Led ideas
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: DIY
Forum Description: Do it Yourself
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=61756
Printed Date: July 22 2025 at 8:05am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Led ideas
Posted By: Dan9554880
Subject: Led ideas
Date Posted: January 29 2013 at 4:51pm
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I was thinking of going led in the future but want to know more about and see about how much it cost. My tank is a 55 gallons with softies for now but would like to star growing Lps as well. Also want to keep a rbta alive. I wanted to do it as low as possible 150 or less. Was thinking in two 6x10 heatsink (one for each side) With about 18 LEDs per sink (creed) About 12 white (mix) and 2 uv and 16 blue (mix) Was thinking in going with solder less LEDs Will 2 drivers be enough for all this LEDs 1 for white and 1 for blues/uv Not sure on which one but here are my two options http://shop.stevesleds.com/product.sc?productId=88&categoryId=35 http://www.rapidled.com/0-10v-dimmable-nano-driver-with-potentiometer/ Also I have four t5ho 48in in my tank right now if I were to do this will be better than what I already have or will it make it worse? ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |
Replies:
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 3:14am
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you'll want to do more blues than whites. The color will be nicer. Do a mix of 3:1 cool white to neutral white. You should be careful to keep the max currents of each type of LED in mind. You dont want to burn any out. Solderless LEDS cost more... Spend the extra bit on more LEDs... Or save your money. You can use two drivers as long as the currents aren't exceeded. Make sure you get drivers with the forward voltage that is enough for the number of LEDs you get. If you get a driver that's externally dimmable, you'll have to get an external power supply that will be able to provide no more than 10v. All that said, you should have enough light to grow some sps on top of the rocks.
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Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 5:40am
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I just ordered a 36 LED set from Aquastyle and they should be here early next week. 12 neutral white and 24 royal blue. Two Meanwell dimmable drivers and I got a 20 inch heat sink from RapidLED that's already drilled and tapped. I'll let you know how it goes. Fat ------------- February 4: Winter Banquet at the Living Planet Aquarium Tickets: http://utahreefs.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=36 |
Posted By: Dan9554880
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 4:19pm
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Ok thank now I found this http://www.buildmyled.com/custom-reef-spectrum/ http://www.buildmyled.com/14000k-custom-reef-spectrum/ Will this be enough to grow corals like softies , Lps , and my current rbta? If I were to buy this will one be enough? And which one will be better? ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |
Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 5:04pm
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LEDs grow almost every coral amazingly well. My LED system is way too strong for Acans though, even in the shade they do miserably. Something to keep in mind. |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 5:37pm
| those may be a little dim for your setup. You could try one though. Its over 100$ more than you wanted to spend initially for the 48" version. For comparison, qt the lowest setting, I have my figure 4" above the water with an output of about 160w with 120deg lenses. That is only 77 watts with 80deg lenses. You'll have to install it at about 8 inches from the water for good spread. It may not grow many sps. It does have ok wavelength coverage but it's more of a gimmick than anything there. |
Posted By: ReefKeeper78
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 6:02pm
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I love my LED's, all my corals including acan's are doing really well, your welcome to come by and see them if your ever down in my area, I have a pretty good spread of colors and can show you how different settings will look, Ex. blues with just NW or blues with just cool white, or the white you can create with blue, red and green. Never got to look at a tank with mine's variety before my build would have helped a lot but can't say that I am disappointed. I would have done a little more CW then NW but they are on different drivers so I have them adjusted to my liking. I went with rapid and have no complaints, I still send them questions on other builds I have done and they always get back to me by the next day.. ------------- 180Gal Reef with 576 Watts of LED's 16Gal Innovative Marine Nano LED lit 150 Gal Frag tank with MH PADI Dive certified sure love that ocean.. |
Posted By: ReefKeeper78
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 6:07pm
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Two drivers would be enough but you would need at least an Eln-60-48 and run them in parallel to make it happen which means you would also need to have wiring connecting the two heatsinks together I know of some fabulous connectors to use for it to make it cleaner looking shoot me a pm if interested.. ------------- 180Gal Reef with 576 Watts of LED's 16Gal Innovative Marine Nano LED lit 150 Gal Frag tank with MH PADI Dive certified sure love that ocean.. |
Posted By: Dan9554880
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 6:30pm
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If I were to use Cree LEDs how many do I need to be enough to grow corals? ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |
Posted By: ReefKeeper78
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 7:37pm
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What are the dimensions of your tank? ------------- 180Gal Reef with 576 Watts of LED's 16Gal Innovative Marine Nano LED lit 150 Gal Frag tank with MH PADI Dive certified sure love that ocean.. |
Posted By: Dan9554880
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 8:04pm
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48x12x21 I'm trying to do it as cheap as possible but still grown corals ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |
Posted By: ReefKeeper78
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 8:36pm
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Absolute minimum for your tank to do soft corals would be 32 leds for hard corals like sps you could do it with 36. This is only blues and whites of course and the calculation is based on using cree xpg for white and xre for royal blue. I would split it using that few leds 2/3 rblue 1/3 Neutral white. So say sps setup of 36 would do 12 NW and 24 RB. I again could show you what it will look like if your curious.. Sounds like it could be a fun build..Oh and if you want the 2 uv then make the count 34 and 38. ------------- 180Gal Reef with 576 Watts of LED's 16Gal Innovative Marine Nano LED lit 150 Gal Frag tank with MH PADI Dive certified sure love that ocean.. |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: January 30 2013 at 8:44pm
| reefkeeper's estimate is good. Although running fewer means you run them at fuller capacity so their life is decreased. Good thing you can always add more when you get more money! Keep that in mind.... |
Posted By: Dan9554880
Date Posted: January 31 2013 at 6:54pm
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Also do I need a splash guard protector or is it just for more protection Also has anyone have any experience with stevesled.com and buying from them? ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: February 01 2013 at 1:42am
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a splash protector would be a good addition. You dont want water frying your leds. I've never bought from that site but as far as I know, he doesn't sell crees. The cheapest I've found are from reefledlights.com.
