scottyk Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 I have started my DIY LED fixtures and finished my first one. ONLY 7 more to go!!! Here are some pic's of my first fixture First two pic's are of the heat sinks getting polished. Before and after.Next is of the LED's attached to heat sink.Heat sink with all LED's soldered.First fire of fixture with controller. Low and high settings.Finnished product with splash guard minus optics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshgabel Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 sweet setup!! keep the pics coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+olaggie01 Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Looks great. How big of a tank will this cover? How far off the water will the LEDs sit? You may not need the acrylic shield if it is not close to the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyk Posted October 20, 2011 Author Share Posted October 20, 2011 The tank is a 135RR that's six feet long. I plan on making the canopy 12-14 inches off the water but I'm making the lights adjustable so I can raise and lower them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyk Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 I decided to take a little extra time and make my heat sinks. The one in the middle is what the rest look like now. Here is a pic of the template I'm using to find my drill points. I use a center punch to mark the spots. I know it's kinda a waste of time to shine them up that much but I think they look better now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Waste? Naaaaaah. Looks good! lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_schoggins Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Looks great and sound like a great project. I am interested in some of the details: where did you get the heat sinks, what type of LEDs, how are you controlling them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyk Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 I got everything from RapidLED.com. The LED's are Cree XP-E Royal Blues and XP-G Cool Whites. I bought two of their 48 LED Ultra Premium kits and eight 4.5"x9" heat sinks. I also bought two controllers from them so I can control the blues and whites separately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgoodwill Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 You seem to be a pro how many Led"s do you think you would need for coral growth with a 21 inch deep tank? The width is 24 inches btw. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyk Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 I'm by no means a pro! From what I have read, 12 to 14 three watt CREE's is about the same light output as a 250watt MH. I think if you went with a little longer heat sink and the same amount of LED's you would be just fine. For your optics I think I would go with 80 degree's since your tank isn't that deep and it's wider. I don't know how long your tank is so I can't say how many fixtures I would use. Remember I'm no expert! I just spent the last year deployed in Iraq and did a lot of research and read about LED's. I still have yet to know whether I made the right choice going with LED's since My tank and lights are not finnished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgoodwill Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Well thanks for your service there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woods Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 From my understanding is you take the LED watts and multiply it by 3 and that is the equivalent of MH watts... So we may need to verify that since we have differing info... for example I have 24 RB and 14 CW = 38 3 watt LEDs on 1 heatsink for a total of 114 LED watts and 342 MH watts. Even that I think is a high estimate from what I am seeing in my tank. Also I think it largely depends on the Optics degree and distance the lights are from the tank... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Don't worry i had a feeling you will love it Scotty sweet build brother. Oh why didn't you go with one solid heat sink in stead of Three ? i think it is better that way since i did my in small heatsink before and combine them but still didn't get all the spot in the tank cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 scott... looks awesome.. You are doing exactly what I am going to do on my 135.. lol Can you post the model numbers of everything you purchased so I can get a quote? That would be awesome. Are you using any lenses at all? Thanks I'd love to see more photos as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lchlucky7 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 The tank is a 135RR that's six feet long. I plan on making the canopy 12-14 inches off the water but I'm making the lights adjustable so I can raise and lower them. How do you plan on making them adjustable inside the canopy? I have a similar tank but its 125g with 120 LED's on two three foot heat sinks. I have them in a canopy between 12-14 inches off the water and have been starting to plan an adjustable setup so I can play with the positioning. I really want to angle them 10-15 degrees to keep light off the front glass to try and reduce algae growth. Curious how you planned on doing it. Yours look great, I didn't have a lot of time to make mine look that pretty. Also thank you for serving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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