LED build

Hello! Tomorrow night is going to be the night to start building the LEDs! YAY! Figured that I should take a few pictures of the pieces, post why I chose to go the way I did and hopefully map out the progress of this build to help amplify the amount of LED experience we can have as a club. I know there has been quite a bit of speculation about whether LEDs are the way to go. Lets use me as a guinea pig shall we? [img width=390 height=18]http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28/kmday/photobucket-14114-1316576109428.jpg[/img]
I am putting this set over my 65g tank (36"L x 18"W x 24"D). I currently am keeping mostly lps, softies, zoas, etc but hope to get back into sps soon if I can figure out why I was unsuccessful in the past. I also have a 5-6" blue maxima clam that I need to keep happy throughout all of this. The LEDs will be mounted on an 18" x 8" pre-drilled heat sink. I wanted pre drilled just because I wanted to use the screws to place my LEDs. You can use an adhesive to glue the suckers to the heat sink but I wasn't quite ready to accept that amount of permanency so I am going with the screws. 
Am also doing solderless clips as recommended by the LED vendors. I was not against learning how to solder things, and was actually excited to learn a new skill, but they recommended the solderless clips just because there is much less room for error. They said even they occasionally had issues getting a good connection by doing their own soldering and much preferred the solderless clips. In any case, the clips will provide even that much more potential for me to be able to rearrange the LED's should I need to when I upgrade to the 90g. 
So, here is a grand picture of all of my goodies [img width=390 height=18]http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28/kmday/photobucket-14114-1316576109428.jpg[/img] (not including the wiring that I have still in the bag from radio shack)
[img width=390 height=18]http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28/kmday/photobucket-14114-1316576109428.jpg[/img]
I have in total 21 CREE XP-E 3w blues, 15 cool whites, and 10 high noons. The idea with the high noons is that they add that much more punch, along with optics, so I can make a sort of spot light over my clam to ensure he is getting enough light. All of these will be connected to Invetronics dimmable drivers. For the time being, I will have manual dimming switched linked to them, but eventually I will be getting an Apex Jr to control them. 
High noons:[img width=390 height=18]http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28/kmday/photobucket-21854-1316576054296.jpg[/img]
Cool Whites:[img width=390 height=18]http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28/kmday/photobucket-2264-1316576069080.jpg[/img]
Blues:[img width=390 height=18]http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28/kmday/photobucket-31135-1316576082898.jpg[/img]
Also in the hodge podge there are the solderless clips, screws to hold them, outlet plugs, fans to cool the heat sink, the heat sink itself, hanging kit, etc etc. 
Here is my general plan for organizing the LEDs on the heat sink. This may be adjusted a little bit when we get down to actually doing it, but the idea is to have those high noons front and center for my clam.

BWB BWB 
Bd>
WB
WWWWN= Noon10BWNBNBNWBB= Blue21BWNBNBNBNWBW= White15WNNNWBWBBB BWB       Front  


(that came from an excel sheet. Looks better when it's color coded on excel). 
Well, there's the plan. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures as we're working on it tomorrow and let everyone know what I think of those solderless clips. If you have any suggestions, please let me know /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif 
Thanks!Kylie

 

Thanks guys! I love DIY projects. Looking forward to this LED build and finding even more DIY ways to make my current tank and the upgrade tank very unique and as much made by me as possible 



Here is a link to the build. Then, it was a 40g breeder on my stand but the canopy looked a little top heavy so I switched it to a 65g. Had to drill the back of both tanks and do my own plumbing, build my sump, stain, seal, and put together the canopy/stand. For the upgrade to the 90g I'm going to build my canopy from scratch now that I'm more experienced and not worried about ruining it. Then I can make it as best I can for a short person and have good access that the current canopy doesn't quite provide for my short arms haha. Hope you like it /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif
http://www.greateriowareefsociety.org/Community/DiscussionForums/tabid/78/aft/18809/Default.aspx

 

I considered it but I really like the crisp clean look of whites with that little hint of blue. I felt that the reds might hinder that some.

 

Phishcrazee, I bought the LED's from reefledlights.com. They are CREE XP-E. Supposedly, the XP-E are a newer version that are more suited for sps corals. I don't have any sps now but figured it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. They have a different XP (I think XP-R) that aren't the newer version but there wasn't much of a cost difference so I just went with the XP-E.

On their site, there are 3 colors you can chose from, blue, cool white, and high noon white. The blue and cool white are the standards that you find in most LED fixtures. You can then chose what ratio of blue to white you want. More blue in your ratio will get a color closer to a 20K bulb (I think if you do 2 blue to 1 white its suppose to be a 20K). I like more crisp white light so I decided to go 1 to 1 on blue and white. The high noon whites are suppose to mimic the intense sun when it is directly above the ocean (like at noon). I added 10 of these and got optics for them so I can have a good spotlight right over my clam. I plan on spreading them out just a bit (like I showed in the diagram above) to ensure any high light corals on my rocks near the clam will also get the more intense light.

Overall, I paid $450 for everything shown in the picture. Only additional costs were buying the wiring to go between the LEDs, from LEDs to their drivers, and from the drivers to the wall (power cord). You can order these on their site but I wanted to color code mine to try and make it easier to glance and see which leds are leading to which drivers. I got my wiring from radio shack.


J, you're funny with the question allowance. Haha, I think I'm way over my quota already. As for tonight, I think I'll need you to help turn down my drivers, show me how to connect my clips, and show me how to connect led to driver, dimmer switch to driver, and driver to power cord. I really want to do as much of it as I can on my own. I'm a hands on learner /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

 

I'll teach you all I know. Doing well so far but leherjet will be the one with more answers than me /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

So, an update. Tonight got all of the LEDs on the heatsink and linked how I want them. Will post pics in the morning and give more drtails on how I wired them n such. Its looking pretty awesome but man those are bright!! Still see little white/blue spots /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/tongue.gif

 

Picture Time!!!!
Placing my first set of 12 blues on the heat sink. From this angle, the front edge is going to be the front part you see on the tank but it's obviously upside down./DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif He's a great teacher (hope you don't mind your picture on here... I can take it off if you don't want it)
/DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

 

Haha you guys are both awesome! You're tank looks great with the LEDs and the moonlights when we were testing them. And it looks so much cleaner with the wiring hidden /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif
Oh, and I got an email back so I know what order we need to do the rest of the wiring. I would almost feel ok doing it myself except that the dimming switches need to be soldered and I don't know how to do that nor to I have the supplies.