DIY CREE LED & T5 Fixture

I did it again. I made another light fixture. I don't have great photos of it, but these should suffice. I know you've seen all of this stuff before.



I ordered the following from RapidLED.com:

1 24" x 4.23" Heatsink
8 XR-E Royal Blue LEDs
6 XP-G Cool White LEDs
1 MeanWell ELN-60-48D Driver
Fan Kit (with 120mm Fans I supplied)

RadioShack supplied the 9V Regulated Power Supply, and 10K Pot, Knob and Switch.

AquaCave.com, I got a 24" Purple + T5HO Lamp, and will be ordering a Blue + shortly (Thanks 2in10!), along with a Workhorse3 Ballast.

Wired in series, dimmable with the pot, switchable with the switch I wired in, and separated the T5s from the LEDs for an optional dusk/dawn. Being that this setup will be going on a 30 Gal Breeder Frag Tank, I opted to go opticless (is that a word...it is now!).

I mounted the light to a Heavy Duty "L" Bracket, and custom fit a ball bearing undermount drawer slide to the bottom of the heatsink, so I can easily slide the fixture to the side when tank maintenance is needed.

The lights on pictures came out insanely blue compare to what my eyeball sees...stupid phone! Thus, the addition of the Blue +. Right now, I got a Coralife $4 on clearance bulb from Petco in there...just to light.

All of this cost me just under $300 (but I had the T5 reflectors, sockets, and stand-offs already) Oh I'm also an electrician, so most of the electrical garb you see was found in the back of my truck, or scattered about in my garage.

Here are the pics:

For those of you that just wanted to see the pics, scroll up and read the "How To" part...;D.

Top



Underside



Gadgetry!



With LEDs only




All Lights



And Matt, I'm sorry, I don't know how to adjust the size of the pics.

 

That's a lot of blue.

Click on the pics & they get giant.

 

8)8)8)8)8)

looks.....BLUE!

Seriously though nice build

 

The pics are annoyingly blue...but the actual color is just a bit more blue than 10K IMO.

 

lol You are psychic my friend.
No worries, but if interested you can resize using the 3reef photo tools:
3reef.com - Photo Tools


Regardless, nice build man! 8)

matt

 

I made the first pic a lot smaller.

 

Nice work, you will need a SLR or high quality P&S camera with white balance and other options to control the blue. Looks like you should be able to keep anything that will fit in the tank.

 

That's the plan until I can get the funds up for another LED fixture, but a lot bigger (46" long, 28" deep...need a lot of LEDs). I'll get a nice camera in a couple of months, after I get some nice frags to shoot. Thanks again. ;D

 

Thank you sir!

 

This rules.