LED as main light

[sandisct]

Just finished a LED Array as my tank main light source.

Specs:

99 Ultrabright White 8000mcd LED
8 ultrabright Blue 4000mcd LED as moonlight

Tank size: 24 x 18 x 18

I am running it off my spare computer power supply.

[sandisct]

another pic

[sandisct]

and another...

[Mike@ReefVenture]

I've thought about using LED's over a tank before, but I wasn't sure how many it would take to light a tank. So is yours bright with 99 LED's, what do you have to compare against? Do you plan to try any corals in the tank? Thanks for posting I enjoy looking at projects like yours, can you post more pictures when the tank is stocked?

[ONAGI]

Excellent. I love the idea of using these lights. Are you going to stock corals? Keep us posted on your progress. Great work!!

[sandisct]

Yup, i intend to keep corals but not too soon. Now i am actually doing a migration for my fishes from my mom place to my new house. Hence need to makke sure everything is in place before i shift my stock in.

Presently i´ve only got a couple or tube worms, 2 tube anemone and 6 clowns.

I don have a light measuring gagdet. Not sure opf the intensity. But I got a very bad glare looking directly at the LEDs.

I am using a 15 degrees angle LED. you can actually see spots when you get nearer to the LEDs. I guess Ie got to use a diffuser. I think i can get a better result if i am using a 60degrees angle LED.

[ONAGI]

do you have any plans you can share?

[sandisct]

This is actually my trial piece. I may increase the LEDs to 200pcs.

I didn´t use any resistors in the array. I guess i would need to add them in later. However, when i use the online calculator to calculate the resistors value for my array, it always return a 0ohm 0 watt value. So i guess i don´t need a resistor after all.

BTW, I am not EE trained so i might be wrong after all.

I ran my array in both series and parallel.

Each LED got a forward voltage of max 4V. so 3 in series would require 12v.
and i put 10 of these series in parallel. so each parallel would draw 200mA x 12V.

Since i am ruuning it off my computer power supply. and it is connected to the 12v output, so i guess the output should be quite stable.

In total 99 Ultra white LED would be drawing only 200mA x 12v x 3.3sets = 7.92watts.

Err... did i do my calculations correctly?

[sandisct]

I am looking for a digital timer that runs on 12vdc. Anyone got any idea where can i get it?

I plan to run the array at different intervals like:

7am moonlight + 10% white
8am 50% white
10am 100%white
5pm 50% white
7pm 10% white + moonlight
8pm till 7am moonlight

Any comments?

[sandisct]

BTW, there is 0 heat emission!!!

[Obi-dad]

I think if those LEDs are only using 8 watts of power, there isn't going to be enough light for many kinds of corals - even if very little of the input energy is converted to heat, it still isn't very much power. I would like to see what a lux meter says under that array.

[sandisct]

I will be measuring the intensity once i get my hands on a lux meter. But i guess the readings would be different with and without water.

[niko5]

Someone get the man a Lux meter Ied really like to know what it reads with the LED's

What do you have the LED's mounted in or on?

[sandisct]

I just simply mount it on a piece of acrylic with holes drilled on it.

I intend to either hot-glue or silicon all the metal parts for water proofing or even applying a coat of varnish for anti-rust.

[ONAGI]

Water will change the readings of the light output. I don't think you can simply evaluate the light intesity on input wattage only though.

LED's have a very specific point of light. Dandisct said he was using 15 degree angle LED's and beams of light was noticeable upon observation. The light will then project a bright light in that angle upon your display.

There have been some other threads on this concept. Champion lighting was advertising about a year ago that the use of LED's was close to the marketing stage. They highlighted that there was very little power consumption and virtually no heat emitted with this lighting system. This would make it highly desireable for the hobby.

I think the biggest issue until recently was the cost factor of the LED's themselves and the amount necessary to properly light a reef aquarium. Not that they are necessarily cheap right now, but compared to a few years ago they are.

The lights come in various wavelenths and colors now also. I was reading earlier that the desired blue LED for moon lighting is one as close to 475 nm as possible. White would also have a corresponding color value for sunlight that would be best for corals.

