New LED setup for the beast

Mojoreef · Nov 3, 2011

Thought I would start a separate thread for my DIY led build. So this is going to go over a 8 foot by 3 foot tank that is 30 inches deep.. So the concept was to have multiple heat sinks mounted to a rail system and then each heat sink attached to the rail by ball joints so I can dial them in.

The first row directly over the rock work will be 6 heat sinks each of them 12 inches long by 8.46 wide and then the second row will be pull out towards the front of the tank and then angled back towards the rock work. The concept their would be to light the coral that would be under top corals and then also to blend the lights from both type of heat sinks.

So the color layout for each type of heat sink will be as follows

So the totals will be 216 Cree LED emitters, 9 meanwell drivers, 9 fans 18 resistors and fuses, 216 Carlco wides optics and 9 heatsinks. Should be cool!

mojo

Mojoreef · Nov 3, 2011

This might give a better visual

SmokeyCFH · Nov 3, 2011

Looks pretty wicked! I can't wait to see more, I've been wanting to do this for a while but I don't understand it yet haha. I look forward to the finished product!

One questions...what's the purpose of the Red LED's?

Wesley42079 · Nov 3, 2011

That led setup looks fit for a beast. Can't Wait till its hooked up.

Hahnmeister · Nov 4, 2011

Red is for some corals since most LED's lack red all together. Many corals dont use red at all though, since red gets filtered out of water in just a few meters. Many algaes and plants use it still though. It can be used to bland the blue into a magenta/purple look. Now that I can get true actinic 420nm LEDs though... I go with them instead. The other neat thing about red is that fish cant see it, so I actually use some very deep red LED's, and lots of them (I just dont have them on during the day), so I can catch fish and critters without them seeing me.

Cyber-Burn · Nov 4, 2011

Should be real nice Mojo, can't wait to see more!

SmokeyCFH · Nov 4, 2011

Hahnmeister said:
Red is for some corals since most LED's lack red all together. Many corals dont use red at all though, since red gets filtered out of water in just a few meters. Many algaes and plants use it still though. It can be used to bland the blue into a magenta/purple look. Now that I can get true actinic 420nm LEDs though... I go with them instead. The other neat thing about red is that fish cant see it, so I actually use some very deep red LED's, and lots of them (I just dont have them on during the day), so I can catch fish and critters without them seeing me.

Very interesting, thank you! So red's aren't really needed at all? I've also seen green used in some of them but typically I only see blue and white, are the others used "just in case" or to find the color they want for their tank?

Mojoreef · Nov 4, 2011

Both [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Avant Garde]Chlorophyll A and B will absorb amounts of light waves in the red spectrum, but main intension was that it tends to bring out more vivid colors in fish to the human eye.[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Avant Garde]

On the green> [/FONT]Pocilloporin primarily absorbs green/yellow (550-600 nm) light along with some upper UV-A . it emits a orange/re, Red/Orange Fluorescing pocilloporin that primarily absorbs light from 500 to 540 nm (green) and fluoresces light with wavelengths that are primarily orange to red. SO mainly to hold red and orange colored corals.

MOjo

CJO · Nov 4, 2011

Looks like a good start. Instead of having the LEDs arranged in a straight array like you do, you might want to look at grouping 3 or 5 together to help prevent color fringing.

CJ

revhtree · Nov 4, 2011

Wow Mojo! That is going to be fun! LOL!

Mojoreef · Nov 4, 2011

Looks like a good start. Instead of having the LEDs arranged in a straight array like you do, you might want to look at grouping 3 or 5 together to help prevent color fringing.

By fringing are your refering to kind of like spotlighting?? If so that is why I am putting all the heatsinks on ball swivel mounts, my plan is to angle the pads to create crossovers and diffuse the spotlight effect.

Thanks Rev

Mojoj

ReefLEDLights · Nov 5, 2011

Mojoreef said:
By fringing are your refering to kind of like spotlighting?? If so that is why I am putting all the heatsinks on ball swivel mounts, my plan is to angle the pads to create crossovers and diffuse the spotlight effect.

Thanks Rev

Mojoj

A standard hanging kit may be less expensive. Here is a pic of my lights. I can angle in almost any direction.

Bill

Mojoreef · Nov 6, 2011

A standard hanging kit may be less expensive. Here is a pic of my lights. I can angle in almost any direction.

That is cool Bill, man your lighting looks like just what I am building! do you have some more pics or is it on your site? For my set up I want to be able to get rid of the lights from over the tank easy. I installed a Barn door rail over the tank, so when I need to work on the tank I just slide the whole thing into another room, here is an old old picture of it.

And then here is one from prior to the tank being in place, you can see it can slide right towards the window and be completely gone from on top of the tank. Probably gives me to much room and thats why I fell in twice, lol

mojo

ReefLEDLights · Nov 6, 2011

Mojoreef

Here is our original fixture using T5s

To save on costs I ordered a huge box of the T5s to help the MH I used to have. I finally ran out of bulbs and time for an improvement. Note the fan vents for the excessive heat..

This fixture worked great but was very cumbersome as it was 9 feet long and it gave some excess spill on the glass.

Here is how I modified the fixture.

I decided on a modular approach. The 880 watts of T5 were replaced by 50 Premium XP-G Cool White and 75 Premium Royal Blue. This is 360 watts vs two IceCap 440 with 8 T5 or 880 watts and no 9 month bulb replacement.

Each Fixture can be tilted or angled to maximize the spread and reduce spill.

Upgrades include dimmable drivers and upgrading all optics to Carclo which are much more efficient than the previous 60 degree white cone optics.

Bill

Reef Pets · Nov 6, 2011

That is one heck of a setup.

ReefLEDLights · Nov 7, 2011

reefpets said:
That is one heck of a setup.

Thanks...The Spectrum is based on Sanjays research.

The Filtration is based on Steve Tyrees Tri-Zonal Concept...At least his idea lives on with large builds with sump rooms....

Bill

VegasRick · Nov 7, 2011

Is it just me or are Bill's pictures not showing up?

CJO · Nov 7, 2011

Mojoreef said:
By fringing are your refering to kind of like spotlighting?? If so that is why I am putting all the heatsinks on ball swivel mounts, my plan is to angle the pads to create crossovers and diffuse the spotlight effect.

Thanks Rev

Mojoj

Fringing is where there is a band of color around the shadows. It comes from having colors spaced too far apart.

CJ

Mojoreef · Nov 7, 2011

Ahh Ok thanks CJO I think I will be fine on that front as the angling should take care of that, also I am very close with the modules.

Nice looking setup Bill.

Mojo