Cali Kid Corals

LED actinic for a 70G cube

tonggao

tonggao

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I am getting tired of posting these DIY threads, so this will be my last one. It is for a 70G (30"x30"x18") starfire ringless tank, and it is fitted in a DIY hanging light box with a Lumen max elite MH reflector and the box is cooled by 4 120mm fans. Total of 24 royal blue LEDs are mounted on aluminum strip heatsinks screwed together with aluminum bars, and stays only slightly warm driven by 700ma Meanwell drivers. This project really drained all my energy (I still have one more actinic to do for my main tain, and I do not know when I will finish it now), but I am really happy with the end results.







 
Thanks Jar.

Here are a couple of actinic pics. Somehow the camera cannot capture the neo pop of the actinic light. In person, the neon orange on fungia is so bright, it actually hurt eyes if you stare at it for a little while, which I do often after I install the actinic (I am not kidding). Sorry about the crappy whole tank shot, I took it just now half a minute before the light went out, and I did not use a tripod.


 
Thanks Mike.

I think for constant current driver, there is a voltage range it can support. For the driver that I used, it SHOULD support between 3v to 30v according to the spec. Given each LED takes about 3.5v at 700ma, it should be able to drive anything between 1 LED and 8 LED. If you go above 8 LED, each LED will get less voltage and less current, and you probably burn out the driver. If you go below the limit, the voltage put on the LEDs is still at the low voltage limit, which will end up with too much current and burn out your LEDs. The funny thing about Cree is they seem to mostly short when burnt out, which can cause a chain reaction on other LEDs in serial (I wish they will just open when burnt out). I don't know why Meanwell mis-stated the driver spec (it is a very nice product otherwise), but it surely is an expensive lesson for me to learn.

Tony will probably correct me if I am wrong, in general, it is probably more efficient for most drivers to run close to its rated capacity.
 
Yep, I am not kidding when I said the pop hurt eyes. But once the MH turns on, most of the pop is washed out, which is what I wanted.
 
I am runna 20k Radium. The LEDs does make the tank lookng brighter, even though I do not know if it add much benificial lighting.
 
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