My LED Build

[brick-brothers]

Ok so i've been using MH for sometime now. And every summer my con-ed bill goes up from the heat. Plus the fans and ac I have cooling my 120g. Yeah I know I shouldve bought a chiller but I didn't. Plus my dogs benifit from the ac too. lol So I decided to build a LED ( Thanks To Mark) I bought 2 12x12 Aluminum Plates from Enco. Some Acrylic ( 13x13 Squares)from home depot. 24 Royal Blue Q4 leds and 24 Cool White Q5 leds. Also I (8) 1000ma Wire BuckPuck w/ Dimming switch and (2) power supply boxes 24v, 6.5a( from www.mpja.com ) . (2) Antec Thermal Grease Formula. (2) pc fans. I think thats about it. lol The end results is in the pics

Youtube Link ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxdp67qnpsM )

 

[Imbarrie]

That looks sweet. So does the LED setup.


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[Deep Dive Coral]

i am doing a build myself. you said you have a 120g tank correct.... i would have to say that that is not nearly enough light to cover that size tank. can you give us some dimensions of the tank. also be carefull wit the heat exchange just on those piece or aluminum. remember heat is what kills the leds life span...

 

[brick-brothers]

The plates doesnt get that warm with the fans on. I dont have optics that i have put on the leds yet. But from is running the corals love it. If i need more light i'll just bring the plates down alil. I forgot how many inches i have it rasie off the tank.

i am doing a build myself. you said you have a 120g tank correct.... i would have to say that that is not nearly enough light to cover that size tank. can you give us some dimensions of the tank. also be carefull wit the heat exchange just on those piece or aluminum. remember heat is what kills the leds life span...

 

[brick-brothers]

Thanks man

That looks sweet. So does the LED setup.


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[regal]

You chose to use blue rather than royal blue, correct. May I ask why? And how do you like the color?

 

[brick-brothers]

na I use the royal blue 3w. I shouldve added that in the thread

You chose to use blue rather than royal blue, correct. May I ask why? And how do you like the color?

 

[btldreef]

48 leds for a 4' tank? see i am also going to be doing a led setup for my 180g to replace the 250 x 3 metal halides that i have running on my 150g now.

 

[GREATMIKE]

changed my tank to led and i love it so far

 

[jcs11236]

looks good bro! welcome to the led crew!

 

[brick-brothers]

yea you are going to need more leds than me. Whats your tank depth?

48 leds for a 4' tank? see i am also going to be doing a led setup for my 180g to replace the 250 x 3 metal halides that i have running on my 150g now.

 

[brick-brothers]

me and you are in the same boat. lol

changed my tank to led and i love it so far

 

[brick-brothers]

Thanks man

looks good bro! welcome to the led crew!

 

[anthony27]

sho gun that is crazy build. Amazing job I want to see it on the tank now

 

[btldreef]

6'x2'x2' is the size of the new tank i am going to do the leds on. i love the growth my 250w metal halides produce... i just don't want to undercut that by doing too few leds. from what i have read 250w halides = 160w of leds. i just want to know how true that is because if that is the formula then i would need 50-60 3w leds x 3 fixtures. that is alot. any reason you went with pucks instead of the meanwells dimmable drivers?

 

[brick-brothers]

To be honest I didnt go by the formula. lol I guess if you are keeping sps then the formula really comes into play. I actually had the meanwells for sometime. I was at another member house that also has leds and he told me that the meanwells gave him problems. He switch to buckpucks, so I just went with them.

6'x2'x2' is the size of the new tank i am going to do the leds on. i love the growth my 250w metal halides produce... i just don't want to undercut that by doing too few leds. from what i have read 250w halides = 160w of leds. i just want to know how true that is because if that is the formula then i would need 50-60 3w leds x 3 fixtures. that is alot. any reason you went with pucks instead of the meanwells dimmable drivers?

 

[brick-brothers]

Thanks man, you can come through anytime to check it out.

sho gun that is crazy build. Amazing job I want to see it on the tank now

 

[brick-brothers]

hey i have some updated pix of my 120g. I decided to redo the plumbing and went bare-bottom. I also went from a 4' sock to a 7' sock. I did come across some problems though. I had to moved my tank to another part of my livingroom because the floor started to sink. Crazy, yea i know. By me taking down the tank i lost a few corals and alot of fish including my purple and hippo tang. :sad2: For some reason they didnt do well in my qt tank. Most of my fish broke out with ich. After that it was a rap. I tried API ick med and it seem like that did it for them. The ich got worse and it was all she wrote. Well the 120g is back up and running and so is my 60g Cube which is on a different thread. Pix will be up shortly

 

[brick-brothers]

here's the pix

 

[brick-brothers]

More pix to come


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