...too late in the evening I guess I will wait till tomorrow

[matt_C]

http://youtu.be/zWsIV5EqlLE
couch cough
rough video but it show a little.

[Karsten]

that aquascape looks really cool