# 100w reef tank aquarium light, half cold white, half blue



## thenativediver (Sep 17, 2012)

Hello All  

I am totally new here and am soooo glad to find this forum! 

I am working on making my own Led Aquarium lights. I have four tanks so want to make them myself.... cant afford those $500 plus cannons.

So, I found these Bridglux HP led chips that are 100w total with half the leds cold white (can pic between 10000k to 20000k) and blue 440-460nm :tinfoil: (can I post a link?)

To control each color separately, they can make it with 4 "feet" and could use 50 dimmable drivers for each half (I think).

So, was thinking I could mount the chip to a cpu heat sink with fan, hook up to drivers and be set. I was looking at Logisys MC106 Gamma Blade Intel CPU Cooler (can I link?)

Forgot to mention, that I can get a lense to go with this

I have never done anything like this. Any advice?

Thanks!

Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope......


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## evilc66 (Sep 18, 2012)

First, you need to give us the dimensions of the tanks, and what you are keeping in them. This will help determine how much power you will need to get the job done. One thing I will tell you is that unless you are working with very deep tanks, those 100W LEDs are probably not the best choice. They also aren't the best for reliability or color rendering. Between myself and Blasterman (he should chime in here shortly) we can get you set up with an energy and financially efficient setup.

If you are into coral reefs, I would suggest heading to www.nano-reef.com, as it's one of the best resources for DIY LED lighting for aquariums. Myself and Blasterman are major contributors over there.


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## Gunner12 (Sep 18, 2012)

I'm no Obi Wan, but here goes nothing.

As long as the heatsink is meant to dissipate that much heat. I've got a Xigmatek Gaia on my Phenom II and the CPU never gets above 55 C even on a hot summer's day doing stress tests (it is slightly overclocked too, so probably similar to the heat output of your setup).

From a quick glance, it seems like you could get a better heatsink, the Logisys Gamma Blade seems to have some bad reviews. The MC3002GX could be a better choice (just going by customer reviews).

Or you could try a CPU heatsink from an old computer (might not provide enough cooling though). Just make sure to run the fan on max.

As for advice, I haven't done anything like it before either. All I can say is keep it dry.

:welcome:


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## AnAppleSnail (Sep 18, 2012)

4 feet drive by 50 drivers? It depends on the driver. They aren't quite like bucket pumps dumping into one pipe when ganged together. You may be better-off using drivers as they're meant to be used. Meanwell and other people make 100W LED drivers that are pretty much plug-n-play, or you could use two 50W units. That'd run about $100, but include dimming and no wiring to mess up on (And less chance of toasting an LED!). A single 100W LED is a massive heat source in a small point. If you have fans, you may want two so that you'll have a chance to correct one breaking. You certainly need over-temperature shutoff. Finally, make sure your wires stay dry. I now know from experience that electrically-live wires in tank water will cause galvanic corrosion and eventually even short if wet enough.

If I wanted 100W of long-life, dependable lighting, I would stick with an array of Cree LEDs. Bridgelux's published output-degradation is worse, and the optical properties are tougher to manipulate - for example, to reach depth and area as desired.


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## thenativediver (Sep 18, 2012)

Thanks 

Well, I didn't expect that detailed a level of help, so bonus!

I have two 46 gall bowfront reef tanks, and two plant refugiums below. The crappy CFL's I have over refugiums barely get things by. So, I figured, I could do the same lights below... .but might be overkill. (They also make a 50w chip)

I am not home to measure tanks, but they are not unusually deep... probably about 18".

I saw that most aquarium lights use many small Led's and I figured, why not use one big chip (the cannon uses one big chip). And I figured, it would be fun to make my own.

I was looking at the 180W lighthouse hydro aquarium light. It is made with 3w Cree LED's. Since LED's aren't run at full power, I find it hard to compare. How do I compare PAR, penetration of light, etc..... If the bridgelux LED is rated 100W, then how does it compare the the lighthouse hydro?

The lighthouse hydro comes complete, so it is easy, but then I didn't "make" it. Still, I can get them for $280 so it doesn't sound to bad to me.

What do you guys think?


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## thenativediver (Sep 18, 2012)

Oh, and I have 15OW metal halides at 15000k on the reef tanks along with 50/50s.... standard hot set up.

These lights are Catalinas... so I have really nice hoods with built in fans.

Would it be worth trying to re-use the hoods?

Thanks again


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## thenativediver (Sep 18, 2012)

Gunner12 said:


> I'm no Obi Wan, but here goes nothing.
> 
> From a quick glance, it seems like you could get a better heatsink, the Logisys Gamma Blade seems to have some bad reviews. The MC3002GX could be a better choice (just going by customer reviews).



