Kessil

LED sump cheato light

tonggao

tonggao

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As I mentioned in another thread, I got really interested in making some LED lighting, and thought doing a sump light will be a good starting point since it does not have to be pretty or perfect. I did not take any pictures along the way, so I can only show the end results here.

The sump is 20G with about 15G usable volumn after taking out buffles and overflow, and I got really tired of changing the old PC light every 4-5 months and deal with the heat it generated. Since the sump is in a cramped stand and I want to run the LEDs at their max rated 1A rating, heat dissipation is important. So I bought a 5.375"x9" heatsink from heatsinkusa.com, and mount a 12" computer fan on top of it. I use the 3w Cree XR-E Q5 cool white LED bulbs, which are readily available and have reasonable price. I can easily fit 12 such LED on the heatsink (I actually drilled holes for 12 LEDs for future upgradability), but decide only use 6 LED on it since 12 is way overkill. I used 60 degree optics on four corner LEDs and left the two middle ones without optics to get best coverage/distribution. Even though I can use thermo epoxy to permenently fix the LEDs onto the heatsink he heatsink is drilled and tapped, and Arctic Silver thermo compound is used instead. This way, I can modify/upgrade the configuration easily in the future, given this is such a fast progressing area. The fan and the LEDs are driven by their corresponding power supplies using two different sized DC power jacks (so I have no chance of mixing them up). The LEDs are driven by a ELN-30-27 running at 0.95A. Total wattage of the setup including fan is about 24w, not too bad given the 6 LEDs are already roughly 18w.

To my surprise, it took a lot of time to plan/prepare the simple setup, and the actual mounting/hooking up LEDs are super easy and straight forward.

Btw, I don't know if it is the truth or just me feeling it is the truth, the cheatos seems to really like their new lighting. I guess I have to feel this way since this is probably one of the most expensive cheato light around :).

Here are some pictures I just snapped.

Overcrowded stand with the LED at the top left corner:
IMG_4058.jpg


Meanwell driver:
IMG_4057.jpg


Fixture:
IMG_4055.jpg

IMG_4056.jpg

IMG_4059.jpg
 
Oh, I forgot to mention that the fixture does not even feel warm after hours of running. Lesson learnt here is that I might have overkilled in the cooling department. Since I think the fan on top of otherwise cool looking piece of metal is not very pretty, I will skip the fan for my next nano tank project (I will post in a different thread), but pay extra attention to passive heat dissipation. For my actinic lights that I will make, they will be mounted on narrow strips, and there is even no room to mount fans. The good news is I do not need to run these royal blue LEDs at the full blown 1A (I will run them at 700ma instead), and hopefully they will do OK with just some strips of heatsinks/aluminum.
 
Phong, why do you want me to talk about the things that hurt the most :bigsmile: ? Actually, this particular one is not too bad. But after all 5 projects, I think I will be totally broke.

6 XR-E CW LED bought as part of a group buy at nanoreef: $32.7 + $4 shipping (I splitted the shipping cost with my next project) = $40
Heat sink: $16 + $6 shipping (I splitted the shipping cost with my next project) = $22
Various screws: ~$10 including shipping
1 cooler master 120mm fan: $5
4 60 degree optics: $4
1 Meanwell ELN-30-27 driver: $30
Aluminum flat used for mount: $5
Arctic silver thermo compound: $11 (still 99% left, which will be used in future projects)
Wires: ~$4
Total: $131

Hmmm, I did not realize it cost so much until you force me to do the math. As you might see here, the LEDs themselves are actually a small portion of the total cost. If I add in all the tool cost (which is not fair since I am going to use them for future projects), the number will come out scary :~
 
LOL... just so we have an idea what the cost would be :D ..

My old fuge light cost $10 :bigsmile:

why don't you put some SPS in there to see if they like it??
 
SPS in the fuge, that's an interesting idea :). I ran out of room everywhere else, I might just make better use of the fuge.

Xcaret, thanks for the positive thinking. This is actually what I was thinking while I was doing it. Besides the satisfaction at the end, it also gave me many hours of enjoyment trying to figure it out along the way. How many hours of enjoyment can $130 buy nowadays? It's actually very cheap.
 
You already filled your frag tank?! :p
Edit: I finally found the mini carpet nem I got from you, it's in a hard to see place, and even harder to take pictures of place, but it is doing well, thanks again for it :)
 
Erick, I already overflow the frag tank a couple of weeks ago.

You are welcome on the mini carpet. I took out the main rock with probably 10 of them on it to clean up the brown palys on it (by first unplug the paly, then soak it in tap water for a week, then put it under the sun for a week to kill all lifes in it, I know, a little extreme :)), and i was planning on took the mini carpet off before doing the cleaning. But the rock is full of holes, and most of these mini carpets have their feet deep inside the holes, and I was only able to get a couple of them off before put them through the cleaning process. But with the speed they multiple, a couple will be plenty :).
 
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