This is the information I have been gathering on the subject during my readings on the subject. I think it will be more common to see the use of LEd lighting in the future.

[alprazo]

You know, in addition to lighting your tank, the LEDs will help with your fishes wrinkles and age spots too.

http://www.laserskinsurgery.com/inthenews/012003.html

[nysbadmk8]

i wanna see par readings, im very intrested, also what was the cost?

[sandisct]

HAHA... what if i add a few of those UV led in the array? Would it help in UV sterilization?

Actually i intend to add a variety of color LEDs in that array to give a more full spectrum of color range. but that would be too muh of a hassle as of now.

However, there a tricolor LED that will produce white light in the market now. But it is about 10x the price of a normal white.

[bluetropic]

Keep up the good work. Leds are cheap when bought on a roll, compared to mh etc. Plus they last for thousandsof hours and think of the savings on your hydro bill. Don't let any one discourage you. You may need more though, like maybe 3/8 or 1/2 apart should work (300-500) total. what do you think?

[ONAGI]

I think Bluetropic is correct that more would be needed. The lighting may be fine for a FO and FOWLR system but corals would probably need more lighting for proper growth.

The spacing of the lights would depend on thier degree of light. The light should overlap each other for the best coverage. Do a search I ran across a guy who was experimenting like you're doing. He had hundreds on a board. I thought he had some plans, but they were very technical schematics more so than how to plans.

Keep up the good work and don't get discouraged. The same people criticising your efforts will be the ones who'll want the plans once it is perfected.

Good luck.

[ne pats#2]

how much does something like this cost? cheaper than halides? will they give you shimmer lines? thanks for any info, can't wait to see how it works. keep up the good work.

[bluetropic]

Loads of shimmers. When you buy LEDs on a roll they only cost pennys. Keep in mind you don't have to buy a pricey ballast as well. Probably never replace the Leds, vs. replacing expensive MH bulbs. The whole system would only draw a few watts-they are that effciant. You could add UV, antinic, moonlight as well as simulate sunrise and sunset. If you had somesort of program to run it, you could have the sun start on one side of the tank and move to the other. The possibilities are endless.

[5thtonbench]

I would say its definitely a plus for the FO systems. But take into consideration spectrum for simulated sunlight to induce photosynthesis and all that good stuff. I would like to see details from a lux meter.

The other thing is LED spread. Its based on angles. I make different types of custom LED panels for motorcycles on a semi-regular basis, and even though it appears to light an area, the viewable projection of the LED isnt neccessarily what you may think it is.

Wattage consumed is of no concern. Enourmous LED arrays used in under cover police cars for instance have blind-able brightness, yet consume wattage in the teens only.

I lost my mind already writing this reply, and cant remember how you wired them. The easiest way is to wire them in series, and your resistors are easist calculated and installed this way, as you climb to 12v (or whatever your intended voltage is). However, the extremely added involvement of wiring something this large in parallel, means you dont lose all your lights due to one LED gone bad. Things like this are very important in say, some brake lights I make for instance.

Otherwise, I think it looks great. LED white is so pure it becomes visually stunning. I would just pose concern for this array's ability to support dependant life.

[Obi-dad]

bluetropic, are you saying an LED setup that only draws a few watts will be enough light to compete with MH? Do you have any lux or PAR measurements?

As a simple thought experiment (I have no data yet), say that a MH 250W bulb is only 50% efficient (amount of light generated compared to heat), and that 8W of LEDs are 100% efficient. The MH would be 125W vs 8W of LEDs. Even if the MHs are only 25% efficient, that would be 62.5W vs 8W LEDs. I think you would need a lot of LEDs to get even close to the amount of light with other lighting sources.

[jjac]

What about using neon tubing for light? You can get 4500 white (yellowish), 6500 white (brite white), neo blue, classic blue, etc...
Its brighter and more intense than Power compacts. And best off all I can get almost for free. Serious has anyone thought of using it for your lighting needs?
Thanks