As you can see from this thread alone, there's more than one way to acheive a result and that result depends on many things..
Just a few of the variables:
Intended application (freshwater, planted, marine), budget, electrical knowledge, desired look of the finished light, etc, etc.
In my situation, I was a big fan of the look of MH shopfittings (but not of their running cost) so I wanted to get the same penetration for a deep tank, similar look but lower running cost.
I did a tonne or reading up on the various LEDs on the market looking to get a reasonable emitter without spending big $$, without having to do a tonne of soldering and still acheiving a reasonable appearance since my tank is in the main living area.
I originally wanted to go with these http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LED-50W-Y...item336f98a522 but after a bit of research I've basically just taken the emitter and driver as separate items, added a heatsink and fan and made a simple surround.
Mine run on 28v, but lower wattage emitters will use lower outputs - typically 12v, so they're generally pretty safe to have a go at if you understand the fundamentals.. Mine run on a dedicated driver, so there's no chance of getting the wiring wrong.. Just soldetr +íve to +íve and -íve to -íve.. Even I got it right :P
The best part of my particular experiment is that I haven't sunk too much $$ in to it, so if the results suck then I bin it and try again
For projects like this I've found YouTube a great resource with all the video tutorials now available. If I can lend a hand feel free to shoot me a PM. I can link you to a couple of good threads on other forums too so you can get some more ideas.
Nice work Angelman. That layout looks like it could be easily adapted to the casing of a T5/T8 light pretty easily.
How do you find the plant growth now?
Nice work Angelman. That layout looks like it could be easily adapted to the casing of a T5/T8 light pretty easily.
How do you find the plant growth now?
I took a T8 fixture out of that box I made it a while ago. The tank is a 180g dirt tank that I started about 1 month ago but sprung a leak !0 days ago this picture was 2 days after it went back together. The plants are growing very nice and much denser than with the T8 lighting. It fun to see the plants grow daily
Hi all,
Just a quick update.
Almost a year on an the light has been used 12 hours a day 7 days a week, one of the blue LED's died this week end, all others still in good working order so I guess the longevity question can be answered 4200 hours between failure for the blues.
I've subbed out the dead LED and will keep the light going to see how long the other LEDs last (I'm using 4 types from 2 manufacturers the blues and 10000k from Fendy the 6500 and reds from xi-jyu).
Thanks ILLUSN for the update.. That's excellent longevity. I hope mine achieve a similar lifespan.
I finally have my tank complete. Here's some updated pics and a short video showing one of the lotus pearling.
They run for a total of 10 hours over the course of the day, switching off for short periods. As it continues to establish I'll slowly reduce the 'off' periods to make continuous for 10hrs.