5mm LED primary lighting for my nano reef

[hahnmeister]

There was someone who did that here, in case you guys havent seen it yet. I forget the thread, but he used many of the luxeon stars... spend a few hundred dollars too. In the end, it wasnt worth it... the light output wasnt what he expected.

Wait 2-3years, and then try it again, and you might have completely different results.

[fishlibrary]

Originally posted by golf4lyfe
fishlibrary, where did you purhcase your led's from?

I buy it from a local electronic parts store.

[fishlibrary]

Although LUXEON powerful and brighten than traditional 5mm LED, I find a portion of heat generated from it and reduce the overall efficiency. Furthermore, I think fewer unit of LED reduce the combination of light source, that will reduce the spread of light spectrum.
May be someday later, a more powerful & more efficiency light unit coming out and satisfy our requirement for reef keeping. I hope!

[BeanAnimal]

Yes I think a lot of people hope... for now I think these things are destined for nano tanks. Please let us know when you get your PAR meter.

Hahn the off axis readings are what would be expected as well as the poor penetration. That is the basic problem with trying to light a full size reef with these things. You should also note that there are plenty of documented cases of "pinhole" burning of corals due to the spotlight each led creates. We just talked about this at the last club meeting... non diffuse LED moonlights can cause this also.

Yes 2-3 years we may be able to cross the hurdles that are keeping this technology from being used for reef lighting. The jury is still out on the PFO unit... I have not heard much.

[july865]

wouldnt the water diffuse some of the light entering into the tank? i would imagine that pin hole burning would be from coral placed at the extream upper portion of the water. would this be a true statement?

[BeanAnimal]

I think to an extent, yes. I will ask the guys who participtated in the conversation and see if I can come up with some documentation.

[hahnmeister]

Well, the light that comes from some LED's is so tightly focused that its almost like a laser (there is even some polarization going on with LED's)... I doubt that distance has as much to do with it as these things just needing good reflectors/lenses to help spread things out. These things are almost as if we were to try lighting our tanks with lasers themselves.

[SoMoney]

Ran Across this site LCK LED STORE

If one is lazy like me, it looks like you can buy WHITE & BLUE 12" Strips and maybe a GREEN then attach them to a reflector.

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BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
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WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
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That should run under $60 a hood.

[badpacket]

I think you'd get a lot more light you picked up some of the 1w Luxeon's for $2 in one of the other LED threads.

[SoMoney]

Agreed, however then you need to solder and build a mounting platform. These once can just attach to a peace of reflective aluminum. And should an LED or two go out it's ony $6 to replace the whole strip.

[miatawnt2b]

you don't need a reflector for led's. they are directional.
-J

[Icefire]

How much did you pay your leds?
900 real ~50,000mcd would cost you 300$+

500x 0.33$ from china @ 30,000mcd...

I'm waiting for a couple of 140lumens leds with some drivers to make a prototype

[badpacket]

Yeah but for the complexity of wiring or getting a pcb for the 1-3W Luxeons, you need 10-20 or more of the high power 5mm LEDs. And, I wouldn't expect to be getting the good bin leds from eBay or other places unless you want too pay simply more for them.

Also, running this many almost requires you to run them in strings. If one fries, as it will, what are the chances it will momentarily short, and not damage the rest of the string? Anyone know of any data on efficiency of some of the newer 10K+ mcd LED's vs Luxeons?

[fishlibrary]

Sorry! I am late to comeback since my internet connection affected by Taiwan earthquake.

Although I can't find a quantum meter locally, but have to give out some more information to you all as follow.
The following test is showing the light effect of LED apart from a white screen with different distance:

1. LED apart from white screen from 0 inch to 1.5 inch(left to right)


2. LED apart from white screen from 1.5 inch to 3 inch(left to right)


3. LED apart from white screen from 3 inch to 6 inch(left to right)


From the simple test, you are difficult to resolve which point of light emitted from white or blue LED that greater than 2 inch. Be remind, ripple is non stop and appear on our water surface.

ps. All photo captured from same photo parameter.

[zachtos]

Originally posted by hahnmeister
There was someone who did that here, in case you guys havent seen it yet. I forget the thread, but he used many of the luxeon stars... spend a few hundred dollars too. In the end, it wasnt worth it... the light output wasnt what he expected.

Wait 2-3years, and then try it again, and you might have completely different results.

yeah that was me

I did 3 revisions, 2 5mm arrays and a luxeon 3W emitter array

zachtos' array

[fishlibrary]

Originally posted by zachtos
yeah that was me

I did 3 revisions, 2 5mm arrays and a luxeon 3W emitter array

zachtos' array

Hi zachtos, nice to meet you.

