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  1. #1
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    DIY LED light for planted tanks

    Hi All,
    Quick DIY on my new light, the purpose of this build is to begin replacing all my CF and T5HO’s with LED’s, reasons being, for running costs (power consumption/ bulbs) and service life.

    Heres a quick rundown of the parts list as you can see the total build cost isn’t cheep, but it uses ~70 watts of power and easily outshines a 2x40w T8 and to the human eye a 2x54W T5HO fixture. Once my par meter arrives I wont be surprised if it generates a similar par reading to my 4x54 grolux tubes with spider reflectors (even if the 4x54w's look bighter) but that will have to wait for another time. A massive plus that these particular LED’s are good for 50000-80000 hours (11-18 years @ 12 hours/day)

    *DISCLAIMER: This build uses generic high output Chinese LED’s NOT high cost, high quality name brand CREE or Luxeon chips. The blues are a twin epistar chip but I have no idea and no way of finding out what the other are. Data sheets were provided for a baseline product but these LED’s have slightly different properties (viewing angle, wavelength out put, drive current) and so aren’t too usefull . With this in mind any results or measurements from this build are expected to be ~30% lower then similar builds watt for watt that you will read on various reefing forums. Cree and Luxeon do not produce a 430-450nm blue or a 660nm deep red the wavelengths I’m targeting for plant growth. You could build a similar light using a mix or name brand warm whites in place of the reds and name brand cool whites with royal blues but expect to pay $8-$10 per LED vs the price detailed below.

    Drivers are all generic low cost Chinese items I’m not expecting a super long service life hence the entire build is based around a fast swap system for failed components. Using higher quality drivers such as Xitanium or Meanwell would get around this but budget at least $60 per driver vs the prices below. LED’s and drivers have been sourced direct from wholesalers in China freight must still be added to the individual unit prices below.



    PARTS LIST

    RED LED’s 660nm x8 @$1.06 $8.48
    BLUE LED’s 440-450nm x4 @$2.70 $10.80
    WHITE LED’s 6500k x12 @$1.27 $15.24
    60w LED driver(85V 700ma) x1 @$18.74 $18.74
    12v driver x1 @$3.95 $3.95
    Heat sink x2 @$22.50 $45.00
    Brackets 25mmx25mm x8 @$0.45 $1.80
    Fans 80mm x4 @$5.95 $35.70
    Hobby box x2 @$14.95 $29.90
    WAGO connecters x9 @$1.00 $9.00
    Aluminium angle 50x25mm x2m @$16.75 $33.50
    Aluminium channel 20x20mm x0.4m(1m)@$6.95 $6.95
    Wire x2m @$0.25 $0.50
    Speaker wire x0.5m(1m) @$0.70 $0.70
    Artic aluminia 5g x1 @$8.00 $8.00
    Araldite x1 @$7.95 $7.95
    Thermal compound x1 @$1 $1.00

    Total $237.53

    The build is over kill, the heat sinks and fans are way oversized for the LED’s buts its just a concept build the next light will use heat sinks and fans from discontinued CPU’s, plastic hobby boxes instead of aluminium and DIY thermal epoxy, this should bring the build down to ~$130. This will be more inline with a cheep 2x54w T5 unit ($90) and 2 decent plant tubes ($24 ea).

    Building the housing was easy enough, I used my compound saw to cut the 20mm channel into 96mm lengths, I had enough from 1m to make 8 sections (enough for 2 lights).

    Next I used thermal epoxy (artic alumina) to glue these together to the angle, this will serve has the housing, reflector and anchor points for the light, a few 12mm stainless screws were added for support. The housing was pre drilled to allow for wires to move around the channel as well as to and from the drivers.

    The 2 heat sinks were cut in half on the saw and glued to the housing. To save expense I DIY’d the thermal epoxy by mixing equal parts of thermal compound (TIM) from the CPU my last PC build with araldite.


    The hobby boxes had 3 and 4 holes drilled in each and were glued in the same manner. One houses the 12v driver used to power the fans, this also houses 5 WAGO’s 3 for ac power (1 live 1 earth 1 neutral) in from the wall to the LED driver and the 12v driver and 2 for the out put from the 12v driver (one for positive one for negative) to the fans. The earth WAGO has a short lead that goes to a screw that keeps the lid on, this serves as an earth point for the housing. The second hobby box houses 4 WAGO’s 2 for the led driver (one positive 1 negative) and 2 for the fans (again 1 positive and 1 negative). The reason for the WAGO’s is in the event of failure of any component it can be removed and replaced (assuming I have parts on hand) in seconds, at least as fast as changing a fluoro tube.

    With the housing effectively done I tinned the solder pads on the LED’s before fixing them to the fixture with artic alumina.



    Once glued on I stripped ~3mm of insulation off the end of a length of wire and tinned each end, these were then soldered to the tinned solder pads in series (from + on one LED to – on the next and so on). As the distance between each LED varied I had to do them 1 at a time in future revisions I’ll have the LED’s at a set distance so all the wire can be pre-cut and pre tinned.


    As the blues hadn’t arrived yet these were spliced in after.

    Once done I connected the driver to the power cord via WAGO’s and the output to the LED array (also via WAGO’s). Test fire worked a treat.



    Next up the driver was mounted on the back and the 12v power supply hooked up in 1 hobby box.

    The fans were mounted on brackets and the brackets glued with araldite to the heat sinks. For cooling I used artic cooling rear case fans these fans move 18+ cfm of air and have less then 16dB(A) when all fans are on they are silent. They have a MTBF of ~30000 hours and so will need replacing before the LED’s but this will be quick and simple. I could have gone with Noctua or Thermal take fans that have a MBTF of over 50000 hours but these would have cost $15-$28 each, with any build you have to do some cost/benefit economising.

