LED Build

[Smitty]

Well, I wanted to wait until I had all or at least a vast majority of my supplies in before making a post up, so here we go. I'm jumping into the LED world. I had kicked around the idea of GU10 bulbs, then doing the 20-50 watt bulbs but in the end just decided to run with 3 watt ones. I did not go with CREE for the expense, I went with Bridgelux which from what I read still isn't a bad LED. At this time I'm going with two pendents each with 36 3 watt bulbs at a ratio of 2 Blue to 1 White. For now, and it may only be for a very short time, I don't have the blue and the white separately dimmable for cost (it is around another 100-130 in order to get all the stuff I would want to dim the whites and blues separate). I do have Meanwell drivers (big ones!)

I have one pendent done and will start the second one tomorrow. It took my two days to get one done. Yes, my wiring sucks, but it works!

I ordered everything online from a Honk Kong company. I ordered on Monday and they tried to deliver it to my door on Wednesday! This was for all the LED and the drivers. I ordered the heat sinks from RapidLED because I wanted them pre-drilled and with a splash guard. The heat sinks were on back order so it took 1.5 months to get (but I knew that ahead of time, they really do have good customer service).

When turned on these things will blind you. I know. It took 10 minutes for my eyes to clear up. Won't do that again! All the "on" photos are at the lowest power setting.

 

[Jmkb02]

Looks great, I'm curious, what was the total cost of the project?

 

[Smitty]

The total cost at this point has been $389.00 and that includes shipping. I had a budget of 400.00.

From RapidLED (143.00 Shipped):
two 6x20 heat sinks, pre-drilled for 36 LED, with 120mm fan, hanging kit and splash guard

From AquaStyle Online (246.00 Shipped):
72 3 Watt LEDS (shiped with an extra 4 RB and extra 3 White)
2 Meanwell LPF-90D-48 Drivers
80 degree Optics (didn't count them out yet, but should be at least 72)

I did end up going to buy a new solding gun (a nicer one that goes 100w or 140w) because my 30w iron wasn't enough for soldering after I mounted the stars on the head sink. I'm not really including this though because I will use it for my other hobbies as well, plus my old iron was pretty crappy anyway!

As I stated, I will end up getting two more drivers at some point so I can separately dim the blues and whites, but that was over my budget at this time.

 

[Jmkb02]

That's a pretty good deal, do you recommend going with the pre-drilled heatsink?

 

[Jmkb02]

Oh I was also wondering, what are dimensions if your tank and what do you have in it?

 

[carmex1255]

I have 135 gallon tank and I am think about doing the same. Do you think your setup will work with a 4*6 tank?

 

[Smitty]

I think it will work with the tank but you will want to make sure you have optics on all the LED because the light won't get to the bottom of a really deep tank. I think the spred will work well. Is that a 6' long tank? If so, you will want one more pendent as there won't be enough spread with only two IMO.

I will say that if you go with the heat sinks from RapidLED, don't bother with the splash guard because it won't work when you have optics on the LED.

 

[Saratj1]

Looks great, I wanted to go with rapid led's heatsinks as well, but I cheaped out and just bought a regular heatsink, I did make my own splash guard though, after ruining 3 emitters. I just got a 135g so I'm thinking about starting another DIY led build.

 

[dbn1]

Great looking project ,im looking at lighting for a 5ftx2ftx2ft planted
so very interesting, were you thinking of adding fans for cooling as well

 

[dbn1]

Great looking project ,im looking at lighting for a 5ftx2ftx2ft planted
so very interesting, were you thinking of adding fans for cooling as well

 

[Smitty]

I do have a 120mm fan on each heat sink. The temp stays around 90 degrees with the fans on, but gets up much higher with them off.