# My D.I.Y. LEDs Builds



## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

If you look on the market for LEDs, you will find expensive under power fixtures and expensive marine fixtures, all that are not suitable for our hobby. I'm sure the marine leds would grow our plants but the color rendering of our plants would make them look terrible. In my endless pursuit of lowering my electric bill, I have set out on the journey to convert all my tanks to LEDs. After careful consideration, I start my journey with building a LED fixture for my Firebelly Toads habitat. Since the tank space is mostly open air, i can get away with using 1/3 of the light because I'm not having to battle refraction. To go the cheapest route, I used aluminum tubing from an old sliding glass door. My LEDs are 1 watt unmounted beads off ebay. I can usely get 10 for $2.50-$3.50 from over seas. Shipping takes about 3 weeks but the savings are worth it. My fixture has 6 x cool white, 3 x warm white and 3 x blue (moon lights). Why am I using 2 different colors of white? I designed to light to match the photosynthesise lighting requirements of the color spectrum for optimal growth and better color rendering for display. I'll post photos of it on the tank tomorrow along with my schematics for others to build their own. You are welcome to ask questions.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I couldn't sleep so I decided to finish assembly since my epoxy set on a few parts. The daytime lights have a really nice blend that doesn't have too much of each color. Sorry, my froggies decided to be shy tonight. Maybe they will come out to play under the moon lights.


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## B76 (May 17, 2011)

Nice build. Are those your first fixtures? Hows your plant growth.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

This is my first led fixture. I just put them on tonight and so it's too early to tell plant growth. I'm sure it will be better than 1 x 26w spiral bulb. I know they are very bright because I was seeing spots for 5 minutes after looking directly at the bulbs while on.


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## snowball2020 (May 26, 2004)

how much was the total for your project?

aren't drivers for LEDs expensive?

do you think it's feasible to go this route for a high tech planted tank?

how's the heat out put comparable to T5s? some other ppl on the saltie forum had to use a large heat sink to disperse the heat, but those are prob. way brighter than yours.

also would be interested in the ebay seller you purchased from


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## B76 (May 17, 2011)

Drivers from my research are anywhere from 30-60 dollars for dim able ones


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I built the driver using 12v transformer ($10.99), 4 Resisters ($2), Rectifer ($2), Switch ($3), Project Board ($3 eBay), and miscellaneous parts. I would say probably $20 put in to this first one. I used a online calculator to determine the resisters I needed http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz . These are not dimmable but I have plans on building my own dimming driver. I would need to add maybe the most $10 of parts from Mouser.com. Just giving you a heads up, dimming is done by rapid blinking of the LEDs. By adjusting the time they stay on to duration they are off many of times during a second, you can get the appearance of them dim. This method is called Pulse Wave Modulation (PWM). Several methods of doing this. The fancy drivers more than likely have a 555 chip that does it for you when adjusting the control voltage (turning the knob). Another popular method is people are using a rapid prototyping board called Arduino to control the lights. This is fairly inexpensive board ($30) that all Radio Shacks carry. The boards actually give you six channels of PWM. So people have done some very interesting setups. This is a same board that can be used to build robots. It is programmable by any computer with USB. When you start playing with LEDs and building your own driver, be sure to make sure you have the right resisters. I used an online calculator to figure out my needs. http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

snowball2020 said:


> how much was the total for your project?
> 
> aren't drivers for LEDs expensive?
> 
> ...


This is my first prototype so the bar is slanted but still cheaper than off the shelf. I want to estimate this light cost me $40-$50 total. My next light will be cheaper because I will have a lot of the consumables on hand (wires, solder, adhesives, equipment).

I believe LEDs are perfect for high tech planted tanks. The marine tanks are currently using them. They use the the cool whites and blues LEDs to grow Small Polyup Stoney corals which have a high light demand. I feel the freshwater market has not taken off with LEDs because the hobbyist are not willing to spend as much as the marine hobbyist would. The major issues the marine hobbyist face is the rising cost of electricity and heat from the light. The only methods to combat the heat is a light that is not as hot or use a chiller which adds to the electricity costs. I have not tested the fixture to see if the heat is comparable to T5HO output but it is significantly less than metal halide fixture.

I think eventually we will will see the market develop for LEDs and aquarium controllers for the freshwater hobby as they become more mainstream.

I buy from random eBay sellers. I always glance over the feedback ratings before placing the bid. The reason I use ransom eBay sellers is because I will snipe the auctions get the last bid in before they close. I do see eBay sellers on there that I believe to be same seller but different screen names.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I've had requests for a how to detailed guide. I'll start working on it this weekend.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I just wanted to post up that the tank is responding very well to the new lights. The frogs had a bit of a adjustment period getting use to the lights. Now they are not hiding as much. I'm excited to see the hygrophila difformis that I had floating has started producing emergent type of leaves. I'm trying to convert it over to emergent so I can have more plants on shore. 