True, there are much better heatsinks, I was looking at that one because it's black and would still look good out in the open. But if its not enought cooling, then, its no good anyway...


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## evilc66 (Sep 18, 2012)

Ok, if you haven't done it already, go check out Nano-Reef. Seriously, there is everything there that you could possibly want to know about getting your tanks set up with LEDs, and then some.

Really, you should avoid the large multi-chip LEDs. Go with LEDs that have higher efficiency, and higher reliability. It may cost more, but it's worth it in the long run. The big Chinese multi-chip LEDs that you are looking at are typically in the 80-90lm/W range, where newer Cree and Luxeon LEDs are pushing 140-165lm/W, depending on the model. Getting that kind of efficiency will depend on your heatsink setup too, but newer Cree and Luxeon LEDs are binned and tested at 85C (being a more real world test), versus the 25C used by other companies. Once you compare them apples to apples, the cheaper LEDs will drop to 60-70lm/W (these are rough numbers). 

Avoiding these LEDs also offers you the option for tuning the color rendering to something far better than you would get with the LEDs you are looking at. The hot setup right now is using a base setup of neutral white (4000-5000K) and royal blue (445-455nm). Other colors are added to help boost reflected and fluoresced colors from the corals. 410-420nm violet, 470nm blue, 495-510nm cyan, and 660nm deep red are commonly used (in much smaller quantities) to help bring out certain colors.

Your 46g bowfronts are 36" long, 12" on the side, 16" to the bow, and 22" deep. If I were to do a setup for that tank, I would use three clusters of the following, spaced evenly along the length of the tank:

4x neutral white
8x royal blue
2x 470nm blue
1x cyan
1x deep red (optional)

Run that at 700-1000mA with no optics, and you should be able to grow almost anything. You could retrofit this setup into your existing fixtures if you are feeling up to it. If not, and you want something that looks good, then look into the MakersLED setup for a very polished look from a DIY setup. Keep the clusters tight, as this will help reduce color shadowing.

For the fuges, 20-30W of 6500K cool whites will do the trick for mangroves and macro algae. The brand of LED here isn't as critical.


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## thenativediver (Sep 18, 2012)

Wow, thanks guys.

I checked nano-reef, and found that I have a lot of reading to do 

Will do that.

I understand what you are saying about efficiency. Are the led's you mention 3w each?

I will spend some time on your ideas. 20 - 30w on the refugiums doesn't sound like much, but I don't know how to calculate how much I need. I was also thinking 10000k for the refugiums for more blue spectrum (good for plant growth) Red is good for budding... green not really used much. So, 10000k to 12000K sounds pretty nice.

Here is the aquarium LED I mentioned http://www.gothamhydroponics.com/fe...e-hydro-aquastar-180-watt-aquarium-light.html
Am interested in your opinions.

this is a vegatative growth light I was thinking of for refugiums before I started thinking about making my own http://www.gothamhydroponics.com/led-grow-lights/lighthouse-hydro-90w-led-grow-light-ho.html The same company lists them cheaper on ebay and there is more information about their light spectrums there like this graph







and this one


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## evilc66 (Sep 19, 2012)

I wouldn't worry about getting too fancy on the fuge light. 6500-8000K white light is more than enough to get the job done. This is an instance where brute force can be used to your advantage. Unless you are going with a "display fuge", and colors need to be better than average, then the whole point behind it is just nutrient export and control. At that point, as long as the plants/algae grow, the lights are sufficient. You don't need to worry about flowering stages and what-not. I use 6500K cool white LEDs on my planted freshwater tank, and I have zero issues growing plants.


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## blasterman (Sep 20, 2012)

> I was also thinking 10000k for the refugiums for more blue spectrum (good for plant growth) Red is good for budding... green not really used much. So, 10000k to 12000K sounds pretty nice.



Aquatic plants do fine with just cool white LED's. Since cool white is mostly blue anyways that's what you want. Macro algaes and such might be able to utilize warmer wavelengths but why bother when it looks bad on a reef tank, even in a fuge.

Things are far more complex with terrestrial plants. Corals mostly care about blue and not much else although different wavelengths of blue can cause different things to happen.



> o, I found these Bridglux HP led chips that are 100w total with half the leds cold white (can pic between 10000k to 20000k) and blue 440-460nm



As I recall it's a basic array of Bridgelux royal blues with cool white phosphor applied in alternating stripes across the front. Not worth it for a display tank because if you can't dim each color you have to live with what the factory in china thinks is a good color. Plus, 100watt is something that's hard to deal with thermal. If they were 50watts and each color were independant they'd be worth screwing around with - for a display tank.

