Eugenereef Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 A friend of mine had her lights fail and she decided to go with LED. SO we decided to gut out her old 4 lamp t5ho fixture and are in a process of converting it to LED fixture. I figured if any of you want to do the same, you could use this thread as a guide... I still standby by LEDs (laugh). I had my entire tank without rock for almost 6 weeks and now its back up. I was pleasently surprised to see the corals that had lost all the colors are backup and have nicely recovered. I have some 4 big colonies that I will be selling in next few weeks. Until then, enjoy the following build (naughty) So I gutted the old fixture completely and saved all the screws, wire nuts, fans etc and plan to use them in this build. I then build heatsinks out of aluminium C-channel like I have described before. The two channels will be held together using four 5 inch C-channels. These connecting bars were screwed into where the original reflector and ballasts were attached to the shell. This is where the reflector was attached.. and now this is where the Al bar is attached from which the two 2 inch screws extend out. Plastic spacers were put in to keep the spacing even. The two LED bars will be held together with 4 such small bars. Of these 4 bars, 2 will be screwed into the shell to hold the lights and the other two will be used as support for the drivers. This is how the two bars that will hold drivers are going to be attached.. Then the two fans where placed in original places ( I don't think we will need to the fans, but since I have then, why not use them (laugh) ) And the transformer was wired back in.. Finally the entire heatsink was attached to the shell.. The two drivers will be placed at the two edges on the connecting bars. And now we wait for the LEDs to arrive from RapidLED.com (whistle) I'll post once we have the LEDs attached and wired in. Until then, happy reefing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugenereef Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 The total cost of hardware so far is ~$30.00! I think LEDs are another 250 to 300 (don't know yet) for 24 3W LEDs, 2 dimable drivers, driver controller. She went with LEDs that are already soldered with connectors. So it will be very easy, just stick them to the heatsink and connect them using quick connects! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugenereef Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 I was finally able to complete the fixture on Christmas eve good Christmas present!!! So I glued the LEDs on the heatsink. These were pre-soldered LEDs that were connected using junction box (or circuit, what ever you want to call it) Here is the close-up on junction box: HOWEVER, I would NOT recommend going with this setup. It may look easy at first not to have to solder the LEDs, it is a pain in the rear to wire these with right length of wires. also, it is very difficult to troubleshoot when the lights don't work unless you have numbered the LEDs!!! WE also connected the dimmer to the fixture. It needed for wire connection to the two drivers. I used phone wire and phone jack as quick connect/disconnect controller. It makes is easy if you need to remove fixture from the tank. And I tested it on my tank but did not take any picture but it look perfect!!! I'll see if I can get a few picture of the tank that it is lighting up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattv Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 I like the phone jack connector idea. I used a 24 pin connector and did my fans too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugenereef Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks Matt. Yes!!! That revelation came to me standing in Jerry's!! The cat5 box and cable was too expensive and basically overkill!! Phonejack was only $2.99 and I had several phone wires laying. Worked pretty weil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Nicely done as usual Upinder!! I've been looking at getting stunner strips or Reefbrites to supplement my 4 bulb T5 fixture on my frag tank, and seeing as they are going for the same price used as they are new I was thinking of just building a strip. So thanks for the pics well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugenereef Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 Thanks Miles!! let me know if you need any help in building your supplemental lights. On a separate note, how is the parenthood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Will do! Parenthood is great, i love getting home each day and playing with my boy. His smiles just make ya melt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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