AquaticEngineer Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 Thanks for posting the PAR readings. Just to be clear, these readings where done dry, correct? Meaning these (measurements) were not taken below the water's surface... Thanks and great thread These were done through water. I'll do both dry and wet measurements once we get the optics and more time to take measurements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunMonahan Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 That's much better than what I was expecting! Thanks for clarifying, and I would use caution when you get that optic and test it on your corals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 That's much better than what I was expecting! Thanks for clarifying' date=' and I would use caution when you get that optic and test it on your corals.[/quote'] It wont be tested over any corals right away. It'll get Par tested dry first, then wet over a 36" tank while its being setup, then possibly over my 48" deep tank when I get it. We can also swap in a 90 degree optic if the 60 is to tight. The Ecoxotic LED Cannon fixtures use a 12,000k 50w LED with a 110 Degree angle lens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost207 Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Nice work!!! I have bin thinking about crossing over to leds for a minit now .I was going to get mine at rapidled.com I am just wating foe the price to go down just a bit more but imo your way looks like the way to go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 60 degree optic is in Definitely makes a huge difference on the focus of the light spread. Testing it side by side against a 400w halide this weekend, and then new par ratings next week. Gonna finish the wiring and housing for the light this weekend and then there will be photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 No thread is worth its weight without pics, so since I finished it up tonight I thought I'd share Gonna get par ratings and side by sides tomorrow. So final cost on this was about $74, I'll know if it was worth it tomorrow after the final par tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 Got the par ratings taken over at a Smann's house tonight with the optic on it. At 12" in the water we were getting 406 - 419 par at the bottom of his tank on the sand bed which was just a little over 24" deep we had ratings from 148 - 163. Color of the bulb could be nicer, but a good start Temp on the surface of the lens while running was about 118 F. Also took temp ratings of inside the light housing after running it for a little over a half and hour and it was around 130 degrees F on the heatsink. I'm going to use a more efficient heatsink and a higher output fan to decrease the heat a little more, but not too shabby for a test rig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewisriverfisherman Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 How far above the tank was the light? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 How far above the tank was the light? Here's some videos I took when we were testing it over Steves tank, and a video I took later of it over my coldwater seagrass tank. It must have been like 8 inches over the waters surface at Steves, and like 16 inches from my seagrass tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrybeck Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Awesome to see the final product. Did you happen to catch any shots of how you mounted the assembly into the housing? That's the part I never see anyone complete, and yet the part that concerns me the most (well, mostly because I've never seen it done). By the way, you should probably tune your optics once you mount the unit at a specified height over the tank. That way you can control light spillage and ensure that you're actually *using* all of your usable light. Plus you'll need to make some decisions, such as whether you want continuous light coverage across the whole tank on prefer to spotlight certain areas more brightly than others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 What are the par ratings of Smann's lighting to give us a comparison? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 What are the par ratings of Smann's lighting to give us a comparison? He would know better than I would for sure, since I didnt write his numbers down. I think it shows in one of the videos I took thought. If I recall, they are pushing 450 at the 12" and almost the same at the 24" mark. The benefit of his is that it has those numbers over a broader area, where as mine is focused to have the maximum PAR in a set area. For every 12" way, it puts out an equal light footprint in ( ie:12" high gives a 12x12 footprint) of equal PAR numbers to the edge of the light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 Awesome to see the final product. Did you happen to catch any shots of how you mounted the assembly into the housing? That's the part I never see anyone complete' date=' and yet the part that concerns me the most (well, mostly because I've never seen it done). [/quote'] This is just the test rig really, I mounted everything inside using a soft setting adhesive so that I could pull it all out later on. Other than the adhesive there is a front black trim ring to the light fixture that holds the heatsink in place as well. I more or less pushed the fan all the way inside and glued it in place, then trimmed the square edges of the heatsink so that they would fit inside the round fixture and pushed it in there and glued it in place. Then ran all the wiring out the back. By the way, you should probably tune your optics once you mount the unit at a specified height over the tank. That way you can control light spillage and ensure that you're actually *using* all of your usable light. Plus you'll need to make some decisions, such as whether you want continuous light coverage across the whole tank on prefer to spotlight certain areas more brightly than others. Right now it casts a 12" x 12" square of light when held at 12" high, and a 24" x 24" when held at 24" high. I think the only optics on the market for these right now is a 90 degree and a 60 degree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Hey any update on this? I am going to be putting in a 18x18x16 frag tank, and i'd like to light it with LEDs. I had planned to go with par38 bulbs, but it seems i'd need 3 of them and at $80 a pop that just isn't a cost effective way to go. I wonder if the 50w would be too bright for this tank since it is only 16" deep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Hey any update on this? I am going