Checking on the lights, my rectangle aluminum tubing is hot but I don't see it causing any heat related issues with the LEDs other than the one fell off. I'll get to that in a moment. Even thou the LEDs are cooling using rectangle tubing, I've decided to improve the cooling efficiency by soon adding 2 small 12v fans on top of the tube. I'll drill out 2 fans holes and have the fans pulling out the hot air, pushing it out upwards with the natural flow of thermal dynamic. The cool air will come in on both open end caps. 

Now I noticed that I had accidentally knocked one of the LEDs loose from the heat sink. It remained still connected to the wiring but hanging in mid air. So I left it. I wanted to see if my cooling method actually worked or these LEDs don't get that hot. Well to my surprise, the crazy led is slowly frying but still working. It now has gone to emitting more heat energy and less photo energy but still working. It is looking pretty bad but I want to see how long this will go before it dies. This tells me the durability of the cheap leds, heat sinks is a must and thermal compound with epoxy around the edges is not durable. I've invested in thermal conductive silicone adhesive that I will go back and reattach all leds with. I've tested it on one of the leds with success so I am confident that it is the solution of my light needs. If anyone interested, just search eBay for the adhesive. I paid $20 for a 4oz tube. It is enough to build quite a few fixtures. 

DFWAPC will be taking a trip with weekend and so I will not have time to work on the how to till afterwards. You still are welcome to post your questions.


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## jasonmemo (Jun 19, 2010)

how much watt is this fixture?


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

My daytime light power usage is 9 watts and 3 watts of power usage for my moonlights. If this was full of water, I would use 3 watt LEDs and so it would increase my daytime light power usage would increase to 27 watts. If you were to calculate this to the old rule of watts per gallon, this would be close to 1.35 watts per gallon.


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## jasonmemo (Jun 19, 2010)

Would the led fixtures be ideal source of lighting for planted aquarium?
for example i currently have 55 gallon planted with 128 watts over the tank.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

Most definitely. LEDs are used to grow corals which relay on zooxanthellae algae to live. I believe the industry just hasn't found the color blend that our plants need. I've placed a large order of leds to replace out the lights on all my aquariums this summer. Before summer is up, we will have answers for the community.


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## B76 (May 17, 2011)

Very excited to see where this goes.


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## jasonmemo (Jun 19, 2010)

i am so excited to finally find a affordable way to grow my plants )) Thanks


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

The latest update, Wednesday I placed my first international order for bulk LEDs from Hong Kong. I'm getting in 100 of each: 3W Cool White, 3W Warm White and 3W Blue LEDs. All these are unmounted so I will have a summer full of LED projects to keep this thread fresh with up to date information of photos. Here is all my tanks I have to convert over to LEDs: 90g high light planted tank, 20g tall planted tank, 29g Goldfish tank, 10g planted tank, 22g and 35g coral reef tanks. With each tank having different lighting requirements, I have some design challenges awaiting me.


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## guppy breeder (Oct 8, 2010)

cant wait lol, what u doing with the lights u pull off?


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## jasonmemo (Jun 19, 2010)

are you going to share this at the meeting by any chance? Like on how to build it?


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I'll bring a fixture with me to the next meeting. We can check the par on it.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I haven't posted any work this week because I've been recovering from the trip to the San Marcus river. The good news is that my leds I ordered directly from the manufacturer has come in to the hub, ready for pickup. It's been a learning experience of all the hidden costs, mainly shipping and wire transfer fees. So far, no duty applied since this is a small value.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Man,

Please do make sure you document how the plants grow under this light.

Virtually all DIY planted tank led light threads are overly excited about the technical part of soldering two wires, how cheap they got everything and so on and never really show the effect of led on freshwater plants in the long run.

Such a thread is desperately needed. Be the first one to write it!

--Nikolay


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## cturner (Jan 9, 2008)

I'll be the first one to place my order once we see those lights making your plants grow like weeds! lol


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I will keep a log when I put my first tank to test. I've invested a lot of money to ramp up the research. I got my large order of leds from the Hong Kong manufacture. What I'm designing is just more than leds glued to a heatsink. I'm taking this project from the gound up with cost consideration and eco friendly in mind. My end goal is to have a microprocessor controller built into the light that will have the ability to have more realistic light cycle including optional mid day siesta for algae control. I got that circuitry designed out and parts on hand. Ideally for a power supply, I have found that power supplies from computers put out plenty of 12v DC but I run into the issue of my led strings only able to drive 3 leds per circuit and I have to use resisters to ruduce down to the needed voltage. I found that if I run my lights at 24v DC, I can drive 7 x 3w leds without a resister needed. This week, I'm trying to figure out how to double my voltage I need but while using a PC power supply.

