All LEDs are not made equal?

[stefalopod]

Hi everyone, So I'm trying to come up with a lighting solution for my orb. It comes with a little 5watt 12 volt halogen bulb, which really isn't cutting it.

I bought a clip on LED light, but the leds have a really narrow viewing angle so it looked like the tank was under a spotlight.

I've gone ahead and ordered an assortment of bulbs that'll fit in my original 12v lamp, in the hopes of finding one that'll provide satisfactory illumination, but I'm not getting my hopes up. The bulb sits dead center over the orb, which in my case is directly above the overflow. It basically lights the back side of my live rock and not the front.

My next step, if the bulbs I've ordered don't work out, will be to build my own LED lamp, but I wanted to know if anyone knows how to pick LEDs for aquarium lighting, and how many to use. I know I'll need something with a wide viewing angle, but beyond that I don't have much idea. Help, anyone? I

[PhotoJohn]

I think it all depends on if you plan on trying to keep corals in your little orb. If you want corals or think you will at some time more and stronger LED=win...If you just want to stick with a fish or invert I would use whatever is accessible and cheap. You may want to decide what color look you like. If its a 10k color go with white leds if it more of the 20k look go with blueish LEDs and white leds mixed to your liking. I know you can buy LEDs on ebay in almost any color, finding ones with a wider angle of light dispersal is probably the challenge. You could wire a ring of LEDs that goes around the top rim of the tank shining down. If you did blue and white LEDs you could put them on different timers, having the blues come on first and then the whites later to simulate the sun rise and whites off and blues stay for sun set. Anyway, just some ideas.

[CarmieJo]

Phillips and Cree make good LED's.

[Amphibious]

I know little about this LED stuff (with the exception of being a former PFO dealer) but, I know PFO was using 4 or 5 watt bulbs in a mixture of white, blue and green. That's the extent of my LED knowledge, sorry.

Dick

[stefalopod]

Thanks everyone! I've done some experimenting around with shining lights at the orb at different angles and I've found that I really won't be able to keep the light inside the tiny lid. I'm going to have to shine it down through the upper slope of the acrylic -- much as you described photojohn =)


If you did blue and white LEDs you could put them on different timers, having the blues come on first and then the whites later to simulate the sun rise and whites off and blues stay for sun set. Anyway, just some ideas.
I like the timer idea with the sunset/sunrise

I know PFO was using 4 or 5 watt bulbs in a mixture of white, blue and green.Dick
Thanks Amp for he colors and wattage suggestion.

I think I'm going to want the orb for a coral only tank, come September or so.

Question, if I'm looking at "low light" corals, how much light is low light? Should I just experiment once I get the LEDs up to see what they like? Or should I aim for a specific range of total lumens or something like that?

[Carty]

What you are going to research (i could tell you in person or in chat, but it would just take TOOOOO Long on here)

Look into heatsinks for your LED's
Look into a controller
Look into kelvin ratings + the mixture of different kelvin ratings
You will want either CREE or Luxeon LED's pushing atleast 160 lumens each (the more the better)
Look into wiring diagrams
I would recommend the Luxeon Rebel's, they work great, and are very bright (pricey tho)
In a 25 LED square you will want it set up like this...

W W W W W
W B W B W
W W G W W
W B W B W
W W W W W

LED's don't provide a very broad spectrum of light so you will have to create it with a mixture of colors

[stefalopod]

Thanks Carty!

I was looking at the luxeon's recently $25 a pop, right?

I've got all sorts of questions... about a heatsink, about wiring diagrams, and about alternatives to a square (I'm going to have to work in rings).




What you are going to research (i could tell you in person or in chat, but it would just take TOOOOO Long on here)


Is there a good time I could ask you about some of this stuff?

[suep]

There's a lot of people over on nanoreef experimenting with LEDs over salt tanks, and building their own. The guy that started this thread seems to be one of their acknowledged experts. And the thread seems to be the current State Of The Art for DIYs.

Ultimate LED guide - Nano-Reef.com Forums (http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=186982)

I've chatted with his a few times and have found him to be helpful and friendly.

[Carty]

Thanks Carty!

I was looking at the luxeon's recently $25 a pop, right?

I've got all sorts of questions... about a heatsink, about wiring diagrams, and about alternatives to a square (I'm going to have to work in rings).





