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:
Meanwell driver:
Fixture:
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:
Meanwell driver:
Fixture: