DIY LED Build. Looking for input.

[The_Godfreys]

I know the speaker at last month's meeting warned us against DIY on these. But there is no way I am going to part with $1.5K for two Radions and I'm pretty handy with tools and electrons so thought I would give it a try. Wanted to put my ideas out there so if I am going in the wrong direction, maybe somebody with some experience could save me some trouble or money. I decided to try to capitalize on some of the research done by the folks on the Radion and basically started with the LED selection they list in their specs. I tweaked it a bit by replacing half the plain blues with violets to broaden the spectrum a bit. The lights are for my 5' long 120 gallon mostly LPS tank. Plan is to build two 6" by 20" fixtures to mount inside the hood. Each fixture has the same bulbs as one Radion. One other tweak I am planning is to upgrade the XP-G to the XM-L for the whites and increase the Royal Blues from 10 to 12 per fixture to accomodate the increased white light from the XM-L. Will most likely have a separate driver for each LED color and will control using my APEX 0-10v outputs. Figure I'll use a separate output for white and blue and a third channel for R,B,G,V. I can adjust intensity of individual colors using resistor networks if I need to tweak them in relation to one another. Here is a rough sketch of what I'm thinking:

Thinking about using the pre drilled heat sinks from RapidLED with splash shield and will come up with some plan for forced cooling probably using the remote exhaust I use to cool my hood now. Not planning to use optics because my tank is only 18" deep and the fixtures will only be about 5" above the water.
Welcome any constuctive comments on my plans, and especially interested in hearing from somebody who has experimented with various color / intensity combinations for LED.

Sorry the picture is so hard to read. Can forward a spreadsheet with details if anybody is interested.

Thanks, and happy reefing.
Jim Godfrey

 

[newenglandreef]

Jim, sorry to off track you a little, but did the speaker warn against Radion LED builds or LED builds in general?

 

[The_Godfreys]

No, he seemed against "Do it Yourself" builds in general. Seemed to like the Radion light and quality if I remember correctly.
He warned about inadequate cooling and moisture protection in most DIY setups and in general didn't think it was worth the effort.
I figure I can save almost 50% and have more control by doing it myself.

 

[newenglandreef]

First time I've really heard of that.

 

[Sokretys]

I really like the idea of your color configuration as well as going with the more intense XM-L's. If those were his main concerns...you could perhaps put acrylic sides on the rapidLED heatsink. Then have a fan pushing air into the closed off compartment, and another fan pulling the air out. The sides would take care of moisture protection, and just WAY overdo it with the fans. Fans are relatively cheap. I had a terrarium a few years ago with dart frogs. I forget where but i found water resistant fans to put inside the terrarium to deal with the humidity. Maybe go that route, there are tons out there. I used a http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adda-AQ0612LB-A70GL-Waterproof-Fan-Aeroponics-Fog-Mist-/130649957007 im sure they have larger ones. And this one was pretty quiet too.

But if those were the speakers only concerns, go after it like filtration. Where you would over filter, over cool and over protect.