[sumer]

Plant lovers,

I have written an article on building DIY LED Unit for planted tanks. Please check it out, feel free to ask me questions, post suggestions etc.
In a nutshell, it is a wifi controlled ~180W DIY LED Unit that has 6 channels available.
You can find the article here or in my signature

Streamlined Sparkles | Aquarium and DIY Bloggin'Streamlined Sparkles | Aquarium and DIY Bloggin'

Thanks

 

[Arpeggio]

Interesting articles! From someone who knew absolutely nothing about LED's.. this guide certainly helped.

 

[sumer]

Interesting articles! From someone who knew absolutely nothing about LED's.. this guide certainly helped.

My pleasure! I am glad that you found it helpful.

 

[TarantulaGuy]

Very nice write up! I'm a fan of DIY. Is the end cost for a unit of this style comparable to a pre-fab unit? More, less? Looks like a fun learning project though! And it would let me use my new soldering iron....

 

[sumer]

Very nice write up! I'm a fan of DIY. Is the end cost for a unit of this style comparable to a pre-fab unit? More, less? Looks like a fun learning project though! And it would let me use my new soldering iron....

Thanks. I am glad you liked it.
You really cannot compare the cost of this unit to a commercial unit. I don't think there is a commercial unit that let's you do all these things together. But if there WAS, I am sure mine would be much cheaper than that.
It was a great experience building this unit. Works absolutely fantastic.

 

[Encyclia]

Thanks for taking the time to do this, sumer. Your tank looks fantastic, too!

Mark

 

[thane]

Thanks Sumer - the plant wall and aquarium look awesome. Do you have any threads anywhere on how you built them (particularly the wall)?

 

[sumer]

Thanks for taking the time to do this, sumer. Your tank looks fantastic, too!

Mark

Thanks, Mark. I am glad that you liked it

Thanks Sumer - the plant wall and aquarium look awesome. Do you have any threads anywhere on how you built them (particularly the wall)?

Thanks, Thane.
Live wall built thread is most probably one of the best/detailed thread I have ever made. Here's the link: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/parts-construction/226985-making-live-wall-hardware-help.html

 

[thane]

Thanks Sumer,

I'll have to take some time to read through that build thread when I get home from work. Looks very impressive just scrolling through it. Really cool to see it go from a "blank slate" to solid plants in the below picture. I was just looking on your blog rather than dendroboard, so did not see it.

Thanks for providing all this info so others can (attempt to) replicate.

Thane

 

[casemodgod]

It looks great, but I'm curious what the overall cost was to you.

Sure, its great what it can do, but a 48" LED unit that has most of those things, can be had reasonably priced.

 

[sumer]

It looks great, but I'm curious what the overall cost was to you.

Sure, its great what it can do, but a 48" LED unit that has most of those things, can be had reasonably priced.

I really didn't bother to keep a track of how much $$$ went into it.
There isn't a 48" LED unit available in the market that would give out a PAR of 400+ at a depth of 30"+, will be internet controllable (I can play with this light no matter where in the world I am; just an internet connection is needed), will give me the freedom to change the LEDs or drivers as technology advances or any LED goes kaput and allows me to play with the temperature at the same time. So it's really hard to compare anything like this to anything available commercially.

 

[casemodgod]

I really didn't bother to keep a track of how much $$$ went into it.
There isn't a 48" LED unit available in the market that would give out a PAR of 400+ at a depth of 30"+, will be internet controllable (I can play with this light no matter where in the world I am; just an internet connection is needed), will give me the freedom to change the LEDs or drivers as technology advances or any LED goes kaput and allows me to play with the temperature at the same time. So it's really hard to compare anything like this to anything available commercially.

I agree on the front that it has a lot of awesome features. But most people aren't going to appeal to a $1500 LED setup. Thats why I was curious what the rough estimate on cost was.

If its in the ballpark of a normal LED setup I'd probably consider building one for fun.

I did a quick rundown of the top layer of parts. That doesn't include the PC fans and that odds and ends stuff, its inexpensive and probably adds $50 or so to the list.

But, you're looking at roughly $700 in parts + shipping.

To build a 48" unit, $1400-1500 in parts.

Cool as hell, yes, but probably out of reach