LED DIY LIGHT build

monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///forum/thread/383238/led-diy-light-build/40#post_3354435
Going this route monsinour your taking it out of the realm of the average DIYer, what fun is it to have someone else do your work?
Not really fun, but for me, it makes it 1 easier and 2 actually work! I am about to call him now to see if he can use the laser to etch acrylic. I have a piece of his work using the laser to etch stainless steel. If you want to see the work, lemme know and I will take a pic.
But, if something needs to be done, he has no problem doing it if I pay for the supplies.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
I hate to be the downer here but I'm having doubts that the op's leds are going to last very long using nothing but the flat bars. I find it hard to believe that others who have done it using the same method say that they bars really stay cool to the touch. What is cool? Like if it doesn't melt your skin when you touch the metal? Just currious. But I'm interested to see how it turns out. If nothing else it should be real easy to swap out any led's that go bad with new ones.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
For the price I don't see why not just go with a couple of these tied together with some angle alluminum or flat bar. $10 a piece for 12" length...the alluminum flat bar isn't all that much cheaper. You would get about 4x's the surface area for the heat to dissapate. If it were me I might even build a nifty box for the whole thing to mount in and hang that from the ceilling.

Shawn: How many led's were you thinking for each of your panels? If you're not mounting them super close together than maybe you could use something like these as well and cut out alot of excess weight between the leds. Might not be "as" efficient as a larger heatsink with fans mounted on them but I think they would be better than the square tubing. These start getting a little more costly though as you go up in length. Just a thought.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Not sure Corey....My original plan for the LEDs was somewhere around 200 LEDs.....I haven't actually sat down and figured or calculated exact amount due to the ever changing spacing that's going on. I know my original counts was based something off of 1.5 spacing....I think I could easily do 2.5" spacing and be perfectly fine, which would cut my overall amount of LEDs down...I actually like the linear design, but not sure that I'd want to put all blues on a strip and whites and what nots on others. For some reason the blend just doesn't seem like it would be right?

Corey do they cut custom lengths or just a set length? My original design was calling for 4 heat sinks 12"x36" spaced evenly over the tank.....I wanted or was thinking about making them adjustable to be able to adjust them to work around the euro bracing of the tank.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I know 200 LEDs is way to much, but I seriously think 3"-3.5" is really stretching the spacing.....Some of the best builds so far have stretched it to 2.5"....
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
I agree too though. I thought you can get by with just 56 LED's on one tank... or even going as many as 84 LEDs...
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
I have a 150 gallon, 5' in length, 30" tall, 20" deep. I would assume 84 LED's similar to how AI Sol Super Blue's are built would be good enough for my tank. If I can get each 28 LED's of the Royal, 28 of the Whites, and 28 of the Blue's then it shouldn't be any problem building one for cheap. I just never thought of looking for LED's online before... I don't know why.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
just got done reading the DIY part over at www.reefledlights.com and it sure seems simple enough. I havent heard back about the trumpf laser being able to cut aluminum properly for the heat sink. But really, wouldnt you want to drill holes into the heatsink to put all the wiring above the lights for a "cleaner" look to the fixture? Will the heatsink get so hot to melt the insulation on the wire? I would imagine that it would depend on the insulation itself and what kind of wire one uses. I make mention of this solely for the purpose of DIY a led setup for over the chi tank. I am thinking I can get a square heatsink made with a hole in the middle to fit around the filter/led box in the chi. I would have to figure out a way to suspend it over the tank, but these leds would be proper lighting to give to the zoas that would be in the tank. thoughts? (sorry for the mini hijack)
 
1snapple

1snapple

Active Member
Okay, what is CHI?!?

you can probably run a 10g tank on 3 LEDs and do LPS, zoas, and softies.
If you can get them to spread right.....
You can also run numerous PAR bulbs and span them, I could do that but the point of this project is to get down the colors, the amount of LEDs,
how to build it, Different heatsinks, ect. So I know what I am doing when I start to make a large LED set for the 95g 48" tank.
And the point of this thread is not only for my build but everyone's LED questions. If we can all learn from each other and tons of people post up this thread
we may be able to answer most of the questions that come up.
You cannot "hijack" this thread.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Fluval Chi tank. Its a small decorative tank. The tank looks cool, and i think that if it were filled with zoas, it would be even cooler.
 
1snapple

1snapple

Active Member
Oh, ya, maybe even cooler when loaded w/ acans and some rockwork covered in Montipora.
No word of a shipment from rapid yet... Looks like im getting it shipped next week.
 
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