I have read you post many many times before & during my array construct and as a part of my reference. You are the pioneer of using LED as the main lighting I think. I have run my array for half year right now, although some SPS lost and some SPS color-up with growth. I have a plan of upgrade by using LUXEON K2.
What's wrong to your LUXEON array?

[zachtos]

my luxeon array is the same intensity as power compact (PC) lighting. It either needs Fraen lenses to focus the light more ($2/LED) or I need to upgrade to luxeon K2's which are double the intensity for the same power usage/heat AND probably add Fraen lenses as well.

All of these parts can be found at futureelectronics.com

I'm working on my 240G tank now and lost interest in trying to build a luxeon array for my tank. too much money, too much risk, too much work. T5 lighting is quick and easy, has high PAR, low heat, fairly low energy, decent lifespan/replacement cost. It's 'good enough' for now.

I may rebuild my luxeon array w/ k2s for a fellow reefer that is interested in giving me $200 to rebuild it for him and sell him the tank possibly.

[tkeracer619]

Originally posted by BeanAnimal

My biggest concern is the wire wrap connections. They will fail in the humid salty environment.

This will happen, regarless of enclosure. You really should have soldered.

[douggiestyle]

this led business is going to take off

i just found 12v single led lights in a gx5.3 base with 115 lumins per bulb. problem is its only 6000k.

look how long it took for pc lighting. well most people hate pc lighting (talking about for the home) led is the fix. this is going to be it very soon.

[billm90]

What purpose do the UV leds serve?

Just color spectrum?
or does it have any UV light characteristsics, such as algae control/killing micro organisms?

[zachtos]

i got a bug up my a$$ today and decided to call an engineer at luxdrive. I found out I wired my luxeon array incorrectly with their power drivers. It's basically running at half current. You can only get full current if you keep one single series strand of LED's, otherwise it divides the current. So when I get around to it, i can cut two wires and double my intensity of my array. I'll let you know the results when I get around to it.

I also did some more price checking today... I can light my 240gallon tank with Luxeons for between $1400 and $1800 depending on if I want fraen lenses or not, we'll see how powerful my revision 3 is w/o them running at actual full current first.

*UV provides 420nm light, but good luck finding any LEDs that hit that spectrum... and good luck finding someone that can tell you if that spectrum is even required for growing coral, from my experience, it's not. But those people w/ the solaris LED hoods can tell us how that works out in a few years.

[safemode]

http://www.grisda.org/origins/06088.htm

UV light inhibits coral growth. Likely by killing off the microorganisms that help keep it growing.

http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/k...nfluences.html
Combined with high water temps ( i would think 80ish is high for the sea) causes coral bleaching.

I'm not saying the LED's produce enough UV to be damaging, but if it doesn't produce enough to be damaging, then it's not producing enough to have any effect, whether it could have been good or bad. UV is needed in animals to produce calcium, not so for reefs.

[safemode]

http://aceee.org/conf/06et/tp2-3_falicoff.pdf

For those of you nay sayers about the efficiency of LED's. Yes, they're very expensive right now, so it's limited to small applications. But LED prices are dropping much faster than other light sources per year, so it's cool to get a head start.

It's a shame I dont know what my job is going to do with the thousands of luxeon lenses we have just sitting never to be used. I bet i could make a pretty penny off them.

[BeanAnimal]

Yes, the price is coming down, but it is nowhere near cost effective yet and the efficiency numbers are just not there yet. It is not so much "nay saying" as it is being realistic and not buying into the illinformed hype that the new media and non technical people are being shoveled. Hell if you listen to the news, a CF lighbulb is brigher than an incandescent, uses a fraction of the energy and has no environmental impact. LEDs are touted as something even cooler than that....

Then you get white papers like the one you posted... Yes it is full of information, but it is also portrayed in a fairly dishonest fashion. Notice that they mention some very high output units, but neglect to use them in the side by sides and also neglect to use the better T5, and HID numbers? Take a CLOSE look and you will see that the LED is simply not there yet. Also notice that the COLOR SHIFT issues are real. COLORED LEDS use PHOSPHORS that degrade, just like any other lamp coating. So that 50,000 hour bulb may put out light longer than your HID bulb, but it will have color shifted long before that.

They mention organic LEDs.... that would be nice, but we have been promised OLED "walls" for 12-15 years and have yet to see them in anything bigger than a cell phone. I suppose COST is the reason.

I would love for solid state lighting to be primte time... it simply isn't yet and will not be for quite some time.

[Teknagen]

Has anyone though of using the luxeon k2 5watt LED's?
I will be trying a blue one for moonlight but haven't though of using them as a main lighting source.