    Testing the (near) completed unit on the discus tank showed the work in choosing the spectrum of the LED’s paid off, the light is bright and crisp, the blues and reds of the fish are intensified and compared to grolux tube its still warm but not as harsh a “purple”, also there’s no green tint to the water as your get with the hagen lifeglo. With both T8 globes on (80w) the 70w LED light is miles ahead. The shimmer effect out of the tank is very impressive on the next version I’ll space the LED’s closer together so as to get the shimmer in the tank (like a metal halide).

    Last stage is to fit the splashguard. I was going to use acrylic but I don’t like how fast it discolours, Lexan or glass will be better options. As this particular light will sit above one of my L number breeding racks on heavy metal brackets 6mm glass will most likely be a more economically viable option.

    Next update will be the thermal testing using an IR thermometer to see how well the system deals with the heat from the LED’s, and finally will be the performance test with the PAR meter (when it arrives) to see how this light stands up to at 2x54w T5 with average reflectors and high quality spider reflectors.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails photo_2__2_.jpg   photo_3.jpg   photo_1.jpg  

  2. #2
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    did the thermal testing on the light using the super sensitve thermocouple at work, at an ambient temp of 23C the heat sinks after 6 hours of runtime reached a max temp of 27.4C the temp of the LED itself measured on the lens of the diode was 40.4C well below the failure mark.

    I was a little worried about the disparity between diode and heat sink temps but when i measured the interface temp of the alumium star with the housing and found only 0.2C diffrence (27.6C) i felt much better.

    Lets hope the CPU heatsinks fair as well as these over sized monsters on the next build.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails photo_2__3_.jpg   photo_1__3_.jpg   photo_3__2_.jpg  

  3. #3
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    Well the PAr sensor hasn't arrived yet but I've just finished testing the new big(er) LED light, this light will go on dads 4x18x2 tall tank it uses 4 jaycar 225mm heatsinks and 52 LED's in 2 26 arrays each array has
    7 660nm red
    3 440-450nm blue
    8 10000k whites
    8 6000-6500k midday whites

    a couple of super low noise 120mm fans keep everyhting cool
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails dscf4586_160.jpg   dscf4570.jpg   dscf4568.jpg  

  4. #4
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    as this light uses 2 driver i was able to set up a dawn dusk effect the way this works is the red and blue leds come on 1st these turn on the fans and start cooling the unit. after a set period of time (say 2 hours) the whites come on simulating the midday intensity.

    as blue and red are used by plants photosynthesis starts with the dawn dusk set and continues through the entire light cycle.

    the best part about this is for the frist 2 and last 2 hours your only using 1/2 power (60w) so over a 12 hour day you drop your consumption from 1440w to 1200w with no real negative impact on your plants
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails dscf4571.jpg   dscf4572.jpg   dscf4584.jpg  

  5. #5
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    the best part about testing on this tank is i can use my 300w aqualins CF for comparison, my aqualina uses all ctalina plant/10000k bulbs (2x96w and 2x55w)

    here are the head to head photos, as I'm a tight a$$ i usually only run 1/2 the bulbs (~150w)

    as you can see from the photos the LEDs are similar to the 150w CF's maybe even a bit brighter, but no where near as bright as the 300w CF's.
    to note though is that the CF\s are much more even then the LEDS which work more like a spotlight similar to a metal halide. I prefer this look as it gives a really nice shimmer to the tank like a halide, other people might not like it.

    also notce how the reds give a slight pink tinge to the tank, at first i was nt too keen but once the fish came out the CRI of the LED light was amazing
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails dscf4576.jpg   dscf4577.jpg   dscf4564.jpg  

  6. #6
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    i had to get some photos of the fish under the CF they look good nice and healthy, under the LED's they look AMAZING the colours were greatly intensified
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails p4170847.jpg   p4170851.jpg   p4170850.jpg  

  7. #7
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    some more these photos show the tiny leco i got off matzilla from hist first batch of Leuco's i sware its a Leuco x sinnous just look at the facial markings
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails p4170859.jpg   p4170858.jpg   p4170862.jpg  

  8. #8
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    gday ILLUSN, my system is also running at the moment however im too busy right now to get the cam out n take pics!!!

    Im using a "micro halide" style pendant made up of 3X3w superwhites per pendant (yes i did hanging pendants!!) looks super schmick on an iwagumi (which im building next out of starfire for the new shop).

    right now i have 4X 9W pendants hanging over my 6X2 with a dimmer on the system to alter lumen output...... the shimmer is ridiculous!!

    Really the best way i can explain it is a Metal Halide, only TINY (size of golf ball cut in half).

    Mine dont have the pink, just natural Halide style lighting, looks like actual sun only not as yellow as i use cool super whites- still not blue/white though.... more natural.

    Let me know if you want me to send you something.

  9. #9
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    the light i actually build for this tank will be a 3 array unit using 2x60w driver and 1x35w (155w in total I know, I'm tight) it will use a 3 stage system of red blue 1st them warm white then 10000k bright white each stage running for 4 hours less then the first (blue red =12 hours warm white =8 hours bright white = 4 hours)I'll update when i get around to building it and if my PAR meter ever arrives.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails dscf4533.jpg  

  10. #10
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    sounds impressive Adrian, I'm shooting for 40-60 PAR (umol/m2/s) on the substarte, with CO2 that should be enough to grow anyhting.

    I'm eyeballing this unit on this tank at ~15-55 umol/m2s depending on where in the tank you are from it it should be over kill for dads little 4x18x2 (this tank being 2.5 wide causes duller regions away from the light) I'm thining my one will use 60 degree optics on the warm(er) whites just to give it some punch down to 2.5 feet deep.

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