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Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: February 01 2013 at 8:23am
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Most definitely do a splash guard. That salt creep will eventually find a way to short your LEDs. I bought the Philips Luxeon ES LEDs from www.stevesleds.com and I really am happy with them. I have a fairly new tank, though. My RBTA seems think it gives off too much light, actually. ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: February 01 2013 at 8:25am
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And I've compared datasheets, the Philips Luxeon ES are very comparable to Cree's. They both have very similar lumen (or is that lumens? I don't know the correct term there haha) output in the 750-1000mA rating. I personally think Cree's running at more than 1A are overkill unless you have a very deep tank, but that's just me. I am running my LEDs at about 800 mA. I'm not using a PWM controller or fancy driver. I just rigged up a voltage regulator in constant current mode and it does the job well enough. It's not dimmable, though, very rudimentary. ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: ReefKeeper78
Date Posted: February 01 2013 at 8:37am
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No question on the splash guard its a must have, the numbers I gave you for amount of LED's is based on having the LED's 4" above the water. If you run just the 2 drivers you want to do in parallel setup you will not be able to run higher then 650mA. The Eln-60-48 is a 1.3 amp driver /2 since you will have two stings =650mA. This is only going to be for your Blue though, you can run the 12 whites in series and will be able to push them to 1.3 amps if you want the xpg's can handle 1.5a ------------- 180Gal Reef with 576 Watts of LED's 16Gal Innovative Marine Nano LED lit 150 Gal Frag tank with MH PADI Dive certified sure love that ocean.. |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: February 02 2013 at 8:56pm
| chris.rogers... would you be willing to post your voltage regulator design for others to use? |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: February 03 2013 at 9:28am
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Asad laid it all out. http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47456&title=super-cheap-dimmable-led-driver-cost-under-3" rel="nofollow - http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47456&title=super-cheap-dimmable-led-driver-cost-under-3 It's a very simplistic approach, and it can be configured to use a potentiometer to be dimmable, but it's not as efficient as a PWM. With a PWM controller the dimming doesn't eat up extra electricity. A nice driver will also make it easier to interface with a controller or Arduino or something. When I do my home lights I'll order one of Steve's LEDs drivers so I can hook up the Arduino. Then I'll get a wifi adapter and write an app that will let me tune color, dim, and turn my lights off and on from my phone and tablet. I can't wait to do that. ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: Dan9554880
Date Posted: February 03 2013 at 9:40am
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Wat do u think about this LEDs http://shop.stevesleds.com/category.sc?categoryId=26 Epistar led ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: February 03 2013 at 9:57am
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I prefer to get the better LEDs. They're only a dollar more expensive, and they're much higher quality. ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: February 03 2013 at 2:31pm
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I have to correct myself: if you have a switched mode power supply then dimming your LED circuit won't eat up extra electricity. ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: Boxfish
Date Posted: February 04 2013 at 1:34pm
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Here'swhat I did I love mine. I never posted a picture of them at full power but you get the idea of the build http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2145595 |
Posted By: Dan9554880
Date Posted: February 04 2013 at 2:06pm
If I were to order something like this will it work? And will be better than my current 4 48in t5ho? ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |
Posted By: ReefKeeper78
Date Posted: February 04 2013 at 4:49pm
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I personally wouldn't like the color that would put off. Unsure of what driver exactly your using there would like more details. ------------- 180Gal Reef with 576 Watts of LED's 16Gal Innovative Marine Nano LED lit 150 Gal Frag tank with MH PADI Dive certified sure love that ocean.. |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: February 05 2013 at 2:09am
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With Chinese stuff you just plain don't know what you're getting; you could get a really awesome LED fixture that will last for years to come and be just as good as the expensive setup your neighbor put in there. It also could be a cheap piece of crap and if you want to get some answers, good luck talking to the people who sold it to you. I am glad I went the direction I did, even if it's not the cheapest. It was a good solution, considering cost as well as all my other needs. If you find a different outfit that helps you get what you want, then by all means, do it. :) ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: Dan9554880
Date Posted: February 26 2013 at 3:57pm
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If made something like a stunner strip how many LEDs do I need? And what color will be best? ------------- 210 Mixed Reef 20 Nuvo nano reef Learn your tank, not the hobby |