cainechow Posted April 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 I finally finished my LED and got it mounted. Before... After... If my phone camera white balance isn't playing tricks on us, the light from the 4 Cree XTEs are much whiter than the Sunblaster. I like. You can see how much greener the plants look under the sunblaster. This is because the sunblaster has a strong spike in the green spectrum. the XTEs are biased towards blue and only moderately green. It seems like I get less coverage and penetration with the LEDs but it is much more sparkly I'll give it a few weeks to see how the plants respond. They should still do well with more blue. I may supplement with red LEDs later for better growth. From a bit farther back it looks like... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperGuppyGirl Posted April 21, 2013 Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 Very Epic! It just screams I am the best with the light play. Love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 very nice! those LEDs must be hanging pretty close to the water surface since you cant see them in your pics. Kinda makes me wanna do another DIY... lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted April 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 Yeah. Pretty close. They are mounted on square aluminum extrusion. I'll take a pic of the setup when I get home. I'm not able to articulate it properly in writing right now because my brain is fried on PL/SQL at the moment. :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 lol... gotta love PL SQL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted April 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 There we go. This is what the fixture actually looks like. It can pivot for tank maintenance. Closed. Open. Sometimes I almost enjoy the DIY more than the finished tank itself... almost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 That is awesome! Contemporary styling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverWolf Posted April 27, 2013 Report Share Posted April 27, 2013 What's the name of your carpet plant? Where'd you buy? Really love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted April 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2013 (edited) That's hemianthus calitricoides (Cuba). Petland sometimes gets the aquaflora tubs. Send ckmullin a pm, I think he's got some for sale. Edited April 27, 2013 by cainechow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverWolf Posted April 27, 2013 Report Share Posted April 27, 2013 K, thanks! I gotta grab a bunch of stuff from him anyways! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New_from_Peru Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 Great job on the DIY, very nice fitting! How are the light levels compared to the T5 you had previous (other than the sparkles that is)? Your HC is doing well and the tank looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted April 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 I think the lighting is pretty okay. The T5 had more "wrap" to the light since the light source is larger and looked brighter because of the green spectrum. That green spectrum isn't in the peak chlorophyl absorption bands. I'll try to find the spectrum graphs that I have for both the T5 and the XTEs. The LEDs look less bright and the shadows are a bit harder because the point source lights don't wrap as much. The LEDs also have a much stronger blue spectrum that is useful for the plants. If I go by pearling alone, the LEDs generate about 50% less pearling when compared to the T5. I am very fine with this because it means less dosing and less trimming. I'm pretty sure the plants will be just fine. Plus I can leave this light on much longer. I suspect that if your tank is much deeper, you'll need to up the power supplied to these LEDs for more intensity or add optics. I'm currently under-driving them (600mA) by quite some right now but they run pretty cool even with my not so fancy (not really) heatsink. You could also go with XPG2s or if you need even more intensity XMLs or XML2s. Keep in mind that these emitters put out a lot more heat than the XTE series and was one of the reasons I went with XTEs. They seem to be a good balance of light to heat ratio for my application. I'm not sure I'd do my exact setup with any tank that is deeper than a 10 galon standard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted April 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 Oh... additionally, there seem to be some pretty decent LED fixtures for planted tanks out there for about 120.00 now (FInnex?) I think I paid about 60.00 total for my build. I think the most expensive part was getting the aluminum extrusion from the Home Despot. From DX.com: (free world wide shipping)- CREE XTE R4OA 130LM 8000K LED Emitter White Light Bulb for Flashlight - Silver-154613 x4 @ $ 3.60 USD each- Water Resistant 9~15W LED Constant Current Source Power Supply Driver (90~265V)-157686 x1 @ 8.80 USDFrom Home Despot:- Angle brackets - one set of 4 with screws. 1x @ Under $2.00 for the set- Square aluminum extrusion x 2 @ $14.00 each- Wire nuts - $????From Memory Express:- Arctic Alumina Ceramic Thermal Adhesive 1x @ $9.00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted May 3, 2013 Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 Gotta love DX! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceturf Posted May 3, 2013 Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 (edited) I like your LED set up. A few questions: - Do you know if that power supply is switching? I looked on the website and didn't see any mention. (Is it heavy relative to its size or fairly light and cool when in use?) -Did you use the Square aluminum extrusions as the heatsinks? (is that solid aluminum? Or a XbyX hollow square?) -What did you do for the swivel mount, I can't tell from the photo? Looks really nice, and sleek. Hope it works out for you! Edited May 3, 2013 by Iceturf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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