LED DIY

[mow said]

Here is my diy led fixture it Took me a week to complete . It's a 81w fixture.

Here are the tools and items i used to build this fixture.
1.Black diabond sheet 960mm x 260
2. 1mm aluminium sheet 960x260mm
3.3mm perspex 960x.260mm
4. 2mm cast acrylic 50x 600mm
5. u channel i do not remember the size but its for holding the pieces together
6. m3 screws ,2.5mm drill bit and m3 tap
7. 90 led chips 1w epistar(20 full spectrum 30 10000k and 40 6500k) and three 18-36w 1w led drivers from china .
8. 3 DC power jack female to male 2metre
9. 100 Heat sink base plate
10. acrylic cutter blade tool
11.22awg black and red wire
12. thermal conductive heat sink plaster
13. 12mm drill bit to drill the holes on the perspex

Any questions please ask i will try my best to answer

 

[mow said]

1.sheets bought in the uk

2.measure with a ruler where the holes are to be drilled on the perspex

3.half of the holes drilled

4.Drill bit used is from b&q i think it was 12mm u can used waterver drill but size you want but be careful and use a flat surface to drill the perspex as it can crack

5.All drilled

6.Glued clear acrylic on the side of the aluminium sheet so that i can have space for the leds and the wires when the u channel is put on

7.Bought these from china led heatsinks

8.Making sure all fits perfect and drilled holes with a 2.5mm drill and used an m3 tap so that i can screw the fixture

9.here is the screw inserted

10.Glued all the heatsink and led chips together , i do not have a picture showing wiring diagram but you can ask if you have any questions

11>Booom and it lights up

12.Here is the dc wires i used . each wire has its own channel. you can use one two or all three channels if you want

13.And here is the final product

Tank size: optiwhite 100x40x40 . I understand that i am missing allot of things in this DIY tutorial but do not hesitate to ask i will try my best to help.

 

[markk]

Nice build.

How hot does it get after running a few hours? I'd be slightly worried that there isn't much of a heat sink and very little airflow - and the dilite sheet might act as an insulator.

Cheers, Mark



Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

 

[mow said]

hey mark,
im using 1mm aluminium plus diabond on top which acts like a heat sink too. i have run this for 24 hours and it does not get hot at all. And i have also placed the led chips far apart . I used 1w led so these dnt produce that much heat as 3w led chips. And for the air there is holes drilled so its oki that way. I have one built on my old juwel and i only used diabond sheet and its been running for a year with no issues.

 

[zozo]

Nice build.. But might want to take a look at COB led units if you ever want to build one again. Those 1 and 3 watt cree high powers getting outperformed and out of date by now. COB led also is more cost effective, need less units for same performance.

 

[mow said]

hey zozo thanks and i am using epistar not cree and look at this guy he is using COB led chips and epistar leds together. And on his other videos his only using epistar chips and his aquariums look amazing. Its about mixing lights together to get the best colour. In my fixture i have used full sprectrum /10000k and 6500k leds. And there is not much difference between cob and high power led chips in aquarium use .http://www.cob-led.com/COB-LED-Advantage-Chip-on-board.html

 

[zozo]

Yes that's a nice looking tank.. I guess best color is a personal preference. But i mean, cree or epistar doesn't make much a difference regarding model. Constructionaly you would already have an advantage with the cob units.. E.g. currently building me a little fixture for a nano tank. With 2 COB led units each + 2000 lumen. If i would have taken highpower cree or epistar on a star PCB i would have needed to fix a lot more units to it to get same output, than just 2 cob units. 1 watt high power has maybe 100 / 120 lumen each, that would have been around 40 leds etc. And COB can save a lot of work and probably cost. So i was not refering to beter light and or color mixture. Just cost effective building..

Not yet all ordered material arrived, but when it does and the build is ready. Planning a little journal for it..

Thanks for the link thats interesting..

 

[mow said]

i get your point now can i see your cob build . How much is your budget i built one for my nano tank as well 2 months ago.

 

[zozo]

Yes sure you can see, as said not all material i need arrived but is ordered. I'll make a journal about it. With al materials used. Regarding cost about $20 maybe less for a 40cm light stand completely made out of aluminium with 4000 lumen output. (without controler and PSU ofcourse) It's only half way finished now. I was out of M4 blind rivet nuts and some M3 stand off columns i need to finish it..

You know ebay orders can take e few weeks.. Ordered it last week. So have to wait. But once i have it all it'l be finished in about 2 hours work.

 

[mow said]

nice this cost me around £70 but as you can see i wanted to build a nice fixture for the optiwhite tank. Made sure it matches the cabinet rather than splashing more than £100 for a brand one which you can't even upgrade or control. Let me know once your done with your build so i can see the end progress and i know those ebay orders are a pain

 

[mow said]

here is the pic matching the cabinet

 

[zozo]

Looks realy nice.. great job..

 

[mow said]

following up on this thread after a week and a half of planting using co2 and the led that i made my self. Plants are growing no signs of algae yet . The led is 81 watts total . First channel i have 36 leds second channel is 26 and the third is 19 watts . First week i used the first and third channel which is a total of 55 watts on my second week i am using first and second channel which is a total of 62 watts. light are on from 20:00 to 00:30 so 4 hours and half and co2 from 18:00 to 23:00 which is 5 hours.Using a bazooka diffuser atm as i am waiting on an inline diffuser .I live in london and i use 100 percent tap water nothing else.The scape is not finished i will put hair grass in coming weeks and I am also using ei salts and magnessium too Any questions please ask .

 

[mow said]

after a little trim

 

[mow said]

following this thread up. Leds are working fine as i said before i am going to play with the channels. currently i am using only 2 channels out of three which in total is 55 watts power. I tried to use the other channel and one i am currently using which is 65 watts and started to get green spot algae on the glass. Overall i had little but of diatoms which got taken care of in a day by amano shrimps. Little bit of bba on one java fern which is now gone i am sure it was because of co2 fluctuation but now my co2 levels are stable. The light is 81 watts but i am only using 55 watts and everything is growing fast, i am trimming weekley and also 50-70 percent water change weekley. Lights are on 6 hours a day 25 watts from 19:30 then from 20:00 55 watts till 00:00 back to 25 watts till 01:30.

 

[mow said]

 

[mow said]

another update pictures taken on 4/7/2017. All led working as they should i havent encountered any problems till this date. Plants are growing like crazy with 60 watts on for 5 hours and 2 hours with only 25 watts.

hygrophila polysperma

ludwigia glandulosa converting from emersed, cabomba red , pogostemon stella and myriophyllum mattogrossense

 

[lemw]

This looks great, I'd love to do something similar for a tank I'm setting up but have no experience with this. I've got a few questions I'd appreciate help with from how you've done yours:

Firstly the layout of it, am I correct in saying that it is

Black diabond sheet (outer top layer).
Aluminium sheet (acts as heat sink).
Wireing of LEDs between these layers.
Perspecs sheet (LEDs go through this).
Acrylic sheet (bottom layer facing the water).


And for the LEDs, the Ines which look red in your photos - are these the full spectrum ones?

Thanks

 

[mow said]

hey lemw,
yes every thing you mentioned is correct i can send you all the link for the items i bought from china and here in the uk. Also i can give you more details here , send me your tank dimension and what you intend to use it for, high tech or low tech and i can let you know what will be the best wattage for you.The reason i am asking all these details its because you might not need an aluminium sheet in the middle because if the fixture is the less than 40 watts then you will only need the diabond sheet.

 

[mow said]

emersed christmas moss

myriophyllum mattogrossense