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LED build!

Discussion in 'Quad Cities Area' started by B-Rad, Oct 21, 2011.

  1. B-Rad

    B-Rad Inactive User

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    OK, I've been contemplating making the switch to LEDs and decided to go for it, as it was going to coast half the price of the build to change out my old bulbs any ways. But as with every thing I do, I will be doing things a little outside the box and will be using 10w LEDs instead of the 3w Crees everyone else is using. (You know me got to be different.)
    I'm going to keep this build here in our Q/C forms to maybe get some more traffic in here!
    And before anyone questions my motives of using the 10w LEDs, lets just say that one royal blue 10w led lights up my whole 21' above ground swinging pool!!
    So lets get started, since I prefer the deep blue under water look, (after all we all have fish tanks because we can't be scuba diving 24-7 now can we!) I'm going to use 2 to 3 different ranges of LEDs, cool whites which are around 20000K, Blues that are in the range of 460nm to 480nm, then Royal Blues that range from 440nm to 460nm.
    I will be using 4 mean-well drivers. Each driver will drive a total of 8 LEDs. The 8 LEDs will be split into 2 strings of 4. Each string will have 4 LEDs wired in series then the 2 strings will be wired parallel to the driver. The drivers will be dim-able so that I can adjust the overall color of the display. The LEDs are rated at 1000mA with an intensity of 600lm for the white and 200lm for the blues.
    I will be using a striped out CoralVue HQI light fixture that I've had laying around for some time now to mount the heat sinks to. 
    The first stage will be the two center heat sinks, 4.25" x 16. Each will have 8 LEDs on them 4 cool white and 4 blue. This should replace my two 250w Halides.
    The next step will be the front and back heat sinks which will be two 1.1 x 18" for the front and two for the back, each with 4 LEDs per heat sink. Thats a total of 32 10w LEDs for my 4' x24" x 24" tank. Thats 320w of LEDs.
    Note: I will be running them at 1/2 power depending on what the Par meter shows!  
    I will post pics as things start to arrive.
    P.S. Thanks for checking it out.
     
  2. mthomp

    mthomp Inactive User

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    Hey Rick, What kind of optics will you be using? And will you be using dimmable drivers?
     
  3. B-Rad

    B-Rad Inactive User

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    I will be using custom made reflectors 80 degree, no lens. The mean well ELN-60-48D are the drivers, so yes they are dimmable.
     
  4. jsprague

    jsprague

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    any progress?
     
  5. B-Rad

    B-Rad Inactive User

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    My LEDs showed up today, Finely. I will get some pics and see if I can get the ball rolling.
     
  6. B-Rad

    B-Rad Inactive User

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    OK time for some pics, This is stage 1 of the build, they will be going into the middle of my old CORALIFE fixture that I had laying around. But first I'm going to use them over my frag tank as I'm getting ready to redo my main display.
    To start out with I've got two 4.25" x 16" heat sinks, two Mean well ELN-60-48D drivers, 8 10W-20k white LEDs, and 8 10W-460nm blue LEDs.
    [​IMG]
    LEDs glued on and ready for soldering.
    [​IMG]
    Close up of the 10W blue.
    [​IMG]
    Setting in the light fixture.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Ordered the fans and dimmer controller, ready to start the wireing.
    Thats all for now.
     
  7. Tman62

    Tman62

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    Rick, where did you get the LED's?
     
  8. B-Rad

    B-Rad Inactive User

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    I ordered my LEDs from this place.
    http://stores.ebay.com/led-hk/10W-leds-/_i.html?_fsub=1673979012&_sid=482459762&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
     

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