The Chinese have an increasing variety of high powered reef lights like the next one you linked, although I haven't seen that particular one before. I'd avoid it simply because of the oddball mix of LED's is a sure way to get screwy color mixes in your tank. Performance is likely fine. There are others in the 120watt range that will work just as good - although you rarely can dim each color and the color is never as good as DIY nor top end halides. Evil and I both have the formula down for 'halide killers', but you really need to browse through nano-reef for DIY orientated projects.


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## thenativediver (Sep 21, 2012)

Well..... they do have 50 watt arrays with dimmable drivers controlling each color separately

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Dimmable-50W-Aquarium-led-light/903774_544024115.html


The other lights I linked are Cree Led's and made in USA (they claim). Does that change your opinion at all. They aren't dimmable, so I see your point on that.

Thanks again!!!!!


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## blasterman (Sep 21, 2012)

The 50watt array with discrete dimming on each side will do the trick, but it's expensive. As a comparison, go to fleabay and do a search on '120watt LED'. You'll see hundreds of re-branded versions of the same Epistar based fixture costing less than $200. Just be aware that some are dimmable and some not. So, you have a 50watt 50/50 chip for $108 that still needs a heat-sink and splash guard -vs- a 120watt fixture that's ready to go for less than $200. Suddenly those big chips seems like a whole lot of screwing around for not a lot of returns. 

For a typical fuge the 120watt fixtures are over-kill, but I have no idea how big your fuge is. I know a lot of reefers using those 120watt lights for grow out tanks and such because they are cheap firepower for the money and come close to matching a 250watt halide in terms of PAR and eat less than half your electric bill. For those applications it doesn't have to be pretty - just throw a lot of blue and white light for growth. Whatever's clever. I know a lot of reef guys using the cheaper lights on crazy wild SPS tanks and think the color is fine. You can always get something cheap for the fuge and see how it looks for display, and use your own judgement. 

For a display tank Evil and I are fussy about color, and we won't touch the cheaper LED stuff. It's like asking a Guinness drinker what he thinks about Busch Lite and not expecting a snarled up nose in response. The cheaper LED lights grow corals just fine, it's just the color tends to be really flat because of the phosphors used in the LEDs. The Cree based lights simply have the same PAR for about half the wattage of the more generic units at a typical 3x-10x price increase. Seen too many threads in reefing forums about SPS tanks getting nuked with 60-70watt Cree based lights because on the intensity.


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## thenativediver (Sep 22, 2012)

Thanks Blaster and Evil,

I figured it was too good to be true. For a newb, its hard to really compare. I mean all the lights are rated in Watts, but don't really run at that wattage. Then wattage doesn't tell you have much light output you are getting..... sigh.

So, I have grabbed my coffe, and gone to the bathroom, and now am all set to start reading Evil's enormous thread on the Ultimate LED guide 

Be back soon


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## thenativediver (Sep 22, 2012)

Very informative stuff on nanoreef. 

I am not sure I want to get into a big project or not, esp. since it would all be new to me. Haven't sodered and such.

Any ideas for good pre-made lights I could just buy without breaking the bank?

I also hate to toss the catalina lights I have now without trying to use them somehow.

Ah well, brain is full.... must rest.


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## thenativediver (Sep 22, 2012)

Clive?


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## blasterman (Sep 22, 2012)

> Any ideas for good pre-made lights I could just buy without breaking the bank?



The 120 watt fixtures I mentioned will do that just fine if money is super tight. Just try to get a dimmable one if you want it over a display tank so you can tweak color to taste. You're not going to find a Cree based fixture with the same coverage without spending 3x-7x as much money. That's why we go DIY, but that's not for everybody. Reef Central has a *lot* of threads and pics on the cheaper chinese lights and what to expect while Nano-Reef is a much better place for DIY and tweaking high end color combos. Evil does what he can


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## evilc66 (Sep 24, 2012)

thenativediver said:


> Very informative stuff on nanoreef.
> 
> I am not sure I want to get into a big project or not, esp. since it would all be new to me. Haven't sodered and such.
> 
> ...



Making a DIY fixture looks intimidating, but after you get the colors sorted out, and all the part identified, the hard part is over. Soldering takes a little practice, but it's not too hard if you have the right stuff. A decent iron is a must (40W or greater is prefered), and good solder makes life so much easier. 60/40 or 63/37 rosin core (not lead free) solder is the easiest to work with, and is easy to find. There are some useful videos on Youtube about soldering.

For pre-made stuff, the 120W Chinese fixtures work. Color isn't always the best (it varies from company to company), but they get the job done. They have improved in quality since they first hit the market, but they are still what I would consider a budget fixture. Like with many things in life, you get what you pay for.


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