can you please advice whether the kevlin and lumin are correct .if not please let me know the exact kevin and lumin required for cool white,red and blue.
Also which potentiometer should i buy ?
With Regards,
Kannan
Hi kannan,
Sorry i didn't see the potentiometer question you asked always calculate the input to your potentiometer that way its too secure that is if your driver output is 15A then calculate for 15A, below is the formula to calculate
V = I x R (Voltage = Current multiplied by Resistance)
R = V / I (Resistance = Voltage divided by Current)
I = V / R (Current = Voltage Divided by Resistance)
p = V * I
V is the volt you use and R is resistance I is Amps and P is watts
say for example i used 12v 24Amps smps so p = 12 * 24 which gives 288watts when you convert into kilowatt it comes 0.288 so you can get 1kilo watt potentiometer to dim total leds
below is the online calculator for DC ohms law, using this calculator calculate your power and resistance value accordingly get your potentiometer remember give your total output amps of your driver. And it doesn't matter how many leds you connect to your pot.
please note leds will come in milliamps to convert into amps divide by 1000 example say your 5 watt led takes 750milliamps and you using 8 nos so 8*750 = 6000 milliamps and amps = 6000/1000=6 Amps total so always in above formula you need to use amps not milliamps.
can you please advice whether the kevlin and lumin are correct .if not please let me know the exact kevin and lumin required for cool white,red and blue.
Also which potentiometer should i buy ?
With Regards,
Kannan
Hi kannan,
Sorry i didn't see the potentiometer question you asked always calculate the input to your potentiometer that way its too secure that is if your driver output is 15A then calculate for 15A, below is the formula to calculate
V = I x R (Voltage = Current multiplied by Resistance)
R = V / I (Resistance = Voltage divided by Current)
I = V / R (Current = Voltage Divided by Resistance)
p = V * I
V is the volt you use and R is resistance I is Amps and P is watts
say for example i used 12v 24Amps smps so p = 12 * 24 which gives 288watts when you convert into kilowatt it comes 0.288 so you can get 1kilo watt potentiometer to dim total leds
below is the online calculator for DC ohms law, using this calculator calculate your power and resistance value accordingly get your potentiometer remember give your total output amps of your driver. And it doesn't matter how many leds you connect to your pot.
please note leds will come in milliamps to convert into amps divide by 1000 example say your 5 watt led takes 750milliamps and you using 8 nos so 8*750 = 6000 milliamps and amps = 6000/1000=6 Amps total so always in above formula you need to use amps not milliamps.
Hi
Andrew,thanks for the detailed explanation.
im currently planning to use an old smps with the following rating
+5v 27A
+12v 10A
+3.3v 24A
my plan is to arrange my 8X5w cool white in two heatsink ,so each heatsink will have 4 cool white controlled by individual dimmer.
Also ill add a dimmer for red.
Joined: Jun 23, 2012 Posts: 193 Location: Agartala, Tripura
Status: Offline
Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:08 pm Post subject: Re: DIY LED for planted tank(Trial fixture upgrade)
Hi Andrew, can you help me out a bit here. If I want to replace my tubes with LEDs as they are quite old now, which colour will be best for plant growth? I have more than 100Watts of light but still there are brown patches in the tank, the plant growth is very low. My tank is 48x18x18 inches. I have read your linked articles, and it shows that red and blue light is best for plants. So, if I put mainly 1W LEDs of red and blue in 2:1 ratio, will it be enough for plant growth? Also a few 10W LEDs for viewing. What do you suggest? How many LEDs will be needed? And, will the 1W LEDs from ebay reach the bottom of the tank?
can you please advice whether the kevlin and lumin are correct .if not please let me know the exact kevin and lumin required for cool white,red and blue.
Also which potentiometer should i buy ?
With Regards,
Kannan
Hi kannan,
Sorry i didn't see the potentiometer question you asked always calculate the input to your potentiometer that way its too secure that is if your driver output is 15A then calculate for 15A, below is the formula to calculate
V = I x R (Voltage = Current multiplied by Resistance)
R = V / I (Resistance = Voltage divided by Current)
I = V / R (Current = Voltage Divided by Resistance)
p = V * I
V is the volt you use and R is resistance I is Amps and P is watts
say for example i used 12v 24Amps smps so p = 12 * 24 which gives 288watts when you convert into kilowatt it comes 0.288 so you can get 1kilo watt potentiometer to dim total leds
below is the online calculator for DC ohms law, using this calculator calculate your power and resistance value accordingly get your potentiometer remember give your total output amps of your driver. And it doesn't matter how many leds you connect to your pot.
please note leds will come in milliamps to convert into amps divide by 1000 example say your 5 watt led takes 750milliamps and you using 8 nos so 8*750 = 6000 milliamps and amps = 6000/1000=6 Amps total so always in above formula you need to use amps not milliamps.
