Reply With Quoteamazing!!! i was looking for a solution like this!!! may i know how much you spent on the parts?
Hi guys,
I just finished modifying my Aqua Zonic 11W PL light into a 3 x Cree HO LED for my nano tank. The 11W PL was a little too dim for my liking and I didn't want to go for something physically bigger, so I googled and found out how to wire up the HO LEDs.
Here are some of the setup shots.
I first wired up a single LED, you can see here how it's epoxy-ed to a heat sink. Just to note, there's thermal paste between the LED and the heat sink and the solder is one that contains silver (as recommended by one of the links at the end of this page). I ran this single LED over the tank together with the PL light for over a week just to make sure everything will holdup. In that time the Japanese hairgrass seemed to respond positively to the additional light.
Here's the LED driver, capable of driving 6 of these LEDs if I'm not mistaken. You can actually make one yourself if you have the parts, but I'll just buy it off the shelf. This driver tanks in 240V AC and outputs it to 12V for the LEDs.
Here's a look at the beam of light from a single LED at 1ft off the table surface. This is the biggest problem because as you can see the beam is rather narrow, the only way to go around this is to have multiple LEDs or to raise the light high enough (but that cuts light output dramatically).
At the same distance, the PL light had about the same intensity as at the centre of the LED beam. Essentially, this means that at the centre, a single 3W LED = 11W PL.
This is the Aqua Zonic light after gutting its inards.
The three LEDs were then wired up in series and epoxy-ed to the reflector, the wires travel through the flexible metallic tube of the original Aqua Zonic light.
Wow that's bright!
From my rough calculations with my lightmeter, the 3 LEDs add up to approximately 4x the amount of light as compare to the original single 11W PL light. So essentially instead of 11W, it's now 9W but 4x as powerful and it actually runs pretty cool, I thought it would be a little warm but I can hardly even sense any heat coming out of it. The aquarium fan also helps to cool down the LEDs a little.
Here's the original PL light (ISO 400, F4, 1/40s)
Here's the tank with the HO LEDs (also at ISO 400, F4, 1/40s)
Here's a video showing the shimmering effect that LEDs give a tank, similar to MHs but without all that heat (give it a while to load up). It it you'll also see my DIY auto top up hanging in the rear left of the tank.
Yups! That's about it... Here are some of the references I used to do this up:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...d.php?t=173181 - How to solder the LED and other useful information
http://www.barrreport.com/articles/5...nted-tank.html - DIYed LED hood
http://www.besthongkong.com/ - Where I bought the LEDs and driver from.
Yup! Hopefully my plants will fare better now that there's more light. If all goes well I might modify my 3fter to run on LEDs as well!
amazing!!! i was looking for a solution like this!!! may i know how much you spent on the parts?
I don't have the exact amount but here's a rough estimate (converted to SGD). This is of course assuming you already have the soldering iron and other misc items.Originally Posted by boxedfish
From Best Hong Kong:
Cree 7090 XR-E LED Star WG-Q4 Bin x 3 = $37
Heat Sinks x 3 = $10
LED Driver = $30
Shipping = $15 (I think)
From Sim Lim Tower:
Box for LED Driver = $5
Solder containing Silver = $20 (not sure how necessary was this)
Thermal Paste = $5
2 part Epoxy = $5
Misc Wires = $10
Heat Shrink Tubing = $5
From Fish Shop:
Aqua Zonic Light to rip apart = $18
Total Cost = $160
Wow.. didn't even know it cost that much! I just bought it part by part, never bothered to do the maths...
thanks for listing down almost everything. yah it is a little too expensive for now. For $160 maybe can try to buy a high-powered led lights from those lighting shops. maybe i will go and ask the lighting shops near my office to see how much. saw their display for the high powered LED ad i must say it;s really bright!
Ah those might just be the super bright LEDs, not the high output ones. Just make sure you know what you are getting.
Happy Hunting!
errr.. what is the difference between super bright and high output LEDs? but seriously, i really like your DIY effort!!!
The amount of light that comes out of it.
Take for example the LED tube that you see from Nature Aquarium, that's normal super bright LEDs, not high output LEDs. Thats why you need so many of them on a single tube.
Oh yes, and also the colour. The LED I chose has been used successfully by other planted tank users, so I know that the colour spectrum is okay for plants. Most white super bright LEDs I've come across are more blue-ish compared to the LEDs I used.
oh thanks for the explanation. the ones i saw at the shops are more like this http://www.besthongkong.com/product_...roducts_id=472 but bigger and more leds.. not those tubes type. yah another thing to note will be the colour spectrum.
I think most likely what you saw was this: http://www.besthongkong.com/index.php?cPath=9_37.oh thanks for the explanation. the ones i saw at the shops are more like this http://www.besthongkong.com/product_...roducts_id=472 but bigger and more leds.. not those tubes type. yah another thing to note will be the colour spectrum.
If so this is regular super bright LEDs. What you need is something like this:
http://www.besthongkong.com/product_...roducts_id=712
But remember that you'll still need a power supply and a way to hang them over the tank nicely. Not to mention that these bulbs tend to have a much more concentrated beam.
High output bulbs unfortunately are still not cheap, one bulb will cost you upwards of $50 and the beam it produces can be even more narrow.
Also, the one's that you saw might not be the right spectrum, you'll need to make sure you have the technical specifications of the bulb for it to work.
thanks for the advise... guess i'll stick to my double clip-on lights for now due to the high cost.
Great guide to DIY HO leds.
but the cost for now is so high, was so happy when i saw this. But my face wentat the price. I saw LED lights 2ft at NA last weekend. they might be a cheap alternative for now.
Just a thought, it would be good for a nano.
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Great effort. Cree LED are good, high output LED. This is definitely a good option for deep tanks.
I am using 3x2ft LED lights from NA, which I feel is not good enough. I had saw those torch lights using Cree LED, the brightness is much better.
Yup, my torch light uses a Cree, which is why I went with it in the end.
I am using 3x2ft LED lights from NA, which I feel is not good enough. I had saw those torch lights using Cree LED, the brightness is much better.
I was considering the LED lights from NA as well, but they are too long for my tank and take up way too much real estate for a nano...
I wan to automate my tank!
Just saw this thread. Nice DIY!
Just want to share some other places that can get the HO LED cheaper for the benefits of members. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2394
Cheers
JC
Our Earth Project:
http://projectpowerplant.com/blog/
they're on back order liao
too bad I'm not skilled enough to DIY such stuff...really tempted to adopt the LED technology
oh no.. the LED driver is on back order =(
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