50$ Diy Led

Yeah...I don't know about all you, but I'm digging this hobby and I love being a DIY sort of guy. When reading about lighting options, I found that they all pretty much are either 1.) Excessive for my puny 10 gallon 2.) Aren't cost effective for me or 3.) werent DIY =P

So i did lots of research and wanted to find some LEDS that wouldnt cost much. i originally wanted to do my own via the SMD LEDs from Kingbright. They were cheap, made my zoa bloom, and seemed promising. After 2 days, I realized that i overpowered my SMD Leds....whoops =X

Walking around Fry's electronics, I found a solution.


Ingredients:
I utilized 3 sets of whites, and 2 sets of blues. I chose the non-regulated 12V versions.
I also took apart an old sony home amplifier.inside I found a HUGE heatsink that wasn't too bad on the eyes.

I also ran to the trusty 99 cent store and got some double stick tape. Lastly, I had an old ATX PSU that I manually switched on for my constant regulated 12 volt.

I began by daisy chaining and soldering the contact points, as they are designed to do so. I then doublestuck them to the heatsink.


Guess what, it works =) My Zoa seems happy. No I dont have any PAR reading, no I dont know how many combined total lumens it is. I do know that individually, as per advertising, it is 87 lumens per unit. Im not sure how the math goes, but lets just say atleast? 87 lumens?? lol As far as the color temperature of the White - i called the manufacturer - he wasn't too sure, but he said it ranges from anywhere between 5k to 10k. From my experience with the kingbrights, i'd want to say my set is in the cool white range, more white, then yellow. Heres another pic.

haha... pretty cool... put a houseing around it and a fan and hang it...

nice keep us posted on how the corals does

Looks good...I got some stuff for u now that u have better lights

nice... wouldnt mind adding some to my 46.. supplimental add ons...


haha dan always tryin to hustle people hahah.. juste messin dan where the pics of the new additions??

oh and lade balls ill be home all next week so feel free to come install some leds for me haha

Ohh yeah - Ill definately be headed there...=| for frags/fish i will =P

haha im broke so couldnt even buy the supplies.. plus no frags worth the drive to bakersfield

half broke? Then we can get half a setup!

ill definately hit u up later for assistance... im very curious about how good the light this setup puts off

Well like i said, my zoa seems to blossom and thrive. But Then again, what do i know? Im going to pick up some additional coral from Daniel today. Ill see how those thrive and give an update in about 1 month, then 3 months.

Meh...the corals I have will grow in the dark practically...I think I told u about the colt frag I found growing in my skimmer? Lol

hah maybe it just liked the rush... weeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh

Either way it annoyed me lol

heres more pics:



I put these in my tank, earlier today at 4:00pm (roughly). I got them from Daniel. I'm not sure as to what each frag was, but if you know em, identify for my learning purposes please.

Colt, GSP, Kenya, colt, button polyps,orange microzoas, button polyps, colt...there u go lol

thank you sir - i was really wondering if they would bloom - but they are!

Well I sold them to u so I thought I might as well let u know what they are....glad to see they're doing well

Double stick tape is a great insulator for heat... You may want to at least go to frys and look for heatsink pads... Kind of like double stick tape, but it is made of a material that transfers heat. The life of the LED's will definitely be shortened with the regular double stick...

Thanks for the heads up. Ill be sure to look out for em

Any ill effects thus far on the LED set up thinking about doing this in my 34g Nano... Stock lights crank out the heat and arent half as crisp as the lighting you have. What are you using for a power supply? Do u have the ability to run just the blues for night?