aquarium forum team from croatia need help

[vux]

:wave:Hi everybody on candle power forum! We are a team from aquarium forum from Croatia, and we need your help. we are very interested in led technology. We would like to enlighten with it our aquariums. We sow xp-g led,- is it the best choice? We are interested in xp-g led, 8300k 139 lm/w angle 120 degrees. The question is how to buy it with minimum expenses? Is there any other or better led or a combination fo leds? Or something to combine with this one? The total lightening should be over 6500K. Fed free to say all your ideas, any suggestion is welcomed. Especially how to install aquarium lights, how to connect it and drive it. Unfortunately noone of us is such on expert as yon are, so precise instructions would be extremely helpful. The aquarium forum team would be very grateful.:thumbsup:

 

[doctaq]

what size is your aquarium or are you trying to start a business?

dealextreme has a bunch of drivers which power leds at the specific levels they need.

if your tank/s is freshwater then you should go with the warmer cool whites, as the cooler ones in the 8000k range will lack even more of the redder spectrum that plants need to grow.
if your tank is saltwater then you will need to mix in some blues to bring the color temp up over 10k

dealextreme also sells a cree xr-e for cheap which is generally enough for most freshwater.

just throwing out numbers but
6 inches deep-350ma
12 inches -700ma
14 inches 1000ma
for a planted

 

[blasterman]

If this is a saltwater tank I suggest visting some of the more intensive 'do it yourself' reefing forums. Nano-reef.Com probably has the most diverse and technically minded forum for doing it yourself. Nothing wrong here at Candlepower, but there's probably 1000x the amount of specific information devoted towards DIY LED reef lighting at nano-reef, while we're a bit more general.

For freshwater tanks you can get away with just cool-white LEDs. For salt water tanks it's almost mandatory to mix in royal blues at either a 1:1 or even higher ratio.

There are certainly alternative choices besides Cree, but optimum choices vary form country to country depending on who can ship there.

as the cooler ones in the 8000k range will lack even more of the redder spectrum that plants need to grow.

The difference in red spectra between different bins of cool-white LEDs is trivial in regards to photosynthesis.

 

[lucca brassi]

Aquarium is not so simple : just choose leds end mix them together and spend some money on electric bill. And way between 6500K-8500K is definitive wrong way because it is bluewhite-to violet light for us but for animal and plants is useless.

Aquariums needs :

- whole specter of wavelenghts of visible and special unvisable light
(UV/IR)(UV distroys nitrites ....)

- specific wattage for water pentration due to aquarium depth

- type of aquarium (plants , tropical , coldwater,..)

Sun gives cca 1370W/m2 on sunny day - this is base for further calculations in whole specter

Main problems is that single leds gives only specific wavelenghth

I think that is cheaper to go with specialized fluo lights than leds
But it is possible to use leds for some special effects for example moonlight , some UV fluorescence.....

for aquarium could be fine this

http://www.luxim.com/index.php

and price
http://diyprojectorkits.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=45

 

[evilc66]

Lucca, go do some reading on Nano-Reef. It's very possible to do, and do very well. Granted, there is more up front cost than with fluorescents or metal halides, but the long term savings are there, as well as the reduction of the heating effect of the lamp to the tank. Also, I think you will find that the heavy bias towards blue wavelengths in the white LEDs is actually very beneficial towards photosynthetic animals (corals, anemones, etc...) that rely more on blue light than red, unlike plants which like more red light.

 

[doctaq]

i think for freshwater where you dont need dimming or heavy heatsinking it can be done for cheaper than most commercial light fixtures.
lucca, many people have done leds for planted tanks (fish only would be a waste) and even more for reefs. i know for a fact that an led even without optics can penetrate and grow plants on the bottom of a 55 gal, and there is no need to be as bright as the sun in a planted or reef tank

 

[blasterman]

Main problems is that single leds gives only specific wavelenghth

Metal halides used on light intensive reef tanks throw most of their energy into a band between 440-460nm, just like LEDs, and there's been no conclusive evidence that anything other than far blue light is required. Water absorbs red light much quicker than blue, and I've never seen a HPS light over an aquarium, fresh or salt.

Fresh water plants simply don't require as much light and the aethestic is different than salt. So, you're better off sticking to cool-whites for fresh which have a large spike in blue anyways.

Again, the lighting forum at Nano-Reef has all of this nailed down in detail.

 

[Inkidu]

Here is a link for drilled and tapped heat sinks.

http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-Heat-Sinks/Categories

To me the most tedious/boring part of the whole diy project.

Hope this helps

good luck

 

[vux]

I did not mention that we deal mostly in freshwather, planted aquariums. Tanks rank from 20 to 150gal. But we have another question, since leds are taking the lead, there has been a discusion about their tendency to owerheat when driven to the max power. Could you tell us if that is the case? :candle:

 

[AMARA]

Hi VUX,
I am from Bulgaria,and I have been selling high -power LEDs to clients that make lights for their mostly salt water and also some fresh water aquariums.
They normally mix 6000K + blue LEDs,but now I am trying to supply them with 10000K + white LEDs for their salt water aquariums.
If you like,drop me a message at [email protected] and I will send you datasheets of the LEDs.
:welcome:

 

[doctaq]

with good heatsinking leds can be driven to thier maximum currents

 

[evilc66]

...and beyond.