My 180 Gallon (681 Liters) Build From Start To Finish

Here is the location where my new adventure starts.
 

Looking forward to following the progress of this tank

Well here we go the beginning of the adventure.
 
I will be starting with the light system because parts from China can take a month to arrive.
 
I will be using the following LED’s with 40mm*40mm*11mm heat sinks.
 
Emitting Color: White
Color Temperature: 6000 ~ 6500k
DC Forward Voltage (VF): 3.3 ~ 4.2Vdc
DC Forward Current (IF): 750 mA
Viewing Angle: 120 Degree
Luminous Intensity: 200 LM-220LM
 
My tanks size will be 72” x 24” and I will be using 78 of the above LED’s laid out in the picture below. Also I will be using 14 blue LED’s as my moonlight lights.
 
I will be using a thin sheet of galvanized steel as the base. I will drill holes about 24mm round so the LED’s can come through with no blockage to the tank. The heat sinks will be mounted to the LED’s and the outer edge of the heat sinks to the galvanize sheet.
 
I have a few questions that I could not find on the forum.
 
I need to know the best way to wire the picture below of my layout of lights?
 
The LED’s have a voltage of 3.3 to 4.2 what voltage should I use when looking for a driver.
 
Let the responses pour in
 
 
 

Once the Lights are complete I will post all the parts along with price.

Come on people I need a little love on this

What is your potential stock? This sounds like an excellent project. Wish I had the time and money to do one of these myself.

Currently I'm not sure which kind but I am looking at getting most of the easier type plants to start with and then adding some of the harder ones. There will also be fish and again not sure on which types. This is the reason I am going to be using a dimmer to adjust the intensity of the lights. I think I should have enough at about 5-6 inches apart with a 120 to 140 degree spread. Just not 100% sure on the way I should lay out each section for the best savings. This many lights I could be spending over 250.00 just on the drivers and I don't want to make a mistake and wast money. It wouldn't be worth sending them back to China.

Its so easy to DIY stuff in 'Merica... over here in UK its so hard to find the things to DIY with, especially making your own LED lights, by the time youve bought all you need you can finda cheap LED light kit for around the same price,
 
Theres a guy on youtube called Uarujoey search for him if you havent already cus he DIY's EVERYTHING from lighting to sumps, tanks, stands, decor and even filters!

paradiddle said:

Its so easy to DIY stuff in 'Merica... over here in UK its so hard to find the things to DIY with, especially making your own LED lights, by the time youve bought all you need you can finda cheap LED light kit for around the same price,
 
Theres a guy on youtube called Uarujoey search for him if you havent already cus he DIY's EVERYTHING from lighting to sumps, tanks, stands, decor and even filters!

Click to expand...

Yes I saw almost all of his DIY videos. I need to talk to someone that has had a large setup to verify that I am getting the correct drives and that my series/parallel circuit is correct

It has been about a month now but it took that long to get most of what I need to start off with. Lets not mention all the research behind it. I will cross my fingers.
 
I will be working on the Leds and the Sump.
 
Here is what I got for the Leds
 
40*40*11mm Aluminum Heat sink
3W White High Power LED Light Emitter 6000-6500K with 20mm Star heat sink
Forward Voltage: 3.2-3.8V-700MA
Luminous flux: 200-230LM
Output power: 3w
Light Color: White 6000-6500K
View angle: 120-140
LED Driver Constant Current 700 ma 24.0 watt, 120 VAC
 
I will be running 6 Leds per driver. I decided to go without the dimming to start off. If the lights are too bright I can always shut down a few drivers.
 
Here is a picture of the new layout along with the Heat sink, Led's, and driver. I got the drivers for a good price off of eBay but only got one as a test. They ship from the US so getting them is only 4-6 days away.
 

 

 

Here is a layout of my current plans on a sump. Please give me your thoughts and any changes you would make. 55 gallon tank
 
Section 1
First stage would be floss with a felt pad sitting on the egg crate.
Below that would be room for any media I need to add like carbon.
The next stage below would be filled with Bio Media about 1 inch from the egg crate.
 
Section 2
The water level will go to the white circle which is a PVC pipe, that pipe splits into smaller pipe that feeds down into 2 7x16 filter socks. Normal operation would be 200 microns and polishing I would change them to 100 or even 50. The 200 socks should not clog that quickly being I am using a pre filter of floss and felt pad.
 
Section 3
A drip tray with a felt pad to help spread the water evenly into sponges direct from the dollar store. As you can see the water lever would be about 1 inch above the bottom egg crate.
 
Section 4
Here is where I would put my heater and pump. I will still have room if I needed to add something else later.
 
 

Looks like a pretty good design to me! Cant wait to see this progress. have been very interested in doing my own led light setup just havnt had the time to mess with it. 

Time and money not on my side due to holidays. But it will happen. I am looking for a March complete date the latest.

Ok all been missing this now for a while due to funds. The project continues.

Just put the LEDs on the bench for a test run and here are my results.

LEDs
8 in series
Voltage: 3.2-3.8V-700MA-3w

LED Driver
Constant Current 700 ma 24.0 watt, 120 VAC

Results:
650 ma
2.8 volts
1.82 watts

It seems I have two problems here.
First the driver is not putting out the correct current 650ma not 700ma.
Second the LEDs are not drawing the current voltage.

The components seem to be messed up here or are these resuts normal.

I know the are only listed as a name at 3w and the output is less but this much less.

The LEDs ran for about 10 minutes with no heatsink and didn't even get warm

Ok I think I messed up here.

I wired the LEDs in this way.

Driver pos going to the first pos of the led.

LED pos going to the next LED pos and so on for 8 LEDs

The neg the same way.

Should I have ran it this way.

Driver pos to first LED pos and then the neg of the first LED to the pos of the second LED and so on to the last one. Then the neg of the last one to the neg of the driver.