Tank Journal Archive

[Robertgoldring]

Just on with gathering the last couple of hundred pounds worth of bits for my new diy leds, I'm going to be building a hanging lid housing around 250w, has anyone else done diy led fixture

 

[daveH]

Hi there,
I had a very successful DIY LED build for a couple of years.
I had 5 channels all separately Arduino controlled using Cree LEDs and was a brilliant set of lights.
The technology has improved heaps since I set mine up, especially with the new boards and touch screens that are cheaply available.
Maybe @MagicJ would like to jump in here and give you some top tips on setting something up. He's the man when it comes to putting these systems together.

 

[Robertgoldring]

I already have most of the bits, I'm using cree 3w chips in cool white, blue, royal blue, at a ratio of 1:1:1, with a few 420nm in amongst, it's going to be quite low power but the
Only demanding Coral I want is a plating monti, I'm also using arduino but will be modifying the typhon (I think) code, my main issue is what psu to use

 

[Robertgoldring]

This is what Im looking at,

Channel 1, 13x xpg2 cool white
Channel 2, 13x xpg2 cool white
Channel 3, 13x xte royal blue
Channel 4, 13x xte royal blue
Channel 5, 13x xpe blue
Channel 6, 13x xpe blue
Channel 7, 5 x 420 nm violet(unknown make)

The xpg2 and the xte will be run on a meanwell ldd1000h
Xpe on ldd700h
Violet on ldd300h

These are mounted on the o2surplus board version 1.0 revision 2

Mounted on 6 heatsinks each 150x200mm

Control will be via arduino mega and 2004 led running modified typhon sketch

Also running 1307 rtc

I'll also be monitoring heatsinks temp and have fans via pwm,

 

[slin1977]

Recommend sticking a few warm white in ratio 1 : 3 cool white as well as some reds say about 4- 6 in total. This will certainly improve your colour rendition as you will find
the combo of blue , royal blue and cool white won't make your monti look at it's best.

Stick the reds in amongst the royal blues to create that Fiji purple look that is sure to set your monti off!

How big is your tank?

I ran 250 watts LED on my three foot tank .

 

[daveH]

Throw a couple of Ocean Coral Whites in also, they give a addition to the colour spectrum.
And don't forget the hyper purples to make everything pop.

 

[Robertgoldring]

@slin1977, tank is a rio 300, 48" long,
@daveH, i was under the impression that the 420nm would also make the colours pop, plus they were free,

I was going to add warm white, red and green, but as this was meant to be a very basic set up i left them out, as I was told my suggested set up would be adequate

This was also meant to be a budget build, lol

 

[slin1977]

420 nm will have very little visible effect. In fact they would look dim compared to your blues.

Yes as basic as blue royal blue and cool white is, it is a successful proven LED set up as I ran those exact lights for a year as a trial to see if LED worked on coral - we then experimented further by adding other colour to the spectrum .

 

[Robertgoldring]

Yeah the 420 weren't added for adding light colour, more for coral growth/luminosity rather than my pleasure

 

[slin1977]

Yeah the 420 weren't added for adding light colour, more for coral growth/luminosity rather than my pleasure

Agree, we were very successful with introducing 400nm spectrum to the mix. These 400 - 420 spectrums are almost invisible but can be seen as pop as you say.
I do see merit in using them.

 

[Robertgoldring]

I'm seriously looking into the reds now and also some warm whites, i may change out these violet for some that I can find information about then get reds to match(forward voltage) and put them on the same channel. As for whites I'll just add a string of 13 on there own ldd1000h

 

[slin1977]

Blending a "hyper" red is difficult , if you can find a bin closer in colour to pink it will work better for you.

 

[slin1977]

Here is a photo when I ran LED - as you can see it's not over saturated with blue as I turned the blue down for the photo and ran the 12 x 1 watt suppliment pinks full - can't use the words "Fiji purple" lol-

 

[daveH]

Look up the Ocean Coral Whites, they are an RGB Led that are a great way of introducing your reds and greens into the range in a balanced way.

 

[Robertgoldring]

Who sells those @daveH?
@slin1977. That looks ace, love the colour

 

[daveH]

Who sells those @daveH?
@slin1977. That looks ace, love the colour

ledgroupbuy.com in the States. $4.50 per unit. I had 3 of them in my 60cm DIY light.
Get 'em, you'll love them.

 

[Robertgoldring]

Will have to have a scout as I'm in UK,

 

[slin1977]

As @daveH mentioned.
Those RGB LEDs would blend better than single reds/pinks - singles will look artificial.

 

[Robertgoldring]

Might have to give them a miss, shipping is half again as much as my order

Not to mention the difference in volts and my lack of brains, I had to have the other things told to me, me and electrickery don't go together too well

 

[Robertgoldring]

Getting giddy now, my fans just turned up, yes it's sad, but I don't care, so did my aluminium brazing rods, six of these should keep things cool