# ADA aquasky LED replacement



## bradipo975 (9 Jan 2016)

Hi all,

I am new to the website, but I have found loads of interesting information here that helped me with my planted aquarium, but I have a query and I can't find the answer anywhere.

I bought from my LFS an ADA Aquasky at a very good price ( £100 ) and I was very happy with it, but my cat decided to play with the light while I was away and dropped half of the light into the aquarium. I thought all the fish were all dead and the light was completely destroyed but I was surprised to see that the fish were alive and the led that managed to stay dry were still working.

Now is time for the query..... I am fairly good in DIY and electric stuff and I was wondering can i replace the burned LED with other similar LED or exactly the same LED if I can buy them? 
Also I know that LED used for planted aquarium are usually not all the same colour to cover all the spectrum needed by the plant for photosyntesis but there is no information on what it has been used on the Aquasky, does it means that all the LED and the Aquasky are exactly the same ? I can't find anywhere the exact specs of the LED, the manual that came with the aquasky has only this information :

Input voltage : AC 100-240V    50/60Hz
Power consumption: 22W
Current consumption : 650mA±5%
Luminous flux: 1,800-2,160lm
Colour temperature :Around 7000K (Due to the nature of the LED lighting, there are variation in colour temperature )
LED : 0.4W/ each X45

I hope someone can help.

Thanks,

Bradipo


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## markk (9 Jan 2016)

bradipo975 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I am new to the website, but I have found loads of interesting information here that helped me with my planted aquarium, but I have a query and I can't find the answer anywhere.
> 
> ...


Just the sort of project that I like

Do you have some photos of the LEDs and how they are fixed to the heatsink? 

A couple of initial thoughts:

- can you remove the dead LEDs? I'm guessing they will either be individually soldered or glued with thermal epoxy (or possibly both). Thermal epoxy can be pretty strong - so be wary of damaging other components - and if soldered you may struggle to raise the temperature high enough as the heatsink will do its job! 

- I doubt you'll be able to find out the specific led part# and even if you could, you may not be able to get hold of it. I would search around for comparable LEDs and, depending on the distribution of dead LEDs in the fitting, either replace  the dead ones, replace dead while shuffling all of the existing around (to get an even distribution of new and old) or simply replace all of the LEDs.

- I'm 99% sure you'll need constant current LEDs that can take 650ma while drawing 0.4watts or less - any more and the power supply may not cope.

- worst case scenario, scrap the existing LEDs and use the existing fitting for a diy replacement setup.

Regards
Mark

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


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## xim (9 Jan 2016)

bradipo975 said:


> ...
> Now is time for the query..... I am fairly good in DIY and electric stuff and I was wondering can i replace the burned LED with other similar LED or exactly the same LED if I can buy them?
> Also I know that LED used for planted aquarium are usually not all the same colour to cover all the spectrum needed by the plant for photosyntesis but there is no information on what it has been used on the Aquasky, does it means that all the LED and the Aquasky are exactly the same ?
> ...



Hi, try Googling with "aqua sky" and "smd 5630".

Or... http://www.1023world.net/blog/水草ledライト徹底検証：天下のada-aquasky！


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## bradipo975 (9 Jan 2016)

Thank you guys for the reply. I checked the website ( good job by the way ) with the description of the original Aquasky leds and I think after an afternoon of playing around with it I reached the conclusion that the LED are almost impossible to replace , at least for amateur without the proper tools. I am now thinking to replace the LEDS,  and use the same driver. If anyone  has any experience with building DIY led system for tropical planted aquarium or if anyone knows a trusted website that can suggest me the number and type of led needed for the driver that I already have I will be grateful. I know I am ignorant when it comes to PAR , colour temperature of the led and the photosyntesis spectrum , but this is not I job that I planned to do and my knowledge is very limited in regards  of light and plant . 
Thank you  mark and xim for your help .

Bradipo


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## markk (10 Jan 2016)

Bradipo

What does it say on the driver itself? i.e. voltage and current.

There are quite a few resources around that run through diy led systems - in fact, enough to get you really confused at first - but first a couple of pointers.

- the 'current' guidance on ukaps is not to worry about colour temperature/spectrums etc. Just go for LEDs with a colour that suits your viewing pleasure - typically warm white or cool white. Your plants will adapt.

- generally speaking, avoid cheap LEDs and/or LEDs that don't give you any power consumption or lumens output. In your case, the lumens output is also key if you want to broadly match the output of the aquasky.

- LEDs broadly fall into 2 categories - those that require a constant voltage supply (the best example being LED strips) and those that require a constant current (typically high power cree/epiled/bridgelux LEDs).

- Based on the link xim posted, it looks like your leds and driver are constant voltage - though to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I could read the circuit diagram in that post both ways (and the translation is not exactly helpful!)

- in some respects, you have the most important part ready to go - the fixture and heatsink. Assuming you can cleanly remove the existing LEDs.

