- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
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- Location
- Cincinnati Ohio
I've tinkered around for 2 years with LED lighting. Researching (major major kudos to @Dana Riddle ) and applying knowledge to DIY builds on what I WANT in my lights.
Seems intimidating but once you gain knowledge and a lil experience, it's super easy to DIY your own lights.
I dont not prefer premade lights from Mfgrs when I get to chose what I want, modulely.....hitting the nm wavelengths colors I want
Three things you need:
1) varying sizes of Chinese LED lights FIXTURES bought from Ebay
2) knowledge of the form factor and wattage of the LED diodes used on the circuit board. Lots and lots of different nm wavelength diodes that you can buy for roughly $1 a diode also off ebay. All different colors from purple 380nm, thru the blue range of 420-480nm, the green 500-540nm range, the pink/red 600-640nm range
3) knowledge and skill of a soldering iron...to remove the Chinese diodes from the Mfgrs circuit board and resoldering the exact diodes wavelengths color you want. If you have the right soldering iron, removal/replacement of the diode is a SNAP..Its easy. I've screwed up many times with NO damage to the circuit board or the diode. It takes a tremendous amount of ignorance to overheat a diode, even more stupidity to damage a circuit board. Both items are pretty dang tough....Surprisingly super tough. I've overheated, reversed polarity (+/-) all to no damage....you really have to work hard at purposely damaging either one.
I'm not a huge fan of WHITE spectrum lighting (thumbsdown) which is the entire light wavelength coming at a coral. I prefer choosing what nm wavelengths I want hitting the coral at certain times and a certain PAR values....totally doable if you modulely have lights with dedicated nm wavelengths.
I have over the past year have resoldered, remoding several Chinese aquarium lights to specific wavelengths I want:
6ft 180g tank and just finally hit the SWEETSPOT in my modding experience. Getting superior color and growth from this below setup:
(Qty1) 36in light fixture with nothing but 420nm deep actinic blue diodes
(Qty4) 12in light fixtures with a combo of 40% 460nm bright blue actinic.... 40% 420nm deep blue.... 20% 520nm green light
(Qty3) 2ft 620nm pink/red light STRIPS. I'm.not afraid of red and my corals love the red color mixed with my other custom nm colors.
I love these combos of light wavelengths with ZERO WHITE LIGHT. But covering the blue, green, red spectrums in fine detail to the specs I want
with the knowledge and ability to make my own lights, I do not plan to go back to any Mfgr'ed light
.
Seems intimidating but once you gain knowledge and a lil experience, it's super easy to DIY your own lights.
I dont not prefer premade lights from Mfgrs when I get to chose what I want, modulely.....hitting the nm wavelengths colors I want
Three things you need:
1) varying sizes of Chinese LED lights FIXTURES bought from Ebay
2) knowledge of the form factor and wattage of the LED diodes used on the circuit board. Lots and lots of different nm wavelength diodes that you can buy for roughly $1 a diode also off ebay. All different colors from purple 380nm, thru the blue range of 420-480nm, the green 500-540nm range, the pink/red 600-640nm range
3) knowledge and skill of a soldering iron...to remove the Chinese diodes from the Mfgrs circuit board and resoldering the exact diodes wavelengths color you want. If you have the right soldering iron, removal/replacement of the diode is a SNAP..Its easy. I've screwed up many times with NO damage to the circuit board or the diode. It takes a tremendous amount of ignorance to overheat a diode, even more stupidity to damage a circuit board. Both items are pretty dang tough....Surprisingly super tough. I've overheated, reversed polarity (+/-) all to no damage....you really have to work hard at purposely damaging either one.
I'm not a huge fan of WHITE spectrum lighting (thumbsdown) which is the entire light wavelength coming at a coral. I prefer choosing what nm wavelengths I want hitting the coral at certain times and a certain PAR values....totally doable if you modulely have lights with dedicated nm wavelengths.
I have over the past year have resoldered, remoding several Chinese aquarium lights to specific wavelengths I want:
6ft 180g tank and just finally hit the SWEETSPOT in my modding experience. Getting superior color and growth from this below setup:
(Qty1) 36in light fixture with nothing but 420nm deep actinic blue diodes
(Qty4) 12in light fixtures with a combo of 40% 460nm bright blue actinic.... 40% 420nm deep blue.... 20% 520nm green light
(Qty3) 2ft 620nm pink/red light STRIPS. I'm.not afraid of red and my corals love the red color mixed with my other custom nm colors.
I love these combos of light wavelengths with ZERO WHITE LIGHT. But covering the blue, green, red spectrums in fine detail to the specs I want
with the knowledge and ability to make my own lights, I do not plan to go back to any Mfgr'ed light
.
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