LED's and coral?

[reeftnk101]

I am researching LED lighting and coral growth. I am building a diy light with 100 LED's. I will have 1 row of 33 10k bright white LED's, 1 row of 33 white and blue LED's and 1 row of 33 blue lights. The LED's arent measured in watts but they are measured in mcd's. For example a regular LED bulb is 8,000 mcd's, these bulbs are 65,000 mcd's each. The white bulbs I am using will be 10k and the blue bulbs are 450 - 475nm. According to the research LED's have a far better par rating and better penetration than metal halides. I know the Solaris has shown below standard coral growth. What I am thinking is they might have 5500k or 6500k bulbs, that is why I am going with 10k and 450 - 475nm's. My question is has anyone had any expierience with LED aquarium lighting?
Matt

 

[Boomer]

Matt who's LED's are you looking at ? Your biggest issue will be on the order of getting the right kind of light angle leaving the LED and the ability to gather that light in the right kind of reflector / lens. If not done properly you will end up with a bunch of spots hitting the water. The LED's must blend into one "apparent" light source when they hit the water. LED's are measured in Watts with 5 W LED's being the brightest. But the other issue here with high W LED's is the heat. High output Led's produce allot of heat and that heat needs to be dissipated. HVO-LED also do not last as long and can burn out when on 10-18 hrs / day.

A 5W, like a Luxeon is rated @ 1A peak, 6.8V forward voltage = 5 W

http://www.theledlight.com/LuxeonLEDs.html

 

[reeftnk101]

So you have tried them on corals? Light of Victory is the manufacturer out of Hong Kong. The LED's that I am using are 30.5 degree viewing angle, 8mm, there operating temp. is only 85 degrees max. And I think 3 rows of 33 with 30.5 degree angle will give me the single light look I am looking for. If not its research,thats the fun of it,trying different things until I reach my goal.
Matt

 

[Skimmy]

sweet! take some pics as you build!!

 

[Damsel13]

Sheesh Boomer you make my head hurt!


But in a very good way.
Debbie

 

[Boomer]

I think it is time Matt to get you deeper into the subject

Those are not very good lights, 14.5 lm/W @ 30.5 VA and 65kmcd. mcd means milicandelas. 65,000 mcd 65 Candela. A Candela is a Luminous Intensity. And Lumens are Luminous flux. These are only 1 W at 20ma @ 3.7 V and give out 14.5 lumens. 65kmcds is not much when comparied to 5 W Luxeons which have a few hundredthousand mcd, with some as high as 900,000 mcd. Many of the Luxeon put out 4 times the lumnen output but they get hot. A 1 W Luxeon Emitter puts out 24 l /W, that is almost 2 x yours. Solaris uses 2 x 25 arrays of 3 W LED and these are 65 l. That is 4.5 x what you are looing at. Solaris light run at 700ma and 4.3 V, yours are 20ma and 3.7 V

Yours
99 x 14.5 = 1435 l ( you will not get much light out of 20ma)

Solaris

50 x 65 = 3250 l

It looks like you are e-bay'ing your LEDs

Here are some real LED
http://www.cree.com/

http://www.luxeon.com/
a better Luxeon link
http://www.luxeonstar.com/category.php?id=196&link_str=196


Have you read this yet ?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2

Notes on LEDs;
http://www.gizmology.net/LEDs.htm

Also what kind of lenses are you going to use ? Look at the Luxeon link Fraen Lenses.

or
http://www.fraensrl.com/prodinfo.html


What kind of control board are you going to use ?

 

[Skimmy]

damn boomer, YOU should make some of these puppies!!
you could have your own line of lighting..lol

 

[reeftnk101]

didnt show

 

[reeftnk101]

Would this be a better light?

DC Forward Current IF 700 mA

Peak Forward Current IFP 1000 mA

Reverse Voltage VR 10 V

Power Dissipation PD 5000 mW

Operation Temperature Topr -20ºC ― +75ºC ºC

Storage Temperature Tstg -20ºC ― +100ºC ºC

Lead Soldering Temperature Tsld 240ºC for 5 seconds

Optical Electrical Characteristics at Ta=25ºC

Item Symbol Condition Min. Typ. Max.. Unit

Forward Voltage VF IF=150mA 3.00 3.60 4.20 v

View Angle 2q1/2 ? / 160 / deg

Luminous Intensity IV IF=150mA ? 120 / lm

 

[Boomer]

That looks like a much better lamp. Have a link reef ? Are you an electrician by any chance ? I'm not and such a design should be looked at buy an electrical engineer. Such LED arrays need to be controlled often using IC chips. MY LED flashlights have a IC board in them.

 

[reeftnk101]

I found these led's on ebay also. Still getting my parts together. I am not an electrician either.
Matt

 

[glasscabbage]

iv been running 12 3w cree (4white 8blue) in my 15 gal nano for about 4 months now. in a shallow tank softies dot like this much light apparently, even the acro and encrusting monti prefer to grow down. but great growth and color once acclimated. this all with less heat and 3/4 the energy of my old PCs which could barley keep a monti cap growing. id recommend DIY leds to anyone even slightly handy looking for new reef lighting.

 

[akunochi]

Holy thread revival....also a lot of the studies from a lot of people have shown PAR from a professional LED such as aqua Illuminations even if matched to the par from the previous light source over the same tank can cause a burning. It doesn't make sense to me, but there was a long discussion involving it during MACNA apparently. There was another type of meter they used for the discussion that didn't measure par but another reading to compare the LEDs. This machine is apparently 6 figure expensive and no longer available...it was borrowed from a universities lab.

 

[bradr]

Supposedly the DIY guys say it's just about 20% more to buy an LED unit already built. Guess I'm lazy.

 

[BigAl07]

20%? SO you're saying that DIY only saves you 20%? I'd have to say unless you're getting screwed on your LED components then that # is way under valued. I've just installed my 2nd DIY LED array. I was able to get a solid kit from a reputable REEF LED company for about 1/2 (or less) than what a factory LED of a comparable size and configuration would have cost.

If you're competent with some gluing/soldering and running wires then I would imagine you'll save a good bit more than 20%.

 

[mojoreef]

I would say closer to 50 to 70 % savings.


Mojo

 

[BigAl07]

I'd say you're probably right Mike. It's a huge cost savings if you're willing to do some of the "Tedious" work yourself. Plus factor in the "Satisfaction for doing it yourself" and you're really saving some money Also the larger the project the most pronounced the savings seem to be.

 

[Maxx]

I'm still waiting for pics Mojo's new LED lighting set up....

Nick

 

[crazygirl]

hello Matt,

how many watts would you like make? and use 1w leds or 3w?? for my experience,make the lights into modular is more better,that easy install ,easy for use. the about make led aquarium lights ,i think the important is the structure design.
Sara

 

[BigAl07]

Hello Sara and welcome to Reef Frontiers.

I just wanted to toss this out there.. you do not want 1W LED if you're building a system for photosynthetic organisms (aka a REEF tank). 3W is the MIN you want unless you're also adding a feature such as "Moon Lights" then you can (and should) use lower watt LED but ONLY for that portion of the build.