Cool and simple idea! Do the LEDs really generate that much heat?

Posted at 10:01 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by Chris

This guy must live in the arctic. Heating the tank is rarely a problem for me. The ambient temperature plus the heat created by the pumps, lights and other equipment are usually all I need to keep it at 79 degrees. If anything it overheats and I have to constantly battle with cooling it.

Posted at 10:06 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by Greg

Aluminum, water, and fish…. not good bedfellows. Aluminum leeches into the water and damages the fish gills.

Posted at 10:10 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by JayDee

I’ve long thought that the lights belong at the base of the tank and behind it, with just a mirror up top to reflect the light into the tank. That way the heat from the led or bulbs will rise away from the light controller, ballasts, boards, or whatever the design uses — rather than up into them.

Posted at 10:13 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by Andrew Pollack

I suppose if you consider a place like Minnesota arctic, then that well may be. When I had an aquarium, I needed a heater as well.

Posted at 10:14 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by Eliot

This would work very well with hydroponic systems

Posted at 10:36 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by The Clerk

If the LED’s are the beefy kind (1,3,5+ watt each) then they will definitely need heat sinks, the little tiny LED’s you see in Pen lights don’t need heat-sinking, but the stronger ones do…

Posted at 10:41 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by Mike Nelson

Are there guides for LED wavelength output for flora and fauna? I have been curious about the subject of light and life. Usually it comes down to I use brand x of bulb and in my tests it works better than y z. I am not questioning the tests of the plant and animal aficionado. What I wonder specifically is what amount and wavelengths of light do various common plants and animals need for better health.

Posted at 10:44 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by damntech

Not ‘energy saving’, it’s reducing energy.

Saving energy would be to get rid of the aquarium and not incur the costs of the luxury. But, if it makes you feel like you’re saving the world, go for it.

Posted at 11:18 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by econut

Where is the fish?

Posted at 11:19 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by igor

“Where are the fish?”

Look closely at the bottom – due to being overheated in the hot water – he had to strap heatsinks on the fish as well.

Posted at 11:33 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by vonskippy

@damntech

-shameless self promotion-
Wrote a couple of instructables a few years ago on using LED’s to grow plants.
http://www.instructables.com/id/high-power-LED-grow-lights-M.k2/

I can’t find it now but in the comments someone left a graph of the absorption spectrum of plants.(Although this does change during the life-cycle of a plant)

Posted at 11:40 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by }{itch

Hey thanks }{itch. You also had some pretty informative comments on your work!

Posted at 11:45 am on Feb 26th, 2010 by damntech

It would be interesting to poke some holes in the tubing for air to get through, then you could have a heater and aerator.

Posted at 12:15 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by Conglacious

@damntech

I think it’s easy to know which LED will fit for plants growing, just compare the spectrum of aquarium fluorescents (just look in the box of it) with the spectrum showed in power LEDs’ datasheets.

The power needed is another thing… you should look for the lumens and the spawn angle of the led.

Posted at 1:11 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by Balbor

So let’s see – you’ve gone from a fluorescent tube (relatively thermally inefficient) to a more illumination efficient LED system that also heats a bit of water?

Since you’ll have to make up the rest of the heat with a resistance heater, wouldn’t it make more sense to go with a *less* efficient light source and use *all* the waste heat?

Posted at 3:06 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by Scott

al isn’t good for fish.

Posted at 3:41 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by googfan

Please don’t use salt water to cool your electronics.

Posted at 4:27 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by Dean in Des Moines

first problem Aluminum leaking as stated
second temperature overheating
third -if led lights burn human eyes if looking close to it– what about the fish – are we going to blind the fish – that why the fish are at bottom to get away from the light

Posted at 5:04 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by ratt

I’m not convinced that he’s actually saving energy.

Most high power LEDs are less efficient than fluorescent lights, sometimes significantly so.

Posted at 9:43 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by hex4def6

@Eliot – Not saying I never needed a heater, just that I more often (vastly more often) needed cooling than heating.

@anyone wondering about spectrums and plants
http://www.sunmastergrowlamps.com/SunmLightandPlants.html
This is a pretty comprehensive article.

Posted at 11:19 pm on Feb 26th, 2010 by Greg

planted tanks like this don’t need heat unless it’s in your garage or cold basement. there doesn’t seem to be much room for fish in there. on the other hand, my coralife 96w has four fans on it for cooling and i still have to heat the water to keep the fish happy…

Posted at 1:27 am on Feb 27th, 2010 by cath0de

@scott: no, because transferring the waste heat to the water is probably not as efficient as as straight up resistance heater. Also the more power you are able to control, the better, say if you want zero heating on a warm day.

Posted at 3:00 am on Feb 27th, 2010 by jproach

Sorry fo being late, i haven t noted that this treat has grown this much
to answer the main questions:
1.)Pure Aluminum sure is dangerous for the fish, but in my case its eloxadized and also for outdoor use w/o getting stained. So i think it will not contact the water that much. Also the tube will get an algae layer inside due longer flooding time.
2.)The energy “harvest” is not enough to keep the tank heated up to the desired temperature while the average temperature in my living room is at night 17degC(62F) and at day 20degC (68F) in winter times(Central Europe -Germany) It’s rather to waste not the energy loosing of the LEDs and saddle them with huge heatsinks.
The insulating tube is detachable for warmer outside temperatures to let the heat flow in the ambient air.
3.)Yep i have fish in there, but make a portrait of every one is not the subject here ;)
4.)The LEDs and datasheet you ll find here:
http://www.led-tech.de/de/Chip-On-Board-Technik/EdiLine-II-6W-COB/Edison-EdiLine-II-6W-COB-Modul-LT-1485_134_148.html (site is in english too)
5.) When every aquarium owner gives up his (luxury)hobby there can be switched off much carbon firing and atomic power plants. If the half reduces power by changing to efficient light there can switched off some of them.

Posted at 1:30 pm on Feb 27th, 2010 by Matthias

A fellow led-techer here! What is your name in the forum?

Posted at 2:28 pm on Feb 27th, 2010 by RagnarRoeck

sorry if i understand it wrong, but do i have to sing up somewhere in the forum? My name is Matthias

Posted at 2:13 am on Feb 28th, 2010 by Matthias

Sorry, I meant at the led-tech forum. (www.ledstyles.de)

Posted at 4:45 am on Feb 28th, 2010 by Ragnar

k, think ill sing up there. Seems to be the right forum for me ;)
rgds

Posted at 10:31 am on Feb 28th, 2010 by Matthias

hey guys is there a HOW-TO-Do-IT guide for making this project? i would love to do this project…please help

thanks :)

Posted at 6:51 pm on Jun 27th, 2010 by please help

HI, if you have some basic skills to work with metal, you sure can build it from the pics on flickr. Important is to use eloxated aluminum as tube. Pure Al will kill your fish!
The beta point at this version is the connection between the square al-tube and the stainless input/output tubes. Looking forward to get my lathe ;)
At the moment i got not much time to do a howto, but you can contact me on fb if you like. I ll sure answer any question to this theme.

http://www.facebook.com/matthias.neumaier

Posted at 9:34 am on Jun 28th, 2010 by Matthias