in after arduino hate…
oh wait, im the first poster
friken arduinos!
it looks nice but since this has ardunios, why didnt he use rgb leds and allow ANY color combo??

if i still had an aquarium(well, with stuff in it, i still got tons of tanks..)
http://cgi.ebay.com/1000-Pcs-5mm-Blue-Round-LED-Superbright-Lamp-Bulb_W0QQitemZ250549439667QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a55e90cb3 $2+26 shipping for 1000 blue leds
http://cgi.ebay.com/1000-pcs-5mm-round-White-LED-superbright-bulb-light-lot_W0QQitemZ310194141629QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item483902f9bd 1000 white for 29.99 (first 2 links that came up, im not affiliated with china led makers or anything) ooo actually the whites are from the usa
but anyway…
1000 chinese el cheapos wired up so there is banks of 2 or 3, toss in a pc power supply with good 12 volt rails and use the trimpots to adjust the voltage for brightness control
probably brighter than a few crees(maybe? donno)

oooo…. $199 100 watt led modules, last i saw 50 was the highest(a week ago)

$219 for 100 1 watt white leds if you wanna only solder 200 connections to leds instead of 2000
(although with el cheapos, just line up all the leds in a breadboard and dip in a bath of solder

Those fish prefer a greener type of light, i know i would

Power leds work at low voltages and produce heat so they need heat sinks. Tropical fishes like the ones showed there need warm water to survive at different latitudes. What about using the led heatsinks as warmers? Sea water is highly dangerous for anything electronic, but I’m sure something could be arranged to eliminate those power hungry heaters and use the heat from leds.

What, no bud plants behind the aquarium? c’mon guys do a hydroponic fish food grow behind the tank.

@asdf & jeditalian

i was thinking to use water cooling like on computers. custom make some waterblocks or something.
however, temperature control becomes a problem when the lights are still on the tank is hot enough.

that and corrosion. salt water would kill most metals. i guess he could make a heat exchanger with reams of thin tygon tubing or something but it’d be awkward for sure.

his solution is probably the most aesthetically viable. aquariums like that one are primarily about looks.

It’s a gorgeous setup btw. really nice

The arduino is there to control the 2 hour sunrise and sunset, as well as temp monitoring, colour temp of the lights and i think he also incorporated an auto dimmer if it gets too melty hot ;)

Its pretty easy to point out the posts by people that don’t have saltwater tanks. First of all, those cheap ebay LEDs will not provide the intensity of light necessary for corals.

Also, salt water aquarium are not usually UV-B spectrum. Most saltwater tank fixtures/bulbs are not in the UV spectrum at all.

Also, for the tank the size the of the one pictured. $1000 sounds about right for DIY. You need intense lighting from multiple 3watt LEDs to provide the intense lighting necessary for corals. The fish don’t need much light, but the corals do. The manufactured LED fixtures comparable to the DIY in the photo run around $2000.

I will be curious to see how the corals fare long term. I replaced my actinic bulb with leds (and was careful to get something that matched spectrums as closely as possible) and I have noticed my coral suffer. I am giving it another 6 months and if I don’t see a change I am scrapping the leds all together. It is also notable that there are apparently there are patent issues and serious financial trouble for a few of the major companies that make the fixtures. Google “solaris patent issue” and you will find quite a bit on it.

spending $1000USD on light rather than on measuring equipment is not smart idea

@therian – what exactly are you measuring that should cost over $1000? Lighting is usually one of the most expensive parts of a reef tank (along with a good protein skimmer) when done properly.

If I wanted to just light a fish tank to grow plants using the least amount of power possible where might one find more information on it?

My aquarium is in a corner and it doesn’t get enough light so the plants die, but I don’t like the idea of leaving the florescent light on either.

Are you sure this dosen’t make the fish go blind?

Re. suggestions about using the heatsink to heat the water: I imagine tropical tanks need a good temperature control, and you won’t get that control from bathing heatsinks.

Fish do not go blind from this light. The goal is to replicate the lighting as in nature. I guess fish don’t stare at the sun long enough to go blind.

To the guy that wants to grow “plants” in his aquarium, but doesn’t want to leave the light on… In nature, plants get about 12 hours of light per day. You should figure that a plant is going to need at least 8 hours of light per day to grow and not die. A “daylight” (5100-6500k) CFL (compact fluorescent) light bulb that you can buy from a hardware store such as home depot will work wonders. read this: http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

Live Rock is only called live rock because of the bacteria growth on the rock, which is highly desirable for biological filtration, but live rock does not need any light. The only exception is coralline algae growth on the rock which needs some light.

Corals do not die after two days of poor lighting. Come on, think about it. These corals are sometimes shipped for several days in a box before they get any light. Also, in nature, we often have several overcast days with poor light. The corals do not die from that either. Further, a technique used in reefkeeping is to sometimes intentionally turn off all lights and have your tank in total darkness for 48-72 hours in order to kill off nuisance algae. This can be done once every month or two. The corals do not die from this either.

More important than kelvin (but similar to kelvin) is something called PAR (photosythetically active radiation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthetically_active_radiation

There are such things as PAR meters that determine if light output is the proper spectrum and intensity for coral growth. LED lighting easily meets the demands of corals (when you select the proper LEDs).

There is no longer a debate as to whether or not corals can thrive long term under LED lighting. People have been doing it for several years now. LED technology has improved and become a little less expensive over the past couple years which is why we are hearing more about it now. The future of lighting for reef aquariums is going to change. Probably LED lighting and/or plasma lighting will dominate within the next 5-10 years. (see this for plasma lighting: http://reefbuilders.com/2010/01/26/commercially-lifi-plasma-light-hobbyists-launching/#more-14712 )

For all the nay-sayers, it does work, and it works well. I have been working with the reefing comunity for the last three years to help get DIY LED understanding where it is today. It takes a lot of LEDs, and a lot of power to be able to produce the right amount of light to properly support corals of all types. Davross did a great job on his build.

Small, low power LEDs don’t cut it. Period. Even 1W LEDs really aren’t enough to get the job done on all but shallow (less than 12″) tanks.

Take a read around the Nano-Reef forum if you want to see what LED setups we make. Get yer learn on!

Would u.v. leds be bright enough to make a u.v. sterilizer for marine tanks?

Chewie