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Anyone with DIY LED Builds?

Maryland Guppy

CCA Members
Good Evening All:
Had to wonder how many are building your own LED fixtures.
Very popular among reef sites and is growing in the planted tank realm.

This is my standard puck variety.
14 - 3watt LED's driven @ 52VDC on one LDD driver @ 700mA.
Build these little wooden boxes to support the heatsink by the flanges.
1 - 12VDC fan on the end with a hole @ the other end of box to allow air flow.
Since the goal was plants LED's include 3-15K, 3-Full Spectrum, and 1-Green per disk.
sm20160131_155613.jpg

I mounted these in a canopy inherited from a friend.
3 of these total 126watts of LED lighting over my 75 gallon.
I use a StormX controller for dimming the LED drivers.
These cannot be ran @ full wattage or an algae farm would be created.
sm20160131_191222.jpg

My newest build is for a 80 gallon frag tank to include 8 of these assemblies.
They will be dimmed considerably but equal coverage was the main focus.
Some planted areas of the tank will require less lighting and dimming will be more of a concern.
8 square feet of planting area in one tank is quite a bit to consider.
The only changes have been two fans on each heatsink.
Not that they run hot but added LED life was a major concern.
New LED layout includes one RB & one green per heatsink.
The RB & the green do not provide great plant growth but the visual effect is better.
sm20170227_190604.jpg

I have been replicating this canopy design on all my tanks.
Dual hinged with mounting areas for LED's.
I guess more to follow when the frag tank canopy is built.
The canopy build would be another DIY for sure.

Just thought to share this build with others.
I am new with the group and have enjoyed the past two meetings I have attended.

Night All:
 

Btwcp

CCA Members
Could you give us info on where you purchased the lights and a picture of the lit up on a tank
 

abcdefghi

Members
What is the cost of the DIY route against buying something off the shelf?

I looked briefly at DIY when picking a new fixture for my 125G. But, by the time I added up all the parts required to build something that would be reliable, perform as I wanted it to and last the cost was similar to what I would be able to buy something ready made for.
 

Frank Cowherd

Global Moderators
Staff member
There was a nice talk at PVAS on this not too long ago. http://pvas.com/tabid/111/forumid/1/threadid/66661/postid/66661/scope/posts/default.aspx The speaker (Matt Bielski) actually had ten or so people who wanted to build their own LED lights build them during the talk. It was basically strip LED lights with the proper sized power supplies that had to be soldered to make the connections and these fitted into a hood or into a existing hood (replacement of the old florescent lights in the old hood). I have now built 4 eight foot LED lights using rolls of LED lights (16 foot of LED lights bought as a roll with LED lights every inch or inch and a half) [$10 per roll] and you can buy these rolls in various types of lights. I bought two rolls of bright white light and two rolls of warm white light. I cut the rolls in half and put one 8 foot section of each type of LED light on a 1 by two of 8 ft length with an aluminum flashing ( purchased at the local hardware store as flashing for roofs and cut to fit with scissors). I used a staple gun to attach the flashing to the wood and the same to attach the LED lights to the flashing into the wood. The power supplies need to be of the right amperage for the length of LED lights you use and for an 8 ft section you need 3 amps. These are available for about $6 each on-line. The PVAS speaker gave us access to a table that had the amperage vs number of LED lights in the strip and versus the length of the strip. You can use either calculation.


I suspended these lights over some of my eight foot racks of tanks. They are suppose to last for maybe 10 years and grow easy plants. They certainly allow me to see the fry and fish in the tanks on the lower racks easily. As for plants, I only grow hornwort and anubias in fry grown out tanks so they are doing well.
 

finzz

Members
I built one of the 4' lamps at the PVAS workshop. The cost for all materials was $21 and it was very easy to put together. I gave it to my daughter and her family for their 75 gallon display tank (had an old fluorescent lamp on it that was good for growing algae but not higher plants). I'll have to check with them and see if it's better now.
 

mchambers

Former CCA member
I bought a 30" light at the PVAS meeting. It was quite inexpensive, although it doesn't have a lot of power, so I'd be skeptical of it growing anything more than truly low light plants (the java fern is doing fine). It's a good deal, in short, but not really for those who want to grow medium light plants or plants in any deep tanks.
 

Frank Cowherd

Global Moderators
Staff member
Matt, You may be right about not being able to grow demanding plants but then again there are all sorts of rolls of LED lights available, different wavelengths and different densities. You could probably choose ones that would be great for growing different plants and if you need more power to get deeper in the tank, you could run two, three or four strips in the same hood or even more. The strips are only half an inch wide so a lot can go in a narrow space. I think you could come up with a design with these rolls of LED lights that should work.
 

mchambers

Former CCA member
Matt, You may be right about not being able to grow demanding plants but then again there are all sorts of rolls of LED lights available, different wavelengths and different densities. You could probably choose ones that would be great for growing different plants and if you need more power to get deeper in the tank, you could run two, three or four strips in the same hood or even more. The strips are only half an inch wide so a lot can go in a narrow space. I think you could come up with a design with these rolls of LED lights that should work.
I completely agree, Frank. I'm just saying the light I built at PVAS was supposedly a medium light option, but it's not a lot of light, even on a 20 long.

If I were to do it again, I'd go with the high light option.
 

FishEggs

Well-Known Member
I just recently converted an old power compact fixture to LED using those ribbons/strips that Frank posted about. I got the bright white which are supposedly a daylight spectrum. They don't seem very bright over the tank. I don't know if it is the right spectrum but the tank is growing algae very nicley and the riccia in it has some bright green new growth. It's also a brand new tank set up just 4 weeks old.
 

Maryland Guppy

CCA Members
Alright, I never said this was the cheapest option.

StormX controller is $92, 16 channels and can run many tanks if thought out well.
LDD drivers are $7 each needing one per heatsink.
The disks that accept 7 LED's are $9 for 40 (China)
LED 3 watt beads are about $2 for every 10 (China)
Power supplies are needed for each tank, variable prices for sure.
Boards to handle 6 drivers are about $11.

I get heatsinks, fans, and power supplies from work.
As components fail throughout the plant(work) I save, re-purpose or repair.
This saves me quite a bit of dollars for sure.

It is a serious project for the most part.
Drilling and tapping heatsinks, soldering all LED's and connections.
Not a plug and play project by any means.
They are installed on hi-light CO2 injected tanks with plenty of ferts.
PAR meter is almost required to dial in one's lighting.

Someone asked for pics!
I'll grab a few and post within the next day or so.
Growing about 45 species of plants @ present.

We all tend to grow some algae anyway.
 

Maryland Guppy

CCA Members
sm20170228_214312.jpg
About 2/3 of a 75 gallon tank.
Really needs a trimming @ this time.
Embarrassing really with all the scattered growth.
Aren't all these tanks an experiment anyway?
Simple fish for me and 1 species per tank.
 

abcdefghi

Members
Alright, I never said this was the cheapest option.

StormX controller is $92, 16 channels and can run many tanks if thought out well.
LDD drivers are $7 each needing one per heatsink.
The disks that accept 7 LED's are $9 for 40 (China)
LED 3 watt beads are about $2 for every 10 (China)

OK, this must have been the sort of set up I was looking at versus the cheaper ones mentioned above. I forget the total cost when I was looking, but it was closing in on $300. Now, bearing in mind I was looking at a light for a 125G tank that would grow plants. In the end I bought grabbed a light from eBay for $100 that is working nicely.
 
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