Is there a good time I could ask you about some of this stuff?

im on TR chat now haha BOOOOOOORED

the luxeons vary in price based on the amount of Lumens they put out... the brighter ones are more expensive, but you need less...

you could attach a cover to the LED's to spread the light out so you won't get such a spotlight effect, but you will def. lose par

You don't have to work in a square, it is just an easy way to show you a good color combination.. you can set up the LED's however you want, you can even write out your name, its all about the circuit you build

[stefalopod]

check out this heatsink i found. it looks like it would fit nicely over the opening in the orb. does anyone think there could be any problems with it being copper? posting from my phone, so i can't activate th link jab-tech.com/Zalman-VF900CU-LED-pr-3441.html

[Amphibious]

Here you go.

Heat Sink (jab-tech.com/Zalman-VF900CU-LED-pr-3441.html)

[stefalopod]

no opinions anyone?

[Carty]

opinion on what....?

[stefalopod]

opinions on whether the copper fins pose a risk to the tank =)

[Carty]

no, as long as they are not exposed to the water they won't be any problem.. metalic toxins aren't spread thru current ;-) I dare you to object :-P

[stefalopod]

so I was actually looking at LEDs inthe 40 - 65 lumen range. I'm sure on the super deep tank you'd wanto to go with the 150 - 250 lumen bad boys, but I think i'd rather more leds of a smaller output to try to diffuse any spotlighting effect. Also, I shouldn't need the big expensive heatsink if I go with the smaller ones, right?

[Amphibious]

I have the feeling that few of us know little about the LED technology, Stefani. Certainly, I don't. Sorry.

Dick

[UTCreefer]

Look for LEDs that are used in street lamps.

[bonzai]

This thread caught my eye, I never even knew you could use LED for aquarium lighting. I have moon light LED's built into my lighting but that was all I thought they could really be used for. Does anyone have any ideas what I should look for if I wanted to switch from my present lights to all LED lights? I know LED's run cooler and use a ton less energy and that's a big plus. Thanks guys.

Here are the specs of one LED light bar I found on ebay, I know they are blue in color, could I have multiple bars some blue some white on a 55g reef tank???
AQUARIUM BLUE LED LIGHT TUBE 276 LED 4 FOOT WITH PLUG - eBay (item 230338073296 end time Apr-25-09 21:29:13 PDT) (http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-BLUE-LED-LIGHT-TUBE-276-LED-4-FOOT-WITH-PLUG_W0QQitemZ230338073296QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_De faultDomain_0?hash=item230338073296&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1205|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|2 93:1|294:50)

COLOR BLUE 465 NM
Dimensions: 4 FEET L X 1.5 INCHES W
LEDs: 276
GIVES 100 WATTS OF LIGHT
Watts USING 15
LUMENS 1000
MCD 1200
Approvals: CE 110 VOLT

Description:
Model:W-300
Specifacations:
276pcs High bright 5mm LED
LED intensity:Ine LED IV 1200~1400MCD,3.5 lumens,white color,120 degree,
Lamp length:4 feet,
Cord length:1.65 feet
Variable Voltage:60HZ,110V,AC,
Spot power:276LED=15W
Color BLUE
Operating Temperature:-15 to +65
Life:10 Years,80,000 hours
Water Resistant
110 VOLT

[suep]

There's a group buy (for parts and and finished retrofitted, ready-to-go fixtures) over on nano-reef. Here's my thread mentioning it when it started last week. This is closing in a few days, so if you're interested, hop on over there. The DIYers over at nano-reef seem to be getting really great results with LED fixtures.

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/lighting/8707-group-buy-nanoreef-leds-parts.html

[CarmieJo]

LED's are certainly feasible for all of your aquarium lighting needs. I have the Solaris LED fixture which I love but unfortunately they are in a legal battle and have production closed down.

[bonzai]

Carmie, can you give me the specs of your lights? I would love to switch to LED but I just don't know what I would need, and I figure you have a 54g and I have a 55g so I would need basically what you have. I bet it saves a ton of $$ and keeps the tank from getting too hot, and those are great things to me.

[CarmieJo]

Hey Tom, my corner tank is 29" at the widest and I have a 24" Solaris. It was pricey but I figured that I would save money in the long run as it draws about 100 watts and replaces a 250 watt MH and the LED's are good for 50,000 hrs. Unfortunately PFO is in a court battle about the patents and so you can't buy a new one. You might find a used one out there though.