Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
This is the start of a thread to build a specific light for a frag tank I am adding to my system. For those of you that follow my turf algae scrubbing thread, you know this reef system is 20 years old and has about 400 gallons running. It is all led powered for the past 4 years.
I am adding a 6' long, 18" width, 18" depth tank with egg crate bottom for growing SPS, zoas and mushrooms. The DIY light will be different in two ways. One, it will move the length of the tank every 8 hours on a rail system built for hydro farmers. Two, the LED will be 200 watts and use only two multi segmented LED's seen below.
The first shot shows the two LEDs, the one mounted to the heat sink is a 100 watt 20k cool white led. It will be on a fixed output 100 watt driver. The other LED is a actinic (royal blue) 100 watt part that will be mounted on a matching heat sink. One of the 90 degree reflectors and lens is also shown. The driver shown is for the white led, it will be fixed, the driver for the blue led has it's own PCM driver so it can be dimmed.
The philosophy is that the design must be compact (it will be on the move) and I have wanted to use these new parts for months. The trick is keeping them cool. These parts dissipate about as much heat as a modern micro processor, so I am using those computer parts as active heat sinks. Keeps the whole package really small. The reason I am moving it slowly the length of the tank is a system I saw when visiting family in Phoenix. Some of you will know this system with the moving light rail and have seen the shapes the SPS have taken. I am going for a smaller version of that system with my own twists.
The surface of the copper heat transfer plate is tapped for small screws and the led is held by those and thermal paste applied to transfer the heat from the part to the sink.
Both heat sinks with lenses will be placed into a small metal box. The drivers will be mounted separately on the wall and a power cable will supply the juice to the moving light. I will post more pictures as we go. Everything seen was bought cheaply on EBay.
I am adding a 6' long, 18" width, 18" depth tank with egg crate bottom for growing SPS, zoas and mushrooms. The DIY light will be different in two ways. One, it will move the length of the tank every 8 hours on a rail system built for hydro farmers. Two, the LED will be 200 watts and use only two multi segmented LED's seen below.
The first shot shows the two LEDs, the one mounted to the heat sink is a 100 watt 20k cool white led. It will be on a fixed output 100 watt driver. The other LED is a actinic (royal blue) 100 watt part that will be mounted on a matching heat sink. One of the 90 degree reflectors and lens is also shown. The driver shown is for the white led, it will be fixed, the driver for the blue led has it's own PCM driver so it can be dimmed.
The philosophy is that the design must be compact (it will be on the move) and I have wanted to use these new parts for months. The trick is keeping them cool. These parts dissipate about as much heat as a modern micro processor, so I am using those computer parts as active heat sinks. Keeps the whole package really small. The reason I am moving it slowly the length of the tank is a system I saw when visiting family in Phoenix. Some of you will know this system with the moving light rail and have seen the shapes the SPS have taken. I am going for a smaller version of that system with my own twists.
The surface of the copper heat transfer plate is tapped for small screws and the led is held by those and thermal paste applied to transfer the heat from the part to the sink.
Both heat sinks with lenses will be placed into a small metal box. The drivers will be mounted separately on the wall and a power cable will supply the juice to the moving light. I will post more pictures as we go. Everything seen was bought cheaply on EBay.
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