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100W Actinic LED Retrofit


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So after playing with different LEDs just for fun, I finally decided to pull the trigger and build something useful with them.

Using my current Coralife 250w MH + 4x65w PC light fixture, I decided to gut the power compacts and replace with entirely too much LED for my little 55gal. Although... some people said having dual 250w MH was too much light for it as well.

I got 10 x 10w 455nm Actinic LED panels, 2 meanwell drivers that would run 5 each, and a dual dimming kit.

I also purchased 2 x 44" long x 1.8" wide heatsinks from heatsinkusa.com

Ended up taking me way too long to build, since I didn't actually think any of it out ahead of time. Today was the first time I've even opened up the fixture, but it all worked out in the end.

We were able to fit the meanwell drivers in the fixture, along with the power supply for the dimmer and everything. The dimmer knobs are on the end of the fixture, and I can control the front and back lights independently.

I would have taken more pics, but I didn't think about it until we were pretty much done.

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Actinics are actually only turned up about 30% in this pic.

Its really hard to get a good picture of the actinics. I need to figure out a good camera setting. I can't wait to see how well they hold up when the MH are on tomorrow.

Makes my zoas GLOW.

Total cost was under $200, which isn't bad considering the CF Actinic bulbs can cost $30-40 each anyways x 4 bulbs.

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Nice! Looks like it was a failrly straight forward conversion. I know it would have complicated your design but did you look at using a couple of different wavelengths of blue?

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Hey man I want this setup but what would you think about 10 LEDs on each side for my 140 gallon deep?

I think you definitely should do it, since you have the same fixture, but 10 each would be insane overkill.

You need to come by next time you are in town to check it out and see. Also PM PhotoDude (JakeDoza) and talk to him about his build.

He has a 145gal and used the exact same brand and number of actinics on his, and it looks great.

Nice! Looks like it was a failrly straight forward conversion. I know it would have complicated your design but did you look at using a couple of different wavelengths of blue?

Very easy to do, the thing that gave us the most trouble was I tried to drill & tap the heatsinks.... not an easy task. If I had it to do over again I would just use thermal adhesive.

I left plenty of space to add other colors on separate drivers later. There is plenty of room inside of the fixture for at least 2-3 smaller drivers, and lots of room for LEDs.

I have some Red SMD that I may put in the holes where I took out the OEM moonlights from the fixture at a later date.

Looks good Chris!

Thanks. Swing by whenever you want to take a look at it. Its as intense as we thought it would be when you were last here and we were just testing it with the 2 panels.

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VERY Nice. I'm still struggling to get good pics under actinic. Totally washed out looking. From what I understand it is the white balance.... Need to figure that out.

I'm liking your set up, well done.

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  • 2 months later...

Hey bud i got my blue actinics in but don't have my whites. They dropped the ball again and are out of stock. Well anyways, i got the blue and was wondering what gauge of wire are you using for your lights? I'm going to set them up at the end of the week when i have more time.

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  • 1 year later...

Small update.

Since we went with no-name cheap LEDs from China, I had had to replace a few panels over the past 18 months.

I think the first 2 panels went out after 8 months or so, but since I bought extra ($4/ea) it was a 5min job to re-do.

A couple more panels went out right before this past Christmas and I just left the actinics off for a while. I was contemplating re-doing everything with CREE LED's, but just didn't get around to it.

Last month one output of my Dual MH ballast stopped working so I had this guy off the tank for a while. I finally found two MH ballasts that I liked and while we were re-wiring those I went ahead and replaced the other actinic panels that were bad. Again, 3 more panels at $4/ea.

I acquired some UV LEDs from Jeremy a little while back and bought another driver, so we installed those today as well. Pretty sure they are 3w UV Violet @ 410-420nm. Put in 8 of those on their own driver/switch.

We also installed some tiny fans blowing over the heatsinks to help cool. I'm not sure what caused the previous LED panels to fail, might as well help cool down the new ones.

No pics of the fixture turned on, since actinic shots are already near impossible, UV shots are even worse. I'll take some FTS when the MH are scheduled back on.

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Nicely done. Any concern on the drivers being so close to the MH and them getting roasted?

Not really. They have been going for 18mo with no driver issues. Its the same place in the fixture where the original PC ballasts were. I do have a set of computer fans that I put on top of the fixture to draw heat from the center areas.

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  • 1 year later...

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