DIY LED questions

[Medym]

So my stand, tank and fuge are setup for my 4.5 pico aquarium.  Now for lighting.  I have some questions though.

I have a 6x6'' heatsink for 4x Royal Blue 2xCool White and 2xMoonlight (from RapidLED)

I am thinking about seting it up like this:

*Please note that these positions are not final so if your OCD is kicking in and they are not evenly spaced, don't worry.


I would really appreciate some feedback on this because I have some concerns about having the cool whites in the middle. 

As of right now, I do not think I will be using lenses, but if I am, I do have 60 degree lenses for this.  The moonlights are on a seperate driver and will have its own timer for my viewing pleasure. I will be keeping my Dymax LED light for the fuge on an alternate timer from the main tank. (so three timers in total).


The precut wiring from Rapid LED is much too short for what I am doing, yet I cannot find 20 gauge AWG strand wiring anywhere.  I do, however, have 18 gauge wiring.  Can I use this instead? 

Thanks!

[Medym]

Well, I plunged ahead anyways, 18ga worked just fine.  Does anyone have any experience wiring a fan into these lights though?

[Rybren]

I just used a 12vDC PC CPU cooling fan and have it connected to an old cell phone charger.  It's only running at 6VDC and ~250ma, so it's running slower than it should be, but it's enough to keep everything cool.

My understanding is that as long as your power supply's voltage is equal to or less than than the fan's rating and the current is equal to or greater than the current rating, you're good to go.  If the voltage is lower than the rating, the fan will run slower.

Then again, I could be wrong.

[Medym]

What I wanted to do was wire this in connection with the LEDs so it would run with my 'daylights.'  But that seems like a very simple solution too!  Good thing I got a new powerbar for this build because it is filling up fast!

[Stussi613]

I just used a 12vDC PC CPU cooling fan and have it connected to an old cell phone charger.  It's only running at 6VDC and ~250ma, so it's running slower than it should be, but it's enough to keep everything cool.

My understanding is that as long as your power supply's voltage is equal to or less than than the fan's rating and the current is equal to or greater than the current rating, you're good to go.  If the voltage is lower than the rating, the fan will run slower.

Then again, I could be wrong.

You're right. The only side effect is that you'll double the life of the fan! 

[JetJumper]

I would almost say a heatsink that size with that many LED's you don't even need a cooling fan.

[mmaisonneuve]

Bio Cubes Owner great news !!! Modular LED is now Offering a Kit for all of us owning a Biocube 29 !!!

http://www.modularled.ca/29g-biocube/

I've been in touch with Martin McNally and I've also asked if we could mix the White for both Cool White and Neutral White and to possibly reduce the White and Add more Blue and some Red.

I'll be following up on this

[Medym]

I would almost say a heatsink that size with that many LED's you don't even need a cooling fan.

It is going to be in a tight, and confined space (bookshelf on my desk),  so I was looking at having a small one in place to keep everything cool just in case.