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[Apollo1K9]

Have you looked into Stunner Strips?
Aquarium Lighting & LED Lights: ecoxotic Stunner LED Strip

...You might want to do some trig to make sure you aren't getting too much spotlighting.

OH GOD NO, NOT MATH!

lol.

 

[ryshark]

sounds good to me, how far above the tank will it be and how close are you going to have the LEDs? You might want to do some trig to make sure you aren't getting too much spotlighting.

I plan on bolting the heatsink right to the underside of the canopy, so the hieght would be 16"-heatsink depth= around 14.5" I guess. So about 14.5" from the water surface.
Do some "trig" as in trigonometry? I don't think so, I took Algebra II in 11th grade and an advanced algebra in college. When I found out I had to continue further in math to get a BS in business.... I changed my major to get a BS in something else.
But yeah, I sure hope I don't get spotlighting. Who likes math here... can you figure it out?

 

[ryshark]

Have you looked into Stunner Strips?
Aquarium Lighting & LED Lights: ecoxotic Stunner LED Strip




OH GOD NO, NOT MATH!

lol.

Sounds like you are on the same page as me when it comes to advanced math.
Those LEDs won't pack near the punch I need. I think those are more for supplemental light. I need my LEDs to be a major light source.

 

[Greenmaster]

To calculate if there will be spotlighting we also need to know how far apart each LED is.

 

[ryshark]

To calculate if there will be spotlighting we also need to know how far apart each LED is.

I am planning on gong with two of these pre-drilled heatsinks for a total of 24 LEDs. Drilled and Tapped 5.9" x 9" Heat Sink for 12 LEDs Is having the LEDs further apart better or worse for spotlighting?

 

[Jimbo7]

I took some liberties making this, It would seem you may want to put them closer together in the right side view to prevent much light escaping. This also assumes on the side your canopy allows for the light to get out that far to the sides, which most don't. Throw some more info at me and I can make some revisions.

Also, expect to see my bill in the mail soon
Sorry some of the numbers are hard to read. The export function on the software is ancient, and the quality stinks. I'll figure out something better for next time.

 

[ryshark]

I took some liberties making this, It would seem you may want to put them closer together in the right side view to prevent much light escaping. This also assumes on the side your canopy allows for the light to get out that far to the sides, which most don't. Throw some more info at me and I can make some revisions.

Also, expect to see my bill in the mail soon
Sorry some of the numbers are hard to read. The export function on the software is ancient, and the quality stinks. I'll figure out something better for next time.

Thanks for putting that together Jim. Yes, I would put the heatsinks closer together. I would probably put them right next to each other so they form one big heatsink. I was also visioning putting them side by side the other way so the long parts are parallel creating an 11.8"x9" heatsink. Then I would put them in the canopy directly in the middle and the longer part of the heatsink would run from left to right in the canopy.
Do you think that would triangulate better? Thanks.

 

[Jimbo7]

It's hard for me to comment on what is better because I don't know your current lighting setup, but I can make the changes later today and give you the info to make an educated decision.

 

[ryshark]

It's hard for me to comment on what is better because I don't know your current lighting setup, but I can make the changes later today and give you the info to make an educated decision.

That would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Jimbo7]

too lazy to upload to photobucket.
The only area I am concerned about with this setup is the circled area. It might be too concentrated, but might be corrected a bit by the bar across your tank. Not exactly sure. Let me know if you need anything else.


EDIT: wow that looks terrible.
From the front view you have a 29in spread of light before it hits the water, and 10.8 inches down is the last color mixed.
From the right view you have 17 inch spread before water and 6 in down last mix of color.

 

[ryshark]

too lazy to upload to photobucket.
The only area I am concerned about with this setup is the circled area. It might be too concentrated, but might be corrected a bit by the bar across your tank. Not exactly sure. Let me know if you need anything else.


EDIT: wow that looks terrible.
From the front view you have a 29in spread of light before it hits the water, and 10.8 inches down is the last color mixed.
From the right view you have 17 inch spread before water and 6 in down last mix of color.

