DIY Converting from MH to LED! RAPID LED

This is something Ive been considering. This is a lot of drilling/tapping. Thank you Evolved I will give this some more thought before I do too much.

BioCube I have a 25 watt Weller. Do you recommend something different? And you may be right the nylon screws may not make a difference but I think I would rather not have another metal contact on the pads of the LED.

 

Ryland, I will be watching closely. I am having the same debate, DIY or not. Good luck!

 

The amount of information involved in something like seems overwhelming but I assure you it is not. I hope when I am done everybody will understand how to do this. If you have any questions please dont hesitate to ask.

 

You should be good with 25 watt, I had a simple 30 watt and things went well.

 

What spacing are u using between each led both up and across? Also what lenses did u get 40-60-80 degrees and why If u don't mind me asking?

 

Spacing between LEDs length is 2.65" roughly from light to light. Width is roughly 1.06" between each. These measurements are center to center. I got the 65 degree lenses. These lenses offer a fairly broad band of light. I should be able to set these lights approximately 18 inches from the top of my tank and have full coverage within in the tank. (Meaning no dark areas.) Narrower lenses penetrate better especially in deeper tanks (20-40 degree lenses) and offer better PARS at deeper depths. However, unless you have a wide area of LEDs across the top of your tank you will have dark areas. I am looking for over all good lighting comparable to halides with capablities of keeping SPS. So I met in the middle at 65 degrees to have good coverage and still have reasonable lighting.

The spacing between LEDs is actually math figures. Heatsinks are approximately 16X4.25. 16/6=2.66" and 4.25/4=1.06"

I divided 2.66 in half and made this my distance from the end of the heatsink for my first LED. 2.66/2=1.33" from end as starting point. Then from there I repeated 2.66 inches center to center down the length of the heatsink. This "centered" my LEDs on the heatsink and offered a good spread of the LEDs down the heatsink. The same is for the width. I divided the width of the heatsink by the number of LEDs I want to have across the width. 4.25/4=1.06. The starting point would be 1.06/2= .53 I continued the spacing at 1.06 down the width.
For example
From upper left hand corner X= 1.33" and Y= -.53" for my first LED point. This X and Y are my starting points. I then went 2.66" from X to 3.99" and repeated this. My next Y position is -.53 to -1.59" and repeated.
I hope that is clear enough to understand. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. 8)

 

Ive been super busy here lately and havent had time to update the thread. So here goes.....

After doing some research I made a couple of changes to my LED build. First, I originally was going with just the 1-1 CW and RB mix. Now I have added 9 UV LEDs into the mix to help bring out the colors. What are your thoughts on this?
I also changed the layout of my LEDs on the heatsinks. I posted a picture earlier of what my design is going to be but after looking things over Ive decided I would rather not crowd things too much. I have started some videos to go along with my build. One thing I have learned......if you are shooting with a 1080P camera it takes a LONG TIME to upload the videos. I might reduce it to 720P to make things go a bit faster. I hope to have a couple videos up of my progress before the weekend. Regards and happy reefing!

 

sounds good! It really is easier than I thought! just time consuming! I'm ordering the uv's after alot of reading too! Just waiting on rapidled to come out with the plug and play model! I'm lazy!

 

After what seems like an eternity I will be uploading my videos and updating this thread over the next few days. First video will be posted tomorrow and the next video(s) will be within a couple days after. Sorry to admit the first video is pretty generic. Mostly things I bought and what I felt were the first steps to the build. The next videos will be more in depth. Happy reefing all!

 

Video 1 DIY Converting from MH to LED. RAPIDLED - YouTube

Video 1