I'll keep you posted.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

We good news is that I found the plans to double the voltage, bad news, I need to build it to test it. If this works, then cheap computer power supplies will work for us. http://users.silenceisdefeat.net/~l...p_Inverter/12_to_24v_DC_Step_Up_Inverter.html


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## B76 (May 17, 2011)

Keep it up brother!


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

Over the weekend, I took my previous rats nest design and turned it into a more professional design by etching copper clad, drilling holes and assembling it. I've design it to run 5 sets of 1w leds for my ten gallon as a test tank. I wanted to have 6 cool white, 6 warm white and 3 blue. This controler is using Atmel ATMEGA328-PU microprocessor. I'm planning on loading Arduino bootloader on the chip so I can upload new programs to it easily. What I've done, anyone can easily replicate using Arduino Uno rapid prototyping board from Radio Shack. You would need a uno prototype sheild, 510 mosfet resister and 10k ohm resisters. (Note: Sparkfun.com has good tutorial on using mosfet with arduino) The reason I've chosen to make a custom design is to cut costs because I have so many tanks. If you have a one or two tanks, Arduino Uno would be a better choice. I hope to get a little more development on the controler over the 4th. If anyone is interested, I have a copy of the arduino lightning code used is this video 



 Till next time, have a safe and wonderful forth of July.


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## B76 (May 17, 2011)

digital_gods said:


> Over the weekend, I took my previous rats nest design and turned it into a more professional design by etching copper clad, drilling holes and assembling it. I've design it to run 5 sets of 1w leds for my ten gallon as a test tank. I wanted to have 6 cool white, 6 warm white and 3 blue. This controler is using Atmel ATMEGA328-PU microprocessor. I'm planning on loading Arduino bootloader on the chip so I can upload new programs to it easily. What I've done, anyone can easily replicate using Arduino Uno rapid prototyping board from Radio Shack. You would need a uno prototype sheild, 510 mosfet resister and 10k ohm resisters. (Note: Sparkfun.com has good tutorial on using mosfet with arduino) The reason I've chosen to make a custom design is to cut costs because I have so many tanks. If you have a one or two tanks, Arduino Uno would be a better choice. I hope to get a little more development on the controler over the 4th. If anyone is interested, I have a copy of the arduino lightning code used is this video
> 
> 
> 
> Till next time, have a safe and wonderful forth of July.


Rad! Looks promising. Excited to see your test tank.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

Sorry I haven't posted up anything lately. I've been gearing up with the ability to produce high quality double sided boards. In addition, I've made some design changes that would allow my controller and drivers to support higher voltages. I think the max is 30v. This way I will have the option of using the board on 12v and 24v circuits. I've started research into creating a nano dimmer controller/driver combo. It will be for small tanks. The control mechanism is one adjustment knob to dimming of the light intensity.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I'm about ready to rock and roll. I have 300 x 3w leds instock, aluminum tubing from a old sliding glass door, all my supplies on hand except for my 24v power supply which is in route. I found a good deal in eBay 24v 120w switching power supply for $23 with free shipping. http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=190690922681 Just a recap of why I'm going with 24v power supply. With my leds voltage requirement being 3.2-3.6v ea, I can run 7 leds in a series connected to 24v which decides out to 3.4ea, exactly what is needed. With the even distribution of voltage, a driver is optional in this case. Otherwise, you could wire them to the power supply and use a basic timer to control the lights. The reason I'm choosing to use my controller/driver combo so I can control my leds output on a regular schedule.

I got 2 builds coming up this weekend. 1st one is redoing the leds in my frog habitat. I am down to 2 functional leds left from using regular epoxy. I will be fully documenting the process. The other light will be for my sons planted marine aquarium. Again I will be documenting the build process. The only difference is additional blue leds and more protection against salt corrosion.

Check back soon.


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## chrislewistx (Jun 8, 2012)

Hey Robert, 

It was nice to meet you at the DFWAPC meeting, and being able to speak about your LED project.

With it being the busy season at work I was just now able to read the full thread. You are doing some very nice looking work there. I had a couple of very basic questions, if you don't mind.

1. You had mentioned bringing the fixture to one of the meetings to check the PAR rating. Did you ever get a chance to do that, and if so what were the findings?
2. Also, how did the emergent growth on the hygrophila difformis do? You mentioned it was starting to grow out of the water in one of the earliest posts.
3. Did you notice any growth you would have considered beyond normal compared to your previous fixture? Do you have any more recent pictures to compare the growth in that tank?
4. Do you have a particular PAR rating you are trying to achieve with your LED system? Put another way, how are you deciding how many LEDs to use and the color combination for a certain size tank?

I am subscribed, and will be following. It's great that you sharing this information with everyone.

Thanks,
Chris


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

Sorry for the delay folks. A pulled.back muscle has temporary halted the project for the moment.


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