Some links:-

a post from me last year on my own led build
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diy-cree-led-retrofit-to-old-hood.36983/

Other ukaps diy builds
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-diy-led-lamp-for-an-ada-30c.31328/
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/supercoleys-diy-led-luminaire-mk-iii.34753/

LEDGroupBuy builds (handle with care - some are extremely technical)
http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/how-to-builds/

Youtube is also your friend, as are other forums...

Just as an idea, you can't really go wrong with a few metres of splash proof LED strip cut to size and re-joined, glued to the existing heatsink (they come with an adhesive backing) and powered from a straightforward 12volt led driver. (N.B. you'll need to ensure you re-seal the connections at the joints and I'm not sure yet whether the adhesive will stand up to any moisture). This is what I'm currently doing for a new light for an ADA 45P that I acquired. Sourced from ledhut.co.uk (no affiliation!), this would cost around £16 for LEDs and £11 for a good quality driver (and they always have additional discounts available).

http://www.ledhut.co.uk/led-strip-l...arm-white-best-price-on-the-internet-241.html
http://www.ledhut.co.uk/led-strip-l...owering-sections-of-12-volt-led-lighting.html

That strip will give you approx. 1800 lumens but there is a more powerful version that will give you 2700 lumens over the same length.

Hope this helps,

regards,
Mark


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## Steve b (26 Jan 2016)

Hi Bradipo

I'm new here btw, I liked the look of the ada aquasky but not the price .
Did some digging around the www and found a company in china called chihiros.
It looks like the same light unit but about 1/4 of the price if you don't fancy the DIY led route.

Good luck 

Steve


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## bradipo975 (31 Jan 2016)

Hi Markk,
sorry for the late reply but I did't realised i received any messages up until today.

I attached a picture of the driver itself with the information printed on it. Thanks to the post left from xim in Japanese I managed to find this website https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...white-5630-smd-led/1385/#/tab/RelatedProducts and if I am not mistaken this are exactly the same LED used by the AQUASKY and I am now thinking to rebuild the circuit and start from scratch .I found a company that prints custom made PCB and I will spend around 50 pounds in total including the LED unless I will be able to utilise the original board, the problem is that i believe that some part the circuit are damaged, but it is impossible to expose the circuit as it has been covered with a white coat of paint or similar. As you seems to be more informed then I am on the matter .... do you know if there are any product that will clean the board from the layer of "paint"? 
And my last question is this , is it possible that all the LED on the Aquasky are the same or do you believe are a mix of colours such as cool white ,warm white and so on. As you said the translation from xim link was helpful but I didn't managed to translate all of it.

Thank you again ,

Bradipo


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## bradipo975 (31 Jan 2016)

Hi Steve B,

thank you for the comment, I actually looking forward to a bit of DIY , I am always trying to fix stuff even if sometimes I do more damage than good. I just want to make sure that during the process I am not setting the house on fire , that's why I am asking for a bit of help here , and I am not going to buy a new Aquasky , I am trying to repair it to its original state . But thank you again for the suggestion .


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## markk (5 Feb 2016)

bradipo975 said:


> Hi Markk,
> sorry for the late reply but I did't realised i received any messages up until today.
> 
> I attached a picture of the driver itself with the information printed on it. Thanks to the post left from xim in Japanese I managed to find this website https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...white-5630-smd-led/1385/#/tab/RelatedProducts and if I am not mistaken this are exactly the same LED used by the AQUASKY and I am now thinking to rebuild the circuit and start from scratch .I found a company that prints custom made PCB and I will spend around 50 pounds in total including the LED unless I will be able to utilise the original board, the problem is that i believe that some part the circuit are damaged, but it is impossible to expose the circuit as it has been covered with a white coat of paint or similar. As you seems to be more informed then I am on the matter .... do you know if there are any product that will clean the board from the layer of "paint"?
> ...



Hi

In no particular order! -

- re colour. I doubt the LEDs are/were different colours. If they were, it would have been fairly obvious before.

- re damage to the circuit. I doubt there is any damage other than some of the LEDs - mainly because they are the only actual components (if that circuit diagram is correct). 

- re removing coating. No idea to be honest! You could experiment with readily available thinners/solvents/paint removers.

If it were me, I'd first try and remove the damaged LEDs and it helps to know how they were attached in the first place. I'm guessing there is a circuit board underneath; the LEDs would then probably have been baked on (reflow). Essebtially the hole thing gets heated up to about 200degrees, at which point the solder melts and everything is physically and electrically connected. The white coating is then presumably a cosmetic covering that also adds some protection to the copper tracks.

To reverse that (ie remove the LEDs), you could try a heat gun or perhaps a soldering iron. Get a grip of the individual led with some pliers, start heating and keep pulling gently. It should come off....

If this damages any of the paint, you can always sand it down later and touch up with a new coat.

Assuming you then have replacement LEDs, you would need to position them properly with some solder flux applied between the LEDs and board. Heat with gun and/or soldering iron and be carefull! That also assumes the LEDs are presoldered (not sure).

Hope that helps 

Cheers
Mark


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