This is cool software, I didn't know this type stuff was out there. It is going to take some power to get through the 3/4" center brace which always has a little condensation and salt built up underneath it.
What do you mean last color mixed? I would alternate white/blue on both heatsinks. Or am I way off?

 

[Jimbo7]

No your right about the alternation, I don't know if you should have those LED's in the circled area the same color or alternating. That's for you to decide.

If you were to look from the top down either:
1
|W-B-W-B|B-W-B-W|
|B-W-B-W|W-B-W-B|
|W-B-W-B|B-W-B-W|

or
2
|W-B-W-B|W-B-W-B|
|B-W-B-W|B-W-B-W|
|W-B-W-B|W-B-W-B|

What I'm debating in my head is if having the concentrated colors (1) where the 2 heatsinks meet is a good thing, or if you should have them alternating (2).

Last color mixed is just saying where the LED's farthest from each other meet. It's not a real important figure, just something I thought might be helpful to see where and estimate.

This software is actually ancient, its what my work uses and refuses to upgrade. If I was at home I could show you some sweet diagrams. If I have time I'll throw one together, I need to start brushing up on them for school anyway.

 

[ryshark]

I can't read the numbers, what is the size of the footprint at the surface?
Do you think it would be better to space the heatsinks by an inch or two to evenly space the lights where they join at the sides? Or does that not matter much?
Thanks again for doing that

 

[ryshark]

To make things even more complicated, they recommend going with 2:1 Blues over Whites for the 20k look.

 

[Jimbo7]

How much power are you looking to get out of these, or are they more just to fill in a dark spot? I got my drivers with potentiometers so I can turn up and down the whites or blues to find a sweet spot in contrast that I like. I will say the whites overpower the blues pretty easily so if you want the look with the most power, then yea you might want to consider a different ratio. It's going to be nastyyy to wire them though.

I'm going to try something out, could you give me the dimensions of your acrylic brace running in the middle of your tank?

 

[Jimbo7]

I was going to render these all out and make them nice looking, but I got lazy.. Hopefully this clarifies what I was saying some and can help you visualize this thing easier.

And this was what I was trying to say in the post above with my |b-w-b-w| diagram.

Option 1

Option 2

The cones are 14.5 inches high, so this would be the spread at the top of your tank.
I was thinking, If I were you, I would install these on a track system of some sort in your canopy so you could mess with the best way to have them.

 

[ryshark]

Thanks for taking the time to do that Jimbo. So it looks like option 2 mixes the light better, right? Are those cones with 45-degree lenses? I didn't realize I would get so much spread at the surface. I definitely need to go with the dimmable driver, to turn it down if necessary. I sliding rack would be nice, but I don't think I want to mess with building one. I need to look up some pictures to see how people mount fans in the heatsinks, when retrofitted in a canopy. So using 2:1 blue over white lights makes the wiring harder? Its looking like I will need 8-white and 16-blue to get the 20k look.

 

[Jimbo7]

The whites are 45 and the blues are 40 like you had mentioned. They might be offset slightly because of the height of the optics, im not positive.

It will make things harder if you go the same route as me, because the drivers can only support 6 LEDs on a 24v power supply. You could run them on a 32v power supply, but they would get crazy hot and reduce the lifespan of the driver by a lot. You will end up with 2 drivers driving a mixed string, which isnt the end of the world, its just messy to work with. Your other option is to use meanwell drivers which can do more then 6 but are a little more expensive and harder to dim. It's getting late so let me know if any of that doesn't make sense.

You could just tack the fans on the heat sink with some dabs of superglue.

 

[ryshark]

You are right, 45 and 40. Jim, if the light spreads that much, I wonder if one of those heatsinks would be enough instead of two.... Sorry, I am so indecisive sometimes.
What size fans are typically used for heatsinks? I need to break down and start reading. The length of some of those LED DIY threads are just overwhelming though.

 

[ryshark]

I am probably boring or lost any other people which used to frequent this thread before all the LED talk. However, this Sunday is like adult Christmas for me. This event is held twice a year and they always have great coral there. Inland Empire Coral Farmers Market I will make sure to post pictures of what I buy when I get back on Sunday.