My DIY LED light project

bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
So after becoming VERY intrigued by LEDs and reading a decent amount on them and reading couple different peoples DIY setups I have decided to give my try at a smaller scale light. I am pretty much going to be following the instructions from a guy that made a very clean LED system if anyone wants the link to his write up feel free to PM me.

The system I am going to be building will be used on a 14g Biocube I will be going with a total of 12 LEDs (6 Cool White and 6 Royal Blue) the LEDs will all be mounted directly onto a 12"x6" heat sink.

The approximate cost break down of the system is as followed:

6-100 Lumen Q4 Cool-White Cree XR-E Star-45.00
6-Royal Blue Cree XR-E Star-45.00
1-3023-D-E-1000 Wired BuckPuck, 1000mA Output, DC Powered-16.00
1-023-D-E-700 Wired BuckPuck, 700mA Output, DC Powered-16.00
1-Heat Sink 12"x6"-18.00
1-Power Supply(I have not decided on one yet but it will cost 15-20)-20.00
Epoxy, screws, fans, mounting supplies, wire-50.00

Total-210.00

I will be ordering everything this weekend and will keep everyone updated on my progress!
 
SoccerBum474

SoccerBum474

Member
ill be subscribing. you should take pics of the steps so others can repeat your trial. im thinking of possibly doing this for my 12g nano.
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
The guy who I'm basing my build off of had the same setupx4 for a 75g and he had about 200-300 par throughout most of his tank
 
B

BillW

Member
Good deal. I'll be tagging along also. I love to watch a plan come together. I'm interested in building a system for my 110 gallon tank when I finally get going.
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
BillW said:
Are you going to epoxy the stars to the heatsink or drill, tap and screw them in?
Click to expand...

Well I was planning on epoxying them but I may be more interested in screwing them down feel like that would make it easier to re arrange if needed.
 
B

BillW

Member
I think screwing them in is a better idea also. Not only for moving them around but also just in case one is bad. It's more work up front but probably worth it over the long term.
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
Ok well I just finished ordering everything and am very excited for it all to come in so I can start getting to work on it I will keep everyone updated along the way!
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
Well everything came in today so I ran to Lowe's to get a couple of things I needed and in a little over 2 hours I was able to put everything together(about an hour and half was spent soldering). I still have some work to do to get all the wires cleanly tucked away and set up a mounting system for it but here are the before and after shots of it on my tank(sorry they were taking quickly and not that great because I am tired and burned myself a couple of times lol).

Before:
P4090005.JPG


After:
P4090010.JPG


And a picture of the LEDs mounted
P4090014.JPG
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
Anyone have any good ideas on how to mount this to my tank the LEDs are mounted to a 8.5"-7" heat sink the tank is a 14g biocube
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
The fan is not to keep heat from getting to the tank The LEDs don't get too hot but the biggest thing that ruins LEDs is heat even the small amount that they do produce so anything to pull the heat away from the LEDs as quickly as possible(heat sinks/fans) the better for the LEDs
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
l3fty999 said:
I'm sure you will be interested in this thread. http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/diy/47590-diy-led-light-fixture.html#post673858
check it out. I think maybe some of us could consolidate this into a single thread. That way, there's more of us to share ideas, post links to parts suppliers, etc.

Take care
Aaron
Click to expand...

Thanks man but if you look I have already created my LED setup and it is working great someone with the same tank and same light set up gets these par readings

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