Progress of LED hood/retrofit

[lucubrator]

Actualy I'm going to be using a step down converter that will have a ground wire, hopefuly that will handle the grounding.

That, and im going to be isolating the LEDs from the heatsink, only the surface designed to be mated to a heatsink will be touching it.

You mentioned that you had a couple of LED drivers that you were going to use, are you using different ones now?

[SolRo]

You mean the diffuser on front, or do they actually have a reflector in the back?

no attached diffuser, it's a solid piece of optical grade acrylic

You mentioned that you had a couple of LED drivers that you were going to use, are you using different ones now?

I'm buying efficient and reliable ones that are pre-made, instead of trying to make some off the cuff.

[lucubrator]

Those are really cool looking. Have part numbers on the stuff?

[SolRo]

made by Fraen, dunno the part # though.

[Ars3nal619]

well $100 in parts to, i think, equal the output of the smallest solaris fixture. It would be half the LED's that give off almost double the light of the LEDs solaris uses. But I could match the # of LEDs for about $200 for for 24" fixture and another $200 for every 12" above that.

but hell, $600 still beats $2500 for a 48" fixture.


I'd need to find someone to weld 4 aluminum heatsinks together though
heh.

well....keep us posted on how yours are coming.....i may take you up on the 48" version if yours holds up.....and you can verify things are growing under led's. from what i read, led's are much cheaper/quieter/cooler to run....but seems that nothing grows like they do under mh's....

[SolRo]

Heatsinks arrived!




black one is for nano setups, which have a front to back airflow, silver for long hoods/canopies that have a side to side airflow.

[Trickman2]

Awesome stuff you gotta write up a nice DIY article for everyone one here

[crstjohn]

When's it gonna be done, When's it gonna be done, When's it gonna be done??? I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see!

[Kamilek]

The power of LED's --> click me

[SolRo]

Yeah, LED's are a pot growers dream. They give off so little heat that it woudlnt show up on infra red cameras being pointed at the house.


And i think the 2 LEDs i was playing around with made a piece of GSP that was dormant for 1 month to grow new polyps(I left the lights on till the battery drained to see if heat buildup would be a problem)....and light shock some of my zoas. :\

[SolRo]

rough calculation of PAR given off by my fixture...

(PAR %ages gotten from http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2, a comparison of a 75 watt solaris array to a 250 MH)

So a 75 watt solaris fixture (using 3 watt LEDs) gives off 89.4% of the PAR of a 250 watt MH fixture.

the LEDs I'm using will run at about 5.5 watts each, while the solaris LEDs are running at 3 watts each...LEDs are from the same company, the ones I'm using are just 2 generations newer, so I'm assuming the PAR is equal or higher.

soo, 1 watt of LED power roughly equals about 2.98 watts from a MH in terms of PAR.

I'm cutting back the test setup to just be 5 LEDs, because I realized the 12 LED setup I was planning would be WAYYY to much PAR for my little 12 gallon tank.

so 5 LEDs x 5.54 watts x 2.98 MH equivalant = 82.5 watts equivalent PAR from a 27.7 watt fixture.

and a 25 LED fixture I've already found the parts to build would about equal 412 watts of MH power for 138 watts

[SolRo]

which also explains why some of my new zoas got light shock from 2 LEDs i was messing around with, since 2 LEDs is about 33 watts of MH PAR

[SolRo]

And here's some pics of what I've decided to mount the LEDs to, I think it will work out better than mounting to heatsinks since

- it will look a whole lot better

- mounting holes already there, so can be used as a retrofit also

- the rails allow me to easly slide in a piece of clear plastic to protect the LEDs from salt spray

- comes in brown, nekkid aluminum, white, and gold finishes

- CHEAP <love that part>

[SolRo]

For the shielding, any preference between me using textured acrylic (flourecent lighting covers), clear lexan, or maybe even glass?

[SolRo]

Sleeeek.