Has anyone done a DIY LED hood?

[couture99]

Hi, I am interested in doing a DIY LED fixture for my 120g reef tank. Any advise/input into size/ wattage color ratio would be greatly appreciated! My husband is an electrician so the wiring aspect we have under control... Just don't have a clue as to how many/ type of diodes to purchase.

 

[BigJim]

I made an LED fixture for a high-light planted 20H. I'm using ten 3W Cree XR-E LEDs on the tank and I can grow pretty much anything I want. There's more details on the build in the LED link in my signature.

One of the beauties of LEDs is their penetrating power. LEDs put more PAR deeper into the water than other types of lights. For a reef tank, I'd look at a mix of 10,000K white and blue diodes. You'll have to keep the white LED circuits separate from the blues. I've seen people learn expensive lessons by mixing them and having the fixture runaway and start popping LEDS like a string of firecrackers. Cree seems to be about the best brand, but there are others like Luxeon.

 

[couture99]

Thank you let the shopping begin!

 

[ldaniel]

I just ordered a cree XR-G 6700K with a 1000mA buckpuck. I am starting with this single led for a small 1.5g experiment tank.

 

[couture99]

I just ordered a cree XR-G 6700K with a 1000mA buckpuck. I am starting with this single led for a small 1.5g experiment tank.

Were did you order from?

 

[ldaniel]

LED supply . com it was a package, i decided to try this out before i spent the cash for a full hood that will be used on my 25g tall.

 

[krap101]

I'm almost done with a light for my 40B. Dealextreme is a pretty good place to buy leds, but shipping takes 2-3 weeks.

 

[ldaniel]

i had looked at Dealextreme but the site contained a bit more than i was intrested in and i couldnt find the LED's i was looking for. prices through seemed to be compairable.

 

[krap101]

Their search function is pretty bad, but their bulk discount really helps. Plus it's free ($1.99) shipping. I bought some q2's about a year ago for $2.50, which was a pretty good deal.

 

[BigJim]

+1 for DealExtreme. Ordering 10 Cree XR-Es was cheaper than ordering 9 thanks to the bulk discount.

 

[couture99]

Will have to ck them out thx

 

[Purevil21]

PM Greenmaster, he has a DIY LED setup on a 320 gallon reef.

 

[couture99]

Just read his entire thread I am in awe time to start looking on eBay!! Think I'm going to go with the heatsink method instead of water cooled. I showed my husband he suggested we could prob get away with 10 watt instead of the 20watts greenmaster used as our tank isn't as deep- opinions pls

 

[ldaniel]

i recieved my LED last night, it is smaller than i had contemplated. i will post pic's later on.

 

[couture99]

i recieved my LED last night, it is smaller than i had contemplated. i will post pic's later on.

Just ckd out the website- I like the instruction forum happy building