LED Build

[Cheebs]

Nobody makes me bleed my own blood.

[Greatwhite]

I contemplated this idea.  You would not get light bleed because you are still mounting the LED's on a Metal heatsink which unless this is star trek and we have transparent aluminum we aren't going to see that any time soon.

Who knows, maybe I will try my hand at something else soon.  We shall see!

You would have to put some otherwise useless components inside, if you were to use a clear acrylic case...  Nothing much exciting about a bunch of wires -- unless you have a few blinking lights and spinning gears.  Maybe a clapping monkey like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsZRxkQ0EWM

[jon1985]

I had JJ order me LEDs at the same time.  While mine is slightly different, 36 LEDs 18 blue 18 white, they are the same LEDs and heat sink.  I have had them over my frag tank for a few weeks now and already see a growth difference in some of the SPS frags under it.

Granted they are only 4" deep and another 10" away but there is noticable difference between the LED frags and the frags under T5.  It cant be a water issue as it is the same system.

[Hookup]

Awesome StarTrek reference...  +100 points to Jet

[Cheebs]

I guess my vague Dodgeball reference was less well received 

The only real experience I've had with LEDs is with the AI Sol unit, and the only thing I don't like (and I'm beeing picky) is the light bleeding through the plastic out the sides. Clearly it's because it is constructed differently and the actual lights are slightly recessed within the unit. In the new Sols coming out, they've used a thicker material apparently to stop the light bleeding so it doesn't "cheapen" the look of the fixture.

[JetJumper]

haha, nope.  I completely forgot about that line in the movie.

http://www.movieweb.com/movie/dodgeball-a-true-underdog-story/nobody-makes-me-bleed-my-own-blood

So far with 1 LED unit over a tank I have some of the corals starting to colour up better..  hmm!  Finished 2 more fixtures last night.  couple more to go.

[Greatwhite]

I guess my vague Dodgeball reference was less well received 

Oh, i got it... not many movie references go over my head.  

[magnosis]

Haha I knew I heard this line somewhere before.. couldn't put my finger on it.

And btw Jet, your build is ...



most excellent !!

[JetJumper]

For those of you interested.  Here is the internal shot of a completed unit.

[vic622]

Been watching the thread & gotta say I bow to your DIY skills!

Did you solder the wire connections under the marrettes?

My (DIY) light's connections are ~6-12" above the water & all the marrette connections have corroded/oxidized (not soldered). They still carry current, but I'm now looking at them & worried the oxidized copper wire (green flakes of copper oxide) now might fall in the tank!

I ended up buying this stuff to cover the wiring after I soldered.
I forgot I had it until I saw your photo's & it reminded me that I'd picked it up.
Haven't tried it yet, but will apply it next time I take the lights down.

Vic

[JetJumper]

Interesting, it never dawned on me to think about doing that since it was going to be inside a closed box.  Is yours inside a box?  One thing I learned when doing landscape lighting was that if you take your wires, cover them in silicone then put the marrette on top it will prevent water from getting in them and corroding.  Might be an option here. 

I love doing little projects like this   Its fun to create something and save on hydro

[vic622]

On mine, the wires are on top of and outside of the lights, so presumably they have very good ventilation.

I wouldn't have noticed how much they had oxidized if I hadn't done some re-routing of the wiring a couple of weeks ago & removed the marrettes to let me reposition the wires.

I have seen & used the silicone trick, too. The electricians at the underground mine I used to work at used it all the time.

I'm not sure it works as well for salt corrosion as it does on fresh water - it seems that salt can creep everywhere. At the very least, it would slow down the process.