Built my own led bar

tactical_XJ · Mar 12, 2019

so after spending weeks looking for a Reef Brite xho, and finding out how extremely expensive they are I decided to make my own led light for my 60g, I don’t have many pics of it while soldering the led chips and gluing them to the aluminum heat sink, but the materials I use were,
2.5x 12” aluminum heat sinks
16x 3w 460-470nm chips
Thermal paste
16 gauge silicone wire
Plastic weld to hold them down,
And to power them I’m using an old mars aqua dimmable driver 55w.

Coastie Reefer · Mar 12, 2019

Good job. Stuff like this makes me wish I knew how to solder...

tactical_XJ · Mar 12, 2019

Thanks, the soldering is super easy, harder is getting the polarity right so all the leds are correct so they can turn on .

McPuff · Mar 13, 2019

tactical_XJ said:
Thanks, the soldering is super easy, harder is getting the polarity right so all the leds are correct so they can turn on .

True! I have also not found the sweet spot for amount of thermal adhesive to keep the LEDs stuck for a few years... maybe that's normal? Looks like a nice setup! What did it end up costing you?

tactical_XJ · Mar 13, 2019

it Ended up costing me about 15$ only, the leds are super cheap and so are the heat sinks, I’m actually about to order more and make a few more lights for a small nano to keep next to my computer lol, and as for the thermal pate, I bought a big one on eBay for 12$ a while ago for my computer, so I ended up using that and I still have 90% of it left, I’m in the process of making a small light for my sump in the full spec pink like the h380s, but getting/making something to mount it is a little more difficult, I also glued it on using plastic weld from jb weld and for me to take one of them off I have to hammer a small flat head between the led chip and heat sink, so I know this will last a good long time, oh and the heat sink barely gets warm.

User1 · Mar 13, 2019

Nice setup. I use a similar heat sink although mine is 52" in length since my tank is 54" wide. I have multi channel chips on it and added a pair of fans. Once the canopy is built I'll had a larger fan inside but at the moment running the LED's at 80% is warm to the touch.

I like the bar design myself rather than the pendants - I think we get more even spread. In any case nice work.

tactical_XJ · Mar 13, 2019

saf1 said:
Nice setup. I use a similar heat sink although mine is 52" in length since my tank is 54" wide. I have multi channel chips on it and added a pair of fans. Once the canopy is built I'll had a larger fan inside but at the moment running the LED's at 80% is warm to the touch.

I like the bar design myself rather than the pendants - I think we get more even spread. In any case nice work.

You have any pics of your set up? I haven’t found anybody else that’s willing to diy lights so I decided to think outside the box of 700$ radions lol, if I could make my own and grow my corals healthy and happy then I’m happy and so would my girlfriend lol.

User1 · Mar 13, 2019

tactical_XJ said:
You have any pics of your set up? I haven’t found anybody else that’s willing to diy lights so I decided to think outside the box of 700$ radions lol, if I could make my own and grow my corals healthy and happy then I’m happy and so would my girlfriend lol.

Yeah - I have an older picture of the bar and 4 chips with drivers in the center. However, I've since cleaned it up so that only the chips and lenses are on the bar. The cables are off the end now and the drivers / pwm converter are on a heat sink under the cabinet. May give you an idea anyway. I'll see if I have others later when I get home since these do not have the fans. The fans are 2" Noctuoa.

tactical_XJ · Mar 13, 2019

Ahh ok, I was gonna run a few chips only
Put it was gonna be a lot of space that I could use, I was gonna run 6 the most but nothing that I had could hold only 6 leds so I added more lol, I can turn it all the way up or all the way down without a problem

User1 · Mar 13, 2019

Yeah - I have a bar similar to yours over my daughters planted tank using singles like you have. Each of these chips are multi channel blue acro stars. So 4 channels. The lens helps with the light flooding and spread and helps focus the light to a 12 - 18" spread. My tank is 30" tall so this helps. The plan is to have two bars with 8 chips total. Right now I have a single bar up and running. The bar gets somewhat warm at 80% like I said but each of the chips you see here have about 15 - 16 LED's. So it can generate some heat. The heat sinks are nice though - and a great price.

I may add another pair of chips in the center that they are designing now to help with the color spread and use 1 of the channels for a moon light a couple times a year.