to be putting in a 18x18x16 frag tank, and i'd like to light it with LEDs. I had planned to go with par38 bulbs, but it seems i'd need 3 of them and at $80 a pop that just isn't a cost effective way to go. I wonder if the 50w would be too bright for this tank since it is only 16" deep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted August 8, 2011 Author Share Posted August 8, 2011 You could definately light that tank with one and do it for cheap. I still have all of my stuff for mine, but I fried the LED when the fan went out. My advice if you want to build one is go with as large and reliable a fan and heatsink as you can find. These high output LEDs produce a lot of heat that needs to be dissipated, so if you are running an undersized heatsink( like I did) and your fan goes out then your LED will burn up in a matter of hours. Honestly the best heatsink/fan combo you could get for cheap would be something inteded to cool a high end laptop processor. I found em used at Goodwill for under $5. For you your sized frag tank you may also want to explore slightly less wattage LEDs like the single 30w, 20w, or even a 10w. The optics for all of these sized chips are the same as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Cool thanks for the info and being the guinea pig for this particular LED. I'm going to start piecing it together. You noted that at 12" the lightspread was 12x12, and at 24" it was 24x24. I'm assuming it'll be 18" to get the 18x18 spread, so I just need to be sure there is enough output from the LED to keep all types of corals. I'm thinking 30w might be perfect, what do you think? Or if i could make this dimmable........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted August 8, 2011 Author Share Posted August 8, 2011 They make dimmable drivers for these already, I thought about getting one but my driver was still functional after the burnout so I didnt bother. The spread I was getting was with a 60 degree optic, so If you wanted your light more out of the way you could go with a 30 degree optic and get the same results from a greater height. As for output, they put plenty of PAR out, its mostly whether or not you like the color they produce. You can find these LED's in anywhere from 3000k - 20000k, but you'll pay for the higher kelvin ones. I was pretty happy with the color of the 6500k. It was very true white light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Thanks again for the info. I'm liking the price on these over going with Cree XP or something similar which i would need like 24 LEDs... http://www.satistronics.com/30w-higer-power-led-white-warm-white-red-green-blue-yellow-for-choice_p1328.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackhand Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 wow thats amazing ive been wanting some led for my tank but they always seemed so expensive how does the heatsink cost for this light Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 You can do the heatsink and fan combo for as low as $4.99. If you wanted passive cooling by a heatsink without a fan it would be a bit more expensive because you would need a much larger heatsink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishKiler Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Just got done reading this thread and my impression that this seems to be too good to be true. Does anyone else get that? Instead of buying a $70 x2 MH bulb every 6-9 month you can get a couple of LED bulbs and save on electricity at the same time. Maybe I am out of the loop on the current trends but I did not read a whole lot on these at other sites and it seems like a pretty big deal? Any results on using these over coral? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share Posted August 31, 2011 Only thing to look for that I am aware of is the PAR levels. If those are close to the same as your metal halide readings at the same tank depth then your good. Spectrum is mostly for our own visual color preferences. Only downfall I had with these lights was finding a reliable heatsink/fan combo for a good price. I finally decided that if I rebuild this I'll use a larger CPU heatsink/fan combo. I will probably set this back up over the kelp bed in my coldwater tank since it puts out par equivelent to a 250w MH but can be focused with optics to project all the light downwards at a single area. A super tight optic, like a 15 degree, would also allow me to have my light hung roughly 6 feet away from the tank and still put the same amount of light into the same area. Also, since I can get the light output of MH but without the amount of heat created by a MH, I'll be going with LEDs over all my tanks soon. The cost savings starts to really show on a coldwater tank since your chillers dont have to counteract the heat produced by your light source. But in response, yes it is too good to be true. Unless that is, you are willing to take the time to search for the parts seperately (which makes it even more cost effective) and build something like this yourself. If you wanted a 50w LED stand alone light right now without building it yourself, your only option is the 50w Cannon LED Pendant made by Ecoxotic..............for around $499, give or take. The technology is there, the Chinese are making it cost effective, the information is readily availble on the internet, resisitance is futile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C0lin Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 Man, you should look into selling some complete units. I know I'd be down for one. If you need a stock intel CPU heatsink/fan, I have one I'm not using somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaticEngineer Posted September 1, 2011 Author Share Posted September 1, 2011 Man' date=' you should look into selling some complete units. I know I'd be down for one. If you need a stock intel CPU heatsink/fan, I have one I'm not using somewhere.[/quote'] I thought about building and selling them, but the only way to make the lights reliable enough longterm for me to feel comfortable selling them would be to use a very large heatsink like Ecoxotic uses. Which brings the cost up quite a bit because you need a huge chunk of aluminum for the heatsink at that point. Let me know though if you want me to piece one together for you. I did it for my neighbor for under $80. Yeah I could definately use the heatsink/fan If its not too much to ship it up standard snail mail post let me know and I will reimberse you for the shipping. If you got pics of it that would be great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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