Maybe the defective battery in the Multimeter was a cheep leaking YingYang (cluck cluck) one from The Dollar Store.

Will the heat from the LEDs cook the fish in the aquarium? Oh, reptiles?

 

Will the heat from the LEDs cook the fish in the aquarium? Oh, reptiles?

heck NO.. Thats the beauty of LED's.. They produce so much LESS heat that what is "traditionally" used..

You have to know that before LED's we were all using Metal Halide Fixtures (100, 250W) (or multiple T5 VHO bulbs..mostly 4 or 8 bulb fixtures)
My last tank (a 30 Gallon reef tank) was lit by a 250W MH.. And in the summer months I had trouble maintaining the water temp.. But the coral growth was excellent.

 

I have a 20 gallon tank with 5 very hungry goldfish plus one algae-eater.
I don't have a heater and I light it with ordinary 5mm LEDs red, green and blue that slowly fade and brighten at separate speeds.

 

I have a 20 gallon tank with 5 very hungry goldfish plus one algae-eater.
I don't have a heater and I light it with ordinary 5mm LEDs red, green and blue that slowly fade and brighten at separate speeds.

yep and fish don't need a light at all. Try a saltwater setup stocked with photosynthetic corals in 6ft long 120G tank with a 40 breeder sump and 20G macro algae tank.. Light is MUCH more important.
All in all I will be running roughly 250Ws of LED's all fully dimmable and can actually tailor the light schedule to certain geographic regions/sunsets/sunrises and even have lighting/storms/clouds if I wanted.. Im not that obsessed yet though.

 

Maybe the defective battery in the Multimeter was a cheep leaking YingYang (cluck cluck) one from The Dollar Store.

Will the heat from the LEDs cook the fish in the aquarium? Oh, reptiles?

Lol, i was waiting for that reply
My bad guys, i'm an idiot... i should slap myself.

will the aquarium glass be able to hold under 30 pounds of weight on it (1/4 inch thick glass)?

So i had all the lights running for about 2 hours straight and measured the temp of the heat sink on the least ventilated side and it was 30 Celsius (Heat sink was warm, but not hot at all). According to takao21203, that means the led's would be at plus minus 50 Celsius? Am i in the norm?

 

Yeah your right about the heat, except i am not using T5 HO bulbs, i just have 2 30watt bulbs from home depot (bad idea). But as far as heat, i have trouble keeping the temp warm in the winter here in cali. Not sure about how it will be in the summer, we'll see.

 

So i had all the lights running for about 2 hours straight and measured the temp of the heat sink on the least ventilated side and it was 30 Celsius (Heat sink was warm, but not hot at all). According to takao21203, that means the led's would be at plus minus 50 Celsius? Am i in the norm?

You need to measure temps AS CLOSE as you can get to the LED itself on the side the LED is mounted to.. (wear sunglasses please and even then don't look at the led)

 

You need to measure temps AS CLOSE as you can get to the LED itself on the side the LED is mounted to.. (wear sunglasses please and even then don't look at the led)

It still seems to be around 35 Celsius... maybe i'm wrong... but just in case i did some adjustments to the ventilation of the box. Now both fans are blowing into the box from one side and the other side i drilled holes into for the air to escape. So far... doesn't seem like it gets as hot anymore... will keep an eye on it.

Do you guy's notice a difference between the light in the photos? (sorry for poor quality. did it from my phone.)
My whole effort is to get the plants growing the way they should and not slowly die down no matter what i change. I am hoping this light fixes that because i already have CO2 in the system and substrate and dry ferts.
Any idea how fast hairgrass can grow a carpet on the base?
BEFORE

AFTER

 

Sunlight and some fluorescent lights have all colors.
But a white LED does not have all colors, it tricks your vision with a blue LED and a yellowish phosphor. Cheap Chinese flashlights use them.

No Red. Not suitable for plants.

LEDs for plants use red, green and blue LEDs to make real White light although green might not be needed.

 

No Red. Not suitable for plants.

LEDs for plants use red, green and blue LEDs to make real White light although green might not be needed.

I got red and blue's in there too, they just werent on when i took that photo.
This is just Red's and Blue's... pretty colorful i'd say.

And this one is with Red Blue and White.

 

Before YOU were ordering your LEDs to have a certain forward voltage (3.4V?) but they refused.
You did not understand that they have A RANGE of voltage. Some have a low voltage and others have a high voltage even if they have the same part number. If all the series LEDs have a low voltage then your calculation using a typical voltage is useless and the LEDs will smoke and burn up.

Maybe all your LEDs have the maximum voltage. Then your calculation using a typical voltage is again useless and the LEDs might not even light up or will be very dim.

That is why current regulation is used instead of a simple resistor.

 

Before YOU were ordering your LEDs to have a certain forward voltage (3.4V?) but they refused.
You did not understand that they have A RANGE of voltage. Some have a low voltage and others have a high voltage even if they have the same part number. If all the series LEDs have a low voltage then your calculation using a typical voltage is useless and the LEDs will smoke and burn up.

Maybe all your LEDs have the maximum voltage. Then your calculation using a typical voltage is again useless and the LEDs might not even light up or will be very dim.

That is why current regulation is used instead of a simple resistor.

Where were you with this at the start of your thread instead of your CLUCK CLUCK comments? LOL!

 

Sunlight and some fluorescent lights have all colors.
But a white LED does not have all colors, it tricks your vision with a blue LED and a yellowish phosphor. Cheap Chinese flashlights use them.

No Red. Not suitable for plants.

LEDs for plants use red, green and blue LEDs to make real White light although green might not be needed.

This makes me wonder... i noticed when i turn on the red/blue with the whites, the plants (whatever's left of them) began pearling. Some little bubbles and other huge and frequent. Are they supposed to come from the roots? the stem? or the leaves of plants? any idea? (sorry off topic here).

 

Where were you with this at the start of your thread instead of your CLUCK CLUCK comments? LOL!

In your first post you were trying to operate your white LEDs at 3.6V.
But they all might be the minimum of 3.4V or they all might be the maximum of 3.8V or any mixture of voltages between minimum and maximum.
Your resistor value was way too small (only 1.5 ohms?)

Simple arithmatic (not using a stupid wizard program) shows that five 3.4V white LEDs in series need 17V. Then with your 19V supply the voltage across the 1.5 ohm resistor is 2V and the resulting current is 1.33A, not 700mA. The LEDs will smoke and burn.

But maybe all your LEDs are 3.8V each, then five in series need 19V. There will not be any voltage across the 1.5 ohm current-limiting resistor so the current will be ZERO and the LEDs will not light.

Throw out the wizard and use common sense or measure each LED voltage and select only 3.6V ones. But you might not find any 3.6V ones.

To fix this problem then use a high enough supply voltage so that five LEDs in series work well if their forward voltage is 3.4v or 3.8V.
Or reduce the number of LEDs in series to four and calculate a resistor that works if the LEDs are 3.4V or 3.8V.

CLUCK CLUCK!