Hi
Andrew,thanks for the detailed explanation.
im currently planning to use an old smps with the following rating
+5v 27A
+12v 10A
+3.3v 24A
my plan is to arrange my 8X5w cool white in two heatsink ,so each heatsink will have 4 cool white controlled by individual dimmer.
Also ill add a dimmer for red.
Sorry for late reply as i was out of town was not ablr to reply fast.
when selecting dimmer you need to check the amps you using led 8nos which is 5w and 750mA so your total amps is
8*750 = 6000 which is 6000/1000=6Amps the above link you provided they didn't give any spec see the below dimmer which is 12v 6Amp perfect for your project and can dim all the 8 leds
in some smps when take current from 12v you will see voltage drop in 3.3v that means your smps is not circuited properly, so try to use good brand smps to sort out this issue. below is video where you can make your smps into good looking driver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoGnOoTICGY
And if you face the issue like i mentioned above then connect your 3.3v led in your 12v itself but you need to connect in series for spliting the volt correct use the calculator below
in above calculator you can check for series and parallel connection if you have trouble checking let me know will guide you.
white leds make in parallel no issue. if you got any doubt let me know so i can make a wiring diagram for you. And please note too many blue and red will cause hell of a algae in glass. most of them following my setup actually red and blue led not at all required if you are good in calculating spectrum using led spec then select the leds accordingly or just use 2 blue and 1 red with some dimmer to control it. or make provision like disconnecting and connecting using switch to red and blue led line.
Hi Andrew, can you help me out a bit here. If I want to replace my tubes with LEDs as they are quite old now, which colour will be best for plant growth? I have more than 100Watts of light but still there are brown patches in the tank, the plant growth is very low. My tank is 48x18x18 inches. I have read your linked articles, and it shows that red and blue light is best for plants. So, if I put mainly 1W LEDs of red and blue in 2:1 ratio, will it be enough for plant growth? Also a few 10W LEDs for viewing. What do you suggest? How many LEDs will be needed? And, will the 1W LEDs from ebay reach the bottom of the tank?
Thanks in advance.
For your tank approx is 120W but i will suggest you to go up to 160w for cob led because we r not using any optic lens, and your plant mainly see the wavelength so the led which i given has 630nm for red and 430-450nm for blue and your 10w led already has enough blue spectrum so don't go for too many blue, i will add only 4 blue and 2 red for your fixture. 6500k will give required spectrum so i suggest to go with 6500k itself but i added 10000k 2 leds with my fixture for viewing purpose only. some add warm white and some netural white so it's upto you you can design the light for your pleasure of viewing same time your plants also need proper spectrum so design accordingly.
And for your brown patches it might be lot of other issues, mostly it's light and co2 is the culprit which cause algae.
basic formula
10x flow of your tank volume
high light - highco2
medium light - medium co2
low light - low co2 if no co2 then choose plant accordingly.
when you supply high light your plant photosynthesis rate will be high, and plant use co2 for photosynthesis (and there are lot of other stuff like chlorophyll and all but I'm not going to in depth so will give basic things) so when photosynthesis happen high then it requires high co2 and for to maintain it's health and beauty it requires food also which is your fert so whn these are balanced then you won't see any other culprit(algae) in tank. but yes in all tanks some kind of algae will be there but it in balance tank it will be very minimal.
main problems i see in tank is they will give high light and less co2 and will spend money in unwanted stuff to keep it balance always try to keep tank balance in natural way by adjusting your light,co2 and fert when you master in this you can keep any size tank in good shape so not by fancy stuff. for that you need to adjust one by one and need to test it for a week, it might take months but it's worth because in future you will become more expert. and mostly people will do some change and will try to get result in a day or two when they didn't see any change and again they will do some other changes and will spoil the tank, so when ever you make some change you need to observe minimum 7-8 days for the result if not then try changing other things till you see your tank balanced.
when doing these type of test you need to consider your tank temperature also because when your tank temp is high your co2 presence will be less when it's cool your co2 presence be high. for example cool drinks mainly cool drinks are carbonated when you open a chill bottle you can see lot of gas but in normal temperature bottle very less. And distribution plays a big role too.
Joined: Jun 23, 2012 Posts: 193 Location: Agartala, Tripura
Status: Offline
Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 3:03 pm Post subject: Re: DIY LED for planted tank(Trial fixture upgrade)
So you are saying if I add CO2 with my current lights, it will be OK? I added a diy CO2 once through the internal filter powerhead, but there was no difference in the tank. Even green algae looks good, but brown algae makes the tank look dirty!
