It's done! After weeks of testing designs that really didn't work I've finally got half of my new luxeon LED lighting system up and running. I personally think the light looks a lot better, and the polyps and anemone seem to agree as well.

If you want to read about my failures you can visit Aquarium LED Lighting; however, here we'll be sticking with the successes.

It all starts out with a heatsink that has a very big base. I found some good cheap ones at the computer store for AMD K8 processors that fit the bill. These LED have to be mounted directly onto the heatsink because they generate so much heat they'll burnout otherwise.

You'll also need a PVC endcap for rain gutter down spouts. It has a nice square cut into it and the heatsink fits in nicely (with a bit of trimming). Couple that with any solid color silicone (don't use any opaque stuff because the light will shine through).

Simply silicone the heatsink to the PVC endcap and allow it to cure for a couple days.

During that time you can mount the luxeons on thermal tape. I just used stuff they use to mount ramsinks and it works really well.

Now you can attach the leds to the heatsink. I group them as close as possible because the heatsink can get rid of the excess heat.

I had been using ordinary 22 gauge wire to connect the led's together, but I found this flat wire called tabbing wire that they use in solar panel construction. It works great for attaching them together.

You can hook up power and voila! your blinded. Please be careful and wear sun glasses when looking at them because they will leave spots in your eyes.

I've got a video that shows everything as well. It cut off a bit at the end because the camera died, but it's a good overview. It does look like it's dark in the room, but it's the middle of the day. The camera had to adjust because of the brightness of the led's.

A full video how to will follow (as well as schematics).