If I add high LED lights, will the brown algae go away? I am willing to remove most of the plants, only 2 or 3 nice plants are enough for my tank as it mainly fish oriented (angelfish).
I can't go for pressurized CO2, as it is not available here, and I can try diy again, what do you suggest?
Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 2:00 pm Post subject: Re: DIY LED for planted tank(Trial fixture upgrade)
Hi Andrew,
"in some smps when take current from 12v you will see voltage drop in 3.3v that means your smps is not circuited properly"
How can i check if there is a voltage drop ?. if multimeters shows constant reading of around 12 ± V , does it mean no voltage drop ?
Also , i happened to read some posts saying LED are current driven and hence we should maintain the current.
source:
As LEDs heat up, the forward voltage drops and the current passing through the LED increases. The increased current generates additional heating of the junction. If nothing limits the current, the junction will fail due to the heat. This phenomenon is referred to as thermal runaway.
By driving LED light sources with a regulated constant-current power supply issues resulting from voltage variation and voltage changes can be eliminated. Therefore, constant current drivers are generally recommended for powering LED light sources.
so do i need to regulate the current in my smps (12v 10Amps) to drive 8 X Cool white(12v 750mA) in parallel?.
can you please advice whether the kevlin and lumin are correct .if not please let me know the exact kevin and lumin required for cool white,red and blue.
Also which potentiometer should i buy ?
With Regards,
Kannan
Hi kannan,
Sorry i didn't see the potentiometer question you asked always calculate the input to your potentiometer that way its too secure that is if your driver output is 15A then calculate for 15A, below is the formula to calculate
V = I x R (Voltage = Current multiplied by Resistance)
R = V / I (Resistance = Voltage divided by Current)
I = V / R (Current = Voltage Divided by Resistance)
p = V * I
V is the volt you use and R is resistance I is Amps and P is watts
say for example i used 12v 24Amps smps so p = 12 * 24 which gives 288watts when you convert into kilowatt it comes 0.288 so you can get 1kilo watt potentiometer to dim total leds
below is the online calculator for DC ohms law, using this calculator calculate your power and resistance value accordingly get your potentiometer remember give your total output amps of your driver. And it doesn't matter how many leds you connect to your pot.
please note leds will come in milliamps to convert into amps divide by 1000 example say your 5 watt led takes 750milliamps and you using 8 nos so 8*750 = 6000 milliamps and amps = 6000/1000=6 Amps total so always in above formula you need to use amps not milliamps.
Hi
Andrew,thanks for the detailed explanation.
im currently planning to use an old smps with the following rating
+5v 27A
+12v 10A
+3.3v 24A
my plan is to arrange my 8X5w cool white in two heatsink ,so each heatsink will have 4 cool white controlled by individual dimmer.
Also ill add a dimmer for red.
Sorry for late reply as i was out of town was not ablr to reply fast.
when selecting dimmer you need to check the amps you using led 8nos which is 5w and 750mA so your total amps is
8*750 = 6000 which is 6000/1000=6Amps the above link you provided they didn't give any spec see the below dimmer which is 12v 6Amp perfect for your project and can dim all the 8 leds
in some smps when take current from 12v you will see voltage drop in 3.3v that means your smps is not circuited properly, so try to use good brand smps to sort out this issue. below is video where you can make your smps into good looking driver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoGnOoTICGY
And if you face the issue like i mentioned above then connect your 3.3v led in your 12v itself but you need to connect in series for spliting the volt correct use the calculator below
in above calculator you can check for series and parallel connection if you have trouble checking let me know will guide you.
white leds make in parallel no issue. if you got any doubt let me know so i can make a wiring diagram for you. And please note too many blue and red will cause hell of a algae in glass. most of them following my setup actually red and blue led not at all required if you are good in calculating spectrum using led spec then select the leds accordingly or just use 2 blue and 1 red with some dimmer to control it. or make provision like disconnecting and connecting using switch to red and blue led line.
Joined: May 30, 2011 Posts: 97 Location: Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Status: Offline
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:45 pm Post subject: Re: DIY LED for planted tank(Trial fixture upgrade)
If I am connecting three 1 amp LEDs in parallel, using 12V 3amps driver, what happens if one of my led burns out, will the current flow in other LEDs increase and burn out?
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it requires food also which is your fert so whn these are balanced then you won't see any other culprit(algae) in tank. but yes in all tanks some kind of algae will be there but it in balance tank it will be very minimal.
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